I think, therefore I am,’ Descartes had said; and when I first came across these famous words as
an undergraduate they expressed all that then seemed holy to me: individuality, the life of the mind. It
was comforting to believe that the human mind was capable of acting rationally, logically and freely
upon the inert outside world. I was attracted, too, by the idea of the authentic self, which I had picked
up from the French existentialist philosophers, who for some reason were very popular in India.
These descriptions of the self – as a discrete entity shaped through rational thought and act – helped
offset the uncertainties (financial, emotional, sexual) that I lived with then.
an undergraduate they expressed all that then seemed holy to me: individuality, the life of the mind. It
was comforting to believe that the human mind was capable of acting rationally, logically and freely
upon the inert outside world. I was attracted, too, by the idea of the authentic self, which I had picked
up from the French existentialist philosophers, who for some reason were very popular in India.
These descriptions of the self – as a discrete entity shaped through rational thought and act – helped
offset the uncertainties (financial, emotional, sexual) that I lived with then.
No comments:
Post a Comment