WEBVTT NOTE Yes, You Do Have a Philosophy 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.000 The Philosophic Orders Related to Rational Thought 2 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:13.000 We live in a world where there is such a thing as a cause-effect relationship. 3 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.000 This is an extremely important factor to keep in mind. 4 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:28.000 We live and are able to continue living only because there is such a thing as reality. 5 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:38.160 Reality is, and within the world of reality, there is a cause-effect relationship. That 6 00:00:38.160 --> 00:00:47.000 is to say, when a particular action is initiated, we can learn and ultimately predict the consequence 7 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:56.080 of that act or a series of acts. If this were not true, we could not stay alive. It is absolutely 8 00:00:56.080 --> 00:01:16.120 When we are thinking in terms of cause-effect, we often tend to think that a cause-effect 9 00:01:16.120 --> 00:01:25.240 hookup comes in what we might call isolated pairs. In other words, I would like to attain 10 00:01:25.240 --> 00:01:34.120 Objective X. And I learn through observation and study and experience that A plus B plus 11 00:01:34.120 --> 00:01:46.160 C minus W produces X. And so I put that together just the way I should put it together, and 12 00:01:46.160 --> 00:01:51.600 I get X, and I say hooray. That's how you do it, and X is the desirable good, and therefore 13 00:01:51.600 --> 00:01:58.520 Before I continue to do this, but what I may not have taken into account is that X, once 14 00:01:58.520 --> 00:02:07.400 it arrives, is in itself a cause for future effects down the road. These are other effects 15 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:13.760 that I wasn't interested in, and probably I didn't even bother to think about them. 16 00:02:13.760 --> 00:02:20.480 I simply thought of reaching X by the least cost, the most efficient method, and so I 17 00:02:20.480 --> 00:02:26.760 I know how to reach X, and what happens after that I am not concerned with, but I should be. 18 00:02:26.760 --> 00:02:34.480 Because, further down the road beyond X, there may be other factors now coming into existence 19 00:02:34.480 --> 00:02:41.440 because of the existence of X that will ultimately sweep around in a great arc and interfere 20 00:02:41.440 --> 00:02:48.280 with my ability to put A and B and C together, and I can't have X anymore. Whereas, if I 21 00:02:48.280 --> 00:02:54.340 If I learned a better way of going at X, maybe I would learn how to increase the likelihood 22 00:02:54.340 --> 00:03:01.040 of A, B and C being available, and I could continue to have X for a long time. You see, 23 00:03:01.040 --> 00:03:09.520 what we need to do is to learn how to be omniscient. And of course we can't. So there is something 24 00:03:09.520 --> 00:03:15.560 else that we have to have as a substitute. Now, incidentally, the development of the 25 00:03:15.560 --> 00:03:24.840 The computer has helped us here because we can feed into a computer all of the known 26 00:03:24.840 --> 00:03:34.120 data that we have in relation to any particular area, and then we can ask the computer to 27 00:03:34.120 --> 00:03:40.820 make mathematical computations relating to the law of probability, and the computer can 28 00:03:40.820 --> 00:03:49.140 can do this so rapidly that it can in only a few minutes' time transcend years and 29 00:03:49.140 --> 00:03:56.480 years of careful mathematical work. And thus we can extend the laws of probability into 30 00:03:56.480 --> 00:04:05.180 the remote future to find out what is probable in terms of the data that have been fed into 31 00:04:05.180 --> 00:04:07.460 to the Computer. 32 00:04:07.460 --> 00:04:10.260 But man isn't a computer. 33 00:04:10.260 --> 00:04:15.580 We cannot do that type of mathematical work, and we don't always have a computer handy 34 00:04:15.580 --> 00:04:21.220 so that we can punch in the information and then activate it and ultimately get a feedback. 35 00:04:21.220 --> 00:04:24.060 But you know, there's an interesting thing. 