Constellations of Thought: God, Death, and Other Non-Problems
Are there any fundamental questions in human life?
Loneliness, Mortality and Terror
Okay, folks! Strap in for an exploration of fundamental problems in philosophy, why there may be no such things, what it might mean to approach philosophy more like an anthropologist, and how to redraw our maps of human life!
Several years ago, I attended an academic conference on philosophy. Some way through the conference, mid-afternoon, at the point when everybody was becoming a bit somnolent, I found myself in a half-empty university teaching room, my notebook in front of me. In front of the room stood a tall, Norwegian philosopher. He had an air of philosophical gravity, and he spoke with a slow, careful precision. “I am going to talk about the fundamental conditions of human existence,” he said. I turned the page on my notebook, understanding that matters of such importance deserved a new, fresh page.
The philosopher started to list these fundamental conditions, of which there were three in total. “Existential loneliness,” he said. He paused. I wrote those two words down in my notebook, in capitals, underlining them twice, for good effect. The philosopher continued. “Impending mortality,” he said. Again, I wrote it down…
