Definitions HQ

Finitude (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠(i.e. Endlichkeit) more or less a reference to death.

Finitude (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠an aspect of being in that being requires other things to reveal itself in a civilization, amounting to an always necessarily partial revelation, and a revelation within the context of a civilization that has a beginning and an end.

Finitude (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠concerned not only with spatial, temporal, definitional, or cognitive limits, but it also refers to how an awareness of absence is intrinsic to the presence of things.

Finitude (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠not a quantitative boundary, but a relationship to nothingness. Man, as the 'placeholder of the nothing,' is the most finite of all creatures.

Finitude (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠our fundamental way of being. And in order to become authentic, we cannot abandon or deceive ourselves about it, but must safeguard it.

Finitude (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠primary. Infinity is a derivative, or secondary to finitude.

Finitude (n.) involves ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a demand made of that entity we call 'man' to be open to beings which are not itself and which must therefore be able to somehow show themselves of their own accord.

Finitude (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the idea that we have sensibility and sense-organs in order to receive intuitions from objects. God, by contrast, in his infinitude, creates his own objects.

Finitude (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠characterized by the act of thinking. While God, in his infinity, had no need for thinking, thinking is itself the mark of man's finitude. We exist in the midst of what already is, handed over to it, with an intuition that is received from objects and does not create them.

Finitude (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the notion that thought cannot transcend its own historicity, or achieve, except in fantasy, that kind of assured un-worlded ‘truth’ idealized in Western cultures.

Finitude (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠denied in the West in a drive towards theoretical knowledge that is now culminating in the globalization of techno-science and bureaucratically mapped and controlled forms of life.

Finitude (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the idea that our historicity does not cut us off from reality - to the contrary, it opens us up to the meaning of Being.

Finitude (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the fact that, for each of us, the future is finite, because it is bounded by mortality.