Move from Ideas Dealing with Divinity and Spirituality to Humanism - Report Example

Lecturer: MOVE FROM IDEAS DEALING WITH DIVINITY AND SPIRITUALITY TO HUMANISM, TO INDIVIDUALISM AND, FINALLY, TO A FOCUS ONTHE SELF Introduction Even though the world is made up of many people, one unique thing about all these people is that each person entered this world differently and at different times. The singularity surrounding the way and manner in which each person entered the world gives rise to three important philosophical and somewhat spiritual perceptions about each person. These perceptions are the self, individual and the soul. In totality, these three perceptive concepts explain that even though we all come to this world to form a social sect, we each possess special separate and independent identities and unique distinctiveness (Ferguson, 172). The self is simply a person’s concept or perception of who he or she is. The soul has been identified to be an immortal component of a person, giving life and spiritual identity to the person. The soul is considered to be immortal because even after the dead of the flesh, the soul continues to live as an embodiment of the identity of the person that bore that soul. The soul has been identified to have several roles in the life of a person including the role of self judgment into identifying and distinguishing between right and wrong. The concept of individual has on the other hand been explained by Watson (138) to be a state of being a distinct person. This means that the concept of individual makes it possible to distinguish one person from the other based on the personal needs, goals, way of life, and ambitions of the person. By implication, the soul gives life to the self, and the individual makes it possible to distinguish one self from another. In this paper, there will be a spiral approach taken to analyzing the concepts of soul, self and individual, in relation to how these three concepts have an influence on the seven (7) elements that have known to be the basis of Western civilization. The seven concepts will be approached from the perspectives of Watson and Ferguson who explored the history of humanity and the western civilisation respectively. The approach to the paper is described as spiral because it will be conducted in a manner that puts emphasis on the place of the soul, individual and self and gradually expose the death of the soul in a process that seeks to improve the individual, and how the individual is also giving way for the self. At the end of the paper, the thought that will be developed is that the basis of the popularity of civilisation as manifested in the 7 elements is as a result of the dominance that the individual and self needed to have. It is held by Ferguson (212) that there is an essential construct of the self that is responsible for fuelling developments about the 7 elements of political, religious, philosophical, scientific, socioeconomic, artistic, and educational, which became the foundation based on which the triumph of the West was achieved in the struggle for civilisation. Defences will therefore be constructed both for and against this position that is held by Ferguson (89). How the 7 elements led to the triumph of the individual The conflict between the individual and society has long existed. This is because whereas the individual through the self would want to have his way in getting satisfied in the world around him through every means possible, society also tries to establish standards that will protect the collective interest of all other people. The individual and society has therefore collaborated in a manner that ensures that the identical satisfaction of all people within the society could be culminated as the collective satisfaction of society. What this means is that the concept of individual and self gives the generalised notion that in order to satisfy the uniqueness of each person, society must put in place rules and regulations that try to ensure that the interest of the collective nature of individuals is better served. According to Ferguson (76), this balance between individual satisfaction and social satisfaction is the basis on which civilisation was started. This is because civilisation, which was generally thought of to be an enlightenment of the barbaric lifestyle that existed before was put in place to define the ground rules based on which each person will relate to each other and the world around him in a manner that brings growth and development. But to do this effectively, there were different elements that were used to champion the course of civilisation. These elements and how each of them is an indication of the triumph of the individual are hence discussed. Political From a political perspective, the justification that civilisation has led to a triumph of the individual can be established. This is because politics is a system that was necessary to be established in the quest for civilisation so as to ensure that society had a common scheme through which their individual aspirations could be established. Arguing with the individual as an independent entity, it would be noted that politics acts as a means by which the common way of governance through which the individual will attain satisfaction is established. As way of exemplifying how the individual is triumphed through the political element, Ferguson (11) stated that “if you take the same people, and impose communist institution on one group and capitalist institution on another, almost immediately there will be a divergence in the way they behave”. This means that people react differently to different political systems as a way of ensuring that each system that is imposed on them leads to an expected satisfaction of goals. Religious The place of religion in civilisation has also been argued as a means through which the identity of the self needed to stand out, and thus the exploration of the individual (Watson 133). From a religious perspective however, there is a very close relation between the self and the soul as the self seeks to satisfy the interest and requirement of the soul as a way of making peace with the divine world. But with the advancement taken from the scope of civilisation this dominance of the soul started to fall out. This is because Watson (143) notes that people started perceiving religion as a way through which they should receive divine intervention and wellness for their self. But to have the desires of the self satisfied through