Thrill of the chase

Frustratingly, the uploading of episode 5 of the podcast Jim and I produce is being stalled because of website problems. In the meantime, there's an aspect of this most recent bout of philosophical pondering I'd like to focus on...

We were discussing Descartes, trying to wrap our heads around the great philosopher's undoubtedly tenuous justification for the existence of God. In summary: because God is perfect, he must exist.

Trying to explore this concept from several angles, James and I agreed that the pursuit, if not necessarily the acceptance of such a perfect concept, is an undeniably attractive thing. In fact, the search for perfection (tongue fairly firmly in cheek, we flippantly gave the example of searching for the perfect female body) could arguably be more satisfying than actually finding it. This is by no means a new idea - countless cliches run along these lines: 'be careful what you wish for', 'the grass is always greener' etc.

However, it did strike me that this is a truly universal principle that I really do have a lot of time for, and (I think) helps me to tolerate people with views that I would otherwise find risible. To go back to the God example, I can accept (accept is the wrong word - understand?, empathise with?) someone pursuing their religious faith, in the knowledge that they're on a journey of discovery: they're in pursuit of faith or a truth, even if I disagree with the underlying principles which they rely upon.

It's a subject I'd like to return to, but in the meantime I think these notions might sit quite snugly alongside Derrida's notions of deconstruction. Maybe we'll have to wait until Two Wise Men episode 68 to find out...