“Radical Examination” and the Current of Man’s Life

Abstract

It has been said that man is a being who interrogates himself about himself. Has not the endowment of reason been made for us to examine ourselves about our actions, our thoughts, our inclinations? The use of reason is at the service of life. But our self-interrogation is not solely the work of reason. We reflect upon ourselves on various occasions, for various “reasons”, and towards the various ends that life creates. Finally, self-examination belongs to the dealings of life itself: it arises at one of these moments, follows the ongoing current of life and refers to this same current. We reflect on the interior of this current. However, among the various kinds of self-examination that can be distinguished, there seems to be one which — although it appears at one precise point in our existence — does not follow its course. On the contrary, this type rises up against existence. This happens at the precise moment when we distance ourselves from familiarity with world and the self. It happens all of a sudden when our total adhesion to our own acts weakens; that is, when we sense ourselves no longer absorbed by our existence, and solidarity with this existence breaks. Against the on-rushing current of life, we delineate a “radical examination.”