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The True Issue With Philosophy: General Philosophy and the Lesser Philosophy

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The true issue with philosophy is finding out how the individual (object) is organizing the issue, how they (objects) are situating terms (subjects), which is how they are using concepts to express the same thing.

This is what we might call the greater, or the general philosophy; where mental health enters, it does so through the genera, or what is directed by discipline because it concerns specific, simple instances: objects, from which subjects spill out. The lesser philosophy concerns only complexions, i.e., subjects. But this is not a competition.

Blank index cards standing in a row on a wooden desk, one fallen forward and two sliding out of line.

The modern paradigm has already moved through its general form of finding specifics through the group of things which satisfied the ability of its semantic category. By the end of the 20th century and continuing currently, the philosophical effort has taken to its role now to sort out how the category might stay valid, which is to say, how to situate subjects so the subject still might have something by which it has validity.

By this action its dissolves and destructs itself. Its action is swirling, redundant, incorporative, and thus entropic; by this action, like all paradigms, it will fade to become another object, another ‘first cause’ which forms the basis upon which a new set of specifics are ‘discovered’ of the universe, again to be played with, merge, and consolidate.

This late modern action currently is forming the lesser philosophy which works with subjects that are posed as objects. Every Realist philosophy takes this form.

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A note on how I use AI. I write everything on this blog myself: the ideas, the arguments, the words. I do use AI, but as an editor, not a co-author. It helps me with grammar, formatting, and structure. That use is recent: AI has been part of my process only for roughly the past year’s worth of posts. Everything older was written without it, because there was nothing like it to use. What I have found is that AI most often misinterprets what I write philosophically, so its suggestions are usually wrong, and a good deal of my attention and editing goes into sculpting each post until it reflects the ideas correctly. The ideas are never AI’s.

For transparency, I keep a Word document of my original writing and the full exchanges, back and forth with the AI, that produced each post. If anyone is interested in how a piece came together, that record is available.

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About this blog

Essays in mental health philosophy—less “tips,” more why things work (or don’t). I look at the first principles under therapy, psychiatry, psychology, and everyday life, and occasionally share notes from papers and books-in-progress.

This space stands alongside—not inside—my counseling practice. If you’re seeking therapy in Colorado, there’s a link in the footer.

About the author

Lance Kair, LPC, blends philosophy, mindfulness, and counseling to help clients find agency, meaning, fulfillment, and healing through deep understanding, self-awareness, and compassionate therapeutic collaboration.

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