Soul Individualism - Essay Example

Individualism Introduction Human beings as a society have travelled a long way and with the passage of time have evolved from extremely superstitious beings into societies that are more inclined towards accepting logic as the basis of their knowledge; the ultimate consequence of which is an improvement in their living patterns that is apparent worldwide. Human quest to understand the hidden aspects of life paved way for millions of ideas that ultimately transformed into beliefs. The beliefs were the main driving factors behind the strange actions and their consequences; widespread throughout the history of mankind. Historically speaking, human life revolved around the idea of serving the divine being to gain worldly profits and satisfactory existence. A number of practices like human sacrifice for the sake of making the divine being happy are clear indicators of the fact that humans societies of the past were willing to go to any extent merely for the purpose of satisfying the blood thirsty nature of the divine being; and the fact that divine being is satisfied by bloodshed was merely their own thought with no solid proof behind. The concept of soul originated to explain a number of phenomena that could not be explained by ordinary means. The perception that soul is not destroyable appears to be a modern way of explaining the concept of soul. Human beings as individuals have been considered to be the embodiments of soul; every soul being enclosed within the body till the time of death; death being a state that results due to separation of body and soul. The coexistence of body and soul provided existence to an individual; the individual in turn possesses a self. In ancient languages like Hebrew, a word to explain ‘essential self’ is lacking; the self that could survive death (Watson 143). Politics Politically speaking, around 510/509 BC, the Roman law manifested a number of changes that were more inclined towards preserving the rights of individuals rather than the divine being or the state (Watson 154). Law was becoming more and more powerful whereas the concept of depriving the ruler of unlimited powers was gaining pace. With the promotion of the concept of accountability, the individuals were gaining more and more power, and the system to run the state was becoming more and more humanistic. The conditions which led to the rise of the west appear to be similar to these conditions. In America from example “democracy was established on the western shores of the Atlantic and–equally important–that it was similar from community to community” (Watson 430). Rapid shift of power from individual rulers to the state owned institutions was in fact a move to make sure that the rights of human beings at individual level are taken care of. This led to the development of a culture where official position was not a source of respect and power; instead the power lied in the hands of the institutions which were strengthened to promote justice that was the basic necessity of individuals. Religion Although humans have associated a number of attributes to the divine being or the god, the original understanding was that the Supreme Being and the religion are sacredly untouchable, and any attempt to cross these limits is likely destroy the existence of humans. However, as the human understanding of the nature advanced, it started taking benefit of the liberation that was associated with this process of understanding. “It was during the years 1860–1880 that English society, at least, became ‘secular’ “(Watson 520). Moving from divine centred approach to human centred approach took thousands of year; however, as humans continued to free themselves from the bonds of divinity and religion, there came a time when man considered that “god was dead” (Watson 519). Since soul was considered a manifestation of the divine being within the human existence, the liberation of thought that allowed the association of mortal attributes like death to god allowed the humans to think that soul can be dead; yet the self allows a human to live. The extension of such thoughts can be observed in the society, especially when the notion of limiting the religion to places of worship is seen promoted. The religion has therefore become a matter of personal choice; the religious individual opts to follow the rules set by the religion, whereas his counterpart finds satisfaction in staying away from the same. Here again, the triumph of individualism is clearly displayed. Philosophy Aristotle’s idea that “to know is to understand the causes of things” (Watson 274) appears to be promoting the notion of scientific study of things, instead of associating them to supernatural phenomenon. It is apparent that by the time humanity reached Aristotle’s age, the faculty of mind that seeks to find the cause of happenings was mature enough to depend on logic to base knowledge upon. In Boethius opinion, “the philosopher should enjoy the fruits of his intelligence, to explore the world of nature” (Watson 275). The use of human intelligence to explore the hidden truths of nature was therefore considered the domain of philosophers. This marked a shift from the traditional thought pattern that was influenced by the teachings of religion and cult. The west has continued to follow this tendency to liberate the thoughts of the intelligent minds, thereby making it possible for them to discover the limitless secret of nature, that have proved beneficial for humanity as a whole and also on individual basis. Development of philosophical ideas that revolve around the notion of self has been the central theme of modern philosophical thinking and this has contributed significantly towards the triumph of individualism. Science With the turn of the twentieth century, discoveries like the genes, quantum and unconscious brought about a number of revolutionary changes in the thought pattern of humanity (Watson 352). The older notion that humans are totally dependent on divine power for learning new things was replaced by the idea that knowledge was producible if experimentation was promoted. Trial and error was now considered the underlying principle to bring about new discoveries. For example, the “Fellows of the Royal Society and other scientists, had begun writing in to the Society with their discoveries and in this way the Society became a clearing house and then publisher of the Transactions, which formed a model for subsequent scientific communication” (Watson 366). This lack of dependency on divine