They Call Me the Wonderer

Speaking of distinctions, there's a sharp one between "knowing" or "having" a philosophy vs. living in... in what will be the subject of this post. 

Don't hold me to it, but my guess is that it will turn out to be something like that quote you see above the comment box, where reality becomes luminous as it passes from the ineffable, through the Cosmos, on to the Ineffable. Best I can do at the moment. 

"He who endeavors to reflect on the totality of the world and existence," writes Pieper, 

sets foot on a path that in this life will never come to an end. He will always remain "on the way," the question will never receive an answer once and for all, the hope will never find fulfillment.

This doesn't mean life itself is hopeless, only that our hope is misplaced if it is attached to the wrong object. Limiting ourselves to three, Dávila:

Even being an atheist, one would also have to be an idiot to expect that something earthly will fulfill us. 

Nothing that satisfies our expectations fulfills our hopes. 

He who wishes to avoid grotesque collapses should look for nothing in space or in time that will fulfill him.

I would agree that philosophical man is Homo viator, because the object of his search is not only infinite but Infinitude per se. Indeed, how could a man not know this?  

Well, he could switch out the infinite object for an off-the-rack ideology, which man has been doing since crossing the divide between bios and anthropos. Russell Kirk once defined conservatism as the opposite of ideology, which, strictly speaking, is true:

Ideologies were invented so that men who do not think can give opinions.

A "right wing ideologue" is little better than a progressive one, and indeed, will evoke its inverted image. But as Hayek knew, communism and fascism are just two sides of the same deceitful and murderous coin, each being the opposite of conservative liberalism.

Notice too that progressive ideology evokes its opposite even if it is frankly delusional, as in how Brandon and his supporters imagine they are surrounded by dangerous MAGA semi-fascists. This is in the very nature of Democrats, as they were doing it even before they lost their slaves, as noted this morning by Steve Hayward (https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/09/democrats-and-the-f-bomb.php).

Let's get back to our subject, which is to say, our perpetual openness to the infinite object, or engagement with the whole of reality, both horizontal and vertical. The ontological necessity of this space sets us on the path of Homo viator, whether we hike it or not. 

In short, to paraphrase Schuon, we are condemned to transcendence, or, to paraphrase the Wanderer himself, I'm never in one place / I read from tome to tome / Yeah I'm the wanderer, yeah the wanderer.

But wandering isn't enough. Rather, it must be accompanied by wondering, which, they say, is both the cause and consequence of the philosophical life. This cause is up at the Other end, which is why

He who speaks of the farthest regions of the soul soon needs a theological vocabulary,

and

As long as we do not arrive at religious categories, our explanations are not founded upon rock.

Best I can do this morning. To be continued...