How I Understand Things

Have you ever contemplated why things in our world are as they are? Thinking about politics, philosophy or science, perhaps even religion; trying to understand our world, our place in it and most importantly, where we are going? The author wrote a discourse between himself and an 'astute reader', explaining how he understand things, inviting such a reader to either agree with his understanding or point out an error in his reasoning, perhaps even a fatal flaw.

Criticism already received includes 'The critique risks alienating readers familiar with philosophy's achievements and weakens the thesis by failing to engage with its complexity.' The author's rebuttal to this, however, still stands:While recognising the contribution of philosophy, the fact remains that in a period of some 2,600 years of philosophical debate and achievements, the problems of humanity such as armed conflict, hunger and poverty, a balanced coexistence between ourselves and our environment; has not been solved - perhaps it could benefit humanity to re-examine the foundation of human perception and knowledge.

Valid criticism includes the lack of examples of its application to real-world issues. The author concedes to this but does offer at least thirteen possible projects of enquiry, following from his understanding, that should offer exactly that. However, in order to tackle these projects we should agree on the foundation from where such enquiries should take place: philosophy and its 2,600 years of effort and failures or an additional (not an alternative) perspective, not from an 'ivory tower' but from a real-world perspective.

Explaining his understanding, the author is challenging some long accepted wisdom and dogma and is doing so in plain English - even the chapters based on metamathematics are explained in plain English. He unequivocally concedes that his understanding is controversial, even absurd perhaps - but then a fatal flaw in his reasoning should stand out like a sore thumb. A fatal flaw that he has not found yet.

Perhaps an astute reader could find such a flaw ... a challenging but compelling read for teachers, students and practitioners of metaphilosophy , metamathematics. systems-thinking and -science, politics and economics, and those of us who are concerned about the future of humanity.