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Growing up, I never had any answers, much like everyone else. As I have grown older, I have realized that I still don't have any answers. Yet, I do have a better understanding of the underlying problems. But what I lacked most was a way to critically evaluate the solutions that I would get from others or come up with myself. How could I determine if they were the right answers or wrong answers? How could I tell if the answers were helpful or hurtful? How could I understand what the real implications of the solutions were? It is these thoughts I struggled with since I was young. And honestly, I still struggle with them, just not as much now of days.
I hope that by me sharing my thoughts with my child, they will be able to realize there are many perspectives and alternatives out there. The goal is to give them tools to try and understand the underlying philosophy for any given topic. Because only by getting to the root philosophical concepts of a problem can one critically think about it and know with any certainty if the answer is wrong.
Over the years, I have started thinking there are many wrong answers and many right answers to any given topic. I began to realize that these answers would stem from different root philosophies. As I write this blog over time, I will discuss the various root philosophical concepts and what they mean. Even though I am unable to determine if a solution is correct or not, I can generally determine what underlying philosophy the solution embraces.
I do not intend to try and convince my child on which doctrines are right or wrong. I want to get them to understand what the different philosophies mean and the implications of them. My goal is to write my thoughts out. As I do, I hope to discover fallacies in my thought process and fix them. Hopefully, by the time my child is old enough to read this blog, the concepts will be more mature and cohesive. I am publishing my thoughts, so others can comment on them and point out fallacies or other notions. I will then use this feedback to create a more cohesive presentation of these ideas for my child.