@philosophyminis: Sometimes in life, no matter how hard you try or how well you prepare, you will lose. You will #fail . You will run up against your own human frailty and realize the limits of your #strength . A young child pushing with all their might against a locked door. A wife trying to save a broken marriage. A #sick man trying to stay alive. A life is punctuated by these moments of traumatic #failure . Our life is defined by them. This is what the philosopher Karl #Jaspers calls a ‘limit situation.’ A limit situation is one where you reach the boundaries of human existence. It’s when you realize that there will be some things you will never know, and when you realize there will be some things you can never do. It's when you stretch your legs and jump as far as you can, but you still fall short. For Jaspers, a limit situation is defined by three things. First, they are inevitable. They might be few and very rare, but all humans will have these moments. Second, they will transform us. We are all different when we are humbled. We change when we realize our limits. Finally, they change how we see the world, because suddenly the world is not boundless. It's not infinite, but it's limited. Limit situations test us. They force us to look on the terrible and unpredictable #power of a universe beyond our control. But limit situations also define us. You can find out more about somebody in a single moment of earth-shattering failure than a decade of glorious successes. #philosophy #psychology #growth #existentialism #phenomenology

Jonny Thomson

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Wednesday 13 November 2024 14:50:00 GMT