CHRIS COCHRAN
FALL 2005
000-00-0000
PHILOSOPHY PORTFOLIO
GRADUATION DATE: FALL 2005
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE ………………………………………………………………………………… 3
APPLICATIONS ………………………………………………………………………… 6
AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL BELIEFS AND THEIR DECLINE
DISCIPLINARY AND INTERDISCIPLANARY KNOWING ……………………. 12
THE AESTHETICS OF HORROR
FOUNDATIONS …………………………………………………………………………. 18
SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED REALITIES: LIVING AN AUTHENTIC EXISTENTIAL LIFE ACCORDING TO HEIDEGGER AND HOW
GOD FITS IN
PREFACE
My Portfolio is arranged in the order I took the classes starting with Philosophy, Religion, and the Environment with my paper on Australian Aboriginal Beliefs. This was also one of the first Philosophy classes that I took and I think the quality of the paper reflects this. Up to this point in college, most of my papers had focused on content and fact finding, not on the philosophical aspect or the argument of the subject I was writing about.
The next paper is The Aesthetics of Horror for my Contemporary Aesthetics class which was written towards the latter part of my studies in Philosophy. The quality of this paper should show a lot of improvement as my philosophical reasoning is well established by now.
The final paper Socially Constructed Realities: Living an
Authentic Existential Life According to Heidegger and How God Fits In was written for my Research Methods class and it
also happens to be the last paper written during my college career. I believe that it shows a remarkable
improvement over the first paper, both in content and quality.
Philosophy, Religion, and the Environment gave me a better understanding and appreciation for the different religions around the world like Buddhism, Islam, Shinto, and many others. This class offered up these new religions without bias or a preconceived notion of what they were and explained each one with a fair amount of detail. I learned their history from how they got started and I learned how they have been maintained throughout the years to what we know them as today. I also gained a better understanding of the beliefs they hold as well as how they interact with the environment. This was especially true when I did research for my paper on the Australian Aboriginal beliefs. The Aborigines are a fascinating people with very strong ties to the land. Although I didn’t know it yet, it was this research into the Aborigines and their strong ties to the land that started me on my path to existentialism.
Contemporary Aesthetics taught me how to look at things in different ways and how to go beyond what is just on the surface. It gave me the tools needed to focus outside the box when viewing particular items and situations, whether it is a piece of art or a philosophical argument. When I look at a painting or a sculpture, I no longer see just paint on a canvas or the hardened clay of a statue. I see the real beauty inside of it coming out. I see how the artist attempts to communicate his or her feelings through the work of art. The same thing can be said for writing as well. It is left up to the reader to find what the author is truly trying to get across to the reader. As a reader one must look beyond the words on a page and try to discover the real meaning that the author wants to impart onto them. Aesthetics is very important to the well-being and enjoyment to one’s life, and this class allowed me fully to appreciate what is aesthetically pleasing.
Research Methods allowed me to focus on writing a great research paper. While this class did not introduce me to any new philosophical discussions or debates, it did allow me to re-write a paper on existentialism that I felt was lacking in substance and allow me the help I needed to make it the great paper I knew it could be in the first place. Socially Constructed Realities: Living an Authentic Existential Life According to Heidegger and How God Fits In focuses on how to live a good and authentic existential life while balancing the physical and biological reality with the socially constructed reality we impose upon ourselves and how God fits in and plays such an important role in the latter. I wanted to show how we can place less emphasis on living solely in our socially constructed reality and demystify the role that God plays and place more emphasis on living in the physical and biological reality. I felt this would help my reader understand that what they consider real and important is nothing more than an illusion created by enculturation.
Going into college I had a preconceived notion of what life was all about. I never gave much thought to what life was all about and what else there was besides working and growing old. College, and more specifically Philosophy, has changed my life and my outlook on what is to come next. I started college with the intent to get a degree and then rejoin the workforce and I never gave a second thought to the quality of my life in non-monetary forms. It was always about quantity and not quality; getting a good paying job so I could buy a nice house, nice car, and lots of expensive toys, and a degree was going to help me in that pursuit.
