EPIMETHEUS
We form an understanding of ourselves through our relation to each other, which itself is constituted through our relation to our past. Dasein ('being-here”) is temporal: it is being-in-the-world insofar as it is being-with-each-other; it is through others that we inherit that which is ‘already there’ before us (a social tradition, technologically founded), with and against which we are constituted
This is the true quality of the act of creation, engendering reflection on life and awareness of death: humility, shame, and fear. But the two sides must be thought together: consequently we live in a state of blind hope, whereby, we have a knowledge of death – with divine foresight we know with certainty that it will one day arrive; but we also know that we cannot know when or how it will occur, or indeed what it involves. As a result we also gain competitive spirit which drives us to go beyond our mortal state but can also turn us against each other, to self-destruct.
The mind is seeking introspective union with an inner reality; returning to source, as it were. The sense of tradition may be very strong, but it is a means to an end. The mind is not contented with simple worship of the past; there may be a poignant feeling of social discontent, a realization that one should dig underneath, and against the pressure of social patterns and orthodoxy, and thereby be renewed in spirit and in truth.
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