16 Philosophy: A Matchless Discipline

Neither our deepest emotions nor our most cherished values
further the dialogue. “Yes, but your very
definitions
and foundations are shifting
and leading you astray.”

The dialogue, as in Plato,
lives and breathes definition, solidity, form,
to create and outlive itself,
a human longing to find meaning in chaos.

The wondrousness is a willingness
to look full in the face
pushing back (and over again) the rushing tide of ignorance
a summons we have heard since the beginnings of humanity
in the newness of time
ancient calls that still resonate today,
that may bring, as then, clearness of vision.

Thinkers not surrounded by
students, and dusty tomes
rather, in the battlefields of what is true, right, and demonstrable
stridently pushing aside all obstacles.

Viewed from above, we see the beginnings of all the sciences.

Another: a treatise by Hume,
where skepticism is brought to even geometry
and studied all through.
His now forgotten lines
wear doubt like a crown,
as always:
“a wise man proportions his belief to the evidence”,

his enduring achievement
to ponder if we can achieve anything.