Now my focus is on
the quality of my life and learning new and exciting things. College has opened up the doors to life and
shown me that there are many choices out there.
I don’t have to just pick one, but I can if I so choose. Philosophy has been a great subject for me to
pursue while attending college. People
sometimes laugh when I tell them that I am studying Philosophy, but I have
always been a deep thinker, and I have always asked lots of hard questions with
no real answers in sight. Philosophy has
allowed me to focus my questions about life and find answers to a lot of those
questions. Although, some of my
questions have no answers, such as “What is the meaning of life and is there
really a God?” While philosophy could not directly answer
those questions, it has helped me deal with the endless possibilities those
answers pose and I have thoroughly enjoined the open debates I’ve had about
them in class. One thing Philosophy has
taught me is that it is okay to ask questions.
In fact, it is our responsibility to ask questions. Not just the easy questions either, but the
really hard ones too, the ones with no real answers in sight. Just like Descartes questioned everything he
knew, so too have I. College has allowed
me to tear down my preconceived notions about life and how enculturation has
affected me. College has given me a good
solid foundation from which to rebuild my knowledge and live a better quality
of life.
AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL BELIEFS AND THEIR
DECLINE
This paper will be
a short discourse on the Australian Aborigines, some of their beliefs, and
their decline caused by the impact of European settlers. I will start off with a little bit of their
background and where they came from.
Then I will discuss how some of their beliefs and practices have been
handed down by songlines and dreamtime over the generations. Finally, I will show what kind of impact the
European and Colonial settlers have had on the Aborigines and their culture.
The aborigines
were hunter-gathers and one hunting technique they found useful was called
“Firestick Farming.”[2] This entailed the burning of large areas to
let fresh grazing grasses grow. These
grasses attracted large game animals, such as the kangaroo, for easy hunting. One important thing to point out here is that
the Aborigines did not go around burning huge quantities of land. They only burned small areas at a time and
killed only what they needed to survive.
This ensured that there would be more food available to hunt in the
future and it preserved the majority of the land for use in the future.
Because
they were hunter-gatherers, they liked to explore and go on “walkabouts,” where
they would just walk all over and explore the land. During these walkabouts, the Aboriginals
would connect with the land spiritually.
They viewed the land as sacred and their journeys became a dream journey.
Part of their teaching methods included
passing along the stories of their walkabouts to the younger generation. They
would recount their walkabouts in songs, also known as “songlines,” these songs
depicted their journey through sacred pathways and would convey a spiritual
message. Not only would they convey a
spiritual message, but the songs would also give vital geographic and survival
information, such as which route to take and where to find watering holes.
As I stated
earlier, the Aborigines viewed the land as sacred and their journeys became a
dream journey, “The Dream Journey is the Aboriginal path to spiritual renewal
because the people and the land are inseparable. These are a people in deep harmony with
nature.”[3] Aboriginal
spirituality and beliefs are centered on and around creation stories. These stories are recounted during their
Dreamtime ceremonies and through oral traditions. The stories teach how their ancestors left
their mark on the land and are manifested in particular sacred sites all over
“The expression ‘Dreamtime’
is most often used to refer to the ‘time before time’, or ‘the time of the
creation of all things’, while ‘Dreaming’ is often used to refer to an
individual’s or group’s set of beliefs or spirituality.”[4] The group or tribe would be called together,
sometimes with the use of the yidaki (also known as the didjeridu), and tell
great stories of how everything was created in a ceremonial performance. These ceremonial performances passed on the
laws and beliefs of an individual tribe.
Other ceremonies, known as increase ceremonies, would increase the creative
energy within the world and would also confer upon the people the specific
totem for the area. These performances
were sometimes used for entertainment as well as a way to pass along knowledge
that was gained over the years.
