life, the universe, ...42.

Now, what was the question again?

The problem with academics is that they think they know the answer to every question and, perhaps more importantly, that that is what ultimately counts in life. The 'view from nowhere', 'Knowing', 'truth', or a knowing doubt, truthfulness..that's what it's all about. What is "it"? What cannot be known cannot and should not be spoken of.

What I did hate, though, and what finally set me at a run out of town after dark at the end of the term..without turning in my grades, was that the place was all anti-mystery types right to the core,-all expert in the arts of explaining, explicating and dissecting, and by these means promoting permanence.


Invariably it's the technician's spirit, the algebraic soul lurking in the background. Universal causality. This for that. What, exactly, is the first philosophy?

F. Rosenzweig:

"My life has fallen under the rule of a "dark drive"..The small-at times exceedingly small thing called "demand of the day" which is made upon me in my position at Frankfurt, I mean, the struggles with people and conditions, have now become the core of my existence..Now I only inquire when I find myself inquired of. Inquired of, that is, by men rather than by scholars...[T]he question asked by human beings have become increasingly important to me...

Everyday life, it is clear, cannot possibly be ignored; one cannot exist entirely in the sublime realm of theory, no matter how "essential" it may seem when compared to dull, tedious reality."

Are you a philistine, then?

Perhaps. But it is a sign of good health to find that the most ordinary is worthy of attention and respect, and that some things must be passed over in silence. Not only is it that you cannot know everything; it is that you do not want to anyway.

{I think that's why, from a personal point of view, the comments section has been more enjoyable than writing the posts or, perhaps one should say, it's offered a different type of enjoyment, one that doesn't necessitate any comparisons}

What was that Russian term again, the one for 'thinking with others'? When so much of life is already confrontational, is there any need to add to it?

The double negation:
I am, therefore I think
We are, therefore...