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/lit/ - Literature

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7890828 No.7890828 [Reply] [Original]

what did dear Soren mean by this?

>> No.7890837

>>7890828
Are you literally retarded?
It means you can only understand the significance of events in your life after they are already over.
McLuhan makes the same point more metaphorically when he says that life is like driving a car and only being able to look in the rear-view mirror.

>> No.7890843

>>7890828
is that too close to determinism or am i just dumb?

>> No.7890848

>>7890828
It is easier to predict the cause of an event by seeing the effect of the event than vice-versa.

>> No.7890851

>>7890843
Kierkegaard was hella against determinism and fatalism (because then killing your son wouldn't "mean" anything) so that'sprobably not what he's getting at

>> No.7890852

He meant that we should all strive to just be ourselves and that's all that matters

>> No.7890853

>>7890837
ah, i see, so, to put it succinctly, "hindsight's 20/20"?

>> No.7890871

>>7890853
I guess so but the clarity of retrospect only describes half of the statement. The other half is the irrationality/unpredictability of the present as it leads into the future, and the implied foreboding/fear that this presumably instills in the ponderer. Like a true existentialist he's describing how odd it is that the two halves of our lives (that which we have already lived and that which we have yet to live) are so fundamentally different in their natures.

>> No.7890874

>>7890851
but how "life can only be understood backwards" isn't determinism, when you can only understand where you were going in the end?

>> No.7890925

>>7890874
He goes over this shit in Repetition, with regards to looking at life backwards and free will that is and F+T and SUD are where he discusses his thoughts on free will

>> No.7890931

>>7890925
Thanks. I'd better check those out.

>> No.7890935

>>7890852
>kjerkegurd
>normie

pick one

>> No.7890959

>>7890931
Yeah I'd recommend you start with Sickness Unto Death or ,if you can handle heavy biblical vibes, Fear and Trembling