I agree we are beings--that is to say we exist and have substance. That there is a "definitive" set of conditions, I do not know. And I do not think there is a point being made.
Certainly, through concept formation and through the power of thought, we can understand relationships of an infinite variety throughout the universe. This is a credit to our ability to form concepts and to fashion connection. Thus, I have a relationship to you because I recognise your existence. I have a relationship to the moon because I recognise her existence. In that sense, I can conceptually cobble together a unity which encompasses all that is. Even when the relationship is one of ignorance, it still exists. So I am involved with all that is through the power of thought.
However, I also recognise that these people and objects are NOT me. I can burn down a building. It is not me. I can cut off by arm. It is NOT me. I can cut out my appendix. It is NOT me. As long as I can think, I exist. When that capacity leaves, then my existence is ended.
It does not go from not being able to say "I" to being able to say "WE"! Lose the "I" and you lose the "WE".
Existentialism does not solve the unsolvable, and it cannot destroy reason or logic.
This is not to say that when the electricity no longer has a wire, that the electricity has died. Energy IS--and possibly exists forever. However, EGO's are Grecian urns--sometimes very durable and pretty with many tales to tell, as Keats well knew. But ultimately to return to the clay from which all existence is fashioned. |
