Superficially, I heard of some existentialist concepts like life’s ambiguity, the absurd, our finitude and creating our own meaning. I thought existentialism would be a fertile new area of philosophy for meaningful insights. So, I read Sartre’s Existentialism is a Humanism, I’m reading Camus’ Myth of Sisyphus now, and de Beauvoir’s Ethics of Ambiguity is next.
So far, I’m shocked at how much of their reasoning I reject. All I could think was that these people have lost touch with nature. That they’ve never exposed themselves to the wild and its consequences. Because the wild reveals the inverse of ambiguity and the absurd, as they describe them- and that is awe.
It's a tricky one. I've read everything I could get my hands on by the thinkers you mentioned, as well as others. They are amazingly unclear, as if they thought "philosophy" had to be filled with double talk, generalizations, profound sounding words and confusing sentences that never actually say anything. I agree that we are meaning seeking creatures. I agree that the universe is not filled with meaning. But I wholeheartedly disagree with them that we cannot reveal meaning by interacting with the world, nature, reality. They make it sound like we are plagued with the pursuit of happiness without ever really getting there. I got it on a stalk, and I get it every day when I water my figs... it's not hard. Which parts do you find yourself disagreeing with?
We can't truly know what we haven't experienced. Those who exist entirely in their own mind (and on a college campus), can only know so much. I think wisdom largely lies in recognizing how much you don't know.
Agreed, but at the same time I think we are at a fine line. I would not have been surprised if, around the 2020 era, things devolved quite a bit more than they did. Same with the near future.
Mmm, I’ll try not to get too into the weeds. Like you, I see that they have some very compelling insights. But I also see some very plain objections to their reasoning, and their (apparently to me, at least) highly negative framing of their conclusions.
Sartre’s whole premise of ‘existence precedes essence’ is based on the idea that there is no rational design that created humans. Everything he asserts springs from this. Yet he anthropomorphises what design entails. He doesn’t acknowledge humans as being what they had to be due to nature and evolution. If we accept that humans are a deliberate creation by nature, whether through rational design or through evolution doesn’t matter, then his whole outlook is invalidated while Stoic virtue ethics is upheld.
I think, perhaps, existence and essence cannot be separated that way. Thus, we can find meaning in being fully present in the moments of our lives.
I could go on, but it’s getting long winded for this space. I’m just scratching the surface of the existentialists and have a long way to go before I have a solid opinion.
No, I agree with this. It was as if he was making an argument merely to make an argument. This is one of the reasons why I am no fan of academic philosophy. Epictetus's rants on this subject are immortally epic.
One of my things is jiu jitsu. Getting in a fight really makes the abstract concerns of domesticated life go away for a while... Thanks for writing this!
We have even domesticated gods and the cosmos. The ancients saw the gods in nature, day and night, hunting, eluding, watching the stars burn in the night. And then we started putting the gods in buildings. I love that you saw the Ent on the stalk... Where we ought to seek our connection to each other and the universe and stop our species' futile navel gaze.
Let's go, Anthony. As with Epictetus and pre-state peoples, gods are everywhere, in everything. In the words of Epictetus, "You carry God within you, wretch, and you do not even know it."
I find myself deeply hurt when I see someone so engrained in to the direction humanity is speeding towards. Every grove of trees destroyed, every acre of farmland bought by private equity to build useless vast complexes of consumption, greed and "progress" breaks my heart. Piece by piece it's being bought, destroyed and mutated to serve our digital desire. I will concede some is probably necessary, but reckless pursuit of growth at the cost of nature and humanity seems tremendously unnecessary and the type of danger we do not need.
Is it human nature to seek the path of least resistance? It seems so few are willing to run towards the suck because we are modern "evolved" man not the Neanderthal. We have the world at our fingertips, we are all individuals with the power of God in a search bar or algorithm.
