A synopsis such as the one from Kant’s intuitive mind—a synopsis of all things and all things in their totality—would probably be too much for humans.
The knowing of an intuitive mind that grasps the entire temporality, its origin, its content and its end in one fell swoop is probably something that should not happen to humans. We would cease to be human because a boundary would be crossed. We would re-enter the higher, heavenly world, and everything would be asking: what happens to the earth now? We would be looked at in astonishment and asked why we wanted to acquire the synopsis of all things. “What drove you to see as only some angels see? Where are you humans now? What is left of humanity in the universe?” We would be looked at not with anger, but with puzzlement and irritation: how does this mishap fit into the overall plan of the world? Perhaps it would not be long before we would be sent back.
This seeing of all things that unfold in temporality—to grasp all their forms, stages of development and decisions at once, like the final tolling of a bell that resounded its last note in the midst of the world, in which the world began and ended in an instant—this vision would rob us of our humanity. We would have to give up our humanity for it, not because we would become evil, just that we would lose our form and our life as human beings. There would be no more everyday life, no illness, no football games for our children, no leaves falling from the trees in autumn, no death, no applause after a performance, no summer holiday. There would be nothing that has to happen in time, because we would hold everything together in an eternal gaze. We would only see eternity with open, lidless eyes from which pure light bursts forth. We would hear His sound, His word, and we would be eternally included in His golden dance that surrounds Him.
This is a premonition of the distant future that is approaching from our past, in which we no longer live as human beings but differently. Our humanity is not made for the great overview. We are allowed to see individual things, many things; we are allowed to see time pass, to deal with concrete things. We shape our interactions based on situations. We are allowed to have one perspective among many. Humanity is bound to a world that will eventually pass away. From the earth, we look to the sky, where time ends and eternity resonates through reality, where eternity bends towards the earth. The Sun, this window to the light, rises above us, and it is human to see the day.
Image Ulrich Schulz, Hoffen [Hoping]. Knife, palette knife. Canvas, glue, ash, marble, gemstone powder, pigments, vegetable dyes.
