Saturday, September 11, 2004
(1:15 AM) | Anonymous:
Abuse of Kierkgaardian Stages.
A short history of those caught up in philosophy. There are those in the aesthetic stage. They are captured by the ideas (the soul being carried away by the passions, absolute knowledge, the will to power). They see these ideas, are captured by them for a short time and then feel comfortable with them. "Philosophy is fine as a hobby."Then there are those ethical philosophers and anti-philosophers (they never can decide). Philosophy becomes something done or not done out of duty to the Good. I know quite a few ethical people who have turned away from philosophy because they find that "practical things are demanded of us." All thinking, all philosophy, is denigrated to the service of ethics. Ultimately this leads to nihilistic thinking since the Good itself is a produced concept.
The religious philosophers are those who continue to study for no reason other than the call to study. Surely they hope philosophy will be of liberator use, sure they are taken by the forms - but their passion is for thinking itself. They have faith that the thinking itself is enough, or trust in trust.
