A Critical Analysis on the Essay “Can Transcendence Be Taught?

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Critic: Alicia Beatriz Alejandre | Grade 12 – St. Alphonsus
Liguori
Presented to:
Ms. Katrina Joy Naval
Mr. Arvin Burbano

Introduction
A beautifully written text that illustrates no reservation in
complexity; a mind-bending and thought-provoking article entitled,
“Can Transcendence Be Taught”, by John Kaag and Clancy Martin,
written in October 07, 2016, deeply revels on how man sees and
perceives both life and death, and those in between: experience;
how through these man will have the capacity to go beyond, past
his limits and past the unknown – to fully gauge and grapple
against certainty. For both the authors were deeply haunted by
Goethe’s Faust, they in turn succumbed into the mentality that
just as Faust saw it, everything he knew that was worth knowing
seemed to become nonsensical in his eyes.
Faust, a prominent character in Goethe’s works, deals with
his recurring dilemma: how he believes that regardless of his
overflowing knowledge, he still feels as though there is still a
distressing void within him that cannot seem to be sufficed by
mere knowledge and facts alone.
The article, “Can Transcendence Be Taught”, seeks to uncover
the real fundamental sense of how one can truly be able to know
when his life had been worth living and of how one would also be
able to live his life to the fullest. The article pursues the
truest reasoning in proving how transcendence can be achieved. It
presents an array of philosophies and theories from Western
Philosophy, Science, and Theology, but unfortunately, they turned
out to be lacking and inadequate in terms of providing the answers
to the insatiable queries of man, while Kaag and Martin strains to
prove these disciplines otherwise.
Summary

In an article written by John Kaag and Clancy Martin,

entitled, “Can Transcendence Be Taught?”, the text seeks to discuss
how one is truly able to grasp the underlying essentiality of both
life and death; rejecting prior theories and philosophies from
various disciplines, namely, Western Philosophy, Science, and
Theology towards pursuing the truest and most credible reasons as
to citing proofs that would best answer our uncertainties. Western
philosophy states profoundly on the immanence of human finitude –
how one should feel that he is responsible to give a good account
of his life upon facing death. Science on the other hand, shallowly
lingers on topics that do not tackle head-on on life and death.
Science will give you answers as to the “why’s” and “what’s” of it
all; but to only that extent. Science fails to clutch hard on the
deepest realities man forever craves: to experience everything –
to learn how human experience, transitory and fragile, could come
to mean, if not everything, at least not nothing, just as Faust
thought to be. Lastly, Theology is the study of religion, that is
already a given, but what Theology fails to grab onto is that it
only presents itself as a tedious study, one that disinvites man
into going deeper towards yielding such answers that no one, not
anything can quite precisely provide.
The article primarily focuses on life and death, on how one
is truly able feel and understand its meaning and its underlying
purpose. Experience is stated to be the sole capable reasoning
presented in the text that had the capacity to copiously
encapsulate the answers to such questions that man continuously
questioned without fail. The three disciplines are Western
Philosophy, Science, and Theology. All of which served
insufficient answers which then in turn paved way into the fruition
of the authors’ arguments that eventually lead to the finality of
their convictions. Only experience as stated by the authors fully
and gracefully captured and summed up the entirety of the text.
The authors proved with utmost conviction how in order to be
able to arrest their different causes, you have to see it in a new
light – focusing on life in general and having to understand its
complexities. Life and death is a hollow amalgamation of both
worlds that results to a multitude of queries, but Kaag and Martin
reshaped our views on its essentialities, attesting that
transcendence, knowing and putting to heart the depths of its
extent, leads us towards concluding that all of it is made possible
through aimfully viewing the significance of both life and death
with the inclusion of experience, most especially experience.

