Behind and Beyond

Being among philosophers, or at least being amongst their writings, means to be in contact with things from a different point of view. With their help we can have a glimpse on habits, aspirations, anxieties and other aspects related to living between the earth and sky as human beings. They are like DJs who anticipate the wishes and understand the public, noticing how people enjoy the music, how enthusiastic they are and maybe even understand why. Of course they can influence and change the ambience due to their choices of what music to play next, but this is another story. I would like to focus on what they see and share with us.

Through Heidegger we can realize that our lives are connected to four important aspects: earth, sky, eternity and mortality. That if we can identify these elements in something, it can be called a “thing”, otherwise it will be a mere object. He also tells us how we should make the most of language as a source of knowledge instead of using it only as words one after the other. For example the verbs to be and to dwell have the same origin and knowing it can change our understanding about what they actually mean in our lives.

Through Flusser, we can have a hint about how far we are from what really matters, being intercepted all the time by the media which doesn’t encourage us to have direct contact with the world. He alerts us to the fact that we are prompted to work without thinking, as much as buying groceries at the supermarket keeps us unaware of the concerns about growing vegetables.

The mechanical approach to our issues is blinding us to what is important in the outside world and in our inner self. We receive information all the time, but does it improve us, does it change our relationship with the ones we love ?

Some of Botton’s more frequent concerns seems to be how comfortable we are within ourselves, our homes, our cities, our beloved. His words can make us feel less alone and a bit protected against the uncanny of a living being who looks for distractions that apparently keep out the sole certainty: death.

Bauman doesn’t let us forget how fluid our world and life are and Lipovetsky show us how consumption is being used as a deluded means to ease this pace.

What all of them ask us to do is to think. They all suggest that thinking is the only way to see behind the curtains of mass media. Look with our own eyes and see beyond.