Essay on Human Reason: On the Principle of Identity and Difference

by Nikola Stojkoski

The nature of human reason is one of the thorniest of mysteries in philosophy. The reason appears in many specific forms within general areas such as cognition, thinking, experiencing beauty, and moral judgment. These forms are “perfectly” known in philosophy, yet an unknown pattern has been noticed which shows us that they are all a variation of the same theme: truth is an identity relation between the “thought” and “reality”; justice is an identity relation between the given and the deserved; beauty is an identity relation as rhyme is an identity relation between the final sounds of words; rhythm is an identity relation between time intervals; symmetry is an identity relation between two halves; proportion is an identity relation between two ratios; anaphora is an identity relation between the initial words. Particular things are identities in themselves and universals are identities between particulars. One idea associates another idea identical to it; an analogy is an identity between relations; induction is an identification between the known and unknown instances; and all the logic rests on the law of identity. What is common for all of them is the nature of reason itself.

136 pages, Hardcover

Published February 1, 2018

About the author

Nikola Stojkoski was born in Bitola, Republic of Macedonia on 9 May, 1980. He receives the B.E degree in philosophy from the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, Macedonia, in 2006. He was strongly drawn towards philosophy from his childhood. After receiving his education, he accepted a job as a school teacher while continuing working on his philosophical ideas. He was the recipient of the prize for the best philosophical essay, in concourse organized by the Philosophical Society of Macedonia and “AZ-Buki” publishing house in Skopje, entitled “Solving the paradox of clocks within the classical theory”. The essay was published by the philosophical portal “Akindin”, in 2011. In 2017, he was a speaker for the symposium „ΛOΓΟΣ and ΤΡOΠΟΣ“ organized by the Philosophical Society of Macedonia on the presentation topics “Reason as an ability for identification and differentiation.” As an independent researcher, his current interest includes theory of perception, metaphysics, theory of beauty and meta-ethics.