THE BEGINNING

Much is made of the difficulty of beginning in philosophy.  How to begin?  The imperative to be without presupposition, wherever it comes from, is crushing.   We must begin without presupposition, but we cannot.   

 

Cosmogony begins and ends with this fact.  Full stop.  The impossibility of ever beginning cannot be overcome.  The mistake of philosophy is to pose this problem and then attempt to elide it with some kind of solution - any kind of solution.  There is no solution. 

 

Of course, there are actually three solutions.  They are: metaphysics, deontology, and eschatology  

 

And then there are four more: ascesis, catharsis, fervor and majesty.  So there are seven solution; not none and not three.   

 

But these seven solutions solve nothing, and it is crucial to recognize and even celebrate this fact.  The cosmogonical problem might be foreclosed, elided, approached from different directions, but not solved