I was reading an article about death and how if we accept it’s inevitability we’re more likely to lead fulfilling and ultimately happier lives. It is with acceptance on this inevitable that will apparently help us to do more, fear less and live closer to whatever our true desires for a full life are. It highlights the differing approach between western and eastern philosophy and is an interesting piece all told. I want to discuss an idea that came into my mind while reading it more than the actual article itself.
The author highlights the example of Heidegger, who “lamented that too many people wasted their lives running with the ‘herd’ rather than being true to themselves”, but who later went on to join the Nazi party in the hope it would advance his career, amongst other reasons. Now then Heidegger was a great philosopher and influenced many in his lifetime and subsequently but he was in this example unable to live by his own ideals. This is opposite to another person the author discusses, The Buddha, who managed to live by his beliefs until the end. Do we then need to give more credibility to the ideals of someone who manages to live by what they say than someone who is unable to. Does their inability to follow their own beliefs discredit them as fanciful or unachievable or do we take them as things to one day achieve. If we only ever professed what we were capable of would we as a species have evolved our thinking at a far slower rate because we never made any so called implausible leaps.
It is important to understand where ideas come from. We are undoubtedly inspired by those around us of course, our peers and family, by modern culture, and what we observe in our daily life. There is ourselves too though. Who do we get to spend more time with, experience the deepest thoughts of and understandings than ourselves. I know without an argument I don’t live up to all my protestations and ideals but if I did I would probably be enlightened like The Buddha or I would potentially be leading a very simple life.
Some of what I believe is what I know I am lacking in my own life. I’ve observed something in myself and see how a life with or without it would be ‘better’ were I capable of living or thinking like that. I understand it because I aspire to it and see it’s value through the lack of it in my own life. Does my inability to follow through devalue the idea. Evidently I’m arguing no and as such think we would be wise not to be too dismissive of such failures in follow through. We shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss ideas because they seem incomprehensible and unachievable. Everything is unachievable until it is achieved and there are no time limits from the inception of an idea to it’s completion as common thought. Heidegger’s ideas, like our own fanciful ones, are no less credible just because he wasn’t able to master them himself. The ability of others later who could proves this. Perhaps there’s some value in our wildest dreams after all.
Observations and Misunderstandings 