Atalanta publishing house recently published in Spanish the book "Origin and Present", by Jean Gebser, the great and unknown German philosopher and linguist, who contributed to the approach of Hölderlin's work in Spain through his translation.
Among the pages of "Origin and Present", what has caught my attention the most is his incredible talent and mastery of etymology. Gebser invites us to approach our real world, paying attention to the psychic and delving into remote cultures in a "different", "a-perceptive" time. Only from the understanding of complex consciousness and life can man consider his own social being and world crises.
When we sleep "the soul is occupied with things", and "whoever has no time, has no space". Only philosophy knows how to inquire, precisely from its primitive forms and myths, about the concept of time, because it itself laid the foundations in theoretical physics.
Reading Gebser has helped me remember that doing philosophy is also learning how we want to live and what use of time we want to give ourselves.
At the beginning of the school year, these days of September where routine emerges again and the work rhythm imprisons us, it is worth remembering that stopping, contemplating, and learning to organize time is also doing philosophy.
Precisely this time of hours, minutes and seconds so measured is something very recent in our current society. Something that would undoubtedly surprise Plato. Greek time was "Cronos", the unrecoverable, the one that passes; but also "Kairós", that of the opportunities that not even Zeus can stop. Isn't this Kairós the beautiful natural chance of our life?
Do we want to continue in the precipitation? Do we want the time of techné, the time of mobile devices and their anxiety for immediate response? Do we want the time of the birds that get up early and sing? Do we know how to find the right time-times to give it to our loved ones? Do children understand time better than adults? Can we give a few seconds of our hectic life to see the full moons of winter? Wasn't the celestial and soul time a fundamental aspect for the Greeks? Furthermore, doesn't calm and contemplation make us wiser?
We choose from our freedom "of and for", from Aranguren, with the existential responsibility of our choices. Or if you prefer, like the title that accompanies my reflection today, that enigma that makes up what we are, as our friend Rosendo already knew, are our "ways of living".