Living in the 'As If': Heraclitus and the Suspension of Reality

ζώουσιν οἱ πολλοὶ ὡς ἰδίαν ἔχοντες φρόνησιν
Most people live as if they possess discernment of their own.
—Heraclitus (DK B2)

Yes, most people live in the ὡς — the "as if" — which is more indefinite and suspended than the Heideggerian Da ("there"), which provides a clear location or grounding in space. ὡς, by contrast, offers no such coordinates in either space or time.

This sheds light on another part of Heraclitus' thought in fragment DK B1:
"Men are unaware of what they do when awake, just as they forget what they do in sleep."

In this ὡς-structure, οἱ πολλοὶ (the many) live in a liminal state, between life and death, caught in the "as if." This suspended existence mirrors the typical condition of the masses, their lives unfolding in a vague, ungrounded "as if," lacking awareness of either their actions or the deeper reality around them.

Comments

Fasting to reconnect your "Self" to your body

If there is a discrepancy between yourself and the body, between what you are and what you don't feel you are in your body, then fast, because there is excess to remove in the body. Through the stratifications of fat, the material that alienates you is deposited in the body. Removing decades of fat you remove the "Self" from its impediments to be reconnected with the body. Start thinking about fasting and wait for the right moment. Your body has its own indicators; it will signal when it is the right time to start fasting. Fasting is not a mere physical fact. It is changing the spirit of a time that has become stranger to us and that lives in us in order to alienate us to ourselves. Impossible to fast, without implying a change of the inner spirit. Those who fasted in the Old Testament did so to invoke great changes in life. Jesus himself fasted for forty nights and forty days and after fasting he was ready and strong enough to resist the devil and was ripe for his minist

The temple of youth

The yearning for death is but a swift race seeking to curtail our tormented pace. There lies a sacredness in thy yearning toward the highest good wildly striving. Toss the gaze heavenward and grasp the truth! In death, we lie upon and cast the temple of youth.

Il filo invisibile

In Jonas Memoriam Strana e triste è la vita lei sola nasceva e lui solo moriva migliaia di chilometri lontani per pochi soli mesi un anno li univa ma usi diversi li divideva - il nuovo e il vecchio quotidiani.

Fabrizio Ulivieri

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