sebab saya poyo. there is no other reason to this. have been hearing his name for quite some time (kierkegaard mentioned him frequently in his books), then i chanced upon my favourite internet forum and saw their brief adoration upon the philosopher and then one night i’m browsing through my nook, looking for something to read other than fiction (or william james), fell upon r.d laing’s the divided self which is actually a case study (of sorts) on schizophrenia (something i have been finding awfully boring and commonplace nowadays due to some… writer), which is all sort of fun, reading all the declarative sentences like ‘she is the occidental sun’, but i’m getting all bored with madness and suicide and depression. (jadi tak perlu baca that ‘Suicide’ book by some Eduard). they all revolve around the same thing anyway; emptiness and absence of hope that leads to despair after being disillusioned by the world, that, in search of meaning, (where they never stretched far), they find no meaning and go sartre themselves. and then that life is absurd.
we all ought to lighten up, dears.
so schopenhauer. schopenhauer (now i have to get used to spelling his name, ugh) advocates a certain kind of dilettantism that is shun by the masses. it is the gathering of thoughts. one cannot simply be specializing in one thing, can they? it is as if they have chosen to pick one and ignore the rest, shut off from the external world. it is, in his words, one holed up in their own room oblivious by the happenings of the outside world. of course, i think this refers to the academia (where, one is forced, to pursue/push things further beyond the interest or betterment of normal human beings). but what did made me sort of happy, is, that the dilettante who frankly absorbs everything, shall have a broader outlook on life, because he participates in everything, and sees connections, and can make formulations on his own. because thinking, or creation, can only be stimulated by observing the world at first hand. of course, viewed in terms of Jung’s Functions, this is a kind of Introverted Thinking, where analysis is prime. of course this all ought to translate to something in the end, one cannot be the jack (jill?) of all trades for the rest of their lives, we ought all be polymaths.
allow me to jump further and call these dabblers, intellectuals, as defined by Hussein Al-Attas, in his book Intelektual untuk Masyarakat Membangun (a good book, but dated). but i am so lazy at explaining things, and re-opening of books. but he gives the distinction between professionals and intellectuals. Professionals can be found anywhere, they serve a purpose of lending their skills and knowledge in order to execute something; a function, an event. they are mere jumping stones, a limb. Intellectuals on the other hand, (he lists down all sorts of criteria), takes pleasure(interest) in all sorts of things, recognizes the problems in his society, and thus tries to undergo a task (or formulation) of exalting the people, propel them into progress (towards the ideal). they are not arbiters (or politician) that lead at the front line, they are like an emanating presence that continue to guide the masses. the philosophers. Do you call them Rausyanfikir over here? haha. macam dalam Shariati punya Where Shall We Begin. ugh, i read too much of the same things. or am i an idiot to not see the distinctions between all these? no matter.
but i am none of these.. yet. i shall assume the title pretentious for the time being. heh.
back to schopenhauer.
he detests some type of reading, and says reading is for those who have no thought for themselves. reading other people’s works is feeding their mind into yours, so you shall be rendered incapable of any thought of your own. “Man of thinking” and “Man of learning”. ok, sama je macam di atas, bukan? people who write books in order to spread truth (their laboured, personal truth) are bound to be more immortal than those who write merely to improve on things, comparing this and that, without any thought of their own.
Dia juga kutuk mereka yang tertarik kepada Goethe as a person, not someone who wrote Faust.
among other things. certainly gives me perspective to actually begin on writing anything.
perkaraperkara 