Three Apodeictic Dialogues: Examples of Conceptual Mirrors in Religion, Psychology, and Social Organization

The concept of certainty may be approached contextually through the use of dialogue. In three creative dialogues involving characters that are often seen as representing each other's antipodes —- "a theist" and an "atheist," a "therapist" and "the rapist," and two multi-voiced group personae, 'casual ties' and 'casualties' —- this text negotiates the overlapping aspects of consciousness that each must have in its alter. Coming to know the other in oneself while at the same time othering ourselves is one process of knowing more fully the truth of the human condition. The dialogues are bookended by a meditative and philosophical introduction concerning human finitude and the role of the otherness of death, and a scholarly conclusion about the vicissitudes within the use of human language. Drawing on sources from anthropology, archaeology, socio-linguistics, and critical philosophy, and using both conversation and academic exposition, Three Apodeictic Dialogues offers a unique perspective on some of the disconcerting questions that animate belief, desire, and communication.