“Totemism” was and still is a very central part of their belief system. They identified with plants, animals, and anything they considered natural phenomena. They believed that they could influence and manipulate these totems by performing an “increase” ceremony conducted by fully initiated men in their tribe. These ceremonies insured the survival of their tribe and were a sacred part of their ritual life. At birth, each Aborigine is presented with a totem, also called “Dreamings,” by their grandfather. As they get older, they are taught the “Dreaming” dance associated with their totem. While performing the Dreaming dance they spiritually connect with the land and bring the power of the Dreaming to life.
One of the
Aboriginal beliefs held about births is pregnancy. “Pregnancy, and nothing else, is the immigration into a woman of a spirit child
from some definitely known external source, such as a totem centre, an article
of food, or a whirlwind, etc.”[5] Basically, this means that sex had nothing to
do with getting pregnant, an immaculate conception if you will. It may seem strange to us and our beliefs,
but this was normal for the Aboriginals.
But then again, this belief was not held by the Christians of the European
settlers and gave a solid reason as to why the Aboriginals were viewed as
sub-human and needed conversion to Christianity.
Through the last
50,000 years or so, the Aboriginal beliefs and practices have gone through many
changes, but none more so than after the first Europeans came to
In 1839 the committee had appointed Mr. G. A. Robinson as the “First Protector of the Natives of New South Wales.”[7] Mr. G. A. Robinson had advised the committee in
a public meeting in Sydney of severe cruelties
inflicted on Aborigines by sealers, whalers, and stockmen; even ‘the most
vehement opponent of the cause of the Aborigines, the editor of the Sydney Herald, admitted that “the
narrative was a statement of plain facts of which no man entertained a doubt.”’[8]
The Aborigines
were no match for the Europeans and gave in to them. The Europeans took over and it wasn’t until
the Aborigine Referendum[9]
was passed in 1967 that the Aboriginal people even had a right to vote in the
government which controlled their land. The
following was excerpted from section 20.3.30 of the “NATIONAL REPORT VOLUME 2 –
VOTING AND CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS”:
Colonial takeover denied Aboriginal people the right
to live by their own rules, to decide on their own policies. They were denied
the freedom to run their own economic and family life. They were also denied
the right to own land, to earn a secure living as farmers, merchants, or in the
labour market at their own discretion, to earn a family wage, to receive
welfare benefits, to live where they pleased. Under various policies their
private, reproductive lives were under scrutiny by government and missionary
officials. They could not necessarily marry the person they chose, fraternize
with people of their choice, speak to people of a certain colour skin, live in
a particular street or on a particular reserve.[10]
“Aboriginal people
in the last twenty years have been increasingly asked to recall their
traditions in relation to land claims, heritage sites, and historical and
ecological research.”[11] Thanks to the Aboriginal people’s ability to
accurately recount these stories, they eventually gained back a lot of the land
that was taken from them and now have a say in what goes on in the government
of
In conclusion, I have shown some Aboriginal beliefs like Totemism and the belief that pregnancies are caused by spirits and not by having intercourse. I have given some insight into some of the history and common practices of the past and present like the Dreamtime stories they tell and the increase ceremonies. Finally, I have shown how the European and Colonial settlers had a very negative impact on the Aborigines and their culture. Though the true impact of the settlers may never be fully realized, at least the aborigines have survived and are reclaiming their heritage. The sad thing is the youth may not care that their heritage is being forgotten and abandoned to make way for progress and the future.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
About Dreamtime web site on
<http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/dailard/oceanarts/Dreamtime.htm>
Australia Now web site on 30 Nov. 04
<http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/3d9011710bf9dd3dca256dea0005395a?OpenDocument>
Cowlishaw, Gillian. Blackfellas, Whitefellas, and the Hidden Injuries
of Race.
Blackwell Publishing, Ltd., 2004. p.
201
Hiatt, Lester Richard.
Arguments about Aborigines:
Anthropology.
