Learning how to die seems to be like becoming so ripe that one is willing to drop from the tree — green flag
So I would agree that "not fearing death" is not to ignore it, or think of it always, or to focus on "living", but to have the courage to define ourselves in committing to form and structure and institutions and the judgment of others; to speak despite the inadequacies of our expressions and still be held to our words as if all that we are was in them, with everything else dying each time. — Antony Nickles
Learning how to die seems to be like becoming so ripe that one is willing to drop from the tree. — green flag
Why I am not afraid that the species will be erased ? It must, yes ? Is my programming not up to it ? Can I not 'truly' believe it in my depths ? Is it too big ? Too far away ? — green flag
I won't be willing to die until I've already dropped from the tree and become so dried up and shriveled that I am way beyond over-ripe. — Janus
What if you knew your mental faculties were declining ? If it didn't make one a burden, maybe it'd be OK, but part of the charm of life for me is the hope of always jumping a little higher. This is irrational in the sense that we don't actually leave a Real dent, but that might be something we have trouble believing in our depths. — green flag
:up:I found that essay very moving. — Tom Storm
I now wish that I had spent somewhat more of my life with verse. This is not because I fear having missed out on truths that are incapable of statement in prose. There are no such truths; there is nothing about death that Swinburne and Landor knew but Epicurus and Heidegger failed to grasp. Rather, it is because I would have lived more fully if I had been able to rattle off more old chestnuts – just as I would have if I had made more close friends. — Rorty
I find much of philosophy, however impressively intellectually acrobatic it might be, tedious and uninspiring. If it lacks poetry, then I lack interest — Janus
I would try an essay of J.L. Austin’s too. Although pedestrian, it is refreshing to see him actually get somewhere with issues that tie others in knots, though again it can be hard to take him as dealing with the same issues as the tradition. — Antony Nickles
I have read Austin years ago. He seems to convince himself that he has it all commonsensically figured out and that it is misuse of language and only misuse of language that causes philosophers to tie themselves up with metaphysical knots that can never be unravelled, but rather, like the Gordian knot of legend, can only be cut by the sword, in this case the sword of linguistic analysis. I find that attitude unconvincing because I see it as over-simplistic. — Janus
I find that attitude unconvincing because I see it as over-simplistic. — Janus
Did you ever wrestle with Limited Inc ? — plaque flag
I can understand seeing it that way. Wittgenstein is better at keeping open the question of why skepticism continues to appear. And, yes, Austin can seem like he is just cataloguing how language works. What he is doing though is looking at: what we say when we.... (know, think, etc.) because the way we talk about those activities shows us what matters to us about the activities. The criteria for having apologized are what count towards being forgiven. So the workings of how we discuss the activity show us what we are interested in about it. The language shows us the world. — Antony Nickles
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