36 00:04:24.060 --> 00:04:27.220 We don't necessarily need the computer. 37 00:04:27.220 --> 00:04:35.140 If we have done our homework correctly, then we would be able to detect principles. 38 00:04:35.140 --> 00:04:43.300 And a principle which is the known characteristic of the behavior of certain things, singly 39 00:04:43.300 --> 00:04:51.680 or in combination. Once we know the principle, we don't have to do the mathematical prediction. 40 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:58.460 Because knowing the principle, we are guided on the basis of the characteristics of reality 41 00:04:58.460 --> 00:05:03.660 to get the right answer. And that's what we want to have. The important thing is to 42 00:05:03.660 --> 00:05:10.220 Learn the principles by means of which we can predict not only the consequence of a 43 00:05:10.220 --> 00:05:18.500 plus b plus c minus w equals x, but we can learn the characteristics of a plus b plus 44 00:05:18.500 --> 00:05:28.580 c plus w and plus x, so that we don't have to multiply it out every time. We simply know 45 00:05:28.580 --> 00:05:32.980 on the basis of principle. This is what we want to do. 46 00:05:32.980 --> 00:05:40.940 Now there are several philosophic orders that concern us here. And a philosophy, that's 47 00:05:40.940 --> 00:05:46.260 a big word of course, but actually what it relates to is an overall view of things. All 48 00:05:46.260 --> 00:05:53.720 of us have philosophies of one sort or another. They are simply the composites of what we 49 00:05:53.720 --> 00:06:00.200 We know and the way we think things ought to be as well as the way we think things are. 50 00:06:00.200 --> 00:06:04.880 And we put these together and we have a certain attitude that develops from this. 51 00:06:04.880 --> 00:06:12.320 In the world we live in, we could divide everything in the world into, say, these two philosophic 52 00:06:12.320 --> 00:06:13.320 orders. 53 00:06:13.320 --> 00:06:19.800 We would have what we could call the natural order, and then we would have the man-made 54 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:20.800 order. 55 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:22.340 Now these are obviously different. 56 00:06:22.340 --> 00:06:30.320 The natural order would be comprised of all of those things that nature has provided. 57 00:06:30.320 --> 00:06:36.260 That would be all of this earth and the resources of the earth—the air, the water, the soils, 58 00:06:36.260 --> 00:06:41.160 the minerals, the metals, the growing things, plant or animal, or of any other kind, even 59 00:06:41.160 --> 00:06:42.900 the kinds we don't know of. 60 00:06:42.900 --> 00:06:48.160 As long as they have been provided by nature, that would be part of the natural order. 61 00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:52.160 Man himself, for instance, would be a part of the natural order. 62 00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:56.360 And then there's the man-made order. Now, what's that? The man-made order would be 63 00:06:56.360 --> 00:07:03.440 those things that exist in reality which men have brought into existence. And I'm not speaking 64 00:07:03.440 --> 00:07:11.500 here in terms of man's ability to procreate and to have children. That also is a natural 65 00:07:11.500 --> 00:07:19.240 and not a man-made process. What we are talking about here is those things that men make only 66 00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:27.160 only because they have learned the principles respecting reality and then they put the pieces 67 00:07:27.160 --> 00:07:34.160 of nature together in a way that nature doesn't do it. And we come up with new substances, 68 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:41.320 new products, new gadgets, new devices, new tools, new comforts and conveniences. And all 69 00:07:41.320 --> 00:07:48.860 of these things, although they contain the elements of nature, are of the man-made order. 