Nothing much here...just some excerpts from Sophie's World by Jostein Gaardner that I turn to now and then for reassurance. Enjoy!
"A lot of people experience the world with the same incredulity as when amagician suddenly pulls a rabbit out of a hat which has just been shown to them empty.In the case of the rabbit, we know the magician has tricked us. What we would like to know is just how he did it. But when it comes to the world it's somewhat different. We know that the world is not all sleight of hand and deception because here we are in it, we are part of it. Actually, we are the white rabbit being pulled out of the hat. The only difference between us and the white rabbit is that the rabbit does not realize it is taking part in a magic trick. Unlike us. We feel we are partof something mysterious and we would like to know how it all works...As far as the white rabbit is concerned, it might be better to compare it with the whole universe. We who live here are microscopic insects existing deep down in the rabbit's fur. But philosophers are always trying to climb up the fine hairs of the fur in order to stare right into the magician's eyes.
"The only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder...The world itself becomes a habit in no time at all. It seems as if in the process of growing up we lose the ability to wonder about the world. And in doing so, we lose something central...for somewhere inside ourselves, something tells us that life is a huge mystery. This is something we once experienced, long before we learned to think the thought...For various reasons most people get so caught up in everyday affairs that their astonishment at the world gets pushed into the background. All mortals are born at the very tip of the rabbit's fine hairs, where they are in a position to wonder at the impossibility of the trick. But as they grow older they work themselves ever deeper into the fur. And there they stay. They become so comfortable they never risk crawling back up the fragile hairs again. Only philosophers embark on this perilous expedition to the outermost reaches of language and existence. Some of them fall off, but others cling on desperately and yell at the people nestling deep in the snug softness..."
Monday, December 31, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
“Das Ding an sich” and personal thoughts
No real epiphanies here, just some thoughts to capture before they disappear. A confession if you will…
Often I think that one of my struggles is not to come up with some new amazing never-before-thought-of idea, but rather to see things in a new light. The most insightful moments of learning for me are those in which something, an idea, set of facts, etc, that has been before my eyes and mind for a very long time are suddenly “seen” anew; I become aware of a pattern, having always existed, but now seen clearly and with a precision that was lacking before. Something starts to make sense in a way that it didn’t before, regardless of how often I had scanned over, read, or played around with it in my mind. A pre-existent truth finds its way home with a stickiness that it didn’t have before.
Thus wise, I have been pondering certain dispositions of mine, personal feelings and intuitions. The saying of Kant’s, “Das Ding an sich,” kept returning to me; “The thing in itself,” as it is known only to itself and to no other observer. I wonder how that applies to my personal feelings and sensitivities.
So often, I become convinced of the reality of my perceptions of other things and people. That is, I am convinced that my perception of them is actually how they are in themselves. I am convinced that there is no discrepancy between my thoughts and the reality of the other thing. It occurred to me that so often, this is the breeding ground for the un-pleasantries in life. Hurt, pain, anger, sadness, and all other sorts of ill-feelings that are all based on my believing my understanding to be the reality of the situation. How often does this misconception, this wholesale buying of personal interpretations lead directly to sorrow and personal torment? How often does it shape my subsequent actions for the worse?
There is something else here, something pleading to be dug up, to be examined but I don’t as yet know exactly what it is or how to excavate it. Some way of seeing the same old things with a new vision that has slipped away for the present. Maybe it is simply an inner longing to see the old things in a new way, a request for a new vision? I don’t know. Does anyone really understand that, the internal struggle for dealing with the same old trials in a new way? It is a longing to escape for a moment the inner thoughts and voices that seem to struggle against each other, realizing that I have heard all these same thoughts before, played around with them in the same old ways, and have grown tired of their endless banter, their same tired conclusions producing the same tired actions and results.
Often I think that one of my struggles is not to come up with some new amazing never-before-thought-of idea, but rather to see things in a new light. The most insightful moments of learning for me are those in which something, an idea, set of facts, etc, that has been before my eyes and mind for a very long time are suddenly “seen” anew; I become aware of a pattern, having always existed, but now seen clearly and with a precision that was lacking before. Something starts to make sense in a way that it didn’t before, regardless of how often I had scanned over, read, or played around with it in my mind. A pre-existent truth finds its way home with a stickiness that it didn’t have before.
Thus wise, I have been pondering certain dispositions of mine, personal feelings and intuitions. The saying of Kant’s, “Das Ding an sich,” kept returning to me; “The thing in itself,” as it is known only to itself and to no other observer. I wonder how that applies to my personal feelings and sensitivities.
So often, I become convinced of the reality of my perceptions of other things and people. That is, I am convinced that my perception of them is actually how they are in themselves. I am convinced that there is no discrepancy between my thoughts and the reality of the other thing. It occurred to me that so often, this is the breeding ground for the un-pleasantries in life. Hurt, pain, anger, sadness, and all other sorts of ill-feelings that are all based on my believing my understanding to be the reality of the situation. How often does this misconception, this wholesale buying of personal interpretations lead directly to sorrow and personal torment? How often does it shape my subsequent actions for the worse?
There is something else here, something pleading to be dug up, to be examined but I don’t as yet know exactly what it is or how to excavate it. Some way of seeing the same old things with a new vision that has slipped away for the present. Maybe it is simply an inner longing to see the old things in a new way, a request for a new vision? I don’t know. Does anyone really understand that, the internal struggle for dealing with the same old trials in a new way? It is a longing to escape for a moment the inner thoughts and voices that seem to struggle against each other, realizing that I have heard all these same thoughts before, played around with them in the same old ways, and have grown tired of their endless banter, their same tired conclusions producing the same tired actions and results.
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