Foraging in nature is one of my favorite ways to visit my acestral self. Ramps, mushrooms, berries, ginseng, nuts, various other fruit. Carefully walking through dense forest, listening to the trees groan and creak as their arms dance high above with the wind, hearing the animals react to my presence. I often find myself transported in thought to times undefined by category. I am alive, I am breathing, I can move, good or bad, hungry find food, is something following me, does it know I'm dangerous too, must feed family. I also facilitate a good environment for the soil to grow a great deal of food for my family and others, I am a steward for the soil. What the plants take from the soil, I help put back and then some. The fruit from the vine of the crops I tend to are far more nutritious for the body and the mind. The gratitude I feel for the knowledge I've accumulated through thousands of hours of learning can't be replaced by what the grocery store has to offer.
One of the most powerful visions I've ever experienced was when my wife gave birth to our first born. We were in this clean room that smelled of chemicals, bright lights, machines beeping in a chorus that couldn't be further from the songs of cicada swarms emerging from the ground. My wife is so brave. She chose no medicine, natural birth. We would only allow intervention if medically necessary. Her body knew exactly what to do. She moved, breathed, rocked, swayed and I was by her side in pure awe of the power of her ancient wisdom unlocking from her DNA in front of my eyes. When she sensed the time was near, she laid down and as she gave birth to our child our eyes were locked together. I was no longer in a clean hospital room. I was in a cave next to her, a fire was next to us, she laid on animal skins. There was confusion about what was taking place but instinct guided us. Outside of the cave it was snowing. We had food, water, warmth, shelter and each other. I saw the head coming from between her legs and received the body. It moved and cried and I knew in that moment that I needed to protect this thing from danger. She held her arms up and I placed this thing from her body on her gently on her chest, she held It close and it stopped making noise. I came back to my body and the room as the doctor was setting our baby on her chest.
Hope Carson is thriving. Share a breath with him for me.
What an image, Tim. It does not get more powerful—or human—than this. I'll pass the word to Carson and I hope your next walk through the forest is as ancestral as your image of your first borns awakening.
Thank you, Sam Alaimo. Actually, my comment was not about philosophy, the ancient or modern. It was about philosophy of our life, finding the fulfilment of life in what we love to do. I talk about it because I am happy for you. Not every young man returned home after stalking the night Afghan villages, or returned in good physical and moral shape. I remember, in Petersburg, I saw the young, mutilated men, sitting on frozen ground of Nevsky Prospect, asking alms. Not everybody was giving. I was told that mafia exploits them, taking all money they collected and paying them by vodka. This is not Paul Sartre or Camus’ existence. They lived good bourgeois life with good wine and good books and time to write about empty and senseless life. (Of course, I mourn Camus death before time in automobile accident).I love their literary works and saw Sartre plays on the stage, and I can consider my everyday life as the endless Sysyphus labor, but we enjoy our life because we chose that we can do with pleasure, as I am doing now, commenting on your essay.
Thank you for this beautiful comment. I could not agree about Sartre and Camus. It is easy not to see meaning in the smallest of acts when, as you mentioned, life is reduced to wine, books, and intellectual conversation. I can only image what you have seen, but the perspective is powerful. Thank you again.
Pete Blaber, a 20 year Delta operator, and also 75th Ranger's at various points in his 20 year career, related a conversation on the Shawn Ryan Show, it was during the second part of two very long interviews. He had been with some snipers, training. One sniper suggested that he "Be like a cat." A cat on the hunt. The cat lies on its stomach, fore legs and paws touching, absorbing the vibrations of the earth. the eyes calm and still, yet scanning. The ears up, attenuated to listen for any tell tale sounds of prey. Rear haunches ready to spring into propelling the cat forward onto its prey. He then suggested using this sensory notion whilst driving. Boy does it work. I pay attention driving, there are too many crazies on mobile phones, high on something, etc., etc. But still it is easy to be lulled to the hum of the highway. Try it. Be like a cat when driving and getting bored. I suspect Sam, it may not be the same as the stalk through the orchard, but it does sharpen your mind up when hurtling down the interstate at 75 mph....Okay, I know this isn't the same plain as existential thought, but dumb 0302's in their dotage, are taking 3/4 steps these days, the specter of their watery grave, is closer and closer, so "being like a cat" seemed easy and doable and a great way to stay alert, left of bang, and more alive. It works.
