In Polanyian Meditations, William Poteat attempts to combat the ill effects of the mistakes made during the Enlightenment. These mistakes have brought to modernity the dangerous likelihood of nihilism or a lack of standards for morality, truth, and knowledge. The explanations for this problematic drift into nihilism are as follows. The lack of an accurate representation of Christianity from its beginning has led to confusion and contradictions concerning man’s creative capabilities and limitations on those capabilities. The ancient Hebrew narrative, upon which Christianity was built, forms a worldview with the spoken word as its basic metaphor. The spoken word is a dynamic process, therefore implying that the world, too, is dynamic. According to the Hebrew narrative, just as God spoke the world into existence, so was man, only in God’s image. This means that man has the creative capacity for speech, just as God does. However, seeing as how man is not exclusively a creator, he is limited by his creature status. Within this model there is room for progress and freedom, as well as built in limitations on human action from which morals and ethics could be derived. Unfortunately, western philosophy has not operated within this model. The pervasive model of Christianity that has helped to bring about the crisis of modernity can be labeled as Platonized Christianity. The effort of the early Christian church to combine Greek concepts and Biblical teachings, so as to make for an easier transition, has led to confusion and contradiction regarding human action and limitation. Both the Biblical and Greek models for reality took the word, only the Biblical was spoken while the Greek was written. The Biblical model is dynamic with a limited creative capacity for man. The Greek is static where man is part of an unchanging natural order. Both models can follow logically independently, but become incoherent when combined. Confusion ensues when, as in modernity, man realizes his capacity to change his environment. This is consistent with the Biblical narrative; however, it contradicts the Greek conception of an unchanging natural order. Once radical human creativity is discovered, an unchanging natural order, the basis for human limitation, no longer makes sense. The Reformation was partly an attempt to purge Christianity of Greek concepts, which was not a complete success, although human creativity was understood more fully. This new found sense of human creativity coupled with a lack of order or limitation on human action has led to the nihilistic future that modernity faces. The way in which this relates to the Enlightenment is that these contradictions in Christianity went unnoticed by Enlightenment philosophers who basically shaped the ideology of modernity. The contradictions and fallacies inherent in their theories can explain the thoroughgoing secularism of modernity as well as its nihilistic future. However, the contradictions in early Christian theology can not explain fully the mistakes made in the Enlightenment. Something that Poteat is more concerned with is that of the danger of becoming too visually oriented. The invention of the printing press in the mid-fifteenth century led to the possibility of widespread literacy. This dramatically altered perception of the world. An oral culture communicates in a very personal manner, seeing as how communication must take place face to face through speech. Oral cultures tend to be more spiritual and emotional while thinking and expressing themselves in imaginative and poetic ways. A literate culture is very visual. Communication takes place on more impersonal terms. Literate people become more materialistic which leads to a dramatic decline in spirituality and religiosity. Thinking is more analytical and abstract, due to the fact that memory is not as important because a vast amount of information is available at once to reference. This analytical and abstract way of thinking was a corner stone of Enlightenment thought. Enlightenment philosophers tried to extend the success of scientific method to other areas of human experience. They over abstracted to the point that context was lost. Knowledge was considered something that could be understood completely independent of context, as well as any human point of view. They distinguished sharply between absolutely proven facts and unproven opinion. This idea of objectivism has been very damaging. Since the seventeenth century, the Enlightenment standard of knowledge has not only declared religion and morality as matters of opinion, but science as well. Nothing can be absolutely proven by the Enlightenment standard; therefore there can be no truth or knowledge. This positivistic thought, born of a literate and therefore visual orientation, is what has led to the nihilism that modernity faces.
The blame for this problem of nihilism, according to Poteat, falls largely on the shoulders of a culture’s extreme visual orientation. He demonstrates this with a comparison between an oral/aural oriented understanding of necessity and contingency and a visually oriented understanding of necessity and contingency. The way that logic is spoken about and the words used to speak of logic are determined by the orientation that is held by one who practices logic. There are many fundamental words that are used to describe reality or the hanging-togetherness of things. Poteat mentions ‘form’, ‘order’, ‘reason’, and ‘meaning’ as examples of such words. However, he is chiefly concerned with the words ‘necessity’ and ‘contingency’, which he argues take on radically different meanings when viewed through a visual picture and an audial picture. Poteat begins by formulating a visual picture within which he can reflect. He abstracts a picture of himself running as if captured in a photograph. This abstracted picture of the seen world is that of an enduring, unchanging, static, eternity. In his visual picture, all of the objects within it are co-present