The most striking impact of modernity on philosophy is that the great philosopher is no longer the sage, but the reasoner. Philosophizing in modern times is, at best, creating concepts, but it essentially boils down to articulating and developing logical arguments around irrelevant topics. The word “philosopher” does not evoke in our minds a mature thinker, endowed with great wisdom, but someone interested in systematizations, in abstract concept strings—a freak for definitions. The modern philosopher has definitively lost the condition he enjoyed in antiquity, that of teacher of life: he has become a professional of reasoning, an architect of logic, and is unable to act as a preceptor or counselor. As a result, philosophy has lost its practical character: it no longer implies moral conduct and a posture towards reality. Isolated in its universe, it no longer has anything to say about the real world.
Tag: philosophy
Hope Is Idealized Only by Those Who Have Never Seen It in Its Fullness
Hope is idealized only by those who have never seen it in its fullness, who have never measured its ultimate effects. Machado, who knew it very well, classified it as the “weed that eats all the other better plants”; the Greeks had it as the most terrible of all evils… Hope is idealized only by those who have never attentively noticed its destructive after-effects, the total ruin into which it often hurls the hopeful, clouding his reasoning faculty, his sense of the ridiculous, inciting him to take stupid and irresponsible decisions that risk him and those around him. It is reasonable that the hopeful should be treated like a child, like someone who needs to be told the limits, what can and cannot be done. It is always dangerous when he had in his hands instruments intended for healthy and mature adults.
The Literary Belief, Beautiful and Silent…
The beautiful and silent literary belief, the intimate and timid suffering, the solitary resignation… none of that seems to exist. What does exist and abound is unbridled vanity, the infamous gregarious instinct united with the need for validation by others. There is the imposition of one’s own world view, the demand for agreement, the intolerance of dissent, the certainty and pride of one’s own distinction. Impose, repel, demand are the common verbs—never intransitive, always requiring a personal complement. Sometimes it seems that literature does a disservice to the understanding of the objective world.
The Charm Always Disappears When Someone Is Known in Depth
The charm always disappears when someone is known in depth. That is why relationships do not remain pleasant unless there is distance. The one who admires must always keep in mind the fragility of admirations. Any idol can be killed with a diligent investigation, with an excess of curiosity that always results in the mental violation of idealization. Contact with fellows is only profitable when it is done in homeopathic doses.