I'm here for this, Charles. Also thank you for the hilarious riff on aging well—point taken. I would still never mess with a 0302, even in their dotage...
Sam, I still know my “call for fire” protocols, (well they can’t change that much…) so have your map, have prearranged fires in case you need them! Your Marines and SEAL’s if they are with you will be glad to see you are prepared! As I ruminate on the stalk, it seems that in a sense being able to relax the body tension and breathing would be a key element to concentrate on. When doing the “be like cat” exercise when driving I try to keep the shoulders and arms as free of tension as possible. Hurly Haywood a great IMSA and other race car driver, always talked about be light on the wheel, clutch, shift stick, and brakes. He suggested driving with your thumb and index finger for practice. This also true of rowing. After 10-12km rows at a steady state, a drill I use (being a little fatigued is important) is to come up to the “catch” (where the rowing stroke starts) and pause. The blades are squared and buried, but I wait to “feel” the connection in my hands, arms and shoulders. They must be very relaxed, whilst the core is FULLY engaged. It is enormously contradictory, but imperative if you want to go fast to get that timing and feel right. Be like a cat surely has many iterations!!
Have you read any of Iain McGilchrists work? Reading your article made me think of The Master and His Emissary, how the left and right hemispheres perceive and parse inputs differently, and the dangers of over dominance one way or the other, felt it would be up your alley so to speak. Great piece btw
It was my pleasure. I've never read his work, but know the concept (very high level) from other writers on Substack. I'll check out The Master and His Emissary, I appreciate it Paul.
I am genuinely stoked you asked, and I'll pass the concern to Carson. He is getting better, and the drooping eye and lip get better by the day. His stomach was also super hard. All of of sudden it is fine and he has a ton of energy, so it may have been some virus. We'll never know, but I thank the gods he is on the men. Thank you, John.
“The human mind is a product of the Pleistocene age, shaped by wildness that has all but disappeared. If we complete the destruction of nature, we will have succeeded in cutting ourselves off from the source of sanity itself. Hermetically sealed amidst our creations and bereft of those of the Creation, the world then will reflect only the demented image of the mind imprisoned within itself. Can the mind doting on itself and its creations be sane?” — E.O. Wilson
“In wildness is the preservation of the world.” — Thoreau
"I envy those who know not, that they are not" is a quote from the only video game I'll ever play, and here I'm taking this quote completely out of context, but I feel like it's suitable for my point:
Obviously there's plenty of discussion that can be made whether ignorance is bliss, but I actually do wonder whether there are some people who are so caught up in the "domesticated" life that they barely notice their disconnection from our true essence, and live a twisted version of happiness and contentment, in some sort of limbo between true suffering and true contentment.
I, however, will keep looking out my window for now and enjoy the rumble of thunder and the white veins of lightning that paint the sky, I likely won't see Ents but maybe I'll find Zeus or Thor standing behind the clouds!
I love this, Kai. I wonder the same question. In a strange sense the hyper domesticated are "happy", but how can it be genuine? How can it be truly awake to all of life's beauty, which is probably almost entirely due to its pain?
Oh I love this. I am currently re-reading Tolkien as my "pleasure book," the reward for when the day is done and I am left alone with my thoughts before I sleep. It was delicious to see you mention the Ents. Living in a forest on a mountain, I am now looking for them as I sit on my porch. :)
"Pleasure book" indeed. I read it every year in the fall when the leaves turn gold and red. I am truly jealous of your mountains up there in north, the few remaining wild lands. Thanks for sharing, Kit.
Superficially, I heard of some existentialist concepts like life’s ambiguity, the absurd, our finitude and creating our own meaning. I thought existentialism would be a fertile new area of philosophy for meaningful insights. So, I read Sartre’s Existentialism is a Humanism, I’m reading Camus’ Myth of Sisyphus now, and de Beauvoir’s Ethics of Ambiguity is next.
So far, I’m shocked at how much of their reasoning I reject. All I could think was that these people have lost touch with nature. That they’ve never exposed themselves to the wild and its consequences. Because the wild reveals the inverse of ambiguity and the absurd, as they describe them- and that is awe.