with one another in an a-temporal manner. These objects are not related causally, or by motif, but simply by being co-present in this frozen, eternal, instant of time. The picture of sight disallows causation because the world tends to become a collection of separate snapshots disconnected from one another, resulting in misunderstood, unconnected change. Poteat says the abstract reflection of sight is “…the power to see in an instant without temporal thickness an at once finite, static, and eternal (visually) spatial configuration whose “parts” are determinate and simultaneously co-present with each other.” (65). The visual picture abstracts knowledge from time as well as context. He then attempts to form a similar picture of hearing. This is not possible however, because no sound can be heard in a dead slice of visual space. This type of picture leaves no room for a sound to be heard. Although seeing takes place in time, one still has the ability to abstract a picture and freeze it a-temporally. Hearing also takes place in time, but one cannot abstract an instant of sound and freeze it a-temporally. Poteat acknowledges this and moves to create a new picture of hearing manifested in music and lively speech. The particulars of musical notes and lively speech are not related in visual space, as was the picture of seeing that Poteat described, but they are related in time. One particular or moment does not cause the next nor is one particular or moment caused by the one prior. Each moment pretends the next which retrotends the former. This is the dynamic process of music and lively speech acts which can not be considered static as a picture of seeing is. These are the pictures of seeing and hearing with which Poteat works to explain his contrasts between the meaning of ‘necessity’ and ‘contingency’. Poteat begins his contrast by looking not to the modern usage of the words ‘necessity’ and ‘contingency’, but by seeking deeper meaning within their etymology. The Latin roots of ‘necessary’ translate as ‘not to go’, ‘inevitable’, or ‘unavoidable’. Within the original meanings of the roots of the word ‘necessary’ are the definitions of the idea of permanence. The Latin roots of the word ‘contingency’ translate as ‘to happen’ or ‘to befall’. Within the original meanings of the roots of the word ‘contingency’ are the definitions of the idea of not just occurring, but occurring by chance or luck. In the picture of seeing, all of the objects present within the eternal slice of dead visual space appear to be necessary to one another in that they do not go away from one another. This picture is a-temporal. In the picture of hearing, contrastingly, the idea of temporality is a necessity, seeing as how a musical melody or a speech act cannot be isolated within a dead slice of visual space. Poteat wants to be able to speak of logic in a way more conducive to the picture of hearing. Since modernity has found itself appreciating above all others the picture of seeing, Poteat claims that this influences it to conceive of the world in a more static fashion than is accurate. He says, “The “logic” of that account of seeing lodged in the imagination and acritically relied upon, weighted toward eternity, being, essence, and necessity, has the overwhelming power to predispose us toward a conception of things in which the eternal, unchanging, and static is superordinated “ontologically” and “axiologically” over other conceptions.” (63). There needs to be a more accurate representation of the conception of the world that establishes necessity while recognizing contingent possibilities. This picture is not provided by seeing alone, but by the picture of hearing which presents a more dynamic conception of the world. The picture of seeing, when raised above other senses, leads to an abstraction from those senses as well as a complete experience with reality. For example, this is what has happened since the Enlightenment, in modernity’s obsession with objectivity. Much of sense experience has been lost in the search for objective empirical truth through the elevated picture of sight. Poteat uses the examples of music and lively speech to construct the picture of hearing in which necessity and contingency can be recognized and through which a dynamic reality can be conceived. Music gains necessity by the fact that it is governed by a scale that only allows a finite amount of compositions to be conceivably created. It is relatively contingent in that it is not static because it takes place temporally. This to say that no piece of music can be heard in its entirety at once, therefore it is subject to at least a relative contingency. Lively speech provides a different picture of hearing. Although it has necessity by virtue of it being governed by grammatical, syntactical, and semantic themes, lively speech provides for a different kind of contingency. The picture of hearing as modeled by the lively speech act presents an absolute contingency. Lively speech is absolutely contingent upon the person who speaks, which in turn makes that person exist as such. Being a person in time while engaging in speech, a lively act created out of one’s mindbodily being in the world, is absolutely contingent. Poteat says, “…my actual mindbodily existence as in this moment a speaking speaker is contingent: contingent in the sense that my very being at this moment, though it has the character it has in virtue of the motifs that reign over it, exists because of my act of taking myself up and apart from which act I would not exist as what and who I am.” (95). Speech has necessity through the rules that govern it, but it gets its contingency through the act of a person taking it up and owning words of their own before others. This act of actually being a human is contingent. Poteat claims that this distinction between the picture of sight and the pictures of hearing can be traced back to a divergence between Greek concepts and Hebraic concepts, as was referenced