I finished reading your quotes, and it was quite interesting because I was just thinking about logic on the way home. I realized that my inherent objection to most philosophers is not necessarily about their proposals or even their love of logic and discovery. I, as a curious human being, can certainly identify with their cause. I realized that it is their emphasis on logic to the exclusion of emotions which bothered me. I found myself thinking of Goethe's Werther, who is the main character in his short story/novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. For those of you who have not read the book (which I'm assuming is everyone I've ever come in contact with), it's basically about a German man who goes by the name of Werther. He's a naturally emotional person who has a deep love of life until he falls in love with this perfect woman named Charlotte who is engaged. She gets married to I believe the man's name is Albert, and Werther becomes both of their best friends. They have fun together, and they all genuinely care about each other, but Werther loves Charlotte so much that he's pretty much obsessed with her. At first it doesn't bother him too much that his relationship with Charlotte can never be more than that of a friend, but after a while it starts bothering him. Slowly he slips into this depressive state and all of his life is centered around her, and when she is not near him he cannot be happy. Eventually he realizes that this is bad for himself, Charlotte, and Albert, so he leaves to take this job which he hates. He is utterly miserable, and everything he once loved about life has dissappeared. He finally goes back to Charlotte, but finds that he is still miserable and starts to become jealous of Albert to the point where it is destroying him. Charlotte realizes this too, and she tries to push him away, which actually only adds on to his misery. Finally, he realizes he cannot go on living like this, so he borrows Albert's guns on the premise that he is going off on a journey and needs them for protection. He then kills himself after having written this beautiful letter to Charlotte proffessing his unending love for her. It is the saddest and most profound book I have ever read, and Werther's insights into suicide are so deep and so moving that one cannot help but wonder why one does not just kill oneself and end this wretched life of ours. Actually, many people did. The book caused mass suicides to the extent where it was banned in several countries. It was the work that has the most affect on me not because it was about logic, but because it was about emotions. When Werther finally away from Charlotte to work under the Count, he became friends with a Prince. In his letter to his friend William (since the book is set up not as a narrative, but as a collection of Werther's letters and journal entries), he describes his relationship with the Prince.
"Another thing I regret is that he speaks often of things he has only heard or read about, and then from the other person's point of view, and he seems to value my mind and my various talents more that this heart of mine, of which I am so proud, for it is the source of all things - all strength, all bliss, all misery. The things I know, every man can know, but, oh, my heart is mine alone!" pg. 85 Signet Classic Edition
One cannot underestimate the value of one's emotions, for although they can lead to one's destruction, they will bring you to such heights that logic alone cannot. As a result, I feel that the most truly successful person must be both emotional and logical, a lover and a scholar. To say that abstinence alone can gain you a true perspective of the world is, in my opinion, a foolish statement, because how can one gain full knowledge of what one has not experienced, or what one has rejected? Remember, Jesus had to journey into hell before he could be ressurrected, the ressurrection didn't occur because he kept his robe nice and clean. I can't recall any other myths which would back up this statement, but I'm sure, as is usually the case, I'll think of some a month from now, lol!
If anyone wants to read about Werther, the author is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. After you read it seriously don't lock yourself up, you'll only spend the time tearing yourself apart.
Larissa
" . . . it does not make me shudder to grasp the cold and terrible cup from which I shall drink the transport of death. You hand it to me, and I do not hesitate. All! All of it! Thus the wishes and hopes I had of life are fulfilled . . . to knock so coldly, so rigidly, on the brazen gates of death." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (not Phantom of the Opera!!!!!!!!)
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