The European Sociopolitical Foundations of Anthropological Thought - Essay Example

The European Sociopolitical Foundations of Anthropological Thought Anthropology for a long time counted and defined the years of human existence. It is the study that digs out important facts about the culture and the society. Wikipedia describes it as a study that is concerned about all the aspects of humanity. Its significance can be looked at in way that it does not just jot down facts and information about culture, instead it immerses itself in the reality of the past. In the late 19th and early of 20th century, it was noted to be different from other social science studies because of its focus on cultural relativity. Anthropology has four related fields which includes Physical Anthropology which is focused on the physical aspect of a human being, the Socio-cultural Anthropology which is about the culture and the organization of a certain group, Linguistic Anthropology that studies the human language and how it evolved with time and society, and the last which is Archaeology or the study of the past which literally digs out remains of human beings so as to be analyzed and dated. The European colonization which can be traced back in the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th, century evolved together with the birth of Anthropology which is rooted from the evolution of natural history. But it was in the 18th century, the so called "era of the enlightenment" that humans tried to look for reasons in the things that were happening and the things that were surrounding them. It was also the time when people looked for rationality and empiricism in the society. Anthropology just like the world evolved, and has created different walls of ideas like the unilinealism which according to Wikipedia is a "19th century social theory about the evolution of societies and cultures. It was composed of many competing theories by various sociologists and anthropologists, who believed that Western culture is the contemporary pinnacle of social evolution. This theory is now generally considered obsolete in academic circles." It can be recalled that in the 18th century, Europeans were pessimistic about the idea of a positively changing world. They held the idea of a declining culture which was far from the so-called "garden of Eden" idea of a good place, conducive for living. The idea was also intensified by Christianity which made it worse. At the time, Europeans did not have confidence to acquire a positive view of the world until the age of the "Enlightenment." The enlightenment or the age of reason was dated back also in the 18th century which also covered the late 17th century. Wikipedia defines the age of enlightenment as "Inspired by the revolution in physics commenced by Newtonian kinematics, Enlightenment thinkers argued that same kind of systematic thinking could apply to all forms of human activity. Hence the Enlightenment is often closely linked with the Scientific Revolution, for both movements emphasized empiricism, reason, science or rationality, but here applied also with natural law to the ethical and governmental spheres in exploration of the individual, society and the state. Its leaders believed they would lead the world into progress from a long period of doubtful tradition, irrationality, superstition, and tyranny which they imputed to the Dark Ages, though not from religious belief. The movement helped create the intellectual framework for the American and French Revolutions, the Latin American independence movement, and the Polish Constitution of May 3; and led to the rise of classical liberalism, democracy, and capitalism." During the era of rationality and reasoning, philosophers like Hegel, Rousseau and Hobbes thought of a progressive society as a possible thing. For George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, evolution of man is consist of contradictions and tensions that are necessary and are need to attain the knowledge that is "absolute." The process of negation and contradiction leads to attaining the "rational unity" which happens in the mind and does not happen outside or in the external since it is a philosophical thing. Hegel was known for his dialectic idealism which was also used in 19th century Germany's movement to philosophical idealism. Jean Jacques Rousseau on the other hand believes that man is good by nature and that society is the reason for his change. Just like animals, in its primitive state, there is no concept of justice or evil and what it does is to survive. According to Rousseau, it is the idea of man's self value that makes him care for himself much, to work for his own good and be independent. It is through this that man learns to be wicked, to protect himself other wickedness. The only way for man to be saved from this wickedness and the possible decline of society is through the "social contract" to where the element of trust is valued. This is where order comes in. Order then can be attained and humans learn to partly leave the idea of "rights" to give way to this so-called order. In the social contract, he also relates that moral acts cannot be separated from politics because moralistic deeds create a good function for the society. Jacques ideas on the other hand also took part in the making of the French Revolution. Thomas Hobbes is another important contributor in the world of philosophical anthropology. His idea of the "Leviathan" became known as it discussed a great power or authority to where people submit themselves. He created the idea of Law being a collection of social contracts that promotes order. Man's fear of death which forces him to defend himself against evil or danger also defines the philosophy of Hobbes. It can be noticed that the different ideas from the different philosophers of the said time all have something to do with how humans should view a proper society and how they should react to changes that is prominent in the said period. The age of enlightenment together with its philosophers as a whole made a pessimistic view of the society, looking at change and success in a sense uncontrollable yet directed to something that is useful for the society. Looking forward to this evolution is the idea of modernism which debunks the idea of the primitive or the "traditional." This is the thought that looks for the reason that hinders success in the past to merit the present and the future. The way is towards advancement and an example of this is the Western Europe in the 19th century. The goal is towards a better existence of humanity. The idea itself which is again a straightforward pessimistic, leans on industrialization which is permanent. The irony then of all these ideal philosophy can be seen through the critics of modernity who say that modernism goes beyond the natural or simple. Along with this is also an idea that modernization creates a human being that is concentrated to himself alone and therefore has the tendency to do things that are beyond the norms of the society. Artists of the said period were Klimt, Cezanne, and composer Levi Strauss are just examples of the then-called "moderns" of the said era. The evolution of human philosophy from the enlightenment period to modernism is just a sign the humanity's continuous search for knowledge for the betterment of life. The urge to question and to search for reason went side-by side with the search for a chance to contradict the new-found knowledge. What is exciting from this study of anthropological philosophy is that man never really stopped to a certain fixed idea to help him survive. The idea of not being satisfied to one answer is in itself human's existence. Europe did not flourish after Marx established his theory of Marxism or alienation, instead there were more ideas that came in (both accepting and contradicting modernism). Now, simply looking at Europe's history and the philosophical thoughts that flourished and disappeared, it is not hard to accept that perhaps, Hegel was right when he said that contradictions bring rational unity. Perhaps, it's the main reason why humans continuously survive. 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