What It Means To Be Post-Cartesian

How is it that we have come to think of ourselves primarily as isolated/self-interested individuals?

I will reflect on Charles Eisenstein’s notion of ‘The Story of Separation’ and how we have become alienated from nature and from others in my next post.

However, I wanted to reblog this post from “The Chrysalis – LongsWorde blog” because it dives into some of the philosophical ideas underpinning our modern consumeristic society.

It provides some helpful context to tie in some of my writings on the issues we face in modernity.

The Chrysalis

Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead
William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell

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The Ignorance of the Modern Man

In this section, I will be exploring the current philosophical issues we face in the modern age.

How has our relationship to others, and to nature changed?

Why is it that so many of us feel alienated and disconnected in the world?

We have attained great material and economic progress, which of course I am grateful for, but what have we lost in this instrumental and rationalist view of the world?

Finally, I want to look at what is emerging, and how people are responding to these perennial problems. Innovative models and ways of life that promise more than a life of status and consumerism.

To kick things off, here is a short poem I wrote called The Ignorance of the Modern Man.

O’ Modern Man, Modern Man, how you stand up tall with your undeserved pride.

You hold infinite knowledge in the palm of your hand,

Control nature, much more than it can withstand.

Is there anything you can not know?

No place where you can not go?

Why are you so serious modern man?

Don’t you see life is a great mystery.

Is there still wonder in your eyes?

Is there any passion still in your soul?

Look towards nature, and you will find reprieve.

Bathe in the forest, admire the beauty of the trees.

Stand in the stillness under the stary sky,

Look inward for solitude, for purpose and your why.

Life is just a game we all must play.

Just let go for a while, and you will see,

How effortless it is to be free.

Life is a great mystery, a great mystery.

Photocredit

Zen and the Art of Science: A Tribute to Robert Pirsig

This article captures the essence of what I have been trying to get across in my latest couple of articles on myth. In particular, it assesses how we can rekindle the divide between reason/emotion, art/science etc.

Many thanks to the mythoslogos blog for this great content.

Original article: https://mythoslogos.org/2017/04/26/zen-and-the-art-of-science-a-tribute-to-robert-pirsig/

Mythos/Logos

Author Robert Pirsig, widely acclaimed for his bestselling books, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) and Lila (1991), passed away in his home on April 24, 2017. A well-rounded intellectual equally at home in the sciences and the humanities, Pirsig made the case that scientific inquiry, art, and religious experience were all particular forms of knowledge arising out of a broader form of knowledge about the Good or what Pirsig called “Quality.” Yet, although Pirsig’s books were bestsellers, contemporary debates about science and religion are oddly neglectful of Pirsig’s work. So what did Pirsig claim about the common roots of human knowledge, and how do his arguments provide a basis for reconciling science and religion?

Pirsig gradually developed his philosophy as response to a crisis in the foundations of scientific knowledge, a crisis he first encountered while he was pursuing studies in biochemistry. The popular consensus at the…

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