Critical Analysis

Formalist Criticism
On the authors’ writing style and diction
The authors used a writing style that is expository. They
were able to beautifully and artfully present a multitude of ideas
that concerns experience, without sacrificing the content that it
seeks and strives to expound on. By way of incorporating fragrant
words – words that would best fit the thought that the authors
necessitate to be able to precisely target their audience with the
impact they attempt to affect them. The authors aim to contradict
and point out how the three major disciplines cited within the
text, namely, Western Philosophy, Science, and Theology provide
aimless and inadequate evidences as well as fragments of
information leading up to being able to answer what transcendence
really is.
In the same fashion, the authors sought to provide their
audience with a more credible and authentic approach towards
explaining what transcendence is in relation to experience – what
prior scholars and the above-stated disciplines fell short to
achieve in all of its angles. Alongside this, taking into
specificity in terms of the authors’ word choice, one can easily
deduce how they chose to make use of highfalutin words, bearing
the thought that such terminologies would best represent and
reflect the ideas they have conjured that in turn would encapsulate
the entirety of the text. However, taking into account that the
text is philosophical in nature, offers itself the liberty and
leeway to use such pretentious and non-essential words that only
adds up to the vagueness it exudes.
Moreover, the authors show broad knowledge about the subject
matter through his choice of words, due to the fact that they had
the capacity to manipulate their word choice which signifies and
proves how knowledgeable the authors are of the topic at hand.
Nonetheless, the authors chose to make use of such words to be
able to firmly take ahold of both the meaning and the extent of
the essence of the text which they seek to convey. The authors’
language use shows the gravity of their knowledge and understanding
of the topic, as well as being able to express the core of the
text in a formal manner, not-withstanding and sacrificing its
content for the sake of presenting a wordy and seemingly
nonsensical context of the text. Alongside this, it is evident
that the authors stressed on a number of words and phrases so as
to be able to emphasize, particularly on whatever the authors feel
that needs to go in a more in depth level of understanding.

On the use of figures of speech

Any written work is aesthetically written through the use of
figurative language. It is unmistakably true that the use of
Figures of Speech enhances the meaning of the text by making the
content appear to be in full-blown technicolor, therefore, it would
seem to have more of its capacity to appear more inviting to its
audience. Furthermore, through using figures of speech, one is
able to subtly conceal the essence of the text and to bring an
aura of mystery so as not to directly target and emanate its
purpose, hence, the audience will then in turn enable themselves
to grasp the implication of the text in a way that best suits them.

The authors used the following figures of speech:

1. Paradox
a.) Are we teaching them everything without teaching them
anything?
b.) Why do we live only to suffer and die?
2. Personification
a.) When dying delivers us to our inevitable end.
3. Hyperbole
a.) Job cries to the heavens
b.) Job is left in a whirlwind
c.) Wrapped in illness
d.) Plumbing the depths of experience
e.) Live deep and suck out all the marrow of life
4. Rhetorical Questions
a.) Is there something I should be doing to prepare for
death?
b.) Why is there evil?
c.) Is there a God?
d.) Is there an afterlife?
e.) What is the meaning of life?
f.) What is the greatest experience you can have?
g.) How deeply or gently or subtly will you make your nick
of time?
5. Simile
a.) One never goes so far as when one doesn’t know where one
is going.
 b.) …the titans of modern philosophy were like bench
scientists, bent on describing existence rather than
plumbing its deepest meanings
6. Metaphor
a.) Launch yourself on every wave
b.) Find your eternity in each moment.

On the use of sound devices

Sound devices enhance any written work by allowing it to have
the capacity to be able to narrate the context of the text in an
aesthetic sense, dwelling on the creativity and writing prowess of
the author in terms of fruitfully morphing sets of words together
that would elicit a logical yet appealing façade. Sound devices
also enables the authors towards presenting an amusing word play
through the words that they took effort to jive together to attain
a more inviting and interesting, yet at the same time, still having
the formal sense of the text.

