Whereof One Cannot Speak

Those who talk
without wisdom
are like
those who fuck
without love.

Whereof we cannot speak,
thereof we must dance.

Can we hurt better?
Can we feel pain
           more precisely?
Can we cause pain
           more deliberately?
If so, and if I may say so,
we have a lot to learn.

Plato stands
between Pythagoras and
Archimedes,

as an idea,
after proportion, before
exhaustion.

Why do you want
to believe
when you already have
your desires?

"Those who work at their studies increase day after day. Those who have heard the Tao decrease day after day." (Lao Tzu)

We study in order to learn,
hoping to gain wisdom.
We strive in order to be free,
hoping to find love.

We hope to find and gain,
but only when we lose
do we listen. And only when
we are alone do we hear.

Study & Strive

Cf. Paul Ricoeur

Science applies a hermeneutics of suspicion to our senses. Philosophy recovers them.

This is our method of study.

Politics applies a hermeneutics of suspicion to our motives. Poetry recovers them.

This is our mandate to strive.

See also: "Doctrine of Method."

See also: "Discipline and Freedom." The purpose of our studies is learning, wisdom; the purpose of our striving is freedom, love.

We know a house confusedly
before we know its parts,
said Aquinas. So, likewise,
we know Man confusedly
before we know the part that
is his nature. Let me add:

We know ourselves confusedly
before we know our hearts.
So we grope, clumsy and unwise,
at the parts of others,
distracted by their flesh,
searching for their nature.