Communiqué to The Public
from
The Fifth Philosophical Council of Keeferton

KNOW BY ALL YE PRESENT, that on the Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth days of October, in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty-One, there took place in the Lands of Keeferton, County of Rockbridge, Commonwealth of Virginia, the Fifth Philosophical Council (hereinafter “Council”) consisting of Messr. Timothy Eaton, Dr. Dan Turello, and hosted by the First Steward of Keeferton, Timothy J. Keefer, Esq. (collectively, the Trinity of Philosophers).
As the world awaited the outcome of this Fifth Philosophical Council, the participants ventured into The Question of the Existential Third Man. Background material was made available to all at: https://dispatchestk.com/2021/07/30/source-material-for-the-fifth-philosophical-council-of-keeferton/, and The People were invited to participate through a Call For Sentences: https://dispatchestk.com/2021/09/07/call-for-sentences/. The Council tabled the unfinished business from the prior Councils. As documented below, the event again demonstrably helped to illumine the questions that hinder all of mankind. The Trinity of Philosophers entered, robed, into The Great Hall to the clarion call of English Trumpet. After discussion on the Call For Sentences, a meditation was led by Dr. Dan Turello. Discussion on The Question ensued.
Entered this, the First day of February in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty-Two, and in the Twentieth Year of Keeferton, by our hands:

Timothy Wm. Eaton, A.E., T.P.

Rdr. Timothy J. Keefer, Esq., T.P., First Steward of Keeferton

Daniele Turello, Ph.D., T.P.

The following Opinion of The Council and a dissent by TURELLO, T.P., are attached.

PER CONCILIUM. The Williamsburg Cohort asked The Council to take up the issue of the Existential Third Man (first appearing at:  https://dispatchestk.com/2011/07/23/yesterdays-synergy/), and it agreed to do so.  Background information is found at:  https://dispatchestk.com/2021/07/30/source-material-for-the-fifth-philosophical-council-of-keeferton/.

I.

We see the Existential Third Man (ETM) as a third-person perspective which we borrow from the literary context.  The ETM has the perspective of the Observer from a universal whole which may include the individual; it does not interact or engage, but it may inform our thoughts.  It offers awareness of one’s agency, even viewed from afar, even if it is the perspective of oneself.  It offers infinite perspectives from ourselves, others, everything, and even beyond finitude.  As it pertains to the implications for that which has no known conscious observer, the Council takes no position.  The need for a finite observer exists only in the finite world governed by the laws of physics.  In a non-dual infinity there is no need to specifically identify the observer, thus giving rise to the concept of the ETM.  This is concededly speculative.  

The ETM only matters if it is helpful.  Where do we find a framework for the meaning of our life?  Most frameworks can be defined within the confines of this finite world.  This limitation is where we exist.  There is, however, the notion of undefinable limitlessness that would include this finite plane.  Perspective matters.  If the finite individual is limited by the perspective of the self ego, then other perspectives can be helpful in this plane.  These other perspectives are offered by the ETM.  Here, we have to say that the infinite encompasses the finite.  The question remains, how does one utilize the ETM in the here and now?  Awareness of the ETM is the start.  This is an awareness that there are perspectives beyond the self, which one can access.  Simply the fact of that awareness can be helpful.  How a person accesses other perspectives is highly individualized, it may be unique.  Often, we only obtain another’s perspective on this finite plane through words and thoughts because those are the limitations of this finite plane.  Words and thoughts have limitations.  Religious or folkloric figures/mediators can offer helpful transitional vehicles here, to even embodying the ETM.  The ETM can be a reminder of other perspectives as well as offer a shift in our own; it offers the possibility of greater meaning and development of personal ethics.  

An interesting question for the future will be technological changes that may permit us to tap into the consciousness/perspectives of others in the future.

The issues of the fear of death, “Emotional Justice,” and a person’s “Inner Sporleder” were discussed without conclusive reference to the ETM.  

II.

The Council also addressed issues from the Williamsburg Preakouncil.  The Preakouncil raised the issue of a “mortality project.”  This is in contrast to Ernest Becker’s concept of the immortality project in “The Denial of Death” that human beings undertake to assuage their fear of death.  The idea here is that a mortality project is undertaken with the understanding of the fact of death, such as a “bucket list.”  At IX Park in Charlottesville, Virginia, there is a chalkboard wall with the repeated line “Before I Die I Want To:______” which people can fill in with chalk.  While these could be seen as mortality projects, the statement is not one of immediacy.  There is the gap in time between now and when the person dies.  So what is it, really?  To what degree do we value a present moment in life is a key question.  What is more important:  the present moment or our legacy?  The legacy idea raises the immortality project.  The moment raises the mortality project.  How shall we then live?  What is possible?  What matters to me?  The ETM can provide perspective on these questions.