70 00:07:48.860 --> 00:07:55.420 can make them. You can't go out and pick these off trees. They are put together with the 71 00:07:55.420 --> 00:08:02.380 human mind at work. But this is also a part of reality. So we have these two orders, the 72 00:08:02.380 --> 00:08:11.220 natural order and the man-made order. Of even greater importance to us, I would think, would 73 00:08:11.220 --> 00:08:17.700 be these orders, the order of the objective and the order of the subjective. Now what 74 00:08:17.700 --> 00:08:27.140 are these. Well, the objective order would be that order that is concerned with reality 75 00:08:27.140 --> 00:08:36.780 itself. Another word that you could use in place of objective would be reality or fact. 76 00:08:36.780 --> 00:08:46.740 You could use also the word principle because a principle is always related to the objective 77 00:08:46.740 --> 00:08:57.020 of Order if it is a principle in fact. Men do not invent principles. They discover them. 78 00:08:57.020 --> 00:09:03.620 The principle exists in the nature of things as they are. It relates to the basic, fundamental, 79 00:09:03.620 --> 00:09:13.620 natural characteristics of existing phenomena. So principles, reality, fact, all of these 80 00:09:13.620 --> 00:09:38.620 And really, it's the same thing, would be a part of the objective order. That is to say, it has existence in itself. It is. It doesn't make any difference whether you know that it exists or whether you don't. It exists independent of your knowledge, independent of your judgment, independent of your likes or dislikes. It simply is. 81 00:09:38.620 --> 00:09:52.120 An example of something that is objective, that we know exists, and yet very few of us have any actual direct contact with it, and that would be the other side of the moon. 82 00:09:52.120 --> 00:10:00.620 As you know, the moon circles the earth in such a way that we only see one side of it, the other side is hidden. But it's there. 83 00:10:00.620 --> 00:10:06.120 Is there anyone who would care to contend that the moon does not have another side? 84 00:10:06.120 --> 00:10:13.860 It would be pretty hard to argue logically and conclusively to that effect, that although 85 00:10:13.860 --> 00:10:19.120 you only see the one face, that there isn't another side. 86 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:20.600 Of course there's another side. 87 00:10:20.600 --> 00:10:24.500 Now the fact that you haven't seen it doesn't take it out of existence. 88 00:10:24.500 --> 00:10:25.500 It's there. 89 00:10:25.500 --> 00:10:31.240 It is objective, it is real, but it is beyond your sense of awareness through anything you 90 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:34.120 can bring to bear except your sense of logic. 91 00:10:34.120 --> 00:10:35.920 It's got to be there. 92 00:10:35.920 --> 00:10:43.480 If you've got an item that has one face, it must have an opposing face. You may not 93 00:10:43.480 --> 00:10:48.840 know what's there on that face, but whatever is there is there, and that is a fact whether 94 00:10:48.840 --> 00:10:55.680 you know it or not. The same would relate to items that are under the earth. For instance, 95 00:10:55.680 --> 00:10:59.800 if I were to dig down here, right where I'm standing, get right through the building and 96 00:10:59.800 --> 00:11:04.680 go right down into the ground and dig down for 20 feet, I would find something. What 97 00:11:04.680 --> 00:11:09.680 What would I find? I don't know. But whatever it is, it's there now. I don't have to know 98 00:11:09.680 --> 00:11:15.200 what it is. I just know that something is there. Something has got to be there. It would 99 00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:21.240 be something relating to soils, rocks, minerals, metals or something of this sort because it 100 00:11:21.240 --> 00:11:28.760 would be of that genera. It would be a part of reality. It's there. I don't know what 101 00:11:28.760 --> 00:11:35.760 What it is, I don't have to know what it is to know that it is. How do I really know 102 00:11:35.760 --> 00:11:42.240 that it is? Well, in one sense, I really don't know that it is in the sense that I have any 103 00:11:42.240 --> 00:11:48.720 immediate input into my mind on it because I really don't. I simply have a supposition 104 00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:55.160 that it has to be there, and the reason my supposition is a reliable