2 beyond wishful thinkingTh e principle that applies to the or ga ni za tion of society and culture
applies as well to thought and discourse. No method, no system of pro-
cedures of inference and modes of argument, no apparatus of reason-
ing in any one discipline, or in all disciplines combined, can do justice
to our capacities for insight. We can always discover more than our es-
tablished practices of inquiry can prospectively allow. Vision exceeds
method. Method adjusts retrospectively to suit vision.
We are unlimited, or infi nite, with respect to the practical and dis-
cursive settings of our activity. Th ey are limited, or fi nite, with regard
to us. Our excess over them is what, in a traditional theological vocabu-
lary, we call spirit.
Everyone dies anyway. Th e response of nature to our experience of
fecundity, of amplitude, of reach over circumstance and context is to
decree our death. Th e fi nality of this annihilation, in contrast to the
vibrant presence that preceded it, is the fi rst and fundamental reason
why death is terrible. Th e good that is the highest, preceding all others
and making all others possible, is the good that will be most defi ni-
tively destroyed.
Our fall toward death is surrounded on every side by tokens of the
wasting of life. At any given moment on our planet, as Schopenhauer
reminded us, countless living creatures tear one another apart the bet-
ter to live a while longer. We are unable to distinguish our situation
from theirs as much as we would like. Science teaches that death forms
part of the continuance of life. However, what is necessary for the spe-
cies is fatal to the individual.
Th e hour of death comes sometimes with agitation and suff ering, and
sometimes with resignation or even in sleep. Some people report, from
near death experiences, that they see a great light. However, there is no
great light, other than in the minds of some of the dying. According to
certain conjectures, they perceive such a light because the brain is starved
of oxygen, or because there is stimulation, as life wanes, of the temporal
lobe, as if the body, on the very verge, were to play a fi nal trick on us.
Regardless of whether death is resisted or accepted, its aft ermath fol-
lows a regular course. Th e body is now a corpse. It becomes fi rst rigid,
then bloated. It soon rots, stinks, and begins to be devoured by vermin
and bacteria, unless it is promptly burned. From having been revered,
it turns into an object of revulsion.