October 1999 journal entry]
Spectrum: from inquiry for inquiry’s sake (in which academic types ask/critique ideas without existential criteria/pressure to make decisions) to cultish retreat from rigorous and indiscriminate thinking/inquiry. I oppose only thinking in terms of where one finds oneself on this spectrum. Instead, I hold to a ‘from below’ existential critique/perspective (off of and separate from the above spectrum) when studying and testing ideas/claims. The core, central, simple question is – “How do I become and remain the sort of person who is genuinely/authentically present with victims of tragic/innocent suffering?” Two observations -- (1) I have seen too much to think I am invulnerable from innocent suffering or from being the victim of discrimination. (2) Affirming the human spirit as the ‘more’ about being human for which empirical analysis alone cannot account at least keeps open serious consideration of a suprahuman ‘more’.
Spectrum: from inquiry for inquiry’s sake (in which academic types ask/critique ideas without existential criteria/pressure to make decisions) to cultish retreat from rigorous and indiscriminate thinking/inquiry. I oppose only thinking in terms of where one finds oneself on this spectrum. Instead, I hold to a ‘from below’ existential critique/perspective (off of and separate from the above spectrum) when studying and testing ideas/claims. The core, central, simple question is – “How do I become and remain the sort of person who is genuinely/authentically present with victims of tragic/innocent suffering?” Two observations -- (1) I have seen too much to think I am invulnerable from innocent suffering or from being the victim of discrimination. (2) Affirming the human spirit as the ‘more’ about being human for which empirical analysis alone cannot account at least keeps open serious consideration of a suprahuman ‘more’.