supposition, even 105 00:11:55.160 --> 00:12:04.040 Even though as supposition, is that I know the nature of things. It's got to be there 106 00:12:04.040 --> 00:12:10.200 because that's the nature of things as they are. And that's how we learn about objective 107 00:12:10.200 --> 00:12:17.660 reality. It is there because it has to be there. Thus, if I create a table and I make 108 00:12:17.660 --> 00:12:29.220 If I take the table out of wood, I can predict that the table will be in existence generally 109 00:12:29.220 --> 00:12:33.700 about as long as any piece of wood would be in existence relating to the type and kind 110 00:12:33.700 --> 00:12:39.660 of wood that I used. I would also predict that if I put a table into a given room and 111 00:12:39.660 --> 00:12:45.100 then walk off and leave it in the room, that it doesn't cease to exist. It simply remains 112 00:12:45.100 --> 00:12:50.820 in that room. Well, how do I know the minute I go through the door that it didn't disappear? 113 00:12:50.820 --> 00:12:56.480 Because I know the nature of wood. Wood doesn't disappear. It stays there unless some other 114 00:12:56.480 --> 00:13:01.700 factors that I don't know about are brought to bear on it. So this is how we survive in 115 00:13:01.700 --> 00:13:07.820 this world. We learn the nature of objective reality. We learn the principles respecting 116 00:13:07.820 --> 00:13:13.100 certain things. And then we can predict that it's pretty intelligent to make a table 117 00:13:13.100 --> 00:13:36.400 And this is how we learn to live in this world. 118 00:13:36.400 --> 00:13:41.980 We learn the nature of objective reality. 119 00:13:41.980 --> 00:13:46.820 But the learning process is a fascinating one, and this takes us to the other order, the 120 00:13:46.820 --> 00:13:52.940 subjective order. And this is a very tricky one. As a matter of fact, right now, we have 121 00:13:52.940 --> 00:13:58.580 persons who contend that there isn't any such thing as objectivity at all. They say 122 00:13:58.580 --> 00:14:04.100 it's all in the mind, because you never know anything until you know it. And obviously 123 00:14:04.100 --> 00:14:09.900 that's, of course that's true, but then they say until you know it, it doesn't exist. 124 00:14:09.900 --> 00:14:15.740 as though the mind actually brought into existence the items of reality. 125 00:14:15.740 --> 00:14:18.620 Now the mind is good, but it isn't that good. 126 00:14:18.620 --> 00:14:22.360 The mind doesn't create reality. 127 00:14:22.360 --> 00:14:25.560 It becomes aware of reality. 128 00:14:25.560 --> 00:14:31.180 Of course, reality would have to be there for it to become aware of anything. 129 00:14:31.180 --> 00:14:39.620 And so the mind is that sensitive instrument that we use to coalesce various inputs from 130 00:14:39.620 --> 00:14:44.780 and various sense organs that we have, by means of which we learn that there is a real 131 00:14:44.780 --> 00:14:47.180 world and we learn how to deal with it. 132 00:14:47.180 --> 00:14:50.620 But now there's a very important factor here. 133 00:14:50.620 --> 00:14:57.020 And this is where, you see, we have certain people today, for instance, who insist that 134 00:14:57.020 --> 00:15:02.940 although there may be such a thing as a subjective world, that anything that is subjective is 135 00:15:02.940 --> 00:15:11.300 is an error, and they would contend that they themselves know objective fact. 136 00:15:11.300 --> 00:15:17.560 I want to show you that that is probably an improper approach to reality. 137 00:15:17.560 --> 00:15:22.140 You don't really ever get an objective fact into your mind. 138 00:15:22.140 --> 00:15:29.900 The only facts that you get are related to the objective world, but you obtain them subjectively. 