Issue forwarded to the Council:  “A participant challenged the use of the academic lexicon throughout the various published findings and Work of the People, and stated primarily that if it is to be The Work of the People, it ought to be worded in a manner that is accessible to the People and for the People.  Resolution: The Preakouncil discussion leader granted this observation as valid on the grounds that The People will be able to make more informed choices when instructed in a manner that is understood. They will be held more accountable when given the language, and educated as such. This concern will be communicated to the ToP at the upcoming Council. No trains will be sold after the magazines leave the depot.”  The concern here is language and accessibility.  Is the burden on The People to seek clarification?  Where possible, accessible language should be used but, ultimately, the responsibility for education lies with the individual.

III. 

Conclusion.
The Existential Third Man has the perspective of the Observer from a universal whole which may include the finite individual; it does not interact or engage, but it may inform our thoughts and ultimately our actions.
The Work of The People!

TURELLO, T.P., dissenting. I remain curious, but agnostic and often skeptical of the ideas presented.


The Call for Sentences: The Council deeply thanks The People for their participation and submissions. (Commentary is located in the Endnotes, below. The reader is encouraged to review them.)

No. 1. Go![i]
Result: QUESTIONED.

No. 2. Sir, don’t mock me; it’s ungentlemanly.[ii]
Result: TABLED.

No. 3. (The first part of a 4-part haiku.)
In ETM hides
an intriguing mystery
that we’re here to learn.[iii]
Result: Tabled until the completion of all four parts.
No. 4. (The second part of a 4-part haiku.)
Nonduality
is just the penultimate:
greater truth subsumes.[iv]
Result: Tabled until the completion of all four parts.
No. 5 (The third part of a 4-part haiku.)
Dual & Nondual
are only antipodes
to be transcended.[v]
Result: Tabled until the completion of all four parts.
No. 6 (The fourth part of a 4-part haiku.)
Then comes infinite
knowledge and wisdom, via
direct cognition.[vi]
Result: PERHAPS.

No. 7 May your studies, as well as your nights and days, be auspicious.[vii]
Result: ACCEPTED.

No. 8 “Welcome To The Black Parade” vs. “Sk8r Boi”; discuss.[viii]
Result: NOT RESOLVED.

No. 9 Has the production of Friday’s bagged potato skins been discontinued? If not, could they be offered in ‘breakfast flavors’ such as chicken and waffles, Lucky Charms, or grits?[ix]
Result: NOT RESOLVED.

Quotable Quotes

“Белое Золото; good to the last drop.” Timothy Keefer

“Meteor shower tonight.” Timothy Keefer
“I’ll take a meteor bath.” Timothy Eaton

“‘Keefer’s a serious man. He doesn’t dream about the Van Halen brothers.’” Timothy Eaton, attributing to Daniel Eaton.

“There’s nothing punctuation can’t fix.” Timothy Eaton

“We are the general contractors of our own lives.” Timothy Keefer

“I’m going to avail myself of one of the lotion stations at Keeferton.” Timothy Eaton

“Mockery is a form of love!” Dan Turello

“It’s all ‘ours’ in love!” Timothy Eaton

“Can you have non-cognitive knowledge and wisdom?” Dan Turello

“I’m getting a different picture of your days, Mr. Keefer.” Dan Turello

“I’ve always been a girl at a mall.” Anonymous

“Why is my legacy more important than the life I’m living in the moment?” Timothy Eaton

“I need your love to keep me happy.” Keith [identity unknown]

———————————————————————————————————————

ENDNOTES – Identities masked to protect against bias.

[i]
1 – My response is to remember the desire for Action! The imperative is a call to action.
2 – If we are in the moment, “Don’t just do something, stand there.”
1 – Do we have to follow the directive?
2 – I would say absolutely not. We are not mandated to follow. That is a choice we are having to face. We can’t dodge it. It’s a choice we have to make but we do not have to follow.
1 – Yes. You would take from Rush…
2 – “If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.”
1 – Yes; exactly.
2 – Yes, I recall all those lyrics verbatim. “You can choose from phantom fears OR kindness that can kill.” Any of those are choices, indeed. “I will choose a path that’s clear, I will choose free will.” Now, where it says “path that’s clear” I misheard it as “a bathysphere”.
1 – That would be an interesting choice.
2 – I will choose a bathysphere, I will choose free will. That’s sort of an ironic choice in itself, choosing a bathysphere. You can find freedom wherever you wish to find it, especially within your mind.