I’d love to hear more of your thoughts on that!
It's a tricky one. I've read everything I could get my hands on by the thinkers you mentioned, as well as others. They are amazingly unclear, as if they thought "philosophy" had to be filled with double talk, generalizations, profound sounding words and confusing sentences that never actually say anything. I agree that we are meaning seeking creatures. I agree that the universe is not filled with meaning. But I wholeheartedly disagree with them that we cannot reveal meaning by interacting with the world, nature, reality. They make it sound like we are plagued with the pursuit of happiness without ever really getting there. I got it on a stalk, and I get it every day when I water my figs... it's not hard. Which parts do you find yourself disagreeing with?
We can't truly know what we haven't experienced. Those who exist entirely in their own mind (and on a college campus), can only know so much. I think wisdom largely lies in recognizing how much you don't know.
Yes. We've created a world designed to keep people from knowing. Socrates would probably be executed in about thirty minutes today.
No, they wouldn't execute Socrates in thirty minutes, because we don't execute people today. High tech lynching, perhaps. Cancellation, for sure.
Agreed, but at the same time I think we are at a fine line. I would not have been surprised if, around the 2020 era, things devolved quite a bit more than they did. Same with the near future.
Mmm, I’ll try not to get too into the weeds. Like you, I see that they have some very compelling insights. But I also see some very plain objections to their reasoning, and their (apparently to me, at least) highly negative framing of their conclusions.
Sartre’s whole premise of ‘existence precedes essence’ is based on the idea that there is no rational design that created humans. Everything he asserts springs from this. Yet he anthropomorphises what design entails. He doesn’t acknowledge humans as being what they had to be due to nature and evolution. If we accept that humans are a deliberate creation by nature, whether through rational design or through evolution doesn’t matter, then his whole outlook is invalidated while Stoic virtue ethics is upheld.
I think, perhaps, existence and essence cannot be separated that way. Thus, we can find meaning in being fully present in the moments of our lives.
I could go on, but it’s getting long winded for this space. I’m just scratching the surface of the existentialists and have a long way to go before I have a solid opinion.
No, I agree with this. It was as if he was making an argument merely to make an argument. This is one of the reasons why I am no fan of academic philosophy. Epictetus's rants on this subject are immortally epic.
One of my things is jiu jitsu. Getting in a fight really makes the abstract concerns of domesticated life go away for a while... Thanks for writing this!
This is right on. Few things ground us and re-root us in the primal world we came from like a good fight. Stoked you enjoyed it.
We have even domesticated gods and the cosmos. The ancients saw the gods in nature, day and night, hunting, eluding, watching the stars burn in the night. And then we started putting the gods in buildings. I love that you saw the Ent on the stalk... Where we ought to seek our connection to each other and the universe and stop our species' futile navel gaze.
Let's go, Anthony. As with Epictetus and pre-state peoples, gods are everywhere, in everything. In the words of Epictetus, "You carry God within you, wretch, and you do not even know it."
That is awesome. He is 'within you, wretch'. Epictetus always speaks to me personally.
I find myself deeply hurt when I see someone so engrained in to the direction humanity is speeding towards. Every grove of trees destroyed, every acre of farmland bought by private equity to build useless vast complexes of consumption, greed and "progress" breaks my heart. Piece by piece it's being bought, destroyed and mutated to serve our digital desire. I will concede some is probably necessary, but reckless pursuit of growth at the cost of nature and humanity seems tremendously unnecessary and the type of danger we do not need.
Is it human nature to seek the path of least resistance? It seems so few are willing to run towards the suck because we are modern "evolved" man not the Neanderthal. We have the world at our fingertips, we are all individuals with the power of God in a search bar or algorithm.