religious means, there was the need for sacrifices to be made, most of which focused on suppressing the self through sacrifice. Watson (135) therefore uses the example of self-denial to explain how sacrifice brings about an end result of satisfaction. One may say that because of the element of denial of the self, religious perspective of civilisation defeats the notion of triumph of the individual but this cannot be a valid argument. This is because as the saying goes, the end justifies the means and the end to the means of denial is satisfaction. Philosophical Philosophy has been identified to be a very fundamental element of civilisation, based on which the concept of human thinking is established. Reading through the chronological history of ideas that Watson gave, there is the realisation that philosophy became a basis through which the actions of people were shaped over the years. Indeed, the philosophical element of civilisation became an avenue for refining the thoughts, ideas and desires of the individual. In effect, instead of achieving gratuity through the mere achievement of self desire, there is a triumph for the individual in ensuring that his desires and satisfaction are justified in reasoning. An example of this is given by Watson (163) who uses the third concept of I, righteousness or justice as proposed by a philosopher like Confucius to justify the notion that gratification of the individual is also influenced by the validity of desire as merited through reasoning. Scientific Using the Western civilisation as a reference, there can be sufficient evidence to the fact that it was the idea of the individual that fuelled developments in science and scientific advancement. This is because as the needs of people became many, such as in the appearance of new diseases, and the need to have a paradigm shift in the approach of getting every other thing done manually, the need to exert attention to systematic ways of mechanising the world around us was necessitated. Using the example of technology, Ferguson (76) explains that science was a way of realising most of the dreams of the individual that had to do with infrastructural development. In comparison with concepts like divinity and spirituality which otherwise was a major focus for humanity, the desire of each individual to have their specific needs such as the plan of house they wanted to live in brought about expansion in scientific knowledge through the birth of subjects like architecture. Socioeconomic As the relationship between people became an inevitable component of civilisation, it became necessary that society be defined from a larger perspective where the line between individual needs and societal needs were clearly drawn. With time, to fit perfectly into society no longer meant guaranteeing the interest of others but attaining a status in society that was respectable. An example of this can be cited with the social class system in the United Kingdom. In effective, the individual needed to be satisfied economically in order to make meaningful impact in society. This called for socioeconomic elements in civilisation, where people started going to every extent, including engagement in child labour as means of attaining the socioeconomic status they most desired Watson (84). Artistic Ferguson (8) notes that at a point in the Western civilisation, one major issue of contention that became basis for judging between the East and West in terms of which of the two was more developed was with the subject of beauty. Beauty was so important in almost every facet of argument including the beauty in settlements and construction. Meanwhile, beauty is a quality that is directly linked to the individual aesthetic perception of life. This means that the need for the individual to fulfil his aesthetic desires was a fundamental call for the development of the artistic element in civilisation. Indeed, since the 1900s, so much premium and attention has been placed on the artistic element of any civilised society that art is today celebrated as an industry of its own. Educational Even though education had existed ahead of the Western civilisation, the place of education in the life of the individual, especially in terms of how education could bring personal enlightenment was not established (Ferguson 112). This is because most people attributed enlightenment to the soul and thus saw it as a spiritual gift. But based on the understanding and realisation of education as a tool for enlightenment, there was born such a time that the dependence on divine powers through prophetic and other forms of spiritual gifts became minimal. This is one exemplification of how emphasis on the soul became dead to the triumph of the individual. Using schooling as an example, Ferguson notes that more and more people came to find the answers to personal enlightenment to become useful in society in the reception of academic based training and development. Conclusion To conclude, the characteristic place of the self in civilisation will be reiterated. As mentioned in the introduction, the self is basically how a person perceives him or herself. Because all people wish for a better self, it is common to think that in the absence of any rules, people would want to attain the realisation of their self through barbaric and chaotic agenda. Reading through the chronology of history that Watson (26) gives about the ideas of humanity, it would be noted that the battle for the self to attain its satisfaction has never been lost at any point in history but rather bettered in the way people perceive their individual selves. The 7 elements as manifested in the Western civilisation can thus be confirmed as the triumph of the individual and by extension the self because it was an answer to meeting the burning quest of all people to have their needs served. Indeed, when assessing the self, one is likely to question the difference between the interest of the self and the concept of selfishness. But from whatever perspective the argument may be taken from, it is important conclude on the notion that through civilisation, there has been a more civil way of meeting the interests of all people, such that various institutions have been established, through which each person can explore to make him or herself a better person. Cited Works Ferguson, Niall. Civilization: The West and the Rest. New York: Penguin Books. 2012. Print. Watson, Peter. Ideas : A History: From Fire to Freud. New York: Phoenix. 2006. Print. Read More