Sunday, November 29, 2009

Part II: Doubt and the paradox of solipsism

There is only one thing that you can know for certain and that is that since you are thinking you exist. Once you get outside of your own mind uncertainty creeps in. Are these people and things surrounding you actually real or are they illusions? Is the world around you a fantasy piped into your brain by Descartes’ evil genius?

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Part I: Despair

“We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.”
--Arthur Schopenhauer

Despair and hopelessness enveloped me like a dark cloud blocking all sunlight—the only thing that was clear to me was that I, like all of humanity, was Sisyphus pushing my rock up the hill. I couldn’t understand how all of humanity, bustling around me, couldn’t see that they were vainly pushing a rock up a hill that would ultimately defeat them. The rock took many forms like money, family, fame and prestige. Some would get the rock very near to the crest of the hill, triumph looked certain, but I knew that eventually the rock would come tumble down.