From an Exoscopic perspective, we have both gained new insights regarding how we take in, assimilate, and make use of information from external sources (including feedback from our friends). From an Intrascopic perspective, we gain important insights regarding how our existing assumptions, fears, and hopes—as well as imagined lions, bears, meetings and relationships—influence our behavior. How do we gain “a little help from our friends” so that the lions, bears, meetings, and relationships are a little less anxiety-provoking and a little more constructively engaged?
Analytic vs. Synthetic
I wish to take one final swipe at the critical interplay between nothingness and Being (something). This swipe concerns the deeply embedded distinction drawn between two fundamental modes of inquiry and theory-building in intellectual history.
Analytic Tradition: on the one hand, there is the strong analytic tradition that is fundamental to the modern natural and behavioral sciences and to critical analysis of many art forms. The analytic process involves breaking things down into their smallest parts and then putting them back together again. Most importantly, breaking something down into its smallest parts often involves risking the creation of nothingness. Very small parts easily disappear. Their relationship with one another is inevitably quite elusive. We atomize and discover that there is ultimately nothing there. Some biologists describe the outcome as a “smashed frog.” We have dissected the frog but are left with a cluster of parts that produce no life when stitched back together.
The more detailed and microscopic the analysis, the closer one comes to nothingness: e.g. from atoms to subatomic – mostly “nothing.” As Don Howard (2025, p. 14) notes:
“A rare change in tone—but not in substance—came with early atomism. In the 5th century BCE, Democritus envisioned a universe built from indivisible particles-atoms-drifting through a background void. This void was no true nothingness, but an empty space that made motion possible. Even in this early nod toward absence, nothingness was treated as functional rather than foundational, framed within an existing structure rather than the collapse of one.”
The analytic tradition moves well beyond the physical sciences. Behaviorism in the field of psychology involves the breaking of human activities down into isolated behaviors that are predictable, measurable, and often manageable. Similarly, in the fields of sociology and anthropology there is a long-standing tradition of searching for fundamental units (e.g. memes) that are to be found in all societies and cultures. Economics has its own analytic tradition with the reduction of complex economic behaviors to fundamental structures, processes and motivations (e.g. utilities).
The deconstruction that occurs in literary criticism and the critical review of contemporary society and culture often yields important, hidden insights regarding societal and cultural biases, the deep meaning inherent in tacitly accepted trends and fashions, and the ultimate foundation of all “facts” in social constructions of reality. Fundamentally, deconstruction reveals the “nothingness” to be found in any claim of objectivity and impartiality. When an assertion, description, or (ultimately) any uttered statement is dissected, there remains only the intentions of the person delivering this statement. And these intentions are often difficult to “pin down.” They flutter about like flakes in Suzi Pomerantz’ snow globe.
In recent years, there has also appeared the “deconstruction” of specific culinary dishes at innovative restaurants. For instance, rather than serving a Caesar Salad with all the ingredients intermixed, a “deconstructed” salad is served with the lettuce, croutons, parmesan cheese, and slices of anchovy positioned separately on the plate. The intermixed ingredients are replaced with the “nothingness” of the unassembled salad. The person being served is offered the intriguing and often gustatorily splendid experience of placing the ingredients together in their own preferred way in preferred portions.