The following sound devices are seen in the essay:

1. Repetition
a.) Religion is the study of religion, not religion itself.
b.) Theology, true theology
c.) Through and through
d.) There is no other land, there is no other life
e.) Are we and our students in the same situation? Are we
teaching them everything, without teaching them
anything?
2. Rhyme
a.) …everything worth knowing
b.) …apoptosis, autophagy, and necrosis
c.) … Western philosophy and Theology
d.) …disrupting, not solidifying
 e.) …touching or reassuring
3. Alliteration
a.) No one can tell you you’re in love, you just know it.
b.) …Star-directed sciences that never seem to settle
c.) …Screams his questions at the stars, we do the same
d.) …this meaning might need man to meet
e.) …they went, but for workers working in his wake
4. Assonance
a.) …this cosmic dance, physics itself remains silent
b.) …committed to a particular methodology to evade
mortality
c.) …theology does not spend most of its time exploring
d.) …obverse of feeling completely, totally, and utterly
5. Consonance
a.) …their rational systems that reigned over
b.) …his works were regarded as dry and lifeless
c.) …never fully rejoiced at the prospect of marrying off
their children
d.) …despair, frustration, and confusion
e.) …refocus on the subjective sense on the most pressing of
human problems
On the use of imagery

Imagery is a technique that represents objects, actions, and

ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses. Usually
it is thought that imagery makes use of particular words that
create visual representation of ideas in our minds, but that is
just partially true. Alongside this, the use of imagery greatly
affects the entirety of the text in the sense that it gives life
and turns the dull and boring into a vibrant and pleasing context.
Moreover, through Sound devices, one is also able to fully grasp
the meaning and is able to feel more deeply the thought and
emotions and feelings that the author seeks to convey. Lastly,
this also enables the authors to play with their ideas, providing
themselves with the capacity to exercise their creativity and
vastness of imagination to be able to wander over the infinite
possibilities that awaits them in creating works of art by way of
writing.

The authors used varied types of imagery to appeal to the

readers’ senses.

1. Visual imagery
a.) Faust sits at his dusty library, surrounded by tomes.
b.) Faust escaping his library, emerging from the night’s
open air
c.) An old man with a mechanical hip, hiking through the
woods.
d.) …to ride a bike
e.) …launch yourself in every wave
2. Auditory imagery
a.) Job cries to the heavens.
b.) …screams his questions at the stars
c.) Paul let his grandson hear him talk about love and see
him cry.
d.) …a quiet inner voice, a voice that says, “Up again old
heart.”
3. Tactile Imagery
a.) Terror of having your toenails grow, die and fall off
b.) To cut, to mark, and to suck out all the marrow of life