139 00:15:29.900 --> 00:15:34.360 Let me make a little analogy here so that you understand what I'm talking about. Let 140 00:15:34.360 --> 00:15:41.940 me suppose that I have a camera, an extremely sensitive camera, and I bring it into this 141 00:15:41.940 --> 00:15:46.780 room and we'll assume that it has a good lens and that the lighting is correct and 142 00:15:46.780 --> 00:15:54.000 I have good sensitive film. I can aim this camera at the far side of the room and activate 143 00:15:54.000 --> 00:16:00.680 the shutter, and I will take into the camera an image of everything that is on the far 144 00:16:00.680 --> 00:16:05.080 side of the room. Assuming a good camera, a good lens, proper lighting and so forth, 145 00:16:05.080 --> 00:16:11.400 I will have an extremely accurate image in my camera. And then it will be on a negative 146 00:16:11.400 --> 00:16:16.480 plate. I can have it developed and I've got a picture of the far side of the room. Fine. 147 00:16:16.480 --> 00:16:22.920 But that's all I can do. There is no way that I can pick up the far side of the room, 148 00:16:22.920 --> 00:16:29.560 Which is reality, and put that reality into my camera. It won't fit. The only thing I 149 00:16:29.560 --> 00:16:37.100 can get into my camera is an image of the far side of the room. That's all I can do. 150 00:16:37.100 --> 00:16:45.200 That's all I can do with my brain. I cannot put you into my mind. By no possible process 151 00:16:45.200 --> 00:16:52.200 can I pick up reality and stow reality in my mind. All that I can get into my mind is 152 00:16:52.200 --> 00:17:01.960 is an image of reality. And an image of reality is just not reality. It is an image only. And 153 00:17:01.960 --> 00:17:12.120 like any image, it lacks dimension. The mind, of course, has more dimensions than a flat 154 00:17:12.120 --> 00:17:20.440 surface in a camera, a negative plate. But nonetheless, it lacks dimension. I, for instance, 155 00:17:20.440 --> 00:17:31.400 get to know you very well. But I never know your reality. All I ever know is my image 156 00:17:31.400 --> 00:17:38.100 of your reality, and it is lacking in dimension. There is no possible way that I can put into 157 00:17:38.100 --> 00:17:45.160 my mind the multidimensional creature that you are. No way. Just an image. That's all 158 00:17:45.160 --> 00:17:59.160 Now, that doesn't mean to say that the image is wrong. Just as my camera could focus on the far end of the room and bring me an extremely accurate picture of everything that's there, it's only a picture. 159 00:17:59.160 --> 00:18:10.160 What is there is still there. I didn't get it into the camera. I can have an extremely accurate picture of you, but it's not you. It's only a picture. It's an image. 160 00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:24.160 And man is a creature of images. He is a creature of dreams. He deals in the subjective area with ideas, with visions, with dreams, with images. 161 00:18:24.160 --> 00:18:37.160 That's what he has to deal with. They can be accurate images, they can be inaccurate images, but whether they are accurate or inaccurate, they are images. 162 00:18:37.160 --> 00:18:42.160 and he has to deal with them that way. That's what we mean by the subjective order. 163 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:49.160 The subjective order is the order of the mind. It is an order of imagery. 164 00:18:49.160 --> 00:18:56.160 Wipe out all human minds and everything left will be in the objective order. 165 00:18:56.160 --> 00:19:03.160 The subjective order is that order of imagery created by men. 166 00:19:03.160 --> 00:19:10.680 Now, the important thing to understand here is that that is the way we deal with objectivity. 167 00:19:10.680 --> 00:19:17.840 Thus, no man ever knows what is objective in an objective sense. 168 00:19:17.840 --> 00:19:21.560 He knows what is objective in a subjective sense. 169 00:19:21.560 --> 00:19:25.760 We learn objectivity subjectively. 170 00:19:25.760 --> 00:19:34.260 And that means that every human being, irrespective of how much he knows, could learn more. 171 00:19:34.260 --> 00:19:41.900 There is no total point where we reach absolute saturation and maturation in the area of knowledge. 172 00:19:41.900 --> 00:19:43.660 That's not possible. 173 00:19:43.660 --> 00:19:49.540 The amount that we don't know will probably always exceed the amount that we know. 174 00:19:49.540 --> 00:19:53.120 It's a very humbling thought. 