Philosophical Retreat of Deep Philosophy in Italy (March 15-17, 2019)

Philosophy begins where life awakens. Awakening is the acquisition of power, the attainment of its source, the transition to a new state. The same thing happens with our ideas about life. Dozing, dozing … and now there was a chance to think about the source of inspiration, to feel his power, to open in himself those depths that I hadn’t looked at for a long time, and maybe didn’t know about them at all. What kind of depth are there when you jump or crawl on the surface like an “earthen flea” (Nietzsche). And here it is: “We lie in the hands of immense intelligence which makes us receivers of its truth and organs of its activity … we only let its beams pass … if we try to look into the original soul, all philosophy is mistaken” (Ralph Waldo Emerson).
    

 

Awareness of this opens up a new sound for philosophical texts and the history of philosophy in general. We never philosophize alone. Our philosophy is born about our attitude to this or that idea, about this or that event, about this or that significant meeting. That is, all the most important things unfold in the space “BETWEEN” in the space of DIALOGUE (external or internal), sometimes deep and calm, sometimes resonating in the polyphony of voices and ideas. “… Philosophy possesses only the reality which it achieves historically in each philosopher … A contradiction arises only when a philosopher affirms more than he actually sees. Thus, all philosophical visions are true…” (Julian Marias)

Brando: the atmosphere of philosophical retreat

 

 

The power of philosophical ideas is peaceful power. If one does not feel this power into oneself, one will not be able to penetrate the depths of the philosophical thought. Philosophical ideas will float on the surface of our consciousness like fallen leaves and dry branches – fragments of someone-designed systems. Plato blah blah blah …, Aristotle blah blah blah … But why know that? You need to know something else, how to go on the compass of these ideas in the direction that life leads you to. This is a journey without a goal, any superficial goal is an illusion and a temptation. The future is always a mystery. We are fascinated by the process of travel itself and those doors, directions, labyrinths that open up philosophical ideas. “No known being is being itself … For us being remains open. On all sides it pull us into the unlimited. ENCOMPASSING. We enter the widest realm of possibility. Everything that has being for us receives a depth from its relations to this realm…” (Karl Jaspers).
   
Reality calls us. We hear its voice sometimes clearly and distinctly, sometimes dimly. Sometimes directly, as a call addressed to us personally or a call, sometimes indirectly through ciphers of philosophical texts, works of culture and art. Philosophizing is impossible without this skill of listening and hearing. In the call of being, we do not distinguish between familiar sounds that give us the usual copies of familiar objects. But this call is able to awaken our inspiration, to give the opportunity to express themselves in accordance with it, to experience the unique moments of radical conversion. Then we will hear: “I am not what I have always assumed I was: the source of presence, therefore, being itself … NOTHINGNESS is not an intruder into my world, not an ‘other’. It is what I myself am … My ultimate emptiness is a change that changes everything about everything … And we can receive this intimation only when we are in a state of amazement and awe that fills us with reverent terror and holy joy” (Jerome Miller).
 

What makes us do Deep Philosophy? The desire for self-knowledge and nothing else. Indeed, only here can the goal of philosophizing be achieved, if it is worthwhile to formulate it at all. Only in knowing about ourselves can we attain the highest wisdom and really be wiser than all. Authenticity relieves us from obvious and hidden lies, from various forms of manipulation and self-deception. Life is worth living, but you need to strive to live honestly with all your might. Only on this path can the philosophical problems of death, freedom, loneliness, the meaning of life have a solution. Everything else is not a philosophy, but only a game of it. “We must try to preserve and expand the sense of the ineffable, to remember constantly the superiority of our task in comparison to our will, and to keep aflame our awareness of living in the great fellowship of all beings…” (Abraham Heschel).

 

 

 

 

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