The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

October 11Ever Expansive

Now, it is clear, not only that what is obvious to one mind may not be obvious to another, but that what is obvious to one mind at one epoch, may be anything but obvious, at another epoch, to the same mind … It is seen, then, that the axiomatic principle itself is susceptible of variation, and of course that axioms are susceptible of similar change. Being mutable, the “truths” which grow out of them are necessarily mutable too; or, in other words, are never to be positively depended upon as truths at all—since Truth and Immutability are one.

Edgar Allan Poe—“Eureka” (1848)

Poe was his era's Stephen King and as such it's not always clear if he's writing about good or evil, because he saw everything as little more than truth.

“Eureka” is oddly in line with transcendental philosophy, even though Poe was a vocal critic of many of the more noted transcendentalist writers, including Emerson. It's hard to imagine this piece is from the nineteenth century; mixed in with some pretty zany ideas are elements of prophetic science, even though it lacked any experimental proof of what he proposed. (Some claim the work is vital in later models of the big bang theory—not the TV show.)

But what's all this got to do with you?

Tucked away in the passage from today's reading is a somewhat lucid, if not complex, anatomy of the concept of intuition. Truth is connection with others. Intuition is honesty at full price. Our existence on this planet is incredibly ever expansive. ...