[ii]
A – Mockery is my love language.
B – There are no ‘r’s in love.
C – If it’s all ours in love, that’s not self-centered.
B – The “our” means the collective of those involved in the love.
C – So what’s wrong with that?
B – Well “ours” could also mean individual.
C – It could mean H-O-U-R-S as well! Hours.
B – It could mean “ours” or “hours.”
C – Xxxx the bed; I can’t even keep up.
B – Yes.
C – It was either a question or a statement which sometimes is unclear. I don’t capitalize, but you sometimes don’t punctuate.
B – At the end sometimes I don’t. I like to leave it ambiguous.
C – That is a statement in itself.
B – I like to let the person make the choice, you see, on how they want to interpret it. I don’t want to dictate the interpretation to them.
C – We’re not getting anywhere with this.
B – Would you say that mockery does not cause you to vent your Inner Sporleder?
C – I do have an Inner Sporleder, but, no, mockery does not bring that out. It might in others. And in its namesake it often brought about the Inner Sporleder being expressed. He chose not to perceive it as a form of love but chose to take offense and vent his Inner Sporleder.
B – So I want to get this point about this issue of choice. You’re saying how one responds is a choice. What about the fact that it’s ungentlemanly?
C – Well that’s a judgement call isn’t it? What does it mean to be a gentleman? Is someone not a gentleman if they choose to mock? I don’t feel it’s been resolved. Why don’t we give it time.
B – Let’s table it.

[iii]
I – Is that a truism?
II – That may be the case. Perhaps.
III – I’ll go with perhaps as well.
I – Why “perhaps”? Why not “yes” or “no”?
III — Well I would definitely say there certainly is always an opportunity to learn.
I — Okay. So you would say there is always an opportunity to learn.
III — I believe so.
I — So you take issue with “that we’re here to learn.” Which is very declarative.
III — The “that” is implied anyway.
I — “In ETM hides an intriguing mystery.”
III — Yeah, we’re here to learn.
I — In relation to the ETM?
III – “Hides an intriguing mystery?” Interesting. I think each person might have varying degrees of obscuring that opportunity. Or responsibility. Do we have a responsibility to learn?
II — Perhaps.
III — Well sometimes at our peril we don’t.
II — Yeah.
I — You said sometimes at our peril, to what?
III — If you don’t learn. We had to learn how to re-balance ourselves when our initial attempts to walk failed. We went from crawling to walking. And we had to learn to adapt our balance, muscles, muscle memory, all that stuff. So we learned; we didn’t want to go around falling the rest of our lives.
I — II, you said “perhaps” in response to this. What was your “perhaps” rooted in?
II — There’s just many statements in that statement that need to be further unpacked.
III — Unpacked.
I — Who packed them?
III — That’s interesting!
II — Yeah.
III — Did society pack them or did we pack them – subconsciously?

[iv]
☆ – I’m able to appreciate that poetically moreso than as a meaning I’m able to determine at this moment.
★ – Chase the cheese.
⇒ – Well, how do we feel about that? “Nonduality is just the penultimate: greater truth subsumes.” What greater truth?
☆ – Perhaps the greater truth is in the rejection of the non duality. You know, there is greater truth in the rejection of non duality.
⇒ – Of nonduality?
☆ – Yes.
★ – Why not simply stay in bed?
☆ – There is a response to that, as well.
⇒ – How can you have a rejection of nonduality?
☆ – Oh, oh, oh. Nonduality. Well, yeah, I do tend to believe also that everything is all, so we either have everything as one or all is everything. One is everything.
⇒ – Isn’t that a confirmation of nonduality?
☆ – Yeah, it’s either a confirmation or an example of it.

[v]
1 — I’m concerned that there are a lot of commands here.
2 — Yeah, you’ve got to want to transcend them.
1 — If that’s what you want.
2 — Yeah.
3 — Just because they command, you’ve got to either deflect or absorb that and process that as you will. It’s not what they call you, it’s what you answer to.
1 — There you go.

