Lived Answers to Philosophy: an introduction to the truebeautyisgood roundtable series

Human beings live answers to the questions of philosophy on a moment to moment basis. These lived answers arise from the totality of our experience. Consciousness lacks a solid boundary the distinguishes religion, from philosophy, from theology, from culture, and so forth. We have concepts of these as distinct things, but the impact they have on us does not confine itself to a particular sphere.

Religion may have affected me in a particular way, and I may choose to cultivate this through practice and participation, this however does not preclude other influences from arising. In this way popular culture informs views of philosophy and religion as much as any traditional source.

This being the case, truebeautyisgood is launching a series of roundtable discussions that take up phenomenon that have broad influence on people’s lives. These influences include formal philosophy, religion in a traditional sense, culture and popular culture, and any practice, behavior, thing that has impact on how we live today.

The first truebeautyisgood roundtable is "Star Wars: A Discussion on its Impact." The methodology of the roundtable examines how Star Wars informs the lived answers to the questions of philosophy. Why Star Wars? Simply put, because it has had a strong impact on me, and I observe that it has had a strong impact on many others. I feel passionate about it, and the way it has influenced my life. In more scholastic terms, I take up Star Wars because it plays a quasi and at times overt religious role in many people's lives.

In this roundtable we ask: How has Star Wars impacted your views, spirituality, secularity, religion, philosophy? When do you notice it showing up in your life? How does Star Wars inform the ways you implicitly answer the questions of truth, beauty, existence, and goodness?

I will continue to bring these questions to our lived experience, and seek out specific moments. From specific moments we may make inferences, and discoveries, and perhaps form theories that explain how or why something is happening. But while engaging in some abstraction we will continue to return to noticing the impact in lived experience.

The emphasis on lived experience serves as an important touchstone for seeing the actual impact, and not just what we want the impact to be, or our idea of it. Or if an idea is different that the lived impact, let us notice that, and inquire into that.

Future roundtable discussions will take up a variety of topics, and regardless of topic, they will employ this emphasis on lived experience, and observing how this experience provides answers to the questions of philosophy.