existence, nonsense
Is it nonsensical to talk about existence as such? If so, then how is it possible to experience "existential anxiety"? The anxiety is certainly real, but perhaps "exisential" part really isn't "about existence" -- perhaps it's always, by definition, "about" something else. Or perhaps it's that anxiety which has no object whatsoever.
"How strange that there are beings! How strange that anything exists at all!"
Strange -- with regard to what? Non-being? Nothingness? What are those, and how can they even be conceived except as concepts parasitic upon concepts like being and existence?
Or maybe I'm worried about MY existence. But that may not be possible either -- if I can't represent existence as such to myself, then I'm probably not able to represent my own existence as such to myself . . .
1 Comments:
an appreciation of paradox, and of the role of language (also perpetual paradox) helps move these questions into a rich realm.
but perhaps being is itself a specific quality, a sort of background big bang radiation of life, which, when attended to, can very well produce anxiety. in part because of its nec. closeness to non-being. closeness? in zen we chant IDENTITY of the two. sides of the coin.
and of course ten thousand things crawl up and hop on to that anxiety engine. and sometimes seem even to drive it.
having written all this, i still dont know.
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