guidance set free the minds of humans, thereby allowing them to learn by conducting experiments and compiling the findings of previous experiments to add to the knowledge base. The discoveries made by use of scientific methods was given supreme value and any contradiction of the scientific proof with religion was considered a mistake of the religion; this is a clear manifestation of the fact that humans had learn to rely more on their self-attained knowledge instead of relying on the knowledge provided by the assumed divine sources. Here again, individualism triumphed over the previously established norms and knowledge. Socioeconomic aspects The existence of regions like ‘the black country’ was a proof that older societies used humans as tools to serve the machines; in other words objects. The horrible picture that the society displayed when child labour was legalized could not be considered humanistic in any sense. The children were handed over to cruel supervisors who would push children to work in factories for more than twelve hours daily without providing them even the basic nutrition. “Between 1801 and 1851, the population of England and Wales more or less doubled, from 10.5 million to 20.8 million” (Watson 479), which aggravated the living conditions of the labour class. It was in 1819 that certain acts were passed to limit such cruel excesses (Watson 479); this was however the start and it was a long time before child labour actually got banned by law. Here again, we can clearly see that exploitation of humans by other powerful humans was considered a norm. But, with growing trend towards humanistic approach, the rich class was forced to pass legislation that would protect the rights of the individuals. The rights of individuals became the subject of prime importance and individualism triumphed over the previously prevailing system. Here again, it is clearly evident that human society moved from serving objects towards serving the self. Art Jan van Eyck’s “The Arnolfini Marriage” is considered a legendary work of his time. Although the art work is simply the portrayal of a married couple holding hands displaying an element of affection; yet the background of the painting is rich with objects that demonstrate the luxuriousness of the life of the characters. In the early renaissance, a “painting was a utilitarian object, commissioned for a particular altar, a sculpture for a specific niche” (Watson 293). According to the historian Lisa Jardine, the work expresses an element of ‘celebration of ownership’ (Watson 288). The selection of objects, their presentation and their appearance in a painting that is originally pertaining to matrimonial celebration demands further explanation. This phenomenon is commonly seen in the renaissance art works. The post renaissance art work depicts women in undressed states which is perhaps a “reminder that what we do not wear is often as important as what we do wear” (Ferguson 232). It appears that there is an internal tendency of human beings to exhibit their possessions. The notion is contradictory to the older idea that every object is originally a belonging of the divine power. With the liberation from such older ideas, human beings became able to claim the ownership of objects; the ultimate result of which was the feeling of pride associated with owning objects. The art works are therefore reflective of the human understanding that the existence of humans is not meant to serve the divine power; instead, nature and objects of life are meant to serve the humans. Education The Greeks developed the notion of learning in a systematic way (Watson 167). The idea that learning about nature is possible without the assistance of god, removed the limitation that was previously present in the minds of humanity. With this basic idea in mind, humans have continued to progress towards the direction of achieving complete freedom from the binding effects of divinity. The west adopted the method of systemic learning and continued their journey towards discovering the hidden secrets of the nature for centuries. Holmes notion that “The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience” (Watson 509) lies at the base of modern day education. Modern education adopted logic as its basic tenet; research and reproducible experiments became the central idea upon which advances in knowledge were based. The notion of making available education to all the individuals of the society was promoted to establish a basic level of education that was common to all individuals of the society. The development of national education system which comprised of universities that served the purpose of conducting research that was aimed at serving the humans at individual level may be considered a move towards promoting individualism. Conclusion In the words of Fichte, “I become aware of my own self, not as an element in some larger pattern but in the clash with the not-self” (Watson 451); the concept of self has been explained in various ways. The general tendency of mankind to give prime importance to their own existence can be considered an extension of the manifestation of the self. The ancient notion of giving unusual importance to the unseen divine beings can be considered a contradiction of the concept of the self. It is therefore right to say that with the passage of time humans evolved to adopt an individualistic approach instead of the older approach towards life, where prime importance was given to the religion and the gods. This slow conversion towards individualism has made possible the growth of the concept of the self which is the ultimate goal of human societies so far. With self-centred approach in practice, the human society has evolved in a way that promotes the existence of mankind with self-satisfaction as the central element of life. Institutions are developed to protect and promote the idea of personal choice which is driven by the self. From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the ‘self’ has been the main driving factor behind the development seen in areas like politics, philosophy, religion, science, arts and education. Although this journey from the non-self to the self spans over thousands of years, it appears that the ultimate aim of this journey was to achieve satisfaction through the triumph of self in all walks of life. Works Cited Ferguson, Niall. Civilization: The West and the Rest. New York: Penguin Press, 2011. Print. Watson, Peter. Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005. Print. Read More