earlier. Both the Greeks and the Hebrews took the word as their basic metaphor for reality. The Hebrew’s word was dabhar. The word dabhar is translated as not only a word but also a deed or an event in time. This word can also be called a performative. A performative creates something, as long as spoken by one with appropriate authority to do so, that had up until its utterance not existed. An example of a performative being used would be in that of a wedding ceremony by a priest. This idea of performative words is grounded in the Hebrew conception of a paradigmatic speaker who faithfully, personally, and contingently speaks worlds into existence. This speaker, Yahweh, chooses from contingent possibilities, the words to use to create a world. Men have the same capability minus the faithfulness in this Hebrew conception. The word which is always that of the paradigmatic speaker, Yahweh, remains living in a dynamic manner. Yahweh’s dahbar is spoken forth, contingently, into a contingent world where the world created had hitherto not existed. This basic metaphor for reality shapes the minds of men in a manner that allows them to think of a dynamic world. Since they were created in the image of God, a personal and faithful speaker, they too have similar abilities. Although men have not the faith of Yahweh, they can depend upon his faithfulness. For example, experimental science is possible if men can depend upon a faithful Yahweh. Men have the capability of creating worlds and accomplishing progression. The world is modeled after a faithful paradigmatic speaker. The world receives necessity through the vehicle of the speech which the speaker takes up as their own. But it is the action of taking the speech up as their own that allows for absolute contingency, for this is what allows human existence. This Hebraic conception of the world leads to a sound based understanding of ‘necessity’ and ‘contingency’. Contrastingly, the Greek conception of the word as the basic metaphor for reality, logos, reflects a different type of word. Poteat mentions several different types of uses for the word logos but seems to settle upon the definition of ‘to gather’ or ‘to arrange’. This implies a certain external value that Greeks attribute to words. They are things, unlike the Hebraic dabhar which is issued forth and used to effect. The reason that the Greeks may not have appreciated the spoken word as much as the Hebrews did is due to the faster process by which Greek society became literate. Their alphabet was easier to understand, read, and write than was the Hebraic system of syllabaries which was chiefly used in ritual. Long after the Old Testament was written down, the Hebrews still existed in an oral culture, unlike the Greeks who became literate quickly thanks to an easily used written system. The metaphorical word for the Greeks, being written and therefore visual, was static and eternal. Poteat says of the Greeks, “…words get their meaning in being parts of an ‘immutable and impersonal mode of discourse’ through which they are related ‘to some ultimate principle of rational order in the universe, to the logos‘.”(115). This picture is very similar to the picture that Poteat abstracted of himself running. The word for the Greeks exists in an unchanging text, the particulars of which are all equally accessible at any given moment. This is to say that all particulars of the word are simultaneously co-present and therefore, necessary. This conception of an unchanging, natural order or of a finite text does not allow for contingency, but provides a thoroughgoing necessity. Given what is known of the capacity for human creativity, this model for reality can only lead in one of two directions. The first is that of the path of modernity. When humans realize that the paradigm under which they exist is not reflective of their actual existence, the paradigm will make no sense and change will occur, either in the form of a new set of meanings for necessity and contingency or a radical breakdown altogether. This radical breakdown can be understood as nihilism or a loss of standards for knowledge, morals, and truth. The second of possibilities is that of an entrenched non-progressive culture that, having not understood the capacities which could allow for change and improvement, would remain in a comparably destitute situation. While in the Hebraic conception of reality both necessity and contingency can coexist in a dynamic order, the Greek conception only allows necessity. Greek thought allows only for deduction as opposed to the induction of modern western science and philosophy. The visual orientation of the Greeks does lead to the differing meanings of necessity and contingency and at quite the detrimental cost to thought and creativity. A visual orientation either leads to static or chaotic results.
The nihilistic situation in which modernity finds itself can be explained by the mixing of both Hebraic and Greek concepts which when combined become incoherent. This incoherence leads to a breakdown of an accurate understanding of reality which Poteat thinks can be provided by a realization of the Hebraic concept of a dynamic world based upon the metaphor of the spoken word given by the paradigmatic faithful speaker. Within this conception of the world, much can be accomplished. The Enlightenment mistake, due to reliance upon a visual orientation, assumed that knowledge and truth were objective due to their understanding of such issues as being part of a large, finite, immutable text. This conception has since broken down any kind of standards for knowledge due to the fact that it is impossible to absolutely prove anything in the manner in which Enlightenment thought aimed to accomplish. The dualism of objectivity and subjectivity is not acknowledged in the dynamic conception of reality provided by the Hebrews. Obviously, all of this can account for the unfortunate contemporary situation in which it is seemingly impossible