The Absurdity of UFOs: A Philosophical Underpinning
The “great” philosopher Søren Kierkegaard [1813-1855] was
nuts; slightly schizophrenic as I see it.
A new book about him Kierkegaard: Exposition and Critique
by Daphne Hampson [Oxford University Press] is reviewed by Peter E. Gordon (the
Amabel Professor of History at Harvard) appears in the November 10th,
2016 issue of The New York Review of Books: Kierkegaard’s
Rebellion [Page 21 ff.].
The review lists many of Kierkegaard’s works, published
under his proffered pseudonyms; e.g., Vigilius Haufniensis, Johannes de
Silentio,Anti-Climacus, and Hilarius Bookbinder.
(Like internet avatars, such attributions by people bespeak
a schizoid personality, no matter how cute or witty one thinks their usage to
be. See various categories of pseudo-inspired mental malfunctions in the Psychiatric
Dictionary, Fourth Edition, Hinsie/Campbell, Page 597 ff.)
What trips up Kierkegaard for me is his antipathy, as
Professor Gordon writes, of Hegel’s philosophical plea(s) for reason, as the
necessary arbiter of human ethics and morality.
The example cited in the review by Professor Gordon is
Kierkegaard’s defense of Abraham in his (Kierkegaard’s) Fear and Trembling:
A Dialectical Lyric, thought by Professor Gordon to be Kierkegaard’s “most
famous work.” [Page 22, NYRB]
Kierkegaard extols Abraham’s willingness to kill his son
Isaac at the command of God: the “Akedah” of the Hebrew Bible (your Old
Testament).
The magnificent Renaissance painter Caravaggio’s work The
Sacrifice of Isaac [1602] pictures the alleged Biblical event:
Kierkegaard writes that Abraham is obeying a command that
supersedes reason; the acceptance of a divine calling that, for most of us,
shows the barbarism of God and Abraham’s willingness to go along with that
barbarism, noted by Professor Gordon in a listing of others who took and take
issue with Kierkegaard’s obtuse reasoning.
(For me, Abraham hearing God asking him to sacrifice Isaac
is a classic example of hallucinatory schizophrenia, with which Kierkegaard
would identify, himself afflicted likewise.)
Now, what does this have to do with UFOs, you ask….
Those who see (or saw) flying saucers/UFOs, and especially
those who had encounters with “beings” that debarked from them and sometimes
interacted with those “witnesses,” had a delusion not unlike that of
Hebrew/Islamic Patriarch Abraham.
Abraham’s delusion was of a significant kind whereas UFO
witnesses’ delusions are of a lesser kind, pretty much, but still delusional in
essence.
The sine qua non of such delusions is their
absurdity. They appear to be ludicrous on the face of it, and they are. They
come from addled minds.
Surely such madness seems rare, but it isn’t. There is a
proficient core of such absurdities in everyday life (something I deal with at
another blog).
Even UFO sightings, with many attendant witnesses or more
than one, can be explained psychiatrically by variations in the folie à …
categories.
Kierkegaard’s philosophy is housed (based) in his personal
mental malfeasances, as one can see by reading about his life and struggles
with everyday commitments and exigencies, just like those of the common man or
woman who thinks they see a UFO or have contact with flying saucer beings.
(And don’t get me started again with purported UFO
abductees/experiencers.)
RR
posted by RRRGroup at
Thursday, October 27, 2016
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