#44 Transitions, part 1: The fundamental ambiguity of being human

A three part series on what to do when you don't know what to do

“To be an honest human being is to be in a state of tension. It’s to be in a state of ambiguity…[but] we feel the effects of this ambiguity, and our knee-jerk response throughout history has been to feel like something’s missing…we recognize a lack in ourselves and our strategy’s been if only we can come up with the right philosophical rationalization to make us feel like we understand the world perfectly, then the ambiguity’s going to go away. Then we’re going to be complete as people. We’re going to fill that lack. What Simone de Beauvoir is asking here is, What if we’re never meant to be completed as people? What if we’re never meant to fill that lack?” - Steven West, Philosphize This! Episode #106, Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity