The Originality Paradox (Week 41 of Wisdom)

After learning about Mimetic Theory, we encounter an older idea about the origin of conflict – Hegel’s First Man. I will not summarize either concept here at length, but I will briefly explain what Hegel meant by the First Man. Before the advent of civilization, primordial man, uncultured and untamed, had a basic need, which … Read more

The Taboo of Uncertainty (Week 38 of Wisdom)

Thomas Hobbes, author of the notorious Leviathan, had a strange definition for “free will” He presumed that anything, whether animate or inanimate, is considered free if nothing stands in its way. If there are no obstacles, then there is freedom. If a rock is rolling down a hill without anything it in its path, then … Read more

The First Man

And it is solely by risking life that freedom is obtained; only thus is it tried and proved that the essential nature of self-consciousness is not bare existence, is not the merely immediate form in which it at first makes its appearance. . . . The individual, who has not staked his life, may, no … Read more