Not knowing what's for dinner

Recognizing the Soul Introduction to 'On the Soul'  Joe Sachs

We start off with a curious dilemma--are we trying to recover the idea of the soul or describe something that is inherent in ourselves but is mysterious. The author asks us to consider the latter and insists we cannot discover a notion of something we don't already see plainly.

Seeing the soul is referred as one experiences the world through the senses. Our senses have a way that presents us objects in a matter of fact way yet allow us to discover properties that are hidden and cannot be apparent by merely glancing at them.

This sensing is not like a machine that measures data, but is desirous and directs attention by a self-guided force that will create forms whether it is understood or not. We come to a conclusion that to come to terms with this means we recognize the soul but sacrifice absolute clarity to witness it at work.

This analogy of the senses seems cheeky as philosophy seems to be of the mind but when we focus on sensation we discover the mind at work. The author reminds us of the foolishness of supposing the mind has all the material of the world we sense in it. The extreme form of this would have the view that the senses fabricate an exact material copy as if they were printers in some factory.

Our perception of things can be seen as observations of material but we assign properties to these material things that evade material origin. Color is our own sensation made to terms by our senses and not in what we sense. We also can observe how living things strive to a certain form and how the senses assist this. How the senses come together and how a living thing uses them to create its being is posited as what we call the soul.

We can recognize this within ourselves and as well as in other living things. There is a curious fascination with the recognition of nature's soul. There is also disparaging remarks about reducing nature to mathematics and the inevitable inward destruction of our own souls as well. Our ability to be fascinated by nature and feel a familiarity with it is in tuned with our ability to see nature with in ourselves.

The Fox and the Crane Russian Fairy Tales Aleksandr Afanasev

The fox and the crane here enter into some kind of relation that is centered on hospitality. The fox is the first to host a meeting but because of their different mouths only the fox can eat. He is desirous and strangely eats all the food with little concern for the needs of his guest.

But the crane still acts as if it is a cordial evening and invites the fix over another day. This evening is flipped but still lacks empathy. The hungry fox is beset that he is on the other end and the relationship stops there.

Here we have hunger and politeness together without a sense of harmony that first seems like the beginning of something gets stopped short because they can only satiate their appetite one at a time. The hungry fox seems opportunistic while the crane seems to lack wisdom to make manners useful. And what is apparent with both of these characters is their willingness to try a friendship that has tragic flaws and humiliates them