Sociological Criticism
Analyzing a text does not only entail scrutinizing its form,
but also other elements and factors that shape its meaning.
Sociological criticism is an approach in critiquing or analyzing
a text that… (continue this paragraph by explaining what
sociological criticism is)
The authors presented the idea or an example of social dynamics
on how pharmacists were treated like doctors in the 20th century,
the line, “the medicine cabinets at his home in Central
Pennsylvania, were always stocked – Belladonia, Morphine,
Phentermine – substances that are not readily available today.”,
explains the idea further, that pharmacists then were able to keep
in store a number of known drugs that are known and considered to
be accessed nowadays with utmost difficulty. People who are only
authorized to order the release of such substances, are doctors
themselves, that even pharmacists who were well aware and capable
of knowing those drugs do not have the leeway to do so. Going into
specifics, according to an article online, in the country of Japan
during their olden days, Pharmacists were regarded as far more
superior than physicians due to the fact that Pharmacists proved
their roles as higher in rank in the imperial household. Taking in
full account of the Contemporary period, pharmacists since then
gained lower value and regard than that of doctors who then
reprised their roles in society.
Aside from the difference in treatment to pharmacists and
doctors, the authors also presented the idea of how modern science
put constraints on the love of wisdom when it took over Europe to
elaborate the ideas of some philosophers. Kaag and Martin believe
that Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Hume, and Kant were bent on
describing existence rather than plumbing its deepest meanings.
Explaining it further, the line, “at best, their rational systems
masked the anxiety that Faust experienced, one that stemmed from
the sense that despite the pretense of reason and logic, human
life was at its core, largely irrational.”
 For Bacon, he introduced his system of “true and perfect
induction, proposing the essential foundation of scientific method
and a necessary tool for the proper interpretation of nature.”
Descartes believes that, “there is no conviction when there remains
some reason which might lead to doubt, but knowledge is conviction
based on a reason so strong that it can never be shaken by any
stronger reason.” For Hobbes, his lines, “we take the ideas, the
faded sensations, from different experiences and combine them
together – as well as connecting imagination, closely
understanding facts to mind.” Moreover, Hobbes thinks that, “all
ideas are derived directly r indirectly from sensation.”
Hume and Kant present other ideas too. According to Hume, all
ideas are ultimately copied from impressions – that is, for any
idea one selects , he can trace the component parts of the idea to
some external sensation or internal feeling – as experience.”
Lastly, Kant believed that, “the mind plays an active role in
constituting the features of experience and limiting the mind’s
access only to the empirical reason of space and time.”
These philosophies reject what Kaag and Martin expounds in
connection with what transcendence is, in the light of theology.
Kaag and Martin swiftly and smoothly elaborates within the text
how transcendence can only be felt wholly through experience and
not by theories of Western Philosophers, or by Science, or by
Theology alone. It is already a given that these capsules or
fragments of information greatly contributed to the shaping and
morphing of Kaag and Martin’s argumentation and reasoning of what
transcendence really is – but what these philosophers fell short
and failed to present is of how lacking their views and sentiments
were. They were only able to grasp the underlying essentiality in
its shallowest form – deeming it insufficient and incapable of
encompassing the true and definite grounds of what transcendence
really is.
 Other than the philosophies of Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Hume,
and Kant, the authors also presented two other philosophies that
explain the power of experience: Existentialism and American
pragmatism. Kaag and Martin presented the idea of Existentialism
by citing the story of Emerson’s son who “had died two years
earlier. The boy had contracted scarlet fever at the age of 5 and
succumbed in a matter of days.” Taking into account of Emerson’s
view of experience, one could easily infer how he sees it as
something that is merely transitory and finite alone. Furthermore,
he believes with utmost conviction and certainty that even if man
grasps onto something with every fiber of his being, all efforts
would come off futile and insignificant, for in every climactic
end to each experience, one would always seem to lose everything
he has ever worked for in his entire life.
The authors also noted how 19th century scholars viewed
experience. Experience, according to these scholars, “did not
constitute a distinct special science – it was simply a means of
replacing the notion of reason with that of experience.” Moreover,
“experience was to test the truth of all rational statements about
nature, that the praise of verification works as a praise of its
observation alone.” Branding a new slate, “other scholars regard
this (experience) to be universal. A popular variant sees various
traditions as pointing to one universal transcendental reality,
for which those experiences offer the proof. Instead, a
constructionist approach became dominant during the 1970s, which
states that mystical experiences are mediated by pre-existing
frames of reference.”
Kaag and Martin further introduced American pragmatism,
following the ideas of 19th century scholars on Existentialism.
The authors explained American pragmatism as “the zest of
experience that helped make life significant. The authors
emphasized how such moments in life where people deem them with
the most supreme essentiality proves to present life with its
greater underlying purpose, where it undeniably reflects its key
importance. According to William James, “pragmatism is a form of
empiricism – our ability to think about external things and to
steadily improve our understanding of them rests upon experience.
However, all adopted accounts of experience and perception that
were radically different from the views of most earlier modern
philosophers such as Hume and Descartes.”