175 00:19:53.120 --> 00:20:00.860 You don't know anything in the total sense that knowing objectivity in your mind would 176 00:20:00.860 --> 00:20:07.560 bring you. Now this does not mean that you are ignorant or stupid or dull or anything 177 00:20:07.560 --> 00:20:16.800 of the sort. On the contrary, you do have knowledge. Now what is knowledge? Actually, 178 00:20:16.800 --> 00:20:24.920 Knowledge is the word we apply, that we make use of, when we have found that the objective 179 00:20:24.920 --> 00:20:34.320 world is accurately portrayed subjectively. It is the combination of the two. Now, if 180 00:20:34.320 --> 00:20:43.360 you have an objective piece of reality out here and you get an impression of it in your 181 00:20:43.360 --> 00:20:50.360 If your mind and your impression is inaccurate, we don't call that knowledge. We say, well, that's a mistake. 182 00:20:50.360 --> 00:20:58.360 We say it's an opinion. Granted that you have an image of reality, but your image is wrong. 183 00:20:58.360 --> 00:21:05.360 This can be. People can have incorrect images. But people can also have correct images. 184 00:21:05.360 --> 00:21:09.360 And that is the point that has to be made. 185 00:21:09.360 --> 00:21:18.800 So many people imagine that if it is in an image, it has to be incorrect. No. Actually, 186 00:21:18.800 --> 00:21:26.800 man is rather good at forming accurate, subjective impressions. They are still subjective, but 187 00:21:26.800 --> 00:21:32.640 they are accurate. As a matter of fact, human beings have a lot going for them. You know, 188 00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:41.860 We had to learn at a very early age that there is a profound, objective difference between 189 00:21:41.860 --> 00:21:48.180 a saber-toothed tiger and a rose bush. And we managed it. We got that figured out a long 190 00:21:48.180 --> 00:21:52.320 time ago. And there was no argument about it. You couldn't make a mistake there and 191 00:21:52.320 --> 00:21:58.080 survive. You have to treat these things quite differently. And if you make a mistake, it 192 00:21:58.080 --> 00:22:04.260 And that will probably be your last mistake. So human beings have very good equipment. 193 00:22:04.260 --> 00:22:15.260 We have very sensitive sensory-perceptive organs. Very sensitive. We pick up subtleties in sound 194 00:22:15.260 --> 00:22:22.900 and color and light. We pick up subtleties of meaning and inference. We are very good 195 00:22:22.900 --> 00:22:29.140 at Picking Things Up. We're very good at putting them out. But it's important that we classify 196 00:22:29.140 --> 00:22:37.180 them accurately if we are going to understand reality and deal with it. Now, obviously, 197 00:22:37.180 --> 00:22:43.500 there wouldn't be any point in having a camera if there weren't something to take a picture 198 00:22:43.500 --> 00:22:50.740 of. The reason cameras were invented is because there's a real world out there that you can 199 00:22:50.740 --> 00:23:03.740 The reason we have brains, the reason we have a mind to use, relates to the fact that there is something out there that we are to get impressions of. 200 00:23:03.740 --> 00:23:09.740 The brain is simply an impression instrument. It deals at a lot of levels. 201 00:23:09.740 --> 00:23:16.140 I've only mentioned one, actually, but there wouldn't be any point in the brain if there 202 00:23:16.140 --> 00:23:22.540 wasn't something in the objective order for the brain to try to understand. 203 00:23:22.540 --> 00:23:29.740 So the argument of the subjectivist that there is no objective order at all, it's all in 204 00:23:29.740 --> 00:23:37.420 the mind, is complete hooey, if you'll pardon that downgrading, because in point of fact, 205 00:23:37.420 --> 00:23:42.820 There wouldn't have been a mind. There would be no reason for it to exist if there wasn't 206 00:23:42.820 --> 00:23:49.940 something of an objective nature for the mind to grapple with and learn to comprehend. If 207 00:23:49.940 --> 00:23:55.860 it's just nothing out there, the mind would not know what to visualize to create anything. 