The History of Philosophy as Theater

2/18/02

A theater-performance demands its characters.  If a character is needed, the playwright senses it and the play, as if by its own volition, fills itself in.  Situations open up vacuums.

The history of philosophy is a theater-performance and it, too, demands its characters.  The pre-socratics brought a demand for a Diogenes, Hegel’s dominion brought a demand for a Kirkegaard, the analytics brought a demand for a Rorty. 

But there is no playwright.  We must write ourselves in.  To repeat with a different emphasis, we—that is, we philosophers—MUST write ourselves in (when our performance is demanded).  The performance, the situation, elects us to this call.

Further, we must play our part properly, if grudgingly, as it is given to us.  We must wear the masks we are given (even when they are ugly).

To be concerned about the performance, about its successful progression, is to be concerned about truth.  Therefore, to demand our own place, to demand that we ourselves BE the whole of the performance—the ones having “arrived at truth”—is to detract from the success of the project.  Imagine a worker assigned to drive bolts into the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge who says, “The bridge project isn’t about these damn bolts.  Its about getting across the bay mouth.  Fuck this job!  I’m just going to take a boat.”  The worker does not sense the worth of the fully constructed bridge because he is fixated on the minute and seemingly stupid character of his own task.

It is not attaining the form of the good, but being a part of the means by which it is attained, that we must strive for.