Historical Criticism
Not only social dynamics are important in critiquing a work,
but also the contexts in which the work was written. Historical
criticism literary criticism in the light of historical evidence
or based on the context in which a work was written, including
facts about the author’s life and the historical and social
circumstances of the time. This is in contrast to other types of
criticism, such as textual and formal, in which emphasis is placed
on examining the text itself while outside influences on the text
are disregarded.
The essay entitled “Can Transcendence Be Taught?” was written
by the authors, John Kaag and Clancy Martin, in the year 2016. The
work did not specifically state when the authors had starting
writing the text, what is only stated is that it reached its climax
in the year 2016. One of the significant historical influences
during the time when the work was written was, “Key examples that
Koselleck develops include “space of experience” and “horizon
of expectation'’. Examples of metahistorical categories in
Koselleck’s account include “capacity to die and capacity to
kill,” “friend and foe,” “inside and outside,” and “master and
servant”. Koselleck represents these conceptual oppositions as
representing conditions of possibility of any representation of
history (Bouton 2016 : 178).

A large part of Koselleck’s work thus involves identifying and

describing various kinds of historical concepts. In order to
represent history it is necessary to make use of a vocabulary
that distinguishes the things we need to talk about; and
historical concepts permit these identifications. This in turn
requires both conceptual and historical treatment: how the
concepts are understood, and how they have changed over time.
Christophe Bouton encapsulates Koselleck’s approach in these
terms: “[It is an] inquiry into the historical categories that
are used in, or presupposed by, the experience of history at
its different levels, as events, traces, and narratives” (Bouton
2016 : 164).

The essay reflects the beliefs in religion at the time when the
work was written by citing or by telling that, “only has the pesky
consequence of disrupting belief, not solidifying it.”
Furthermore, the line, “There is a reason that proofs for the
existence of God are assiduously avoided by many teachers of the
philosophy of religion: they are dead boring, the type of tedium
that can actually convince one that there isn’t any grand purpose
to life.”
Aside from beliefs in religion, the essay also shows some
attitudes and beliefs of the society by citing or telling Faust’s
predicament, man craves: a handle on the human experience, to
explore the inner felt sense of transcendence. In the same fashion,
we are like Faust, yet again, “we emerge from the night’s open
air, and screams his questions at the stars. In our modern way, we
do the same. We ask astronomers and astrophysicists to explain the
evolution of the universe, the way that all things come into being
and are snuffed out.” Lastly, man can be thought to be interlinked
with Faust, stating the line, “Faust knows everything worth
knowing. And still, after all his careful bookwork, he arrives at
the unsettling realization that none of it has ever really
mattered.” Such lines from the text greatly expounds on man’s way
of viewing life in general. Man seems to easily and foolishly
believe that what presents essentiality to them now will still
serve the same purpose in the near future. That is where we go
wrong. That is where need to let our faulty reasoning to its
ultimate end. Due to our superficiality and vague understanding on
those that truly matter, we let ourselves be completely deceived
with that fact

Conclusion
In general, the essay is in equal parts informative and
aesthetic. The brilliance of both the authors reverberates for the
apparent reason that they were able to justly expound on the
subject matter without it coming off too difficult to comprehend.
It is admirable how skillful they are towards having the capacity
to support such claims without so much as any hint of doubt from
their audience.
Not setting aside the fact that the article gives the impression
to its readers that it is only to be studied and understood by the
people concerning or have any relevance to Philosophy, but it still
feeds the soul, nonetheless.
Consequently, with experience alone can one truly have the
liberty to feel revitalized; deeming oneself on successfully
achieving and fulfilling one’s desires in life. And with experience
alone can one truly realize the gravity and essentiality of living
life to the fullest – braving life with a smile and an optimistic
outlook in towards everything. And when that happens, one can
finally say with full conviction: Carpe Diem
 Turning the page, I agree with what the author wishes to convey.
Looking into their perspective, one may easily presume how
substantial their reasoning was, on account of having the dexterity
to prove their claims with utmost efficiency. It is indeed
stimulating to have had the occasion to go in depth and to think
beyond our limits, past the known and plunging head-first into the
uncertainties and qualms that always seems to be insatiable.

References:
 https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/history/
 https://philosophynow.org/issues/43/An_Introduction_
 https://www.philosophytalk.org
 http://www.iep.utm.edu/pragmatism/