Hume, David

my friend David

November 11, 2014

Go ask Alice, when she’s ten feet tall.  

The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 9: Saul, breathing threats and murder against Jesus’ disciples, is on his way to Damascus with letters of marque and reprisal; if he finds anyone going the wrong Way, he can bring them bound to Jerusalem  As he approaches Damascus, he is surrounded suddenly by a light from heaven; he falls to his knees, but he never gets there. He doesn't get to Damascus; he doesn't even get to his knees, because in the light Zeno’s paradox has the effect of a physical law.

          If you live, as I do, in a Humean world in which the sun may not come up tomorrow, in which the laws of gravity and thermodynamics may be suspended the day after, in which there is no “politics as usual,” you have to hope you will learn to live lightly. That’s not easy, because aren’t you - at least I am (too much like that zealous prig Saul) - always on the edge of being far too serious about far too many things? So, at the least, you have to become ready to laugh at your own seriousness.  Not make fun of. Laugh at.
          Start here (advice to self): Praise the God of all things – who is more than the sum of the gods of all peoples. (The difference between the first and the second is approximately ∞ - 5.) Drink the wine of the region. And let its world be the world until you’re ready to move on - tomorrow, perhaps, if the sun rises, or the next day if the usual physical laws still apply.

d

(to be continued)