427
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_47
Chapter 47
Sakya Coming Out of His Mountain
Retreat
47.1 That Which Is Earnest
At the very conclusion of his sustained meditation “At The Side Of A Grave,” in
which he had labored to fathom the indeterminacy of death, Søren Kierkegaard
(1813–1855) admonishes all of us to prepare for “this final examination of life”
which “is the test of earnestness.”
1
As with the long-standing tradition of the theorized “three laws of thought” (Law of Identity, Law of Noncontradiction, and Law
of the Excluded Middle), Kierkegaard, like Nietzsche, Afrikan Aleksandrovich Spir
(1837–1890), even Socrates, was rightly concerned (obsessed) with what could
meaningfully distinguish an individual from its collective (species); and upon what
archetypal evidence, precedent, moral obligation, or common sense did a picture of
reality arise that was not strictly of the imagination. A picture of truth that might
invoke virtue, denatured nature, a dialectic resolution that put forth meaningful
attribution—that which is earnest.
Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus’ characterization of Christianity as being
accused of odium generis humani—“hatred of humankind”—by Nero (supposedly
to remove blame from himself for the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD and his edict
demanding the subsequent torture and killing of scores of Christians)
2
evokes in its
ancient madness an equally medieval and modern psychopathology. The many
ambivalences of any instantaneity render the primordial A = A assuredly unclear.
Human nature too easily veers from this simplistic mathematical lane. Like all subjectivity, the passing cloud, the thundering cascade, provides sufficient evidence
that our senses are as ephemeral as their senses. And that, while we are generally
1 Thoughts on Crucial Situations in Human Life – Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions, By
Søren Kierkegaard, Translated From The Danish by David F. Swenson, Edited by Lillia Marvin
Swenson, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, Minnesota 1941, pp. 114–115.
2 The Annals c. 116 CE.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_47
Chapter 47
Sakya Coming Out of His Mountain
Retreat
47.1 That Which Is Earnest
At the very conclusion of his sustained meditation “At The Side Of A Grave,” in
which he had labored to fathom the indeterminacy of death, Søren Kierkegaard
(1813–1855) admonishes all of us to prepare for “this final examination of life”
which “is the test of earnestness.”
1
As with the long-standing tradition of the theorized “three laws of thought” (Law of Identity, Law of Noncontradiction, and Law
of the Excluded Middle), Kierkegaard, like Nietzsche, Afrikan Aleksandrovich Spir
(1837–1890), even Socrates, was rightly concerned (obsessed) with what could
meaningfully distinguish an individual from its collective (species); and upon what
archetypal evidence, precedent, moral obligation, or common sense did a picture of
reality arise that was not strictly of the imagination. A picture of truth that might
invoke virtue, denatured nature, a dialectic resolution that put forth meaningful
attribution—that which is earnest.
Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus’ characterization of Christianity as being
accused of odium generis humani—“hatred of humankind”—by Nero (supposedly
to remove blame from himself for the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD and his edict
demanding the subsequent torture and killing of scores of Christians)
2
evokes in its
ancient madness an equally medieval and modern psychopathology. The many
ambivalences of any instantaneity render the primordial A = A assuredly unclear.
Human nature too easily veers from this simplistic mathematical lane. Like all subjectivity, the passing cloud, the thundering cascade, provides sufficient evidence
that our senses are as ephemeral as their senses. And that, while we are generally
1 Thoughts on Crucial Situations in Human Life – Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions, By
Søren Kierkegaard, Translated From The Danish by David F. Swenson, Edited by Lillia Marvin
Swenson, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, Minnesota 1941, pp. 114–115.
2 The Annals c. 116 CE.