Mid-morning.
You were surprised you walked slowly and deliberately as you delivered the
paper to your neighbor this morning. – Amorella
0911
hours. I must have had an unexpected flare of arthritis in my lower back. The
weather was quite chilly and crisp, which could have brought this back problem
on as it did. Usually the problem flares in my joints. So presently I’ll take
it easy this morning. Joint problems are straight forward, but the lower back
can be problematic. Periodic pain is a reminder of being alive thus it is
fairly easy to live with.
You
did your forty minutes of exercises while Carol was talking on the phone with
one of her sisters. The mail arrived and Carol is working on bills or the
monthly budget or both. This appears another typical day in the household. –
Amorella
1146
hours. We are very fortunate to have most of our days like this. The planning
and work of our lifetimes are behind or below it but luck has something to do
with it too. Those best laid plans of mice and men don’t always work in this
world, and I can easily imagine they don’t work anywhere in the entire universe
we exist in either. Perhaps that is the way it is in the spiritual world too.
Best laid plans fall through from time to time or however very long times or
forever are measured.
That’s the reason one of its names is
HeavenOrHellOrBothOrNeither, boy, don’t you think? – Amorella
1153
hours. I hadn’t thought of the name in this context though. Am I seeing another
‘natural’ side to being Dead in these books?
Indeed you are, orndorff. Both sides of the
mirror reflect different directions, so to speak. – Amorella
1158
hours. I have to have a definition. I have one in one of my lecture notes on
Milton. I thought I already defined Good and Evil in the blog somewhere.
Evil is a misnomer in these books. –
Amorella
1201
hours. I don’t like the sound of this. I am going to need more background. I
don’t think we are talking about the same things.
We
are not. Later, dude. Post. – Amorella
1250
hours. The base of this good/evil concept drops to me being a transcendental
existentialist.
Define this for reference in context. –
Amorella
**
**
transcendental –
adjective
1
of or relating to a
spiritual or nonphysical realm: the transcendental importance of each
person's soul.
•
(in Kantian philosophy) presupposed in and necessary to experience; a priori.
•
relating to or denoting Transcendentalism.
existentialism
– noun
a
philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual
person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development
through acts of the will.
Generally
taken to originate with Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, existentialism tends to be
atheistic (although there is a strand of Christian existentialism deriving from
the work of Kierkegaard), to disparage scientific knowledge, and to deny the
existence of objective values, stressing instead the reality and significance
of human freedom and experience. The approach was developed chiefly in
20th-century Europe, notably by Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert
Camus, and Simone de Beauvoir.
Selected and
edited from – Oxford/American software
** **
1300
hours. I don’t agree with the above definitions.
You are home. Carol took the car to the
community center for her walk. You remembered you had an umbrella to go with
your deck table and chair set. You found it and set it up. It is still in good
shape after being stored in the basement for decade or so of no use. – Amorella
1522
hours. I am surprised it is in such good shape but it was in a cover. The black
and white umbrella is a bit wild but it’ll be fine. I’m glad we had the deck
redone. It is somewhat fun looking at the house with we are continuing to stay
here during retirement eyes. Carol can pretty much sun in privacy out here. It
is a blue California sky and the temperature (60 degrees) and slight wind out
of the west fits the southern suburbs of San Francisco. So, for today
California here we are and without the expense. The most cool aspect is that we
own the house free and clear and we have no debts. Looking south I see a redbud
at the edge of Tim and Amy’s property and we have the Hawthorne. The two Oaks,
one sixty feet high at the northwest corner and the other about forty feet high
near the southwest corner of the house are budding but they are usually later
to fully leaf. All living trees will be leafed by the end of the first week in
May. This is a rule of nature around here. Two miles to our south is the end of
the Great Wisconsin Ice Sheet and it is downhill to the Ohio River. The ice was
about a mile thick from where I am sitting. I love to see the sun breaking
through empty space to be outlined by a varied shadowy spots on the deed leaf
and bark shredded ground. The closest set location to this (that we found
elsewhere is in Uruguay near Montevideo). I’m sure parts of the Iles and
northern Europe as well as China and Korea have it similar.
Fully retired for more than a decade and you
are relaxing in the backyard awaiting more Spring and Summer weather. Alas, now
being interrupted by a lawn mower on the street west. Post. - Amorella
1656 hours. I have looked for better translations that suit
my personal preference and I find none. For now I will stay with the
Oxford/American Software Dictionary definition above.
1704
hours. Below, from Philosophy Basic Dot Com:
** **
Introduction
Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes individual existence, freedom
and choice. It is the view that humans define their own meaning
in life, and try to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational
universe. It focuses on the question of human existence, and the
feeling that there is no purpose or explanation at the core of
existence. It holds that, as there is no God or any other transcendent
force, the only way to counter this nothingness (and hence to find meaning
in life) is by embracing existence.
Thus,
Existentialism believes that individuals are entirely free and must take
personal responsibility for themselves (although with this
responsibility comes angst, a profound anguish or dread). It therefore
emphasizes action, freedom and decision as fundamental,
and holds that the only way to rise above the essentially absurd condition
of humanity (which is characterized by suffering and inevitable death)
is by exercising our personal freedom and choice.
Often,
Existentialism as a movement is used to describe those who refuse to belong to any
school of thought, repudiating of the adequacy of any body of beliefs or
systems, claiming them to be superficial, academic and remote from life.
