Conatus: REVISED EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

24. Conclusion

‘Wisdom is the marriage of the intellect’s longing for truth with the soul’s acceptance of the labyrinthine nature of the human condition.’

Thomas Moore — Care of the Soul

‘We live beyond any tale we happen to enact.’

J.S. Pritchett

In Descartes’ philosophy, his starting point was that he could be sure of himself as a thinking thing. For him, this was enough to build a structure of truth that gave explanations of the wider world. But few, if any, philosophers have agreed with Descartes. We are stuck with the isolated self — just our own self — with no certain knowledge of anything outside. (The ‘egocentric predicament’, which was, of course, the starting point for this book.) Even bringing God into our deliberations has not led to any more definite answers. In fact, the idea of God almost raises more questions than it explains. So the search for firm ground — objective understanding of truth, goodness and beauty — is still on. And there does not seem to be much hope of adequate answers coming along any time soon. Based on the evidence accumulated, it would have to be said that there is a lot that

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