This is a bit of fantasy philosophy. It’s not meant to be scientifically accurate. But the links provided are interesting, so at least find that of value.
We can say that the concept of identity is based on ideology.
This seems simple but it gets very complicated because we know what we identify with but as every 13 year old knows, we sometimes have identity-crisis where we can’t exactly pinpoint who we are.
From the wikipedia article linked above:
the law of identity states that each thing is identical with itself.
We can argue that there is a self. You right now are composed of something and that something can be regarded as the self.
You can break down the composition of your own self and see exactly what are the building blocks of the self. Kinda.
Compare this analysis to your eyesight. We’re going to assume that you have the capacity to see. Even if you’re legally blind, you might still have very faint eyesight.
We compare our own eyesight with the eyesight of others. We know that other can see better, worse or the same as us. We can also compare our eyesight to other nonhuman animals. Eagles have way better eyesight than us. Bats have worse eyesight than us.
We understand and grasp the concept of eyesight and recognize that we ourselves have a capacity for eyesight. We can compare and contrast eyesight in idle thought but in practical terms, we only have the eyesight that we have as reference.
So our eyesight, the eyesight we can’t see but experience, is the kernel for our understanding of eyesight.
Eyesight also gives us an understanding of perspective. Now, each of our senses (smell, hearing, taste, touch, balance, etc) also has this concept of perspective,
- a particular way of considering something
Our own grasp of our own perspective is the kernel of our understanding the concept of perspective but we can only understand the concept insofar as we have a relationship with our own perspective.
So we have to consider our own consideration to understand the concept of consideration.
With whatever consideration we focus our concentration in, we hit a wall that we can’t trespass. And you realize this if you take it into consideration. It’s very psychedelic because your perspective allows you to hit the wall but your understanding allows you inspect the wall. To what extent you can inspect the wall is also limited by your understanding.
An example is words. You’ve gotten to this point of the text by overcoming each word. You attach each of this words with a stimulus in your brain that brings about meaning. You sew this meaning together and you get an understanding. But you realize that this understanding that you’ve sewn together is just a concept that makes up the composition of who you are.
So you relate these words and the meaning behind them with who you are because who you are, in it part and composed on how you translate these words into your comprehension of the world.
This whole composition of you, as it can be understood holistically and metaphysically, is your ideology.
From the wikipedia page for ideology:
In the sense defined by French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, ideology is “the imagined existence (or idea) of things as it relates to the real conditions of existence”.
Now this “imagination” seems flimsy at first.
You can imagine someone make fun of you for taking your imagination too seriously. But your imagination is a logically intertwined phenomena.
is the ability to produce images, ideas and sensations in the mind without any immediate input of the senses (such as seeing or hearing).
Now your capacity to intertwine sensation and ideas together is based on your exposure to the world and your intellectual capacity. And you can play around with this through writing, experimenting, music, painting, abstract thinking, etc.
And thus in building your imagination, you build your ideology.
Through time, you build your imagination regardless. If you’re not exposed to a lot of free thought, you may just end up with an imagination that is stagnant from malnourishment. That is, you end up with an imagination that is only nourished with stagnant water. From ideology of your ancestors in the form of dogma. And thus creativity isn’t harnessed.
The important of imagination is that you have the capacity to take a lot into consideration and rearrange the consideration in a variety of ways; thus making imagination an unlimited source for discovery. And this discovery enriches ideology and, in turn, the self.
In the same way that you have the capacity to see a lot of different things. You always have the potential see things that you mind can’t even fathom, right around the corner.
Some more related links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester_Bestiary
https://io9.gizmodo.com/how-europeans-imagined-exotic-animals-centuries-ago-ba-1545362205
The practical aspect of imagination is that your imagination, which cultivates your ideology, influences your actions. And you actions, in turn, define who you are.
A heavier topic to consider in this light is Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, which can be re-worded to say that a traumatic event may permanently influence how we imagine the world to be. This in turn ripples and feeds into our reactions and understanding of the world. Even if we’re conscious of how we’re affected by PTSD, we still hit a wall when it comes to encountering the triggers related to PTSD. A potential remedy for PTSD is to re-imagine the world differently. Although how this is achieved should be consulted with a trained professional.
The event horizon of ideology can only be understood so far until the stimulus that propels our understanding is sucked right into the black hole.
This black hole is our identity. No matter what stimulus we react to, we take the stimulus into consideration but before we can consider it, our ideology has already digested it.
That’s why we need to reflect how our ideology digest the stimulus we encounter.
It makes sense if you think about it. Stimulus nourishes our ideology. But nourishment is only useful if it’s digested and absorbed. You can only be conscious of your ideology once your ideology nourishes your consciousness.
Your ideology is like a black hole that rips apart the stimulus and rearranges it to something that the mind’s eye can understand. While your stomach needs vitamins and protein, you mind’s eye needs time and space. How time and space is chopped up depends on your ideology. And the way your ideology chops everything up determines your identity. Which can be considered through self-reflection.
Self-reflection meaning putting a microscope to your own ideological digestive process and analyzing how you tear the world apart and reconstruct it in your own perspective. But you can only so far in before the process enters the black hole of identity and becomes dogma.
