Page 12 - Boca ViewPointe - June '20

Page 12, Viewpointe June 2020

Book Review

Local Boca Pointe Author & in Guyana, Mr. Bacchus immigrated to the United States
for his education, notably in New York. Trained as an
Kierkegaard Issue electrical engineer, he undertook a career as a corporate
businessman, hobbied as a pilot and flight instructor. He
Clare Carlisle. Philosopher of the Heart. The Restless Life of credits his understanding of science and the animal kingdom
Soren Kierkegaard. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. to his youth where in addition to farm chores, he helped
2019. his father create jewelry for his shop, which inspired his
Ralph B. Bacchus. Being Human, Out of the Village and Into fascination with chemistry.
the Jungle, an Authobiographical Themed Study of a Man Book 1 is an autobiography which traces his life from
on a Quest to Find Himself and the Meaning of Life. Book a small village in Guyana to the Big Apple. He credits his
1. Amazon: Kindle, 2019. mother’s love but principally his father’s influence as a
Ralph B. Bacchus. Being Human Being, the Philosophy of farmer, goldsmith, and harsh mentor who encouraged his
Existence. Book 2. Self Published: San Bernardino, CA, work ethic, ambition, and faith.
2020. Book 2, the subject of this review, is an exploration
“The first and foremost purpose of wisdom is fear of the of the current state of the human condition in the light of
Lord.” Proverbs all of us are human, with emotions, frailties, and personal the extraordinary reach of modern science which, in Mr.
history; and she might very well have entitled her work after Bacchus’s telling, has advanced eons since Kierkegaard, in
By Dr. Ronald J. Meyers Robert Frost’s familiar conceit, the road not taken. physics, chemistry, anthropology, biology, psychology. He
While Kierkegaard in his mid-twenties was earning credits his intellectual curiosity inspired by the teachings
Clare Carlisle’ s his advanced degree, as Magister, at the University of and presentation of difficult concepts in plain knowledge
biographical study of Copenhagen, he went through several emotional crises. by the teleducator Professor Carl Sagan. Mr. Bacchus is
notable nineteenth century After losing both parents, he undertook a courtship with comfortable explaining the Big Bang, the Higgs Boson,
Danish philosopher Soren Copenhagen native Regine Olsen. During their one year artificial intelligence and noting, for readers today; how
Kierkegaard (1813-1855) engagement, he wrote his doctoral dissertation “On the bacteria much larger than viruses, while ubiquitous,
seeks to uncover the man Concept of Irony,” but then ironically and impetuously broke are held in check by medicinal anti-biotics to counter
behind the philosopher it off, and entrained off to Berlin to focus on his writing their harmful effects, while viruses have typically been
whose avowed purpose career. The thrust of Professor Carlisle’s study is that this contained by our anti-immune system to blunt their
in life was understanding rupture influenced both his fictional and creative work. resolve to survive and propagate on spittle and continual
being and becoming human. What followed were major philosophical works like Either/ mutations. The great machine of evolution has enabled
Kierkegaard, the youngest and seventh child from a wealthy Or, Fear and Trembling, Sickness Unto Death, ostensibly survival through blind determination and adaptation.
merchant family, freed from the exigency of a job and objective works of philosophy, but Professor Carlisle avers, Furthermore, the holy grail of evolution was the invention
earning a living, devoted his life to walking the streets of were rooted in his own ambivalence and melancholy. Father or creation of human consciousness, the most distinct
wherever he was, thinking, and writing, producing a library Abraham, the famous Knight of Faith, might have inferred achievement of evolution and human nature.
of sermons, journals, fiction and major philosophical works. his own choice to follow the path of God in willing sacrifice Another aspect of Mr. Bacchus’ work is a harsh attack
His first interest was Christian theology--during his entire rather than acting on mortal choice. In his fiction, a work on human misbehavior and arrogance. He began his inquiry
life, he was a devout Christian and assiduous churchgoer; entitled “Seducer’s Diary” and another entitled “Repetition,” as his response to the intolerance of the terrorists who
yet his writing provided the teaching of skepticism he reflects on his trauma of his separation from Regine. planned the attack on the World Trade Center. But he also
embraced by later secular philosophers like Jean-Paul Professor Carlisle, who has had access to the Soren has expressed strong indignity against the tendencies of
Sartre. His rendition of Jewish heroes like Abraham and Kierkegaard Research Center at the University of colonialism under the auspices of the Caucasian strand of
David similarly has brought adoration and recognition by Copenhagen, reveals that his relationship continued even the human species. One needs to point out that the principal
notable Jewish philosophers. after the break-up. Indeed Regine married another, but they weakness of these self published books is want of editing,
Kierkegaard, who sought to follow the example of both attended the same Church of Our Lady, and further and therefore wordiness and repetition. Notwithstanding,
Socrates of know thyself and strive for a virtuous life, encountered each other on their frequent peripatetic walks it served as a useful review for me. He does follow a
lived in the golden age of modern philosophy in middle on the streets of Copenhagen. All wordlessly. At the last tradition of American individualists like Herman Melville,
Europe, along with icons like Kant and Hegel. These were meeting, Carlisle suggests, Regine broke the fourteen year Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman and perhaps principally
formulating a secular bent which has defined contemporary silence with a whisper, “God bless you.” Soren indeed once Henry David Thoreau whose intellectual curiosity fed their
philosophy with its understanding of existentialism, wrote her a letter that he addressed to her husband, who authorial creativity. Finally, Mr. Bacchus, like Kierkegaard,
freedom, and kindred absurdity. This new study reminds returned it--unopened. Nevertheless, his last will would credits his father for his pietistic faith.
us of the role of the great Dane in modern philosophy. name Madame Regine Schelling as his sole beneficiary.
Professor Carlisle, who teaches at the University of Boca Pointe resident Ralph B. Bacchus, not trained Dr. Ronald J. Meyers, resident of La Paz, Emeritus
London, has devoted her life to the study of Kierkegaard professionally as a philosopher, has chosen, in retirement, to Professor of English, is pleased to offer acknowledgement
going back to her doctoral dissertation and later works that undertake a long term study of that very topic that engaged and recognition to the work of current residents of our
focused on his philosophical writings. Here she narrows her Kierkegaard, what it means to be human. Raised on a farm community. rmeyers@esu.edu. 
search to uncover the heart of the man who, in her view,
“blended philosophy with autobiography.” Philosophers like

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