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Reminds me of a favorite quotation:
"When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill, and even can see -- engulfed in an infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant and which know me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there, for there is no reason why here rather than there, why now rather than then. The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me ..."
- Blaise Pascal -
But ol' Pascal was actually optimistic that there was a higher power that gave him comfort.
I have never seen the way I think -- much more as a kid/teen/young adult -- that existential thinking, as anything more than stupid intrusive thoughts.
So many philosophers since the beginning of human history have come upon astounding revelations and have not had DP/DR.
There is a misconception for instance that Sartre had DP/DR. He didn't, though "La Nausee" sp? sounds a lot like DP/DR.
As an adult, and after years of CBT trying to that crap out of my mind, I can read and discuss philosophy or go to a movie like The Matrix and not get stuck in this thinking.
That isn't to say that there are individuals who are "eccentric" or may have a mental illness who indeed see things in a way no one else does -- John Nash, another mathematician ("A Beautiful Mind") who had schizoprhenia. (NO WE DON'T HAVE SCHIZOPHRENIA, lol) and was able to "see" the answer to game theory, when other brilliant minds around him simply couldn't see it right in front of them.
Life is astounding and mysterious and many are aware of this. Unfortunately DP/DR throws us into the deep end of this -- we FEEL it, more than just THINK it. In that way, we are not philosophers, we are tortured by what mankind has always pondered. And why many would argue we have religions or rather theism -- a higher power that explains everything. To many this is total comfort. And there is no known civilization that has been found (yet, I suppose) that has not had a religion with deities of some form... or a great leader such as Buddha.
"Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. 1623-1662" Wikipedia
"When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill, and even can see -- engulfed in an infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant and which know me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there, for there is no reason why here rather than there, why now rather than then. The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me ..."
- Blaise Pascal -
But ol' Pascal was actually optimistic that there was a higher power that gave him comfort.
I have never seen the way I think -- much more as a kid/teen/young adult -- that existential thinking, as anything more than stupid intrusive thoughts.
So many philosophers since the beginning of human history have come upon astounding revelations and have not had DP/DR.
There is a misconception for instance that Sartre had DP/DR. He didn't, though "La Nausee" sp? sounds a lot like DP/DR.
As an adult, and after years of CBT trying to that crap out of my mind, I can read and discuss philosophy or go to a movie like The Matrix and not get stuck in this thinking.
That isn't to say that there are individuals who are "eccentric" or may have a mental illness who indeed see things in a way no one else does -- John Nash, another mathematician ("A Beautiful Mind") who had schizoprhenia. (NO WE DON'T HAVE SCHIZOPHRENIA, lol) and was able to "see" the answer to game theory, when other brilliant minds around him simply couldn't see it right in front of them.
Life is astounding and mysterious and many are aware of this. Unfortunately DP/DR throws us into the deep end of this -- we FEEL it, more than just THINK it. In that way, we are not philosophers, we are tortured by what mankind has always pondered. And why many would argue we have religions or rather theism -- a higher power that explains everything. To many this is total comfort. And there is no known civilization that has been found (yet, I suppose) that has not had a religion with deities of some form... or a great leader such as Buddha.
"Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. 1623-1662" Wikipedia
