Today I caught my thought going in circles. Or perhaps that was not quite it — I was thinking in one philosophical manner, then I went back to an older one, and it felt as if I had just completed a circuit of conception, one leading to the other, leading back to the first. Then, I wondered, do we all go in circles? Is that our fate? Is it merely to go round and round, merely that the circles cover more ground? I am a fool, it is true, and perhaps there have been others who have actually meant something that broke free of this condition, that have actually gotten somewhere, as far as higher concepts are concerned. Or perhaps Wittgenstein is correct, and of philosophy, we can say it's all nonsense. But of course, if that is so, then that's a full circle, isn't it? Didn't we start our thinking, very early on, in that manner, and try to make sense of all that was so very meaningless?
Maybe I'm being too linear. Maybe I oscillate between one concept and the other, and both seem to be relevant (one to existence, one to thought), because I should be making the two work together somehow. Hm. Maybe I think too much. But that is really where I am happiest, in my land of cogitation, in the realm of ideas. Though I don't hold with Plato's vision of it, of the land of pure forms outside the cave, and most of us inside, only looking at the shadows of the forms, imagining that those shadows are the true things. I think, instead, the opposite: that most of us spend the time outside, and see what is real; and it is the thinkers inside the cave who see the shadows of what is out there, and if they're not careful, believe those shadows to be real. Yes, I must be careful, for I do love the flickering of those shadows. And perhaps I should play outside more than I do.
lydia
9:24am sunday, 27th june
I think Plato is right. Our material reality is a shadow, imperfect and distorted, of ideal absolute. That's why we all long for the absolute, because we know we are the shadows of something bigger, something we used once to be...
bart
10:56pm sunday, 27th june
mr rational, don't forget the force of " true feelings"
lydia