Beyond Philosophy

The entire world, for Marcus, is a living being, with parts whose natural expressions cohere to form one harmonious whole. Πολλάκις ἐνθυμοῦ τὴν ἐπισύνδεσιν πάντων τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ καὶ σχέσιν πρὸς ἄλληλα. τρόπον γάρ τινα πάντα ἀλλήλοις ἐπιπέπλεκται καὶ πάντα κατὰ τοῦτο φίλα ἀλλήλοις ἐστί· καὶ γὰρ ἄλλῳ ἑξῆς ἐστι τοῦτο (†) διὰ τὴν τονικὴν κίνησιν καὶ σύμπνοιαν καὶ τὴν ἕνωσιν τῆς οὐσίας. Consider often how all things in the world are bound together, held fast by mutual opposition. All things are woven together in some way, and so they are all in some degree dear to one another. Each one exists with consequence for another, because matter or being moves reactively, producing live rhythms and wholeness. --- (†) One MS (codex Vaticanus Gr. 1950) has καὶ γὰρ ἄλλο ἑξῆς ἐστι τοῦτο. Coraes (1816) offers καὶ γὰρ ἄλλῳ ἄλλο ἑξῆς ἐστι τοῦτο, and Farquharson (1944) provides καὶ γὰρ ἄλλῳ ἄλλο ἑξῆς ἐστι ταῦτα. My text here comes from Leopold, who follows the other MSS.

Knowledge is ultimately too limited to show us the world that lies beyond its grasp. We know, and the fact of our knowing, by its necessary limitation, reveals to us that reality is too much for knowledge, too great for any form we might create to contain it. The images of divinity that we form are so many attempts to indicate the revelation of this vastness. Es a nosotros mismos, es nuestra eternidad lo que buscamos en Dios, es que nos divinice. Fué ese mismo Browning el que dijo ( Saul en Dramatic Lyrics ):        ’ Tis the weakness in strength, that I cry for!             my flesh, that I seek       In the Godhead! «¡Es la debilidad en la fuerza por lo que clamo; mi carne lo que busco en la Divinidad!» Pero este Dios que nos salva, este Dios personal, Conciencia del Universo que envuelve y sostiene nuestras conciencias, este Dios que da finalidad humana a la creación toda, ¿existe? ¿Tenemos pruebas de su existencia? ...

Seneca advises Lucilius to live now. To make decisions that matter now, and follow through with action now. Time is not waiting for us; the moments we neglect to use are lost. This is not for Seneca an occasion for despair, but inspiration to get out now and do things that matter to us. Quid ergo? non eo potius curam transferes, ut ostendas omnibus magno temporis impendio quaeri supervacua et multos transisse vitam dum vitae instrumenta conquirunt? Recognosce singulos, considera universos: nullius non vita spectat in crastinum. Quid in hoc sit mali quaeris? Infinitum. Non enim vivunt sed victuri sunt: omnia differunt. Etiamsi attenderemus, tamen nos vita praecurreret; nunc vero cunctantes quasi aliena transcurrit et ultimo die finitur, omni perit. Sed ne epistulae modum excedam, quae non debet sinistram manum legentis implere, in alium diem hanc litem cum dialecticis differam nimium subtilibus et hoc solum curantibus, non et hoc. Vale. What to do, then? Shall you not rather redirect yo...

In the great cosmic dance of nature, ancient philosophers find abstract forms constantly repeating. We cannot predict the particular movement of the dance, how it must go in some arbitrary window of time & space, but we can be sure it will always have the forms of natural life. In modern terms, we cannot know how living species must look or act in any particular moment, but we can know that they will take the form of cells whose life involves various iterative processes of respiration and replication. We cannot predict historical outcomes, within the story of our own species, but we can be sure these outcomes will involve the existential drama inherent in our mortality. Promises will be made; some shall then be broken, and others kept. Mourning and exultation will be there; seizing and releasing, in turn. Nihil novi sub sole. Ὁ τὰ νῦν ἰδὼν πάντα ἑώρακεν, ὅσα τε ἐξ ἀϊδίου ἐγένετο καὶ ὅσα εἰς τὸ ἄπειρον ἔσται· πάντα γὰρ ὁμογενῆ καὶ ὁμοειδῆ. The man who has seen what exists today has ...

Unamuno conceives God as the mystery of all life, a mystery that each of us must query individually, brooking no general or common answer to a question that is necessarily particular, and intimate. The historical names of God for him are veils, each hiding more than it can ever reveal, pointing the individual toward his own fight with the angel of the Lord, his own wrestling match that ends with the command of Jacob: Tell me thy name! ¿Definir a Dios? Sí, ese es nuestro anhelo; ese era el anhelo del hombre Jacob, cuando luchando la noche toda, hasta el rayar del alba, con aquella fuerza divina, decía: ¡Dime, te lo ruego, tu nombre! (Gén., XXXII, 29). Y oid lo que aquel gran predicador cristiano, Federico Guillermo Robertson, predicaba en la capilla de la Trinidad, de Brighton, el 10 de Junio de 1849, diciendo: «Y esta es nuestra lucha — la lucha— . Que baje un hombre veraz a las profundidades de su propio ser y nos responda: ¿cuál es el grito que le llega de la parte más real de su na...