Читать книгу This Place of Prose and Poetry - Lucian Krukowski - Страница 17

All men are mortal

Socrates is a man

Socrates is mortal

All men are mortal.

Some men are also gods—take Jesus and Buddha as examples.

Then: Ask Parvati about the manliness of Shiva or Danae about Zeus.

Then: Sometimes, you can’t tell man from god—ask the Magdalen.

Then: All gods are immortal.

Then: Some men are gods—and some gods are men.

Then: Some men are immortal.

Then: And what about women?

Then: Remember Mary’s bodily assumption.

Then: Celebrate the beneficence of Kwan-Yin and tremble at the recurrences of Kali.

Then: Some women are gods—and some gods are women.

Socrates is a man.

My dog is named ‘Socrates.’

Then: Socrates, my dog, is not a man—as are not some other Socrates’s so named. Then: There is a large rock outside of town that the locals have named ‘Socrates.’

Then: This rock is also not a man—although it resembles one when seen from a certain point of view.

Socrates is mortal.

To be mortal is to die.

Then: Socrates the man and Socrates my dog will die.

Then: Socrates the rock, does not die—although it may crumble to where it is an unnamed pebble. Is this loss of naming a form of dying? Are there different modes of dying?

Then: Some entities named ‘Socrates’ are mortal and will die; others so named will not.

‘Socrates’ is a name. (Commentary)

Names, like ‘Socrates,’ are not mortal.

Then: ‘Socrates’ is not mortal and will not die—although the name may be forgotten.

Then: If all the living forget the name, it will not die—but it will disappear.

Then: Disappearing does not matter—for “forgetting” is a matter for the living.

Then: ‘Socrates’ (but not Socrates) may—like the god—come back another day.

Then: Socrates is so-called by the living to name a something which, they feel, will inform, or save, or otherwise commemorate their day.

Then: The man, Socrates, is long dead, and will not come back—but his name ‘Socrates’ can still celebrate some special day.

“Socrates” is a memory. (Commentary)

A memory is not a person—but is sometimes, like a person, named.

Then: I remember “Socrates”—and often call him ‘Socrates’—

but I never knew Socrates.