to find consensus among people on issues that require a standard of knowledge, morals, and truth. The uniquely human capability for speech is what knowledge, morals, and truth can be derived from. Modern problems surrounding issues such as marriage, abortion, aesthetic expression, and community can be reconciled by escaping nihilism through an effort to recognize and appreciate an oral orientation that has been subordinate to the visual orientation that is responsible for the foundation of modernity’s crisis. The only way to do this is to form communities at the local level that will be conducive to a way of life that does not rely so heavily upon sight while encouraging personal oral communication. The modern breakdown of community can be explained by the overarching contemporary value of individual expression brought about by the development of a consumer culture. Aesthetic expression, linked directly to a visual orientation, replaces a utilitarian expression when production reaches remarkable highs in a free market society with a strong work ethic, as was the case with western societies. The main goal of individuals in a consumer culture is to express themselves in the most aesthetically pleasing manner that they see fit, usually by buying this thing or that. This highly materialistic objective does not adequately replace the righteous functions of humans. Modern people have not only experienced a breakdown in the bonds of community brought about by radical individualism, but they have also lost their roles and functions through which they could derive a just purpose for simply being. A restoration of community would not only provide for a better setting in which oral, personal communication could thrive and therefore, purpose as well, but also the isolation that individuals within modernity’s context experience could be eliminated. If these communities were established and people began thinking in less visual terms, many of the ills of modernity could be righted. An increase in the divorce rate over the past few decades could be reversed if purpose were restored to the institution of marriage. First and foremost, marriage would be understood as an obligation not only to one another, but also to the community and God. Among these obligations would be the responsibilities of procreation for the purposes of populating the rapidly decreasing indigenous population. Both mother and father of these children, as well as the surrounding community which would include several generations so as to solidify and pass along generation crossing narratives, would have significant roles in the raising and education of the children. This situation would greatly improve upon the modern one in which either the mother primarily raises children on her own or institutions such as day care and public education raise the children. These purposes would sustain a marriage and family throughout a lifetime, unlike the unstable basis for marriage in modernity, romance. Another issue which could finally be addressed would be that of abortion. Given the communal situation in which people would find themselves, a close knit, lifelong educational growth process including generations of family, friends and neighbors, unexpected teenage pregnancies or unwanted pregnancies in general would be unlikely to occur. With an educational focus on the biblical virtues of faith, hope, and love people will be able to trust in the faithful speaker, God, that there is an order to the world, hope for a better future, as well as love one another due to the fact that no one can know everything therefore judgment can’t be passed, although helping one another is imperative. From these virtues, behavioral traditions can be derived and established over time which will eventually lead to a situation within the community that would be helpful to those with unexpected pregnancies while lowering drastically the likelihood of a teenage pregnancy. These are just some of the explicit changes that could occur if communities arose that fostered a sound based orientation. By shifting away from a visual orientation, many comforts would be lost, but standards for knowledge, morals, and truth could be found. By realizing the full capability and implication of speech, people could accomplish much more. The political bickering over seemingly trivial nonsense could end and a truly meaningful public discussion could begin regarding issues such as how to apply and adapt the biblical narrative in a way that would be helpful in changing the direction in which modernity is faced. Once it is realized that the world is dynamic, yet ordered, debates such as ones concerning evolution can end. As soon as the implications of this joyful message are appreciated in an accurate manner an advantageous progression can occur in theology, politics, and in the daily lives of every human being. Although skepticism, provided by modernity, suggests that this scenario is unlikely to occur due to the tendency of modern people to apply Enlightenment thought, which would dismiss this argument of Poteat’s as religious in nature and therefore opinion, one must still recognize the theory in question provides for an understanding of reality hitherto unknown to modern people. Poteat presents an argument that not only accounts for an element of experience, obviously underappreciated and unrecognized by modern people, which is grounded in an extensive acknowledgement of ontological and epistemological concepts but also provides for an answer to the questions that many people ask regularly. It seems that many people in modernity seek to fill a void that has been created by a lack of appreciation for the sound element of experience which is responsible for concepts such as God and spirit. Many question whether their existence is meaningful. Given an appreciation for the oral facet of human experience, according to Poteat, a sense of being as well as standards for knowledge, morals, and truth can be found.
