Philosophy Passion for Truth PASSION FOR TRUTH Anybody who is indifferent whether something is true or not is in a grave danger of loosing any meaning of his her life Skepticism seems to be a trivial an shallow mode of living without any depth and values taken seriously One can say that skepticism is a mental narrowness timidity and simply inexplicable denial of thinking Thought is the outstanding difference between the homo sapiens and other forms of life therefore not using one s mind to the fullest one sentences one s own existence to chaotic ultimately meaningless existential emptiness In order to be truly living a human life one needs to be not only interested in truth but one must become a passionate searcher for one s sense of living suffering and dying The development of technology the explosion of science and the radical broadening of men s mental horizons is undoubtedly great blessing for the human race But science technology and modernization of life shall not be able to answer the most important questions for any thinking person Such questions as who or what is man why do I exist why is there a universe at all what happens when I die Are we alone in this unfeeling cold universe of matter alone or is it true that the highest levels of being are mental in nature Does some God exist or are religious believers suffering some kind of mysterious delusion Such questions are extremely important for my self understanding the sense of nonsense of my existence and most importantly my awareness of values primarily moral values what is morally good or morally evil Why be moral at all Perhaps the demands of moral conscience are a constricting suffocating unnecessary and absurd burden in my life and nothing else and therefore should be relegated to the times of the Dark Ages Those are crucial problems to which science as such that is experimental science is incompetent to give any solid answers Why so Because science deals primarily with description and mathematical expression of facts only But by itself science will never give me any solid answer to the above questions If a person limits his her knowledge to what is scientifically proven only he she already sentences himself herself to mental blindness relative to the most important questions of human existence The most universal obstacles to passionate search for truth are very many fear of the unknown fear of thinking seriously a desire for easy living and spending one s time in shallow and empty but exciting form or entertainment To be human is to exist towards death as Martin Heidegger defined man A being toward death The mystery of death always was and always is a fascinating riddle for any thinking person Albert Camus although not a believer in any sort of God confessed however his desire and absolute demand for meaning when he said that to die knowing why and for what is acceptable but to see the meaning of life melt into nothingness is not anything one can live with The time of life is short and one is obligated to make a decision what to believe or not because not to make a decision is to make a decision By evading my commitment I already am accepting some vision of existence There is no other way open for humans That is why the passion for truth must be in the short period of life a living dynamism of man s intellectual life No one can sit on two branches at the same time The saying of Jesus Christ comes to mind at this point Who is not with me is against me There is no in between fence sitting The search for truth must be done by everyone and it can not be pushed away to somebody else Why because I can live my life only myself and nobody else can live it for me experience for me the joy of living creativity suffering and the whole adventure of existing Because of my egocentric predicament my vision always is and will be mine This is why whether I am indifferent occasionally only interested in truth or not at all is all another call for passion for truth When Pilate sentenced Christ to death he interrogated Christ about His mission and nature Christ answered that He was born to witness to Truth Pilate looked at him with cynicism in his eyes and said what is truth but he did not wait for an answer he thought that there are many other duties of a Roman governor more important than such abstract and fuzzy concept There was no such attitude possible for Pilate as passion for truth Prof Leszek Figurski Ph D