[vi]
A — I’m going to say, “Or not.”
B — That’s almost a redundancy.
C — The question is whether you can have non-cognitive knowledge?
B — I like THAT! See, now there you go.
C — What was it that was meant to be discovered?
A — “Then comes infinite knowledge and wisdom, via direct cognition.”
C — Right, so can you have knowledge and wisdom without cognition?
B — I think C is asserting that as a challenge to that statement. That question denies it as a possibility. Is that what you mean to say?
C — Yeah, I mean that there may be a way to have wisdom without cognition.
B — Oh yeah, yeah!
C — Perhaps.
B — Perhaps!

[vii]
I — Amen!
II — We’re in agreeance.
III — We’re in agreeance?
II — Yes.

[viii]
☆ – You discuss and let us know.
★ – Wow. I regard it [“Welcome to the Black Parade”] highly. Although I know next to nothing about “Sk8r Boi.”
⇒ – Well, you know the general idea behind “Sk8r Boi.”
★ – Yeah.
⇒ – Interestingly, both videos involve street events. “Welcome to the Black Parade” is the parade, whereas “Sk8r Boi” there is this kind of unauthorized concert in the middle of a street.
★ – Sure.
⇒ – That’s about the only similarity.
★ – Right.[The “Sk8r Boi” video was reviewed by the Council.]
⇒ – Actually, if you look at the songs that Avril Lavigne actually wrote versus the ones written for her, her songs are far more interesting.
★ – Interesting.
☆ – I know very little about her.
⇒ – I know very little about her.
★ – I’ve forgot everything I knew about her.
⇒ – But, “Keep Holding On,” which I think is probably her …
★ – Beef bullion?
☆ – Beef burgundy?
⇒ – “Keep Holding On”
★ – “Keep Holding On”?
☆ – Now I want to hear the other song.
⇒ – If you haven’t seen “Welcome to the Black Parade” you need to see that.
☆ – I don’t think I have.
⇒ – There is quite a contrast here between “Welcome to the Black Parade” and “Sk8r Boi”.
★ – This was brought to my attention by Mr. [ ], by the way, “Welcome to the Black Parade.”[The “Welcome to the Black Parade” video was reviewed by the Council.]
★ – It’s so over the top, I love it!
☆ – I mean, great video. I like the first song better.
★ – You like the Avril Lavigne song better?
☆ – I like the Avril Lavigne song better, but this is a great video.
⇒ – And commercially, of course, “Sk8r Boi” was played far more than this. Although, they did this on “Saturday Night Live.”
☆ – Oh wow.
★ – Yeah.
☆ – But, yeah, it’s a fantastic video.
⇒ – I mean “Sk8r Boi” is obviously an appeal to, what would you say?
★ – The girls at the mall.
☆ – I mean I used to listen to Duran Duran for crying out loud.
★ – I used to listen to Duran Duran, though I still have the records, they’re outstanding.
☆ – Do you have a favorite Duran Duran song?
★ – “The Reflex”
☆ – We may even need to play that. Very nice.
⇒ – What do we think of that?
★ – I really liked it. And you see, they wanted to evolve. But their fans were so impassioned…they had to officially declare…. (sidebar on David Bowie.) We are in disagreement. ☆ prefers Avril Lavigne and I prefer the Chemical Romance.
☆ – Only on days when I’m embodying my girl at the mall persona. This is not for attribution!
⇒ – I think the choice says a lot about who we are.
★ – The fact that we agree on “The Reflex” points to common ground.
☆ – That’s an interesting point. I like that sign of hope.

[ix]
(The Council researched the first question.)
1 — Item is no longer available.
2 — The second question was the “If not,” but they have been discontinued. So we have a conditional here.
1 — I’ve got to check my sources.
2 — You check your sources. We’ll wait.
1 — Apparently on Amazon they are still available. Good lord, that cannot be true.
2 — Now wait a minute, how can they only be available on Amazon?
1 — Let’s see, they’re about $5 a bag.
2 — How can they only be available on Amazon?
1 — I think someone’s been hoarding them.
2 — Maybe they’re produced for another country, and then they only make them available in select ways in the United States?
3 — Ooh, these are fancy. We are running out of time.
1 — The interwebs seem to indicate they are still available, but only by some sort of mail order thing through Amazon or WalMart, but they don’t seem to be available in stores.
2 — How do we address the conditional then?
1 — If they were available, methinks they’d be available in just about any flavor you’d want. Kind of like they have those jelly beans with different flavors.
3 — Correct.
1 — So if you want, you could have potato skins tasting like shoelaces. But who wants potato skins tasting like shoelaces? Hitler!
3 — Perhaps the cat over there.