Quote of the Day 3-28-2012

[Papaw]

The truth is a snare: you cannot have it, without being caught. You cannot have the truth in such a way that you catch it, but only in such a way that it catches you.
Soren Kierkegaard

 

[Wrenchmensch]

Noel:

Sorry, but Kirkegaard's a little foggy at times for me.  What do you suppose he meant?

Bob

[Papaw]

He was very deep. I think he means we can't manufacture truth, it just IS. Philosophy is very difficult to fathom sometimes.
Kierkegaard was concerned with the issues of how one lives as a "single individual", giving priority to concrete human reality over abstract thinking, and highlighting the importance of personal choice and commitment.

For example-

People understand me so little that they do not even understand when I complain of being misunderstood.

—Søren Kierkegaard ,  Journals Feb. 1836

[Branson]

Maybe the more homely expression of something like this is, "He chased her until she caught him."

But Kierkegaard is telling us that we don't experience truth until it finds us.

[Papaw]

...we don't experience truth until it finds us.

I agree. That fits.

[Wrenchmensch]

I guess I disagree with Kierkegaard's use of the action verb "catch" and the concept of being "caught".  One "absorbs" or "accepts" truths. The process is intellectual with a possible admixture of the emotions. It is an active process, requiring more activity, e.g. analysis and self examination, than just being caught. Being caught has a passive sense, a sense of victimhood or at least a feminine sense of surrender, about it.