208 00:23:55.860 --> 00:23:59.820 You wouldn't create anything. You would be totally disorganized and the only thing in 209 00:23:59.820 --> 00:24:04.980 existence would be space. And your mind wouldn't even be in existence because that too would 210 00:24:04.980 --> 00:24:12.500 should be space. So, you forget it. The subjective position is not an accurate one. But likewise, 211 00:24:12.500 --> 00:24:20.780 the objective position, or the objectivist position, which tends to assume that subjectivity 212 00:24:20.780 --> 00:24:28.660 is always erroneous, that's not accurate either. The fact that we are dealing with images doesn't 213 00:24:28.660 --> 00:24:34.940 mean that we are wrong. It means that this is the method that we use in order to deal 214 00:24:34.940 --> 00:24:39.980 with Reality. What is important is that we learn to deal with reality. The manner that 215 00:24:39.980 --> 00:24:45.620 we have to deal with reality relates to our subjectivity very well. 216 00:24:45.620 --> 00:24:51.980 Now let's consider some of the functions of the brain, of the mind. The brain of course 217 00:24:51.980 --> 00:24:59.140 is the organ in the skull consisting of several parts. We don't have to get into the physiology 218 00:25:29.140 --> 00:25:37.420 Formation and the Impression Reception. This goes on in the mind. 219 00:25:37.420 --> 00:25:45.900 Now there is another factor in the mind. The mind also has fabulous memory banks. You talk 220 00:25:45.900 --> 00:25:54.500 about the memory banks of a computer. The human mind has a vast memory bank or series 221 00:26:24.500 --> 00:26:30.820 argue, but certainly this is true in a large measure. It is certainly true that we are 222 00:26:30.820 --> 00:26:37.940 able to recall things that we've totally forgotten, seemingly, and yet the impression 223 00:26:37.940 --> 00:26:44.380 is there, way back in the mind, and we recall it, and then bring it to the fore again. Now, 224 00:26:44.380 --> 00:26:50.520 that's memory. This is one of the functions of the mind. We then not only take in images, 225 00:26:50.520 --> 00:26:58.840 But we store them away. We have a vast storehouse, many, many filing cabinets in which we put 226 00:26:58.840 --> 00:27:04.340 things. And, of course, the manner in which we sort things out in our mental filing cabinets 227 00:27:04.340 --> 00:27:10.000 can be just as vital as the way we file letters in an office. If we don't file it correctly, 228 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:15.340 we end up having a disorderly mind. And then we're confused and we don't know how to 229 00:27:15.340 --> 00:27:21.860 bring forward those bits of information that we have carefully stored there. We just sort 230 00:27:21.860 --> 00:27:26.620 of fall on them helter-skelter and then we seem to be disorganized. And you and I have 231 00:27:26.620 --> 00:27:32.780 met people like that who are disorganized in their memory banks. They just don't remember 232 00:27:32.780 --> 00:27:38.180 what they should and they remember what they shouldn't. This goes on. 233 00:27:38.180 --> 00:27:44.820 Then there is another factor of the mind. The mind is also the instrument of desire, 234 00:27:44.820 --> 00:27:52.260 of Want, of Emotion, the things that we admire, the things that we like, we emotionalize in 235 00:27:52.260 --> 00:27:59.160 our minds. This is done in the mind. Then there is another factor in the mind. We evaluate. 236 00:27:59.160 --> 00:28:07.340 We give preference to various things. We like everything more or less. And this is an evaluation 237 00:28:07.340 --> 00:28:15.700 process in the mind. We infer. We value. We store up knowledge. We form images. We do 238 00:28:15.700 --> 00:28:22.900 all these things in the mind. The mind is a tremendous storehouse, a tremendous tool 239 00:28:22.900 --> 00:28:31.020 by means of which we deal with reality. The important thing for us to keep in mind is 240 00:28:31.020 --> 00:28:40.300 Notice this. We have to live in a real world. The brain, the mind, is our basic tool for 241 00:28:40.300 --> 00:28:47.160 learning how to do it correctly so that we can initiate the proper causes that will take 242 00:28:47.160 --> 00:28:54.320 us to the effects we want, which effects themselves must be understood sufficiently so that they 243 00:28:54.320 --> 00:29:03.540 are not dysfunctional, and thus we can establish successful living, successful operation within 244 00:29:03.540 --> 00:29:10.200 a libertarian context, avoiding tyranny and slavery. And this is what we want to do. 245 00:29:10.200 --> 00:29:11.000 Thanks very much.