Images Australia web site on 30 Nov. 04
<http://www.imagesaustralia.com/botanybay.htm>
Indigenous Australia web site on 14 Nov. 04
<http://www.dreamtime.net.au/dreaming/dreamtime.htm>
Indigenous Law Reserve web site on 30 Nov. 04
<http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/national/vol2/280.html>
Montagu, Ashley. Coming Into Being Among the Australian Aborigines.
Press, Inc., 1976. p. 331
MSN Encarta - Aboriginal Australians, (Introduction) 26 Nov. 04
< http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761572789/Aboriginal_Australians.html>
MSN Encarta -
<http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761568792_2/Australia.html#p196>
THE AESTHETICS OF HORROR
This essay is on why we love horror and horror movies so much and why the monster has to be so horrific and disgusting in nature. I will also discuss Noel Carroll’s essay “Why Horror?” and tie it in with my views on the horror movie Aliens.
Imagine driving down the road, listening to some music, and then coming up to a red light and stopping. How do you feel? There is nothing there, is there? There’s no rush of emotion or adrenaline pumping, and certainly nothing to get your mind working overtime? Now, imagine the same scenario but this time instead of coming to a red light you witness one car crashing into another car and flipping two times into the air while a body is ejected out of the window. How do you feel now? Even just reading this passage you may have an emotional response and your mind might be racing and you are thankful it’s not you in this situation. You may even be asking yourself what caused the car to crash and then flip, and why did the body get ejected? This is not an uncommon feeling. It is one of the things that make horror such a tantalizing experience. It’s also why we like to watch it in the safety of a movie theater.
The horror movie Aliens, which is the second movie in a four part series, is about a woman named Ripley who was the lone survivor from a deep space cargo ship that was attacked by an alien life form after they set down on a distant planet. This time around, she is asked to go back to the planet and help find out why the colony on the planet has been out of contact. Reluctantly she agrees to go back and is joined by a squad of Colonial Marines.
The alien is a vile and disgusting creature that has acid for blood and uses human bodies as host for newly hatched baby aliens to gestate. When the newborns complete their gestation cycle, they burst out of the chests of the human host, which is very graphic to watch. The aliens have gathered up all the colonists save one, a little girl by the name of Newt, and have implanted them with newborn aliens. Needless to say, the marines are in for the fight of their lives and Ripley ends up taking charge. What started out as a rescue mission turned into one of survival, and it is this extreme type of adventure that piques our curiosity and makes us continue to watch even though we know there will be graphic and horrible things to come. Watching a movie is one of the safe ways we have, as humans, to experience something completely foreign to us. As curious creatures, we like to explore new and untapped feelings and pressures, but we also don’t want to experience any of the negative aspects in real life either, that’s why movies are a perfect outlet for us to explore. We get the same, or as close to the same, feelings as we would in real life without any of the negative consequences. What could be better than that?
Noel Carroll writes, “[Monsters thus] arouse interest and attention through being putatively inexplicable or highly unusual vis-à-vis our standing cultural categories, thereby instilling a desire to learn and know about them.”[12] Carroll also says that, “to a large extent, the horror story is driven explicitly by curiosity.”[13] There is an old saying that curiosity killed the cat, well luckily, human curiosity can be satisfied virtually through the use of movies and storytelling.
Carroll is right in this assessment about the monsters. I was captivated by them and I wanted to know more about them since they do not exist in our culture. I was very curious and I wanted to know what kind of back story they gave it, where it came from, and why it was on this planet. Not to mention the fact that I was waiting to see whether the hero, Ripley, manages to find the monsters’ weakness and survive the ordeal and with whom she survives it. My main focus was not on the monster itself, but rather how he fit in with the entire narrative structure of the story. The story was excellent and that’s why this movie happens to be one of my all-time favorite horror movies.
