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MAN AT THE FRONTIER
aware of contrasts of a historical kind. What was true for us
yesterday is untrue today. Sometimes it seems as if we are unable
to take possession of some of life’s rules until we have lived
through the experience of denying their validity. As Jaspers
says, that which for one man is plain and practical because the
contrasting experience has been lived through is empty and
meaningless for another who has not seen it from both sides.
How Are These Contradictions To Be Resolved?
Our existence swings between poles, either of which alone
would make life a chaos or reduce it to nonentity; but out of the
polarity itself something greater and richer can be born. How
can we react to contradictory situations? According to Jaspers,
there are three ways.
(1) We become frustrated. The naive person lives at the bidding
of his instincts, doing what is appropriate at a low level
of existence. He lives in the security of his limitations,
using his power of thought only as a tool for the fulfilment
of his primitive purposes. The reflective person perceives
the contradictions in his life, but he may be unwilling to
use the means of resolving them. He wants to strive
towards a goal but not to accept the consequences of his
striving—the limitation of his power to possess or enjoy
the polar antitheses of what he strives for. The desire to
have his bread buttered on both sides heightens his
awareness of contradictions and increases his uncertainty, often
with the consequence that action is paralysed. Flight from
self-contradiction then occurs, causing us to deny either
that life has meaning or that we have; and we elect to
drift with the human stream, occupying ourselves wholly
with trivialities and distractions.
(2) We attempt evasion. We may blind ourselves to one aspect
of the contradictory situation or rationalise the
contradictions into false syntheses; for example, by denying
the reality of good and evil and making expediency the
criterion of behaviour.
(3) We win power. By steadfastly refusing to deny the reality
of contradictions and resolutely striving to reach a synthesis
in lived experience, we convert them into a means of
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