What is Existence?

What is existence?

Does Santa Claus exist?

People always say Santa doesn't exist, but how come we can see him every December. We can google Santa and an old man with white beard in red coat appears.

What is existence?

If our account states we have certain amount of money, does our money exist? If all the people in the world were to withdraw their money in one moment, certainly the bank won't be able to satisfy our withdrawal. Doesn't that mean our money doesn't exist?

What is existence?

Existence is not Nothing, because Nothing exists and Everything exists.

The moment we think of something, something come into existence, whether that something is real or not.

Therefore, Existence is subjective because something exists to someone might not exist to the others.

Think of a cup in whatever form and design. The cup exists in our mind. The cup exists but it is not concrete.

I think there are two types of existence, mental existence and physical existence. Either one is as real as the other.

Mental existence is an idea. We can think of an idea as crazy as Santa Claus.

Physical existence is a concrete object: a cup, the computer in front of us, etc.

The computer in front of us. We know it is concrete because we can see it, we also know it exist in our mind because we know the idea of the computer. But if we close our eyes and stop thinking about the computer, do we deny the existence of the computer? Will the computer cease to exist?

The computer is still concrete and is still in front of us whether we think of it or not. But how can we know the statement is true or not if we do not think of it?

The moment we stop thinking about the computer, whether it is physically exist or concrete, the computer cease to exist.

Existence is not whether something is concrete or not.

It is not whether something is real or not.

Existence happens.

Existence happens at only one moment, and one moment only.

Philosophical Question

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

It's an interesting philosophical question.

One might immediately answer, "Yes!" without much thinking.

To answer the question, we should define what sound is. Sound is mechanical vibration transmitted by an object. Hence, when the tree falls, it will certainly make a huge vibration.

But does it make a sound?

Every atoms in our body vibrate, but we can't hear it. In order for us to call something a sound, it has to able to be heard as well. If the tree falls and no one hears it, then the sound doesn't exist!

So far, the explanation is quite technical. Any physicist can answer it, how does this question philosophical?

Above all, I think the question tackles not just merely the sound, but existence. How can we say something exist? If we were to modify the question to be:

If Jengtu had lived in Beijing in 980 C.E but there is no record of him and no one knows him now, does Jengtu exist?

How can he exist if there is no trace of him? The only reason we know Jesus, Michelangelo, and all those dead people exist because we have records and traces of them. If we don't have any trace, then certainly Jengtu doesn't exist. Jengtu might have existed, but right now he does not exist.

It seems that we have reached the end of our conclusion.

A philosopher should not so easily satisfy.

A philosopher should follow both his reasoning and intuition and gut.

Something is not quite right in the question:

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

How can someone ask such question?

In order for someone to ask this question, somebody must have known a tree is falling. If we know a tree is falling, that means there is someone around the forest, isn't it?

How can you know a tree is falling without being there?

Even though you say they are just all inside you mind, you still is inside your mind in order for you to know.

Hence, the question is invalid.

Does the conclusion make sense?

One day, someone walk around the forest and saw a fallen tree. He was not present when the tree was falling, yet he knows that the tree fell.

Then this statement contradicts my previous argument leading to me concluding the invalidity of the question.

In the end, I still don't have an answer to the question.

What do I mean?

The depth of a philosophical questions lie in the limitless of arguments one might come up with to support one's view. It may seem I already have the answer to some, but I have no doubt one day, someone or even myself may come up with a counter argument to disagree with myself.

There really is no answer to the questions like:

What is life?

What is my purpose?

Does God exist?

The best we can do is to believe and to have faith.

"If you do, fair is the prize, and great is the hope, and it is in that hope I can go happily to my death."

Plato

Ironically, Plato's statement is not a truth.

We can only believe him.

Good and Evil

In the beginning,

God created Light and Darkness.

God created Good and Evil.

For there will be no Light without Darkness, nor Good without Evil.

Thus, Evil is not an absence of Good.

Evil is the opposite of Good.

Good and Evil are at war since the very beginning of time.

Good is the beginning, and the beginning was good.

Evil always finds her way to corrupt the Good.

Good always falls for Evil, for Good is good.

Good always loves and trusts, even to Evil.

Good is pure and innocent.

Balance must be kept.

God intervenes again and again.

God helps Good.

But Good is too innocent.

Good always begins but always loses to Evil.

Again and again.

God intervenes no more.

Good must grow up.

God sends Grace to Good.

Grace will guide Good.

Grace will encourage Good.

Grace will teach Good.

Grace will protect Good.

Grace will fight for Good.

Grace will stay with Good.

Being Aware of What You're Being Taught

Once in awhile, we will encounter some teachers with a very strong opinion in design.

They'll tell you not to do certain stuff:

Do not use colors, you are not good at it. Keep the colors to minimum!

