online: 19 november 2019
modified: 25 october 2019

25 october 2019 old age


i chose old age because we are living in a time where many things can change . . . (perhaps all times seemed like that but this one seems to be more so than others) . . . in particular there is an idea of James Hillman in his book The Force of Character:

Ageing is no accident. It is necessary to the human condition.
(preface page xiii)


i have never remembered seeing the human condition as different from Hannah Arendt's view of it . . . her idea of the human condition consisting of three (or four?) categories . . . namely labor, work, action and contemplation . . . seemed quite enough . . . but this one of James Hillmans calls for even greater change . . . to the purpose of what we are doing . . . even in living industrially . . . for he shifts the whole purpose of life from useless dying to purposeful and spiritual change . . . (or something like that) . . . to me at least it seems to change everything . . .

this i find difficult to grasp . . . what he intends is perhaps a new purpose of dying to make room for a changing spiritual idea . . . which i feel as a liberating thought that could perhaps avoid the life-death dualism of humanistic belief . . .

(1 november 2017: excitement at this prospect ! )



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