Where Reason, Power, Freedom Merge—Sublime

Head Stuck In The Clouds, Sick, The Cure—Sex—Never Fails
MV Conversation Continues
In Limbo

"I kind of liked that," said MV. "For keeping you alive I finally get some
pay back. Not much mind you, but a little is better than none at all."

"So what did you like? I replied. "All of a sudden I have an appreciative
audience, you and Jim, I guess I'm on a role—cool. So what did you like
anyway?"

"Do you have to ask?" sneered MV. "Of course I liked the part where reason was
joined with power. I'm a hell of a handyman and that's my bread and butter, the
tools of my trade, as they say."

"Don't forget freedom," I said, "that's the most important part. Freedom,
reason, and power are joined in the self."

"Oh please, do you take me for a fool?" MV responded. "Freedom is the icing on
the cake for me. Freedom is what makes my job satisfying. Pulling toy ducks from
a bathtub, where's the fun in that. Come to think of it, no more freedom--no
more wet dreams. "

"Wait a minute, there's more to this story then that," I replied. "It's not to
pleasure you that freedom, reason, and power are brought together. Their
pedigree is far more sublime than that. When taken collectively, as they are in
the self, this event is as remarkable as it is delicate, some might even
describe it as an exquisite happening. Actually, I'm not sure that the rest of
this story will be to your liking. Do you want me to continue?"

"Oh yeah, try me, spin your story, hold my feet to the fire," said
MV, "but be forewarned, whatever burns my feet only makes me stronger!
You cannot even imagine how important I am, so let's hear it,
I'm all ears."

"It was Karl Jasper's Idea to join Existenz (angst) with reason," I said, "so
I'll start there, in the reason/Existenz connection. That relationship is not
one of antithesis; rather it's an interdependent connection. It's like a two
sided coin only in this case the sides are reason and Existenz. Jaspers' says
that the reason/Existenz connection is `a connection which at the same time
points beyond itself.' He even hints at what this `pointing beyond' entails when
he says: "Philosophy, whenever it is successful, consists of those unique ideas
in which logical abstractness and the actual present become, so to speak,
identical.'" (Jaspers, 1955, p. 49-50)

"Whoa, now I'm humbled!” said MV. “If there ever was such a thing as good
philosophy, which I would argue there isn't, then its got to be both present and
abstract! To me that sounds like a disease, one not to be taken too seriously
though, --head stuck in the clouds, sick,--the cure--sex. Never fails! What
else you got?"

"I see you're not really into this conversation," I replied, "so instead of
wasting my breath, why don't we take a look at that other paper I wrote, the one
that was rejected as a thesis topic by my adviser. I developed the logical
component of self in that paper. Actually, I guess I should say that I
simplified the X/Y form in that paper. Anyway, I wrote about Structuralism and
before I finished I had merged logical abstraction with the immediate present.
If Jaspers would of/could of been my adviser, I'm sure I would have at least received an at-a-boy pat on the back for all that work."