Entre Lúcifer e o Cristo {ou} Queda e Redenção
This essay addresses Flusser’s response to the problem of nihilism. To that purpose, it is necessary to recall Flusser’s advice: “Let us listen to the sources of our conversation, let us listen to proper names as they whisper within us, and let us converse with them” – and all this without fanaticism. Therefore, this enquiry will be conducted in the shadow of the objections of radical orthodoxy to the Cartesian Cogito ergo sum, and in the light of Heidegger’s response to the problem. Flusser, Heidegger and radical orthodoxy converge in their assumption that the elaboration of the Cogito ergo sum is already the unfolding of nihilism, and the belief that, when dealing with issues such as nihilism, we must revisit the voices of our tradition. Listening to these voices forces us to return to the beginning to verify what we already took for granted.
Flusser and Descartes. The Unremitting Mindfulness of Thinking and Being
Of all modern scholars, Descartes is probably the one who has met with most criticism, and even though his formulation of the cogito sounds pretty obvious, Hobbes, Locke, Leibniz, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre and Žižek have repeatedly tried to poke holes in his ideas. The lifelong effects of the Cartesian doubt worried Vilém Flusser too. To him, Cartesianism is Christianity through and through. What exactly, in Flusser’s view, is so unacceptable about the Cartesian doubt, then? Why does Flusser identify Descartes with Christianity? Can we appreciate Flusser’s concern with the Cartesian doubt without losing the excitement and intimacy of grappling with Descartes’ metaphysics? Of course, Flusser’s critique is not mainstream; and we can even hear traces of Heidegger’s voice in the background. Still, Flusser’s objection is unique and interesting, making it a refreshing alternative in the scholarly discussion of Descartes. One aim of the paper is to turn the sword of Flusser’s critique of the Cartesian doubt against Descartes’ own detractors.