Although it has much in common with Nihilism, , Existentialism is more a
reaction against traditional philosophies, such as Rationalism,
Empiricalism and Positivism, that seek to discover an ultimate order and
universal meaning in metaphysical principles or in the structure of the
observed world. It asserts that people actually make decisions based on what
has meaning to them, rather than what is rational.
Existentialism
originated with the 19th Century philosophers Søren Kierkegaard and
Friedrich Nietzsche, although neither used the term in their work. In
the 1940s and 1950s, French existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert
Camus (1913 - 1960), and Simone de Beauvoir (1908 - 1986) wrote
scholarly and fictional works that popularized existential themes, such
as dread, boredom, alienation, the absurd, freedom, commitment and nothingness.
Main
Beliefs
Unlike
René Descartes, who believed in the primacy of conciousness,
Existentialists assert that a human being is "thrown into"
into a concrete, inveterate universe that cannot be "thought away",
and therefore existence ("being in the world") precedes
consciousness, and is the ultimate reality. Existence, then, is prior
to essence (essence is the meaning that may be ascribed to life),
contrary to traditional philosophical views dating back to the ancient
Greeks. As Sartre put it: "At first [Man] is nothing. Only afterward will
he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be."
Kierkegaard
saw rationality as a mechanism humans use to counter their existential
anxiety, their fear of being in the world. Sartre saw rationality as a form
of "bad faith", an attempt by the self to impose structure on a fundamentally
irrational and random world of phenomena ("the other").
This bad faith hinders us from finding meaning in freedom, and confines
us within everyday experience.
Kierkegaard
also stressed that individuals must choose their own way without the aid
of universal, objective standards. Friedrich Nietzsche further contended
that the individual must decide which situations are to count as moral
situations. Thus, most Existentialists believe that personal experience
and acting on one's own convictions are essential in arriving at the truth,
and that the understanding of a situation by someone involved in
that situation is superior to that of a detached, objective observer.
According
to Camus, when an individual's longing for order collides with the real
world's lack of order, the result is absurdity. Human beings are
therefore subjects in an indifferent, ambiguous and absurd universe, in
which meaning is not provided by the natural order, but rather can be created
(however provisionally and unstably) by human actions and interpretations.
Existentialism can be atheistic,
theological (or theistic) or agnostic. Some Existentialists, like Nietzsche, proclaimed
that "God is dead" and that the concept of God is obsolete.
Others, like Kierkegaard, were intensely religious, even if they did not feel
able to justify it. The important factor for Existentialists is the freedom
of choice to believe or not to believe.
Selected and
edited from http://www.philosophybasicsDOTcom/branch_existentialism.html
** **
1716
hours. The above better fits my personal definition of existentialism.
I agree. Post. - Amorella
1806 hours. This
is a good simple way to remember. Thank you, Amorella
Post. - Amorella
1742
hours. Every time these definitions come up I debate whether I am a
transcendental existentialist or an existential transcendentalist. I see it
both ways in my mind, but I am confused in my heart and I am sure which way my
soul sways. Since I debate I clearly have not made up my combined
heartansoulanmind. That is, if I were dead which would I choose or would I
choose something else and stick with Unitarian for example.
Assume your consciousness is among the Dead,
what would your heartansoulanmind say? – Amorella
1748
hours. No question, Newly dead, I would say, “I am an existential
transcendentalist.” That is, I would say this based on the below definitions.
** **
existential –
adjective
1. pertaining to
existence
2. of, relating
to, or characteristic of existentialism
3. Existentialism can be
atheistic, theological (or theistic) or agnostic. Some Existentialists, like Nietzsche, proclaimed that "God is
dead" and that the concept of God is obsolete. Others, like Kierkegaard, were intensely religious, even if they
did not feel able to justify it. The
important factor for Existentialists is the freedom of choice to believe
or not to believe.
Created from a mix.
** **
transcendentalism – noun
1
(Transcendentalism)
an idealistic philosophical and social movement that developed in New England
around 1836 in reaction to rationalism. Influenced by romanticism, Platonism,
and Kantian philosophy, it taught that divinity pervades all nature and
humanity, and its members held progressive views on feminism and communal
living. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were central figures.
2
a system developed by
Immanuel Kant, based on the idea that, in order to understand the nature of
reality, one must first examine and analyze the reasoning process that governs
the nature of experience.
Oxford/American
software
** **
1803
hours. The deeper I labor into this the more I see I am first an existential transcendentalist.
– rho
To avoid confusion remember that e comes
before t. You are about to head out to Papa John’s to pick up supper. Post. –
Amorella
2059
hours. Now the question, how can an agnostic be a transcendentalist? So, here I
am on the other side of the fence, a transcendental existentialist.
Perhaps you are seeing two sides of the same
wall. – Amorella
2113
hours. Reason and emotion?
Both hold to being human. – Amorella
2114
hours. One would think that within seventy-two years I would have resolved
this. It appears to me that through transcendental experience I lean toward the
soul responding first, the heart second and the mind a distant third. Yet, my
life experiences show me the heart is first, the mind second and the soul a
distant third. – rho
Isn’t this odd that you would not have the
mind first in any case. – Amorella
2122
hours. It is. It is no wonder, at least in my fictions, that the Dead have a
long time to resolve their personal identity.
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