Everybody has had one of "those" conversations; conversations that start out with a simple observation or inclination, and in the end become the hatching of a plan to save the world or the creation and conclusion of a revolutionary world-view. But soon after, the plan begins to appear less realistic to the parties involved, and enthusiasm peters away; or the idea seems significant, but perhaps beyond this world, so it is put aside while the "real" world is attended to. So an idea that was born out of the simplest of observations becomes not only more than itself, but more than reality can contain. Somewhere in the course of these dialogues, truth gets away from us.
This is how I feel about philosophy these days. We can say philosophy began with the pre-socratics, or we can perhaps say philosophy began when religion began (when did religion begin?) but really, we can't remember how the conversation came about. In any case, we all know that Plato got involved at some point and everybody got pretty excited by what he had to say.
So what's all this about? Well, I was thinking today about capacities. Not whether or not they exist, that is to say, whether or not people are born with a sort of natural capacity for something like math or music, but rather just that I know I could do certain things, but I choose not to. In this case, I was thinking of philosophy.
I know that I have the ability to understand and respond to many of the big scary complicated philosophers, and that it comes a little easier to me than it does to many others. At least I know that with time and some assistance from my superiors I could probably tackle Heidegger and Arendt and the like. I will not say Hegel, but perhaps at the end of it all I could grasp a portion of even Hegel. But just because I know I could do well in philosophy, and I could pride myself for sitting amongst the more intelligent and "dignified" of humans, I have no interest in it. Why? Well, I think it's because I studied philosophy out of a desire to find truth; because I actually care about the content of philosophy and not the presentation, not just the way in which Reason chose to arrange Reality this time.
So with that said, when I think of philosophy, especially the scarily intelligent moderns, I just think of a conversation that has got away from itself. They all must have read so much Aristotle, and whether or not they agree with anything he says, what is responding to Aristotle compared to contemplating one's own existence? Or better yet, what is contemplating existence compared to experiencing existence itself with the entirety of one's being, without excluding all but the rational and contemplative faculties? But still, when it comes to developing and sharing ideas, I'd rather "I wonder about Being..." over "Being is..." any day.
Though ideally I'd prefer...
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