Student #: 500475999
CPHL 709
Religion, Science and Philosophy
Mon/Wed
June 5, 2016
1671 words
A Discussion About Philip K. Dick’s Exegesis
Philip K. Dick’s exegesis, above being a theological exploration, is a philosophical and cosmological investigation into the world and being. Philip K. Dick attempts to understand his own being and his surrounding world by alluding to the existing knowledge of the past while arriving at something new on his own. My Focus on this paper is on an excerpt of his work from pages 606 to 608 that mainly focuses on three themes. These themes that reappear throughout his work include the concept of time and a time outside of time, as we understand it, the distinction of the phenomenal and the noumenal realm of existence and the interaction of the two, and the unitary nature of the world and the divine. My aim in this paper is to carefully comprehend and assess his ideas, and to further bring out what Dick aims to convey to his readers. In addition, I will discuss the issue of freedom of the will and present an objection and a possible counter objection from Dick’s point of view. Dick’s notion of time seems to be twofold conception. He opens his passage by asserting, “and yet there is a further level of reality disclosed by sacred time and realm governed within that time…a kosmos…[that] is being completed, self-completed, from the flux process visible in mundane time” (Dick 606). As it is evident, Dick has two distinct conceptions of time, namely the ‘mundane time’ and the ‘sacred time’ as he refers to them. This twofold conception of time dates back to the ancient Greece, as they had two different notions of time. Ancient Greeks called these two concepts Kairos and Chronos. In his work, Democracy’s Gift, Canadian Philosopher Mark Kingwell describes Chronos time as “everyday, (ii) profane, (iii) homogeneous, (iv) linear, (v) horizontal, and (vi) egalitarian” (12). It is the time that we measure, understand, and perceive as time. This time is the commonly accepted concept of time that we encounter in everyday life. In a sense, this is what Dick refers to as the ‘mundane time’ in his passage. On the other hand, Kairos or what Dick calls the ‘sacred time’ is (i) mysterious, (ii) divine, (iii) eternal, (iv) infinite, (v) vertical, and (vi) hierarchical” (Kingwell 19). This is the divine time that is transcendental and upward moving, as it represents a reality that is above and beyond our worldly realm of existence. It is in this time that one understands through ‘remembering’ and ‘recollecting’. As Dick himself remarks, “this recollection has nothing to do with continuum of space-time. Memory is not a function of time but of comprehension…“I remember” equals “I realize” or “I understand” (124). Thus it is a time out of time, as it is mystical and divine, and transcends one’s being once perceived as what it is. To further grasp what Dick is aiming at with the distinction of ‘sacred time’ and ‘mundane time’, it is necessary to examine the phenomenal and noumenal realms of existence. Dick mentions the noumenal in passing when he asserts, “ A …show more content…
Dick’s text is argued for in an inconsistent manner. Dick later on his contemplations states that “I can at last comprehend it, how in change, ceaseless change- through the dialectic- it is always the same” (698). This sustains the idea that Dick is thinking about these matters in a dialectical manner, meaning that he sees these concepts in an organic and changing manner. Thus, in a sense, Dick is ‘remembering’ and ‘recollecting’ and he is writing, concepts being revealed to him from the noumenal realm, and enlightening him along his path. It is thus not an inconsistency that we encounter, but an improvement upon his conception of freedom of the will, which is now more divine as it is closer to the noumenal realm. This fluidity and metamorphosing nature of the world from Dick’s perspective is also evident when he remarks, “For decades I have sought to see “the permanent world of unchanged behind the flux”…when I finally saw it it turned out to be historical exemplar situation, a dramatic one, in fact a narrative” (608) [83:95]. This narrative of the world, rather than being a fixated entity, is a narrative that develops, as it is dramatic in the sense that it is unexpected and