Sublime

being is autosubversive, for its whole purpose and project is one of self-annihilation.”

The solidity of undisplaced things, as of selves which have not experienced displacement, may indeed be the greatest of illusions. Richard Sennett, The Foreigner

If we understand ourselves as free and independent selves, unbound by moral ties we haven’t chosen, we can’t make sense of a range of moral and political obligations that we commonly recognize, even prize. These include obligations of solidarity and loyalty, historic memory and religious faith—moral claims that arise from the communities and tradit

Meanwhile, in the other camp, public philosophers such as Alain de Botton have sometimes risked derision to publish books or establish institutions designed to take a dry and analytical field back to its humanitarian roots. They have dared to remind us how the great thinkers of history might help us navigate our modern world contentedly and with mi

This answer, however, involves an ethical judgement rather than a factual statement.

living as if missing the point – having the courage of one’s naivety – could also be a point.

The question is how to feel about everything, about the whole of existence and the place of humankind within it

‘In all the edifice of thought, I have found no category on which to rest my head.’ – E. M. CIORAN

To practise it, he wrote, ‘a new way of looking at things is necessary’