Science is pedantic and our lives are not actually improved by it.

We should not confuse the goals of living with the goals of observing. Living is about introspection and becoming who you ought to become. Regardless of how you rationalize what you ought to be, observation of the external is not supplementary to observation of the internal.

Life is full of distraction. These distractions are not limited to the things which keep you from your goals. Your goals very well could also be distraction. If you end your day not having learned something about yourself, have your learned anything worth truly knowing?

Learning about the world seems useful to the extent that we are the rational extension of nature. We came from nature, and we will return to nature. The only thing which separates us from animals is our ability to rationalize. We must learn about nature to learn about ourselves, surely, but we must not care only about nature; nature, as its own entity, will only take us so far.

We may solve practical matters pertaining to quality of living, but we never become better for it; our lives only become easier. There is nothing easy about being a rational being, yet we seem to want it to be. You're a fool if you believe life should be easy. If a man endeavors to learn mathematics, then he has a hard path ahead of him. He shall rise and fall at different points in this endeavor, but he shall always come out stronger mathematically. He may have learned how to problem solve, but has he actually improved his condition? Surely he has become a good mathematician, but has he become a good human? I'm not convinced the skills directly translate. This man may lack the ability to ask himself difficult and pervasive questions about himself--the questions that truly matter--despite his impressive mathematical achievement.

We're too afraid, and we always have been, of ourselves. We all possess insecurity and doubt, yet we seem to want to ignore it. I know that I have. We are so preoccupied with superficial means that we forget about the true ends. The issue, however, lies in that people don't want to, or know how to, address it or do anything about it. People are content living by the masses and going through the motions we've been told to go through. Do you possess no unique insight into your own life? Are you really an individual? Do you even believe in your own ideals? or are they someone else's handed down to you? We don't even know what is and isn't a distraction, anymore. *note, there is not necessarily anything wrong with this, but this kind of life leaves me, personally, unsatisfied and I think it leaves many others (who don't even understand why) unsatisfied, as well.

You ought to strive to become this individual person. You ought to understand what makes you tick. If you can't stare your insecurities and flaws in the face now, then when will you? when you're old and gray and have but a few years left? When will you decide it's worth trying to live a meaningful life?

Perhaps you're happy, and that's wonderful. I'm happy, as well, but that does not mean I should stop trying. You must always keep trying. The moment you stop trying to become better is the moment you stop truly living. This is my philosophy.

Let me make an important distinction here: your life is made up of belief. You don't know anything besides what you perceive life to be. This isn't solipsism, this is your everyday reality. You ought to know yourself, as the Oracle at Delphi said (basically). We all have our own paradigms which we follow, but how blindly do you follow them? or do you understand why you perceive the world the way you do? Do you let pedantics govern your life? That is, is your life one distraction after another, or do you ever actually focus on you? Understanding what is and isn't a distraction is difficult and, I find, very unsettling. It's worth a good think.

I believe that we ought to live in a constant state of both teacher and pupil. We must learn from and teach others as well as ourselves. We have, within us, every capability of uncovering truth. If we want to understand the point of nature (and of God, if you're into that), then look no further than within. What comes from nature shall go to nature; what comes from God shall go to God. We must not proclaim to know what we can't, yet we must continually question. This, I believe, is the essence of the socratic method. We may not ever truly know, so we should not act like we're even capable of knowing. We may only seem to understand approximations against the immensity that is knowledge, but we will never know. We ought to exist to experience, not to understand.