Between Truth And Illusion

Truth, Cicovacki says, presupposes neither a dominance of subject or object, but their dynamic and reciprocal interactive relation. The absence of proper interactions leads to various forms of self-projections or illusions. Truth, by contract, exists in a harmonious interaction between its subjective and objective elements. Cicovacki thus locates the value of truth between traditional absolutist claims and contemporary relativism.

Mr O'Loughlin's first exercise in philosophy, dating from 1977, takes as its starting-point an analysis of the inter-relativity of dualities and expands, via a series of aphoristic essays and dramatic lessons, towards a dialogue climax in which the two - inevitably! - characters discuss the implications of a dualistic philosophy both as it impacts on theory and practice. Although the author didn't realize it at the time, truth and illusion are a lot closer together than may at first appear to be the case, even if one doesn't necessarily have to get between them!

As politicians, media, scientists, and religions vie over truth, "Truth and Illusion" leads us on a quest to discover why we believe what we do. Dethroning patriarchy and overcoming dualistic thinking, "Truth and Illusion" paves the way to understanding one another, cultivating inner wisdom, and expanding our abilities to access ultimate truths. When East meets West in Truth and Illusion, the yogic science of spirituality extends psychology's understanding of human nature, so that finally we can understand why one person's lie is another one's truth. You will learn: *how to cultivate inner wisdom*why we must harmonize dualistic thinking, such as East-West, male-female, left brain-right brain, rich-poor, and individualistic-communal, so we can find truth*how the seven chakras represent our progress in understanding life, truth, ourselves, and one another*how patriarchy has overpowered humanity culturally and religiously, limiting our human development and blocking our access to ultimate truths*how feminine qualities, masculine qualities, love, fear, and the worldviews of each of our seven chakras combine to explain why we see the world the way we do. You will be amazed to discover yourself and others so clearly described along the developmental journey through the chakra system. You will understand why we are who we are, and how all of us can progress in our quests for truth. Truth and Illusion ultimately leads us to transcend duality to a state of oneness, discovering Truth and creating harmony together.

Identifying quickly illusion with deception, we tend to oppose it to the reality of life. However, investigating in this collection of essays illusion's functions in the Arts, which thrives upon illusion and yet maintains its existential roots and meaningfullness in the real, we might wonder about the nature of reality itself. Does not illusion open the seeming confines of factual reality into horizons of imagination which transform it? Does it not, like art, belong essentially to the makeup of human reality? Papers by: Lanfranco Aceti, John Baldacchino, Maria Avelina Cecilia Lafuente, Jo Ann Circosta, Madalina Diaconu, Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei, Brian Grassom, Marguerite Harris, Andrew E. Hershberger, James Carlton Hughes, Lawrence Kimmel, Jung In Kwon, Ruth Ronen, Scott A. Sherer, Joanne Snow-Smith, Max Statkiewicz, Patricia Trutty-Coohill, Daniel Unger, James Werner.

Why do you believe what you believe? You’ve been lied to. Probably a lot. We’re always stunned when we realize we’ve been deceived. We can’t believe we were fooled: What was I thinking? How could I have believed that? We always wonder why we believed the lie. But have you ever wondered why you believe the truth? People tell you the truth all the time, and you believe them; and if, at some later point, you’re confronted with evidence that the story you believed was indeed true, you never wonder why you believed it in the first place. In this incisive and insightful taxonomy of lies and liars, New York Times bestselling author Aja Raden makes the surprising claim that maybe you should. Buttressed by history, psychology, and science, The Truth About Lies is both an eye-opening primer on con-artistry—from pyramid schemes to shell games, forgery to hoaxes—and also a telescopic view of society through the mechanics of belief: why we lie, why we believe, and how, if at all, the acts differ. Through wild tales of cons and marks, Raden examines not only how lies actually work, but also why they work, from the evolutionary function of deception to what it reveals about our own. In her previous book, Stoned, Raden asked, “What makes a thing valuable?” In The Truth About Lies, she asks “What makes a thing real?” With cutting wit and a deft touch, Raden untangles the relationship of truth to lie, belief to faith, and deception to propaganda. The Truth About Lies will change everything you thought you knew about what you know, and whether you ever really know it.

This title signifies an attempt by John James O'Loughlin to return to basics in philosophy and understand the connections and indeed interrelations of antitheses, polarities, opposites, and other such neat philosophical categories in relation to the relativity of everyday life. It is not an express attempt to expound 'the Truth' but, rather, a modest undertaking on his part to comprehend the paradoxes of the world in which we happen to live, and seek to unveil some of the illusions and superstitions which make the pursuit of philosophical truth such a difficult not to say protracted task. Hopefully the result of this undertaking is a franker and maturer approach to those very paradoxes which were the inspiration for this work and which led to some of its most striking contentions. Therefore if 'Between Truth and Illusion' cannot, by dint of its paradoxical nature, lay claims to being the Truth, it can at least be seen as the basis for a more realistic appraisal of the terms by which the pursuit of philosophical truth is made possible.

Pulitzer prize–winner Chris Hedges charts the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate society that craves fantasy, ecstasy and illusion. Chris Hedges argues that we now live in two societies: One, the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world, that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other, a growing majority, is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. In this “other society,” serious film and theatre, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins. In the tradition of Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Hedges navigates this culture — attending WWF contests as well as Ivy League graduation ceremonies — exposing an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion.

Saul Smilansky presents an original treatment of the problem of free will, which lies at the heart of morality and human self-understanding. He maintains that we have most of the resources we need for a proper understanding of the problem; and the key to it is the role played by illusion. The major traditional philosophical approaches are inadequate, Smilansky argues: their partial insights need to be integrated into a hybrid view, which he calls Fundamental Dualism. Common views about justice, responsibility, human worth, and related notions are radically misguided, and the absurd looms large. We do, however, find some justification for enlightened moral views, and grounding for some of our most cherished views of human nature. The bold and perhaps disturbing claim of Free Will and Illusion is that we could not live adequately with a complete awareness of the truth about human freedom: illusion lies at the centre of the human condition. The necessity of illusion is seen to follow from the basic elements of the free will issue, helping keep our moral and psychological worlds intact. Smilansky offers the challenge of recognizing the centrality of illusion and trying to free ourselves to some extent from it; this is not only a philosophical challenge, but a moral and psychological one as well.