Foraging in nature is one of my favorite ways to visit my acestral self. Ramps, mushrooms, berries, ginseng, nuts, various other fruit. Carefully walking through dense forest, listening to the trees groan and creak as their arms dance high above with the wind, hearing the animals react to my presence. I often find myself transported in thought to times undefined by category. I am alive, I am breathing, I can move, good or bad, hungry find food, is something following me, does it know I'm dangerous too, must feed family. I also facilitate a good environment for the soil to grow a great deal of food for my family and others, I am a steward for the soil. What the plants take from the soil, I help put back and then some. The fruit from the vine of the crops I tend to are far more nutritious for the body and the mind. The gratitude I feel for the knowledge I've accumulated through thousands of hours of learning can't be replaced by what the grocery store has to offer.
One of the most powerful visions I've ever experienced was when my wife gave birth to our first born. We were in this clean room that smelled of chemicals, bright lights, machines beeping in a chorus that couldn't be further from the songs of cicada swarms emerging from the ground. My wife is so brave. She chose no medicine, natural birth. We would only allow intervention if medically necessary. Her body knew exactly what to do. She moved, breathed, rocked, swayed and I was by her side in pure awe of the power of her ancient wisdom unlocking from her DNA in front of my eyes. When she sensed the time was near, she laid down and as she gave birth to our child our eyes were locked together. I was no longer in a clean hospital room. I was in a cave next to her, a fire was next to us, she laid on animal skins. There was confusion about what was taking place but instinct guided us. Outside of the cave it was snowing. We had food, water, warmth, shelter and each other. I saw the head coming from between her legs and received the body. It moved and cried and I knew in that moment that I needed to protect this thing from danger. She held her arms up and I placed this thing from her body on her gently on her chest, she held It close and it stopped making noise. I came back to my body and the room as the doctor was setting our baby on her chest.
Hope Carson is thriving. Share a breath with him for me.
What an image, Tim. It does not get more powerful—or human—than this. I'll pass the word to Carson and I hope your next walk through the forest is as ancestral as your image of your first borns awakening.
Thank you, Sam Alaimo. Actually, my comment was not about philosophy, the ancient or modern. It was about philosophy of our life, finding the fulfilment of life in what we love to do. I talk about it because I am happy for you. Not every young man returned home after stalking the night Afghan villages, or returned in good physical and moral shape. I remember, in Petersburg, I saw the young, mutilated men, sitting on frozen ground of Nevsky Prospect, asking alms. Not everybody was giving. I was told that mafia exploits them, taking all money they collected and paying them by vodka. This is not Paul Sartre or Camus’ existence. They lived good bourgeois life with good wine and good books and time to write about empty and senseless life. (Of course, I mourn Camus death before time in automobile accident).I love their literary works and saw Sartre plays on the stage, and I can consider my everyday life as the endless Sysyphus labor, but we enjoy our life because we chose that we can do with pleasure, as I am doing now, commenting on your essay.
Thank you for this beautiful comment. I could not agree about Sartre and Camus. It is easy not to see meaning in the smallest of acts when, as you mentioned, life is reduced to wine, books, and intellectual conversation. I can only image what you have seen, but the perspective is powerful. Thank you again.
Pete Blaber, a 20 year Delta operator, and also 75th Ranger's at various points in his 20 year career, related a conversation on the Shawn Ryan Show, it was during the second part of two very long interviews. He had been with some snipers, training. One sniper suggested that he "Be like a cat." A cat on the hunt. The cat lies on its stomach, fore legs and paws touching, absorbing the vibrations of the earth. the eyes calm and still, yet scanning. The ears up, attenuated to listen for any tell tale sounds of prey. Rear haunches ready to spring into propelling the cat forward onto its prey. He then suggested using this sensory notion whilst driving. Boy does it work. I pay attention driving, there are too many crazies on mobile phones, high on something, etc., etc. But still it is easy to be lulled to the hum of the highway. Try it. Be like a cat when driving and getting bored. I suspect Sam, it may not be the same as the stalk through the orchard, but it does sharpen your mind up when hurtling down the interstate at 75 mph....Okay, I know this isn't the same plain as existential thought, but dumb 0302's in their dotage, are taking 3/4 steps these days, the specter of their watery grave, is closer and closer, so "being like a cat" seemed easy and doable and a great way to stay alert, left of bang, and more alive. It works.
I'm here for this, Charles. Also thank you for the hilarious riff on aging well—point taken. I would still never mess with a 0302, even in their dotage...
