Friday, March 18, 2016

Lines and λόγος

I can conceive of a perfectly straight line and reason about it even though all the lines I have ever actually seen are not perfectly straight. It is only the ideal of a perfectly straight line that allows me to recognize that the lines I actually see are not perfectly straight.

I recognize in myself the capacity to reason, and at the same time I recognize that I reason imperfectly. It is only the ideal of a perfect reason that allows me to recognize that I reason imperfectly.

When Descartes says, "I know God before I know myself," what does he mean? "The first thing we know about ourselves," answers Simone Weil , "is our imperfection." In the same way I must have a conception of a perfectly straight line before I can recognize the imperfections in an actual line, I must have a conception of a perfect reason before I can recognize the imperfections in my own. "The only mark of God in us," says Weil, "is that we feel that we are not God."

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