Aesthetic Oranges, Ethical Apples
The most recent dialectic on the senate floor has launched me into an earnest study of the aesthetic and the ethical. As Post-Modrnerer has already written, "you are two one entity split into the timid and the boisterous, the apologetic and the proud, but regardless of how different you may approach things, you both always arrive at the same destination." A very astute observation of the work of Either/Or, the constant choosing that is life, to be ethical or aesthetic, as both suffer from the melancholy and boredom as they are similar and one could argue arrive at the same destination. Both married man and prancing aesthete ultimately come to the point in the previous book the Diapsalmata where it states "I feel like a piece in a game of chess when my opponent says of it: That piece cannot be moved." But the arguments of the Judge have seem to grown more attractive in the years following undergraduate. The Judge writes, "The only absolute Either/Or is the choice between good and evil, but this is also absolutely ethical. The aesthetic choice is either altogether immediate, and thus no choice, or it loses itself in a great multiplicity." The judge believes that the aesthetic has its place, but as the servant of the ethical. It would seem that Kierkegaard thought that both the aesthetic and the ethical had their place as servants of the religious because of the final sermon at the end of the book. Now I haven't taken the step to the religious as Kierkegaard did, at the end of his life becoming a minister as his father always wished him to be, but instead have found new fancy in the realm of Stoicism. My new curiosity with the Stoic philosophy is not in vain as a little internet research has lead me to this fact; Kierkegaard contemplated adding the following postscript to the second edition of Either/Or (1849). "I hereby retract this book. It was a necessary deception in order, if possible, to deceive men into the religious, which has continually been my task all along. Maieutically it certainly has had its influence. Yet I do not need to retract it, for I have never claimed to be its author" (Journals, X 1 A 192).
Can the Stoic replace Kierkegaardian ethicist?
Instead of being tricked into the religious by Either/Or can one adopt the Stoic philosophy of Marcus Aurelius and live in the sphere of the ethical and armed with indignation a Senator here in the senate so deserves. I would like to think so, mainly because the season of Stoic fruit is wrapping on my wind ceil. Trapped here in what Post-Moderner has called the "the bigoted burn hole of the old that is central florida" I cannot help but feel a great divorce has happened between myself and the liberal arts playground that is Skidmore." The universe is flux, life is opinion (or poise)." Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good." "A man should be upright, not kept upright." "At dawn of day, when you dislike being called, have this thought ready: "I am called to man's labor; why then do I make a difficulty if I am going out to do what I was born to do and what I was brought into the world for?" All these Marcus Aurelius quotes seem to ring with me and truly edify me in a great way. It seems that the seasons have changed from aesthetic dance parties at off campus bars like Brunos in the winter time and been replaced by Stoic days of earnest intent to be upright. Now it is easy for me to say that the seasons have changed and the Stoic can replace the Kierkegaardian ethical (as of course only the truth which edifies is truth for you), but I change season with hesitation as I am unsure that all senators can see the leaves changes. I would hate to find out that this truth edifies only me and not my fellow senators, especially when armed with the cultural diagnosis of the immaterial and material particularly with reference to the alternative you. Cheers Senators and I pray this post has not fallen off the cliff to the pit of academia, rather i hope it is a continuation of the beautiful dialectic posted below.
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Group dialogue: None are free from immaterial & material identity ambitions-- I am no exception! That was a fun realization, but i couldn't understand why I was surprised. Freud loved dicks and his mom-- he saw dicks in his mom everywhere. He shouldn't be surprised. There's an unspoken assumption, on all sides, that the writer is never his own prey. That he's above his subject somehow.
ReplyDeleteIn the Cup Essay: I never intended to deride, though I ultimately did time and again, our generation and fellows-- And so I never intended, but ultimately did, deride myself.
I tried to avoid explicit judgments of choice in the essay out (sticking in exposition and action description), though implicit judgments abounded. Though again, the one time i said I wanted to avoid judgment i made my most explicit. I see the language boiled and argumentatively steamed version as decent enough.
Thought that's been occurring to me however:
Ever since pot-moderner caught me in the moralistic hypocrisy of my own argument-- I have started to take the argument even more seriously.
I liked the dance parties at Bruno's in the winter. Though it was difficult to find parking.
ReplyDeleteAs you wrote in your Cup essay, Individuals must live into the identities they purchase. This seems to play into Stoicism as much as any quote by M.A. And with this in mind, I do not find the immaterial and material dichotomy completely deflated by writer susceptibility. I mean we are American, all having our own little suburban kingdom which we upkeep endlessly, or our trailer which we outfit and update endlessly. It's just what kind of American we choose to be. Upright or held upright. While with the dichotomy of the immaterial and material the idea of authenticity has to fall off the cliffs of mythology, it does not mean that the recognition of those identifying themselves by material satisfactions that will never be their own necessities is without worth. Earnest stoicism is the season of now. It might be my ability to isolate myself completely from other people my age, but the diagnosis of alternative youth seeking authenticity off grid or on organic farms, while they themselves have a home behind them seems still edifying. "You will find rest from vain fancies if you perform every act in life as though it were your last." M.A.
ReplyDeleteDude, remember Mr. Rupert?
ReplyDeleteThe phallic Roman Spear that you wielded like a true champion with ripped arm bracelets, head band and matching Chris Maire fucking himself shirt. Yes I remember Mr. Rupert.
ReplyDelete