There is strength in number. Beyond the relationship between the self and the other, there exists the larger whole into which both the self and the other are immersed. Nietzsche defines life as the combination of preservation and enhancement. Thus a being that lacks enhancement is devoid of life. Therefore, for the self to assume life, it must go, not just beyond itself to the other, but even beyond the other, to the society.
Aristotle shows the different levels of the society. The family is the smallest unit of society. Different families conglomerate to form the community. There is a lot of things which the individual cannot achieve within the confines of the family, and therefore would have to go into the community in order to express himself more fully.
However, even the community is limited in many ways, and therefore must covenant with other communities to form a larger and stronger whole which is the State. For Aristotle, it is in the state that the individual can achieve full expression. This must be because the state is essentially sovereign. Thus, the individual can reach his ultimate political aspirations in the state.
Thomas Hobbes describes the state as the Leviathan - the being that commands the submission of the right of all to all. By doing so, it puts an end to the anarchic state of nature and forces man into a civil society. For Hobbes, the individual owes the state an unrelenting and irretrievable allegiance. This means that the state stands unquestionable before the individual. This is more or less a deified being.
When Socrates was sentenced to death by the state, he didn't sneak out of prison to escape that punishment because he felt that if he had accepted the state's decision to have him educated, nurtured, fed, clothed and other good-time resources of the state, why should he reject the state's decision when she deems it necessary for him to die. If such attitude is developed towards the state, then, the state has assumed a deified status.
Sunday, 13 May 2018
Deification of the other
Man is always seeking God, not always out of love, but most times, out of need. This need could be both material need and intellectual need. The material need includes the need for health, wealth and comfort, while the intellectual need is the need to know. St. Augustine maintains that man would not find peace until he finds God. This means that our intellectual urge makes us restless, and the only remedy to that restlessness is the knowledge of God.
If the self was god, then, the Socratic injunction would have soothed this intellectual urge, for Socrates said: "Man know thyself." Thus, in knowing oneself, one could have found rest. But since man never found rest just after knowing himself, his further search for something other than himself stands as an indication that there is a god outside his 'self'. This god outside the self is the 'other'.
Aristotle claims that man is a social animal. His use of the word 'animal' has the implication of 'uncontrollable urge'. Heidegger's interpretation of the word 'social' is simply 'being with others'. Thus, if you juxtapose the two, then Aristotle could be interpreted as follows: man has an uncontrollable urge to be with the other.
The reason for this uncontrollable urge to be with the other is that there is something in the other without which the self is incomplete. Thus, man would remain restless until he finds the other by whom he is complemented. The Bible, in Genesis says that when God finished crating man, He saw that it was not good for man to be alone. So, He created him a 'help mate'. By this, God shows the essential status of the other to the self.
To deify the self, then, a new concept of god must be assumed as follows: a being without whom the self is incomplete. If man needs the other so much as to be incomplete and even restless without the other, then to that extent, the other is deified.
If the self was god, then, the Socratic injunction would have soothed this intellectual urge, for Socrates said: "Man know thyself." Thus, in knowing oneself, one could have found rest. But since man never found rest just after knowing himself, his further search for something other than himself stands as an indication that there is a god outside his 'self'. This god outside the self is the 'other'.
Aristotle claims that man is a social animal. His use of the word 'animal' has the implication of 'uncontrollable urge'. Heidegger's interpretation of the word 'social' is simply 'being with others'. Thus, if you juxtapose the two, then Aristotle could be interpreted as follows: man has an uncontrollable urge to be with the other.
The reason for this uncontrollable urge to be with the other is that there is something in the other without which the self is incomplete. Thus, man would remain restless until he finds the other by whom he is complemented. The Bible, in Genesis says that when God finished crating man, He saw that it was not good for man to be alone. So, He created him a 'help mate'. By this, God shows the essential status of the other to the self.
To deify the self, then, a new concept of god must be assumed as follows: a being without whom the self is incomplete. If man needs the other so much as to be incomplete and even restless without the other, then to that extent, the other is deified.
Deification or the self
People's concept of God differ from person to person. Whereas some believe that God is one almighty supernatural being who controls every other thing in the universe, some others like Spinoza, have identified God with nature. Some pluralists believe that there is a spark of godness in everything. In fact, Leibniz claims that matter can be reduced further than atom to its ultimate unit which is monad or spirit, and each monad is a windowless world of its own.
However, there are others who believe that the self is an irreducible being in itself, and therefore, a god on its own. History has shown us how some persons claim to be god. You may not blame them for believing so since even the Bible affirms that we are gods the sons of the most high God.
Hence, the question that should be raised is "what is in the self that makes it a god?" or alternatively, "what is the concept of being god, that makes the self a god?"
To be god is to be self-sufficient. Is the self self-sufficient? According to Rene Descartes, a substance is a thing that does not need any other thing but itself to exist. Then he went further to claim: cogito ergo sum - I think therefore, I exist. This implies that the self exists simply by virtue of its thinking of which it does not need any other thing to do. If the self needs nothing but itself to think, then, it needs nothing but itself to exist. And if this be the case, then the self is self-sufficient. If being god is being self-sufficient, then the self-sufficient self is god.
However, there are others who believe that the self is an irreducible being in itself, and therefore, a god on its own. History has shown us how some persons claim to be god. You may not blame them for believing so since even the Bible affirms that we are gods the sons of the most high God.
Hence, the question that should be raised is "what is in the self that makes it a god?" or alternatively, "what is the concept of being god, that makes the self a god?"
To be god is to be self-sufficient. Is the self self-sufficient? According to Rene Descartes, a substance is a thing that does not need any other thing but itself to exist. Then he went further to claim: cogito ergo sum - I think therefore, I exist. This implies that the self exists simply by virtue of its thinking of which it does not need any other thing to do. If the self needs nothing but itself to think, then, it needs nothing but itself to exist. And if this be the case, then the self is self-sufficient. If being god is being self-sufficient, then the self-sufficient self is god.
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