The Wisdom Letter #288
5 quotes from Erich Fromm, Robert Frost, and more.
✹ For today’s edition of Wisdom Letter, we have carefully curated five bite-sized quotes from brilliant thinkers such as Erich Fromm and Robert Frost, each paired with a philosophical question designed to provoke deep reflection.
Quote № 01:
“Man's life cannot "be lived" by repeating the pattern of his species; he must live. Man is the only animal that can be bored, that can be discontented, that can feel evicted from paradise. Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve and from which he cannot escape. He cannot go back to the prehuman state of harmony with nature; he must proceed to develop his reason until he becomes the master of nature, and of himself.”
— Erich Fromm (1900–1980), “Man for Himself”
~ Follow-up Question:
If the development of reason is portrayed as the only viable path forward for humanity, how do we reconcile this with the emotional, irrational, and unconscious aspects of human nature, and what are the risks of privileging reason as the sole guide for human evolution?
Quote № 02:
“It is absurd to think that the only way to tell if a poem is lasting is to wait and see if it lasts. The right reader of a good poem can tell the moment it strikes him that he has taken an immortal wound—that he will never get over it.”
— Robert Frost (1874–1963)
~ Follow-up Question:
If a work of art’s permanence can be felt in a moment of profound personal impact, how might this affect our understanding of immortality in art—not as endurance over centuries, but as the depth and irreversibility of its effect on individual consciousness?
Quote № 03:
“In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy.”
— Ivan Illich (1926–2002), “Tools for Conviviality”
~ Follow-up Question:
How does the framing of addiction and envy as forms of enslavement in a consumer society complicate traditional understandings of freedom and autonomy, particularly when individuals believe their choices are freely made within a market-driven culture?
Quote № 04:
“I do not consider myself less ignorant than most people. I have been and still am a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books; I have begun to listen to the teachings my blood whispers to me. My story is not a pleasant one; it is neither sweet nor harmonious, as invented stories are; it has the taste of nonsense and chaos, of madness and dreams — like the lives of all men who stop deceiving themselves. Each man's life represents the road toward himself, and attempt at such a road, the intimation of a path. No man has ever been entirely and completely himself. Yet each one strives to become that — one in an awkward, the other in a more intelligent way, each as best he can.”
— Hermann Hesse (1877–1962), “Demian”
~ Follow-up Question:
If self-deception is portrayed as a barrier to becoming fully oneself, what does this imply about the psychological and moral courage required for self-confrontation, and how might this process be both liberating and destabilizing in the search for identity?
Quote № 05:
“Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule.”
— Charles Dickens (1812–1870), “Great Expectations”
~ Follow-up Question:
In a world saturated with imagery, performance, and curated identities, what are the implications of rejecting appearances in favor of evidence, and can this stance ever be fully maintained without falling into cynicism or emotional detachment?
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Q5: "In a world saturated with imagery, performance, and curated identities, what are the implications of rejecting appearances in favor of evidence, and can this stance ever be fully maintained without falling into cynicism or emotional detachment?"
All 'evidence' is (re quantum theory) subjectively both an 'appearance' to the individual, and also altered by the observer themself. Humans are subjective experiencers of experiences.
"Evidence" (by which I assume is meant concrete measurable scientific valid-for-all-time true knowledge) is not fixed - it is subjectively perceived.
Therefore to 'reject appearances in favour of evidence' is a meaningless supposition. It's all appearances, even so-called 'hard rational scientifically measured evidence'.
It also means cynicism is only possible if one believes that the religious cult of science always wins the day by forceful manipulation of the stories spouted every time the latest scientific discovery is narrated by a compliant media. As for emotional detachment, this is only possible by hard-core psychos, or after a lobotomy; neither category of whom are worthy to waste our life-energy on.
‘If self-deception is portrayed as a barrier to becoming fully one-self, what ….?’
I suggest, ‘self’ is the barrier to finding the ‘fullness’ we seek. What is ‘self?’ When an infant is born there is no self, no ‘I’, an infant is born, self- less. By conditioning and environmental influences an acquired notion of ‘self’ is formed. ‘Self,’ who I think I am, is a necessary social construct imposed on infants that identifies and defines social identity. Nevertheless, it remains a social construct, an illusion that rubs against an inner spirit knowing that yearns to know the truth. It is why we suffer, why we ever yearn for more. To Understand.
In terms, therefore, of ‘becoming fully…’, the task must be, to deconstruct the self. To become self-less in order to define personal authenticity.