[fusion meetup]Kierkegaard, and How We Should Live With our Finiteness

This will be a discussion of questions raised in a podcast interview with a Kierkegaardian scholar on how to live with our finitude. the interview provided some of the best dialog I have heard on how to think about how to live. Here is the link to the interview: Player FM - Internet Radio Done Right

A bit of background on Kierkegaard. He was the first of the major "existentialist" philosophers, and published a century before Sartre and Camus popularized existentialism. Kierkegaard was the only leading existentialist who was a theist.

The interviewer is a nephew of mine, who is a now ex evangelical. The interviewee is a professor of philosophy, Aaron Simmons, whose web page is here: About | J. Aaron Simmons (jaaronsimmons.com)

Aaron Simmon’s considers the core question in life, is how to deal with its limitations. We have limited time in our life, how do we deal with our finitude?

HIS answer – is a combination of moral action to improve the welfare of the less well off; philosophical and theological reasoning; and living life well as a father, husband, sports enthusiast, and nature lover.

However, he notes that not everyone reacts this way. He characterizes three approaches to realization of death:

1. His approach of existentialism: this is basically to embrace both morality, and Carpe Diem as a life philosophy. Live life intensely, seeking highs and lows, while caring for others. Get the most out of limited time, and do the most good.

2. Absurdism: neither morality, nor any objectives or values make any sense to embrace when everything is going to just crumble away in the end. Limited time vitiates everything.

3. Nihilism: Death, and the ending of everything, destroys all long-term values and objectives, but one can still get stuff in this life. I will get mine while I can, and those who don’t do the same, are losers.
   He argues FOR existentialism, as he says the other two options lead to radically empty and unfulfilling lives.

Simmons admits in his discussion that these three do not encompass all options. Of particular note, he argues against the Buddhist/Stoic thinkers who also follow most of his option 1, but contrary to his view, they also seek to limit the excesses of their enthusiasms and despairs as unwise.

*** What other options might there be to our death, than these 3.5?

*** Are any of these other options more appealing than existentialism?

*** Does this reasoning depend on death being the end? All but one major existentialists were materialists. Does possible survival of death lead to other alternatives?

Simmons raised a lot of life-guidance questions – the sort of practical “wisdom” philosophy that is not common in the last several centuries of the Western tradition. Lets discuss the validity and usefulness of some of these questions and guidelines:

*** An angry war against injustice will produce an angry world. One must take the time to live in joy.

***Pragmatism is inherently crippling for visionaries. Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech was unachievable in his lifetime, but the VISION was transformative. Climate change activists know that catastrophe is almost unavoidable, but trying to at least limit catastrophe several centuries from now is still a worthwhile outcome, and is only achieved by this vision. Pursuit of an unachievable goal is an effort to pay forward to the future, and create something worth handing off to others.

*** Accomplishment is not the measure of success, but instead the pursuit of worthwhile goals. Who we are is what matters, not what we accomplished.

*** Vulnerability is the human condition. Embracing it, leads to a focus on living this life, appreciating beauty where we find it, and focusing on the people that matter to us.

*** Are mundane careers a waste of one’s life? NO!!! If one’s work is done with love, and in caring fellowship with co-workers, it is not mundane. Does it promote humility, hospitality, and gratitude – if yes, it is a good way to spend one’s life.

*** A friend’s quote, when facing cancer: “did you think you could cure me of the human condition?” “In the end there is the unmanageable. But we would be trivial beings without it. So onward with my day!” Live well, and face death with swagger.

Be respectful, and openminded. All views are welcome.