O NIEČOM
Autor: Romanus Von Rayne
Role emócií v našich životoch (EN,SK)
Role of imaginigs in our lives (EN)
Allow me to present one of the works I am very proud of. There are two reasons for my pride. As
you can see it is in foreign language and futhermore it won first place in the national competition
called ,,Súťaž o najlepšiu študenskú esej.“ It was organized by Department of philosophy at the Trnava
university. You also have Slovak translation added below but bare in mind that this translation is not
literal; hence some parts of the text may differ but it should not have any effect on the idea of this
work of art.
Enjoy the reading!
-Romanus von Rayne
The aim of this essay is partially to challenge generality and at the same time to highlight the
importance of the given idea:
Imaginigs are what drives us forward.
Personally, this sentence seems to me like an excerpt from some motivation literature. I have to
admit that I am not keen on this type of books. Especially, when some people take it as a steadfast
mindset. The problem is that it often encourages unlimited confidence along with claiming that these
texts are the only truly profound way to wisdom and happiness. However, worldview is questionable.
Failing to see this, those people who took it without questioning, often fail into depressions when
advice from motivation literature don't seem to be working.
This is the reason why I think our worldview should be determined by critical ranking of every
value or in other words philosophy rather than some shallow books. As Žižek said: philosophy should
make us understand what deep troubles we are in [1].
Naturally, you can say that the given statement is just commenting of the fact. Or you can stand
with Boethius and say that Philosophy herself once told: ,,Wings, also, will I fasten to thy mind
wherewith thou mayst soar aloft, that so, all disturbing doubts removed, thou mayst return safe to thy
country (...)" [2].
Despite the simplicity of this idea, problems might arise there. So let me examine it.
The keywords in this sentence are forward and imaginings. Let me look at them more closely.
The dictionary of contemporary slovak language defines forward as ,,in direction to betterment,
to progress in something" [3]. This definition is problematic. Why? Take book as collection of
fantasies. I do not think that, for example Hitler's Mein kampf was a step forward since there had
been 7, 500, 000 victims of World War II only in Germany; not to mention human victims in other
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