PLS Seminar V

"But the ultimate potentiation of every passion is always to will its own fall, and so it is also the ultimate passion of the understanding to will the collision, although in one way or another the collision must become its downfall. This, then is the ultimate paradox of thought: to want to discover something that thought itself cannot think."

Although there is much more to be taken from Soren, I felt as though this quote was the most thought provoking. Being a student who loves to think I found it striking the way he phrases the ultimate paradox of life: "To want to discover something that thought itself cannot think." To want to discover something that is so beyond us, that is so intangible, that is so perfect, that our little human minds could never wrap our heads around. This quote made me think of St. Anslem's famous saying that God is "that which nothing greater can be thought." Our passion and our will is to find out the unthinkable. Our desire is to know what is impossible to know? Where does this curiosity come from? The believe in God is something that theologians have taught us is beyond our comprehension. The ultimate paradox of thought is to want to know what is impossible to know... Why? What other ways to we ask questions that seem to have no answer? How do questions like these lead to bigger answers?