Conatus: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

20. 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.) So the search for firm ground — objective understanding of truth, beauty and goodness — is still on. Based on the evidence accumulated, it would have to be said that there is a lot that needs to be taken just on trust!

So we could summarise by asking, what things can we be sure of, what things can we reasonably assume and what things remain in doubt, but are nonetheless worthy of our

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