¶ Thinkable You (1)
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Index Entry
What is really important, however, about you or me is the thinkable you or the thinkable me, the abstract metaphysical you or me, what we have done with these images, the relatedness we have found, what communications we have made with one another. We begin to realize that the dimensions of the thinkable you are phenomenal: when you hear Mozart on the radio, that is, the metaphysical-- only intellectually identifiable-- eternal Mozart who will always be there to any who hear his music. When we say ‘atom’ or think ‘atom’ we are intellect-to-intellect with livingly thinkable Democritus, who first conceived and named the invisible phenomenon ‘atom.’ Were exclusively tactile Democritus to be sitting next to you, surely you would not recognize him nor accredit him as you do the only-thinkable Democritus and what he thought about the atom.
You say to me: ‘I see you sitting there.’ And all you see is a little of my pink face and hands and my shoes and my clothing, and you can’t see me, which is entirely the thinking, abstract, metaphysical me. It becomes shocking to think that we recognize one another only as the touchable, nonthinking biological organism and its clothed ensemble.
