{"id":8985,"date":"2013-02-14T15:07:16","date_gmt":"2013-02-14T15:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/02\/14\/on-the-brevity-of-life\/"},"modified":"2013-02-14T15:07:16","modified_gmt":"2013-02-14T15:07:16","slug":"on-the-brevity-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/02\/14\/on-the-brevity-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Brevity of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

The lament comes down through the centuries: Vita brevis est<\/em>.  What is the point of this observation?  There are two main possible points.<\/span><\/p>\n


\n\"Vanitas\"<\/a>A.  One point, call it classical,  is to warn people that this life is not ultimate, that it is preliminary and probationary if not positively punitive, that it is not an end in itself, that it is pilgrimage and preparation for what lies beyond the portals of death.  One part of the  idea is that the brevity of life shows life's non-ultimacy as to reality and value.  Back of this is the Platonic sense, found also in Buddhism,  that impermanence argues (relative) unreality and (relative) lack of value.  Brevity entails vanity, emptiness.  This life is empty and insubstantial, a vanishing quantity, a vain play  of interdependent appearances.  That which vanishes is vain, empty of self-nature, ontologically and axiologically deficient, if not utterly nonexistent.  And all finite things must vanish.  Vanity  and vanishment are inscribed into their very nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other part of the classical idea is that the vanity of life hides a reality the attainment of which depends on how we comport ourselves in this vale of soul-making behind the veil of sense-induced ignorance (avidya<\/em>).  Since life is short, we must work out our salvation with diligence while the sun shines.  For it is soon to set.  It is later than we think in a world whose temporal determinations are indices of its relative unreality.<\/span><\/p>\n

The brevity of life thus points both to its vanity and to the necessity of doing the work necessary to transcend it, toil possible only while caught within its coils.  To put it in the form of a little ditty:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Ashes to ashes<\/span>
Dust to dust<\/span>
Life is short<\/span>
So renounce it we must.<\/span><\/p>\n

B.  The other point of vita brevis est<\/em>, call it modern,  is to advise people to make the most of life.  Precisely because life is short, one must not waste it.  Brevity does not show lack of reality or value, pace<\/em> Plato and his latter-day acolytes such as Simone Weil, but how real and valuable life is. This life is as real as it gets.  Make the most of it because there is not much of it but what there is of it is enough for those who are fortunate, who live well, and who do not die too soon.<\/span><\/p>\n

The attitude here is that life is short but long enough and valuable enough, at least for some of us.  One should make friends with finitude enjoying what one has and not looking beyond to what might be.  Near the beginning of the The Myth of Sisyphus<\/em>, Albert Camus quotes Pindar<\/a>, "O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible." (Pythian, iii)<\/span><\/p>\n

Ashes to ashes<\/span>
Dust to dust<\/span>
Life is short<\/span>
So party we must.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which of these attitudes should one adopt toward the brevity of life?  At the end of the day it comes down to a free decision on the part of the individual.  After all the arguments and counterarguments have been canvassed, you must decide which to credit and which to reject, what to believe and how to live.  Or as a gastroenterologist once said,"It depends on the liver."<\/span><\/p>\n

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The lament comes down through the centuries: Vita brevis est.  What is the point of this observation?  There are two main possible points. A.  One point, call it classical,  is to warn people that this life is not ultimate, that it is preliminary and probationary if not positively punitive, that it is not an end in … Continue reading “On the Brevity of Life”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-predicament","category-impermanence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}