2. Gnostic Philosophy: Parallels and points

Moving on...


Gnosis always bore within it these twin moods, first of pessimism regarding humankind's life in bondage to fate and to time and space and second with optimism to humankind's special place and potential in the full scheme of things.

Pleroma had been wounded by the dynamism of its inner tension and that humankind's existential woe was simply a by-product of the divine drama. However, humans could, through gnosis, participate in its healing.

Here, we see the dualism of man, expressed in his pessimistic daily interactions and engagement with the social construct of reality and 1st level pains.

The inner tension and existential woe is our common experience of "Anxiety". I am not so much interested in the healing of the Pleroma. Rather being a pragmatist, I am concerned with how man can learn to see past these distractions and use rationality as a tool to enable himself to be a "free agent" and participate in the healing of mankind.

In spite of the stress on inner experience, the Sufis nevertheless enjoy a particular vision of the necessity of the outward law. They regard the law as the vehicle or expression of the inner truth. While outward conforming, they enjoy inward freedom. This view has caused external problems for Sufis. The inward life tends to overflow in ecstasy- and ecstasy and law do not make easy partners.

This is poignant. How then should a free agent act? Given that he still has to operate within a social reality that which of course is a construct but remains very real. Laws largely operate so as to support or allows mankind to conduct themselves in civic manner without truly grasping the idea of real truth and self. So laws do have their purpose and use. The free agent should then aspire to guide others to see and realize their real selves and real truth whilst operating within the laws of whatever social reality that they find themselves bound in. As Rorty even agreed, "The task of the intellectual, with respect to social justice, is not to provide refinements of social theory, but to sensitize us to the suffering of others, and refine, deepen and expand our ability to identify with others, to think of others as like ourselves in morally relevant ways."