Less and More

For as long as I've been interested in philosophy, I have been drawn to the extremes. It's hard not to be. Whether it's the story of Thales making a big bet on the production of the olive presses that made him rich or Diogenes the Cynic naked and crass when he met Alexander the Great, these stories, among other things, teach us that ultimately we'll be called to take an extreme position to validate our life's worth.

I'm starting to question that position. I'm moving away from the minimalist state of "less is more" and the maximalist aim of "more is more" to a more balanced "less and more" perspective.

Like all drawn out processes, this conviction took time to emerge. For me it's been a steady erosion that's been happening in the background. The material that's been eroding is my body and soul and I've been letting it happen unconsciously. I have let the instrument of my mind be hijacked by theories (I won't venerate them anymore with the title of "philosophies") that are steeped in extremism.

What I have needed is a return to myself. To be in love again. And there's good precedent for this new line of thought. "Perhaps love is the process of me leading you back to yourself," as Leo Buscaglia said.

The main driver of this change has been my discovery of philosopher Susanne Langer. I'm reading Philosophy in a New Key and it's radically changing how I thought about the value of all symbolic activity. When Langer tells the age old story of how we became the rational animal, she doesn't do what countless others do, which is to misintepret a symbolically rich and developed state as a primitive one.

Langer centers her criticism of the linguistic turn in philosophy that was emerging as the consensus of her day, thanks to the pioneering work of Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein and their Vienna circle compatriots, with the subtle and yet sublime reminder that our symbolisms (language included) emerged from a deep backdrop of body related and anchored activities.

Everything intellectual starts for each of us the way it always has, from the body and from its rituals. Each symbol is a testament to the sacramental value of life, whether we recognize this or not. Even in moments that appear as if there's a strict separation between mind and body, this is a dangerous illusion. One that leads, as it did for me, to a type of virtualized life where my intellectual interests present themselves as the truth all the while hidding their connection to my body which is the true source of their existence.

To break the link, to break the spell, it's as simple and beautiful as it seems, just stop believing, to reverse the famous Journey liric.