Design is not like waiting under an apple tree and wait the apple to fall on you head for inspiration.

You cannot do this. It's not practical.

I see some of my friends are pinned down by those authority. They are weak-minded.

It is not the case whether the teachers are right or wrong, I don't believe there is absolute right or wrong, especially in field as ambiguous as design, it is the matter whether we understand the reason behind those comments or not.

In a way, if we took it literally, it seems that they are telling us what to do; but the true reason behind those comments is their concern on our grades. The teachers are worry that their students were unable to meet the deadline or that they will not do good.

The teachers wanted to ease their teaching as well as to protect us, the students, from mistakes.

This kind of teaching possess a very dangerous outcome of producing monotonic graduates, which it does each year with a few exceptional students, not more than 5%.

So what should we do as a student?

We should be aware of this issue. We should understand the reason behind those comments. It is crucial to do so, because once we are aware of this we can try not to get caught in this authority. We will not be pinned down even though we do as what we are taught to do.

Giving Up, Fighting Back

You should give up architecture. You're not any good with it and I don't see any potential in you being a decent architect. I would rather you give up not and find what really like than force yourself doing what you don't like for the rest of your life. Moreover, we already have a lot of bad architects out there, we don't need any addition to that.

... (speechless)

Do you see your problem?

Huh?

You did not fight back. If my statements were a test, then you've failed.

I told you to give up architecture but you remained reactionless.

If I were to tell you to give up your life, you are a useless person, kill yourself because the world doesn't need you. You will not remain so reactionless, will you?

You will probably tell me, "Screw you!"

You fought back because you know this is your life and this is You. It is not anyone else's decision to mess with your own life. Hence, you fight for yourself.

But architecture is not you, it's not your life. Hence, when I told you to give it up, you did not fight back. Becoming an architect has yet been your decision. You have yet the conviction to be one. You need to find your ground to stand.

If you stand for nothing, you'll fall for everything.

There will always be people telling you: you're not good, you should not do this, you're not talented, you're ugly, etc. I don't think their opinions are important, but how you would react to those opinions is.

Okay...

This is not to talk you down.

This is to make you think,

to make you reflect,

meditate, and contemplate.

Light and Darkness: The Search

Light is an amazing element in architecture. If you can control the light, you can control how people feel inside a space.

When I consider light in architecture, I like to think of Caravaggio. A genius painter on the control of light and dark in his paintings. He highlighted scenes in his paintings to create a theatrical effect by manipulating light and darkness. He told a story with such control and the paintings captivate whoever looking at them.

It is such an idea of light manipulation that I really like, controlling the light to tell a story and create an anticipation and climax in architecture.

But above we can't speak of light without darkness. Light and darkness is equally important.

How can we appreciate light without darkness?

What will light be without darkness?

Is darkness really an opposite of light?

Does darkness exist or darkness is just an absent of light?

How can we know how much light or darkness is enough in order to create a scene?

The questions of light and darkness continues on. The greatness does not lie on the answer, but in the process of searching for answer. One must contemplate and meditate searching for the answer, in doing so our thought are trained.

Therefore, it is important for us to keep exploring and trying something new.

Let us not settle to our comfort zone in this search.

People's Opinion

Grades are just people's opinion on you.

Ken Choo

My second year's teacher at Singapore Polytechnic, Ken, once told us in his class that grades are just people's opinion on us. This statement is not universally true. For instance, if you were doing a maths question and you got it wrong hence your teacher grade you down. That doesn't mean your teacher has a bad opinion on you, it just means you are wrong.

But the statement certainly holds true for design related grading, which is very subjective. Most of my teacher tried to convince us that they were being objective during the critique, but how can that be? I am not convinced and I don't think critique should be objective. It should be subjective, because I believe that we should judge a design based on our perception and our opinion. I can't imagine anything more boring that during critique one teacher agreeing with the others. I somehow feel that they are too afraid to offend the others opinion than they just go with it even though they don't share the same opinion with the other teachers.

When Ken told us grades are just people's opinion, he meant to be supportive and he didn't want grades to bring us down. After all, people have their own opinion every time and everywhere on what we wear, what we are doing, how we should behave, etc. We should not give a damn to those harmful opinions. Because if we give a damn of every single thing people said to us, we will end up doing nothing, we will end up being a crowd-pleaser, we will end up going nowhere.

But don't know whether Ken realized it not, because he is also saying that people who grade you down mean they have a bad opinion on you. Hence, grades are also means for us to see whether people like us or not. It is a way for us to see them they way they see us.

Well, whatever what people's opinion on us, we should not let ourselves be content or brought down. We should always aim higher and fight to be better.

The moment we feel content, we are done, we will not get anywhere.

The moment we feel brought down, we are done, we will not get anywhere.

For me, bad opinions are motivating, they empowers me to prove those who look down on me that they are wrong.