Sam, I still know my “call for fire” protocols, (well they can’t change that much…) so have your map, have prearranged fires in case you need them! Your Marines and SEAL’s if they are with you will be glad to see you are prepared! As I ruminate on the stalk, it seems that in a sense being able to relax the body tension and breathing would be a key element to concentrate on. When doing the “be like cat” exercise when driving I try to keep the shoulders and arms as free of tension as possible. Hurly Haywood a great IMSA and other race car driver, always talked about be light on the wheel, clutch, shift stick, and brakes. He suggested driving with your thumb and index finger for practice. This also true of rowing. After 10-12km rows at a steady state, a drill I use (being a little fatigued is important) is to come up to the “catch” (where the rowing stroke starts) and pause. The blades are squared and buried, but I wait to “feel” the connection in my hands, arms and shoulders. They must be very relaxed, whilst the core is FULLY engaged. It is enormously contradictory, but imperative if you want to go fast to get that timing and feel right. Be like a cat surely has many iterations!!
This is a cat-zen-rowing mode of mind. It sounds meditative, and very stalk-like.
Lost my comment, looking for it. Sorry. It happens with me.
Have you read any of Iain McGilchrists work? Reading your article made me think of The Master and His Emissary, how the left and right hemispheres perceive and parse inputs differently, and the dangers of over dominance one way or the other, felt it would be up your alley so to speak. Great piece btw
It was my pleasure. I've never read his work, but know the concept (very high level) from other writers on Substack. I'll check out The Master and His Emissary, I appreciate it Paul.
Speaking of “dispatches on dogs,” how is Carson doing?
I am genuinely stoked you asked, and I'll pass the concern to Carson. He is getting better, and the drooping eye and lip get better by the day. His stomach was also super hard. All of of sudden it is fine and he has a ton of energy, so it may have been some virus. We'll never know, but I thank the gods he is on the men. Thank you, John.
Great to hear! Dogs are amazingly good at hunkering down and healing themselves.
“The human mind is a product of the Pleistocene age, shaped by wildness that has all but disappeared. If we complete the destruction of nature, we will have succeeded in cutting ourselves off from the source of sanity itself. Hermetically sealed amidst our creations and bereft of those of the Creation, the world then will reflect only the demented image of the mind imprisoned within itself. Can the mind doting on itself and its creations be sane?” — E.O. Wilson
“In wildness is the preservation of the world.” — Thoreau
This is it! I also love that Wilson gained so much knowledge from his study of ants. Truly a universal view not only of man, but of life.
I've seen Ents in my life. Not during war, but similar primal exposure in nature.
"I envy those who know not, that they are not" is a quote from the only video game I'll ever play, and here I'm taking this quote completely out of context, but I feel like it's suitable for my point:
Obviously there's plenty of discussion that can be made whether ignorance is bliss, but I actually do wonder whether there are some people who are so caught up in the "domesticated" life that they barely notice their disconnection from our true essence, and live a twisted version of happiness and contentment, in some sort of limbo between true suffering and true contentment.
I, however, will keep looking out my window for now and enjoy the rumble of thunder and the white veins of lightning that paint the sky, I likely won't see Ents but maybe I'll find Zeus or Thor standing behind the clouds!
I love this, Kai. I wonder the same question. In a strange sense the hyper domesticated are "happy", but how can it be genuine? How can it be truly awake to all of life's beauty, which is probably almost entirely due to its pain?
Oh I love this. I am currently re-reading Tolkien as my "pleasure book," the reward for when the day is done and I am left alone with my thoughts before I sleep. It was delicious to see you mention the Ents. Living in a forest on a mountain, I am now looking for them as I sit on my porch. :)
"Pleasure book" indeed. I read it every year in the fall when the leaves turn gold and red. I am truly jealous of your mountains up there in north, the few remaining wild lands. Thanks for sharing, Kit.
Mother Nature is boss if we stop and smell the …
She is a hard boss, indeed. She'll reward us with an epic life, whether short or long. Or, if we ignore her, a horrific one, whether short or long.