Thanks for this thoughtful piece. I’m a hunter, and can affirm that doing a hard thing with uncertain outcomes provides manifold opportunities (mostly via failure) to cultivate the “love of wisdom.” At its best, the experience of serene detachment hunting provides is, in a sense, divine. Someone once described it as standing “for a moment in the oldest silence on earth.”
The German philosopher Josef Pieper, in his “Guide to Thomas Aquinas” noted how the saint achieved the serene separation required to pen his great works. Pieper said his “cloistral seclusion became inner seclusion” and that Aquinas built a “cell for contemplation within the self to be carried about through the hurly-burly of the vita activa (active life).” That’s an apt description, I think, of hunting: a hunter needs a high level of detachment amidst the “hurly-burly” of gear, game and weather to free the mind for intense physical action. I think that’s what José Ortega y Gasset was getting at in “Meditations on Hunting.”
Herodotus noted “Of all men's miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.” That’s the hunter’s life in a nutshell. You gather information, visualize, practice and prepare, yet it all boils down to how much control you can wrest for the serene second it takes to release the arrow or squeeze the trigger.
I once had a Great Horned Owl alight on a branch not three feet from my head while hog hunting one night in Georgia. We spent 45 minutes intently watching the same bait pile and sharing a philosophy.
"hurly-burly of the vita activa" is spot-on. Like anything else in life, the distractions can pull us away from the task at hand.
And your note about Herodotus...the control over nothing. That's it: the acceptance that in hunting and thought, there is a chance of "returning empty-handed" (as said by Ortega y Gasset). To me, that failure is fun because it means an opportunity to improve and change.
I had a similar encounter with an owl a couple of years ago while in a tree stand deer hunting. Also about 3' away, at last light, the owl landed on a beech branch next to me and we stared at each other while the rest of the world ceased to exist for a few moments. Your description of Pieper, Aquinas, and seclusion also reminded me of that instance.
Thank you for this thoughtful comment- I appreciate it and look forward to checking out the references you cite. Happy to connect with another philosopher-hunter.
This is excellent Jesse. I rarely recommend books for others to read because everyone is so strapped for time, but Byung-Chul Han's "The Transparency Society" is 45 pages long and addresses, tangentially, the exact problem you are outlining here. I'm a quarter of the way through it and it is staggering. It may help you evolve your own thinking here. Loved this piece.
"In successful thinking and hunting, we adapt, look for new information (and are open to it), and are ready to pivot when the opportunity arises. In this sense, the philosopher-hunter is a critical thinker, distinguishing between fact and fiction while refining their ability to do so. When we hunt or think just “because” or “that’s what I’ve always thought,” we become stagnant.
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Sounds like a SCIENTIST-Hunter to me! Appreciate your integrating the learning and doing parts of any worthwhile activity, Jesse.
Thank you for this piece Jesse. Your note about hunters facing consequences really hits home. I saw a note earlier about how stress, paradoxically, might be good for us; I'm not really a fan of the word stress as its meaning is a bit too slippery in my opinion. Consequences is much, much better. Consequences, and I might add Responsibilities, end up being crucial ingredients for a fulfilling life.
I like that distinction, Dan. In the context of this essay, I feel that by becoming too relativistic we are removing consequences and by that logic, refusing to learn or change. It gets kind of heady and philosophical, but it's important. If we can all just complain and embrace our own chosen facts, but only buy into reality when it's convenient, where does that leave us in terms of progress?
So many examples right now- protests, science, politics. That's where, like you say, responsibilities come into play.
Thanks for this thoughtful piece. I’m a hunter, and can affirm that doing a hard thing with uncertain outcomes provides manifold opportunities (mostly via failure) to cultivate the “love of wisdom.” At its best, the experience of serene detachment hunting provides is, in a sense, divine. Someone once described it as standing “for a moment in the oldest silence on earth.”
The German philosopher Josef Pieper, in his “Guide to Thomas Aquinas” noted how the saint achieved the serene separation required to pen his great works. Pieper said his “cloistral seclusion became inner seclusion” and that Aquinas built a “cell for contemplation within the self to be carried about through the hurly-burly of the vita activa (active life).” That’s an apt description, I think, of hunting: a hunter needs a high level of detachment amidst the “hurly-burly” of gear, game and weather to free the mind for intense physical action. I think that’s what José Ortega y Gasset was getting at in “Meditations on Hunting.”
Herodotus noted “Of all men's miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.” That’s the hunter’s life in a nutshell. You gather information, visualize, practice and prepare, yet it all boils down to how much control you can wrest for the serene second it takes to release the arrow or squeeze the trigger.
I once had a Great Horned Owl alight on a branch not three feet from my head while hog hunting one night in Georgia. We spent 45 minutes intently watching the same bait pile and sharing a philosophy.
Corey-
"hurly-burly of the vita activa" is spot-on. Like anything else in life, the distractions can pull us away from the task at hand.
And your note about Herodotus...the control over nothing. That's it: the acceptance that in hunting and thought, there is a chance of "returning empty-handed" (as said by Ortega y Gasset). To me, that failure is fun because it means an opportunity to improve and change.
I had a similar encounter with an owl a couple of years ago while in a tree stand deer hunting. Also about 3' away, at last light, the owl landed on a beech branch next to me and we stared at each other while the rest of the world ceased to exist for a few moments. Your description of Pieper, Aquinas, and seclusion also reminded me of that instance.
Thank you for this thoughtful comment- I appreciate it and look forward to checking out the references you cite. Happy to connect with another philosopher-hunter.
This is excellent Jesse. I rarely recommend books for others to read because everyone is so strapped for time, but Byung-Chul Han's "The Transparency Society" is 45 pages long and addresses, tangentially, the exact problem you are outlining here. I'm a quarter of the way through it and it is staggering. It may help you evolve your own thinking here. Loved this piece.
Thank you, Sam. I've added The Transparency Society to my list and it's at the top. Forty-five pages is an appealing length right now.
I would like for you to recommend more books despite being pressed for time haha
Haha will do my best.
"In successful thinking and hunting, we adapt, look for new information (and are open to it), and are ready to pivot when the opportunity arises. In this sense, the philosopher-hunter is a critical thinker, distinguishing between fact and fiction while refining their ability to do so. When we hunt or think just “because” or “that’s what I’ve always thought,” we become stagnant.
-
Sounds like a SCIENTIST-Hunter to me! Appreciate your integrating the learning and doing parts of any worthwhile activity, Jesse.
That has a nice ring to it, Baird. Thank you.
This piece demonstrates the hunter-philosopher in you. Reflective, practical, and oriented toward action. Good stuff brother
Thank you, Kyle.👊
Insightful piece, Jesse. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.
Thank you for reading, James.
Thank you for this piece Jesse. Your note about hunters facing consequences really hits home. I saw a note earlier about how stress, paradoxically, might be good for us; I'm not really a fan of the word stress as its meaning is a bit too slippery in my opinion. Consequences is much, much better. Consequences, and I might add Responsibilities, end up being crucial ingredients for a fulfilling life.
I like that distinction, Dan. In the context of this essay, I feel that by becoming too relativistic we are removing consequences and by that logic, refusing to learn or change. It gets kind of heady and philosophical, but it's important. If we can all just complain and embrace our own chosen facts, but only buy into reality when it's convenient, where does that leave us in terms of progress?
So many examples right now- protests, science, politics. That's where, like you say, responsibilities come into play.
Thank you.
Fantastic, as always, Jesse.
Thank you, Lou- I appreciate it 👍🏻