“There is truth, boy.
But what you seek,
absolute, perfect doctrine that is all that provides wisdom, doesn't exist.
You should not long for perfect doctrine, my friend.
But you should desire the perfection of yourself.
God is in you, not in ideas or books.
Truth is in living it, not taught. ..."

The Music Master to Joseph Knecht aspiring student of the Glass Bead Game

Hermann Hesse "Das Glasperlenspiel" (Author's translation)

The Philosophy of the GOOD has shown that there is not one “world” or “universe”, but many; in fact, there are as many as there are people to live them out in the identities their wills have formed. These many wills are reconciled, or shared through the limited precision that the symbolism of language produces. But the “coarseness” of this resolution is not dealt with in the everyday world of technology (business) and science our societies have formed 1 . When we come down to the social institutions and their dependent concepts: culture, government, religion, economics, morality, freedom, and justice, which rule our lives, the coarseness of the reconciling (shared) symbolism breaks down to show up the inconsistencies that the reality of many worlds creates. Consensus disappears at this level because the importance of self in each of these worlds surfaces. Even “Gods” are seen as different and contradictory, demanding and creating “different” and contradictory rules for their followers, from other Gods and their followers. The result is the muddle that History has shown for the human race, which has produced the misery and destruction we show toward each other. Instead of knowledge showing us the way out, it has only brought us into further useless contention, and the despair that things will never right themselves. Even faith has only, in fact, shown itself as the actual disruptive element it is, instead of the reconciliation and “way out” it was supposed to be. Failure, and unending despair and contention show themselves as seeming inevitable parts of humanity itself.

The Philosophy of the GOOD shows us that this is not the true state of things. What man experiences is the result of hiding the inaccuracies of the viewpoints of so many different worlds, within the “coarse” knowledge that our shared symbolism has brought us. The problem is not one of “knowledge” or “truth from that knowledge”, but the very existence of so many different viewpoints.

Knowledge, and any truth that can, in fact, be gained from such, is only valid within the viewpoint within which it exists. This same viewpoint can, in fact, not even be represented in the symbolism we have available to share our knowledge. It is this “loss” of viewpoint that has been the problem in the areas where we continue to breakdown: the areas of society, and belief systems, where viewpoint becomes our “selves”, and knowledge, must be gauged against, this very personal private viewpoint, and find its truth there. Because of this loss of absolute viewpoint, our knowledge is useless, because its “meaning” is changed by the viewpoint of each perceiver that interprets it.

The Philosophy of the GOOD has shown us that there is a “way out” open to all of us, if we will accept it, and use it. That “way out” of the dilemma is Universal love. The absolute viewpoint, which allows us to see “truth” not only from the limited viewpoint of the “self” or the “group”, but from the viewpoint of all humanity. It is not a lack of knowledge that keeps man divided, but the lack of a single consistent backdrop against which to interpret that knowledge we have found. This is the same “truth” the Christ spoke of, and the philosophers of old mentioned in the muddied symbolism they could not make coherent. Only in this way, by all assuming the viewpoint of all, will humanity finally be brought together. 2

1 Where all the discrepancies pop up in this “coarse resolution” that symbolism uses, that misses the meanings and truths our private viewpoint gives us, is, of course, the connotations we all form from our own private life situations. These are a result of all the separations the human race makes to divide itself into so many groups: cultural, ethnic, racial, national, religious, sexual … and, on and on! Every one of these creates a different way of interpreting the world and even our common language. It does this by changing emphasis, varying the “shade” of meaning, and in some ways, even the actual meaning itself, especially in the case of normative interpretation. The result is different opinions, beliefs, and often just different ideas about the very things that touch, or pertain to the “self” in all of us. A good example of this is how differently so many people interpret the Bible; which only goes to show that we should not use a book to guide us in something so important in life, as faith in a God (See essay "What about the Bible?").

2 The Philosophy of the GOOD further shows that all that we call “evil”, is in reality this same love force distorted into different forms of greed. All evil is actually a form of “insatiability”, almost an addiction that serves its only master the “identity” (or self). In a way, this is an unavoidable side effect of mortal existence itself, for mortality persistently forces the will to believe that it is its only reference frame, and that all purpose should spring from the satisfaction of its needs. It is the GOOD which deflects this tendency of mortality toward the more balanced state of society, and the unity of purpose with others. It shows humanity that only as a harmonious group can humanity contend with, and even control the unavoidable and inevitable forces of fate. And through this, see that a higher purpose does exist for humanity.

See further comments in Errata