Testament - Alexander Piatigorsky

Philosophical testament

Charter for an individual member of the class to develop an alienated thinking

He must ceaselessly remain in fear that he will die having failed or not having had enough time to realize his thought of himself as an external object alien to this thought and realize this very thought as alien to all his past and present objects, primarily to himself. This is Noble Fear.
He must deeply despise in himself all that the turpitudinous and shallow (for example, resentment, envy and anger) that he got used to observe in others and that he forgot to reflect upon in himself. This is Noble Contempt.
He must ceaselessly strive to stop the perception of any negative factors – whether coming from society, close or distant persons and circumstances – as directed against him personally, but to see in them only an obstacle to his mental efforts, the cause of which is in himself. This is Noble Striving.
He must cultivate in himself a complete disregard for both positive and negative evaluations by others of his behaviour or way of life. For his behaviour is in his work with his own thinking, and his way of life is nothing more than the changing appearance of an actor or jester playing the role of himself. His working slogan should be lascia dir gente (‘let people talk’, Dante). He sees the unreality of his social status and does not care about his ethological rank. This is Noble Disregard.
He must clearly understand that any knowledge that he has attained (philosophy, science, anything) by the very fact of inclusion in the field of his consciousness (whether by fate or chance) gives him a unique chance of self-change. This is Noble Understanding.
He needs to be extremely attentive to what is happening here and now for the subsequent conscious neutralization of all facts, events and circumstances as no more than external reasons for his thinking or for discarding them with his thinking. Then they are reflexed as alien to thinking and insignificant to him as the one thinking about them. But should he weaken for a moment his attention to them (facts, etc.), and they will immediately prove to be equally important and significant to him, as for the average thinking, that is not thinking, person. Then he’s lost – both as a thinker and as a person. This is the Necessary Attention, which can not be noble, like nothing necessary can be.
Having realized the unattainability of all six articles of the Charter, let him realize that he must strive even more to attain them.