Though you may have been spared the indispensability of preparing for anything in particular, though the day may have yawned to a state of aimless indolence or leisurely gravitational distraction, it is on occasion nonetheless an elegance of thought and entanglement to capture a moment alone. I here speak of the private reflection upon life; what less magnanimously is labelled armchair pettifoggery (that doubtful privilege of the unemployed). Contrary to Jean-Paul Sartre who said in “Huis clos“, “L’enfer, c’est les autres“, I have developed instead my own analysis of the obstructions to existence. Nor, might I add, do I embrace the conclusions as either trite or deceitful. I am not motivated by escapism; rather by scrutiny and dissection.

The play begins with three characters who find themselves waiting in a mysterious room. It is a depiction of the afterlife in which three deceased characters are punished by being locked into a room together for eternity. It is the source of Sartre’s especially famous phrase “L’enfer, c’est les autres” or “Hell is other people”, a reference to Sartre’s ideas about the look and the perpetual ontological struggle of being caused to see oneself as an object from the view of another consciousness.

This philosophic view of ontology is all very well.  But for me it is like Sartre’s premise; namely, mere entertainment. It overlooks what I consider the elemental feature of life; namely, not the way others see us but rather the way we see ourselves. Make no mistake, there is nothing charitable about this conclusion.  It isn’t intended to deflect or reflect anything external.  It is instead provoked by the inescapable conclusion that our ideal characterization exits only within us. Any attempt to collaborate or compensate, to muddle or illuminate one’s thoughts is useless without introspection and definition.

Ontology is the philosophical study of being. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of reality and every entity within it. To articulate the basic structure of being, ontology examines what all entities have in common and how they are divided into fundamental classes, known as categories. An influential distinction is between particular and universal entities. Particulars are unique, non-repeatable entities, like the person Socrates. Universals are general, repeatable entities, like the color green. Another contrast is between concrete objects existing in space and time, like a tree, and abstract objects existing outside space and time, like the number 7. Systems of categories aim to provide a comprehensive inventory of reality, employing categories such as substance, property, relation, state of affairs, and event.

It is for example not uncommon to blame others for one’s own afflictions.  The capital of course is limitless; the boundaries are spatial; the classification and ornamentation  are inexhaustible. But such absorption is commensurately wasteful.  First and foremost is the annotation that the sterility or fecundity of others is irrelevant. Even if one were to persist to adopt a convincing logic of cause and effect, the consequence (even if irreversible) does nothing to alter the resulting state of one’s being. In short we haven’t any profit (either good or bad) from the conduct of others. Granted this recognition may contribute to a distance between oneself and others; but as far as the estimate of the quality of that abstraction, it amounts to little more than a trace of colour upon the distant image. If by contrast the coalition is otherwise remarkable or agreeable, it similarly makes no sense to attribute any of that to oneself. The only remaining ingredient upon the distillation of the commonality is one’s own inevitability.

My apologies for speaking as though I were an academic.  Philosophy is such a challenging enterprise, exacting as it does a measure of logic both deductive and inductive though all undeniably hypothetical. Indeed I do in fact consider it a privilege to have retired to the country “with my book and my bottle”. Like it or not the alternative is disparagement or qualification of some degree. Wanton self-aggrandizement is naturally an unfavourable resort. The objective is to awaken each morning with a hope of accomplishment. The derivatives come from abroad, the anticipated “seasonal mists”, the transition of the crops, the hopes and dreams of travel, the cultivated expectations of pleasure and despair.