Thinking Life: A Philosophical Fiction

Chiedza: Journal of Arrupe College, 2008

2009

“Life as Art from Nietzsche to Foucault” presents a constructive argument for how one may construct one’s life through aesthetics. The study begins with an examination of dandyism, which gives a negative point of reference for framing the artful life. From there, Friedrich Nietzsche’s exploration of a series of ideal types is examined, revealing the ideal life to be one which playfully blends the critical spirit of science with the illusory spirit of art to create a self which is liberated and affirmative. These lines of argument are pursued in the three parts which follow, beginning with an examination of the “negative” dimension of the artful life in Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse which reveals the necessity of resistance and the possibility for an artful society/individual. This is placed in tension with the “positive” dimension of the artful life, articulated by Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Jean-Luc Marion. Each contributes to the development of “embodied poetic thinking,” a concept which signifies the potential for affirming immanence through the various bodily modalities and forms of thought. The work of Marion also shows the possibility for revelation in the artful life. These two moments are concretized by the ethics of Albert Camus and Michel Foucault, who collectively show the ways in which one can deploy the aesthetic in everyday practices directed towards the production of self. Seen through these three loci, life as art provides a means for creating a life which is resistant and affirmative, forging a liberated space into which one may continually deploy the aesthetic to create new selves which give meaning to the world.

Filozofia, 2023

The Peril in Thinking and Other Essays, 2015

This essay, revised and edited, is drawn from my 2015 book, The Peril in Thinking. Now in 2023, the grip of totalitarianism is throttling our humanity, across scale. In this essay, I seek the origin of these virulent ideas and practices in mystical experience of living or sacred language. This creative or inspirational language is reached across a threshold, or fissure, or abyss, as it is variously named. We so often seek the treasures of the abyss for purposes of the will—to our peril, when we ignore this threshold phenomenon. The treasures we bring back thus become tools in the hands of the will to will, to the destruction of everything to do with love, community, and the human condition.

SubStance, 2022

The aim of the present work is to face Heidegger's claim that philosophy has ended.

European Scientific Journal, 2014

There is nothing unchangeable in the world, Only variability is unchangeable." Albert Einstein According to ancient Greek philosophers, philosophy is the loveofwisdom that hoists human consciousness, where, through reason, meanings of unknowns are distinguished and attested. The science of philosophy realizes the general recognition of the world's existence. As an early science in critical thinking, itdeveloped the progressive performance of intellectual knowledge in man, by summarizing a set of unified principles about recognition, where through the reason dictates the concepts on society and nature as a change and overall knowledge of the world and nature laws. Philosophers consider the opinion as an intellectual property that helps us find answers and solutions to the important questions ad problemssuch as: "If you are not a man who thinks, then what kind of man are you?", or "Are we what we think?". Thinking is characterized not only by the study of visible objects as symbols, but also by the treatment of hypotheses for the acquisition of more accurate knowledge of various scientific disciplines. It was Plato, who unveiled the thought as a special feature of the thinkers who brought the necessary changes in society. While Descartes declared that he doubted everything, butonly for one thing,-he said,-I do not doubt: That I think! The thought that arises and emanates from the self is the origin of the goals and the vision about the surroundinguniverse. It is a reference to the mind, which is based on experience, on the meaning of things and on the manner how we perceive phenomena and occurrences of society and nature. Thus, human activity is directly associated with his thoughts embedded in the psyche and experienced until the transformation of them intomentalities and habits, under which it operates. The path described up to present days, but also the one expected to be described tomorrow is the product of the ideas of human society.