The Surrealist Philosopher

What does it mean for something to be real?
Permanence is an illusion we rehearse to soothe ourselves.
How can we distinguish reality from appearance?
It is not a property the world possesses.
Is consciousness purely a physical process?
Only when you stop naming the thing do.
Does it point to something beyond material explanation?
You finally see what it is.
Do we have free will?
We choose which constraints we’ll honor.
Does what we believe always fall short of lived reality?
We recognize it as truth only after it stops trying to convince you.
Are all our actions determined by prior causes?
Freedom isn’t the absence of constraint.
What makes an action morally right or wrong?
You mistook the map for the territory because the map is kinder.
What is important, intention, consequence, character, or something else?
The self survives by changing faster than the memory can object.
Is meaning discovered in the world, or created by human beings?
Meaning appears the moment you stop demanding it arrive.
Can language ever fully capture experience?
What we call silence is simply the world speaking in a register we haven’t tuned to yet.
What is personal identity?
It simply gives you new vantage points from which to look back.
What makes you the same “you” over time?
Time doesn’t heal.
Is suffering necessary for growth?
You were never lost.
What is the narrative we impose afterward?
Only moving through a place we haven’t yet learned to recognize.
Does beauty exist objectively?
The answer feels incomplete because of the asking
What is only in the perception of the observer?
The place that hasn’t finished forming.
What would a truly just society look like?
What you call destiny is often just the pattern you notice after the fact.
Is peace attainable?
The path feels inevitable because we keep walking it long after the turn.

This poem was created by useing “DEFINITIONS
OR QUESTION AND ANSWER” from “A BOOK OF SURREALIST GAMES” by “ALASTAIR BROTCHIE
EDITED BY MEL GOODING”

For two or more players.
The procedure is similar to that of the previous game. A question is
written down, the paper folded to conceal itfrom the next player, who
writes an answer.
The paper is unfolded to reveal the result. Remarkable facts emerge.