There are some problems with Carroll’s argument however. First off, it seems as though his argument is more generalized and not group specific. There are plenty of people out there who do not like to watch horror of any kind, even if it is only a movie with no real life consequences. Second, the fact that the violence and horror are available to us might make us act on what we see. The more we become desensitized to violence, the more likely we are to condone it. Sure, we say it’s just a movie or it’s not real, but after a while when we see things happen in real life, we are already desensitized to it and pass by as if nothing had happened.
As I stated earlier, Carroll believes that curiosity is the key to our enjoyment. Humans are very curious by nature and want to know what is going on. That’s why we slow down when passing a car accident. Not so much in the hopes of seeing dead bodies lying around but rather in the hope of trying to figure out what happened and what caused the crash. This is also why we watch the news on television. We want to know what is going on in the world around us and we want to know if it will affect us in any way. Maybe that’s why everybody is always interested in weather forecasts, to find out if it will affect us in any way like predicting there will be a Hurricane off the coast and will bear down on us or if it will rain or snow in the days to come? We just like to know what is to come.
The reason the monster has to be so horrific and disgusting in nature is because we do not want to associate them with real life characters or situations. Monsters are fictional and we want them to stay that way. Horror movies are unrealistic by their nature which gives us a sense of peace in knowing that what we are watching couldn’t really happen to us. However, there are some types of horror that really provoke an unnatural response because we can’t make the determination so easily from fact or fiction.
For example, there are movies which are very suspenseful and mysterious and then there are some horror films that claim to be based on real events. These types of movies make you think about what exactly is going on and whether or not it would be possible to happen to you in real life. Especially, the horror movies claim to be based on real life events. For this type of movie, it is left up to the viewer to determine which portions of the movie are fact and which part is fiction. Not only that, but if any of the horror in the film were true then, could it happen again and if so, could it happen to me? These are the questions a good horror movie makes us ask ourselves and really scares us when we are unsure of the answer.
I think for the most part, Carroll is right with his evaluation of why we like to see horror so much. He backs up his claim by referring to examples from Hume’s work titled “Of Tragedy” and Aikin’s work titled “On the Pleasure Derived From Objects of Terror.” He includes various movie titles and literature for reference, e.g. The Blob, The Stuff, It, The Fog, The Clone, and of course Aliens, to help the reader get a better understanding of what types of horror he is talking about. Plus, he always refers to the revelation of the monsters in which a discovery is made about them that will help the people fight it and kill it. This revelation provides hope and keeps the viewer interested in what is going to happen to the monster next. This is what kept me going in Aliens. It seemed like they gave away some piece of information about the alien every time they killed someone off. The more I knew about the monster, the more I wanted to see it defeated. Which, of course, it eventually was in the end (or was it?). Getting a person to question the ending and survivability of a monster is also a good indicator of how the horror movie fares. I enjoyed every horrific and graphic moment of it.
In conclusion I feel Carroll does a great job of explaining why we like horror so much and why it is aesthetically pleasing for us to have an outlet to experience horror. It doesn’t matter whether the outlet is in a movie or some other aspect of our lives like watching the news or even taking a thrill ride at an amusement park. All-in-all, he has a way of getting to the heart of the matter and explains what he wants to get across to the reader in a quick and orderly fashion without a lot of fluff. Besides, a good horror movie or a thrill ride is great for the soul. They get our adrenaline pumping and our blood flowing. Plus, our brains get to work a little overtime, and it just makes us feel happy to be alive and safe!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Carroll, Noel. Why Horror? Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates.
Ed. Neil, Alex, Aaron Ridley.
SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED REALITIES: LIVING AN
AUTHENTIC EXISTENTIAL LIFE ACCORDING TO HEIDEGGER AND HOW GOD FITS IN
ABSTRACT
What is a socially constructed reality,
how does one live an authentic existential life, why is it important to
maintain a balance between them, and how does God fit in? These are the questions this short discourse
will address and try to answer. For
socially constructed realities, I will focus on enculturation and how it is the
key element to preserving our way of life.
Heidegger believed that being “Dasein” and taking full responsibility
for one’s own actions was a way for a person to live an authentic existential
life. Religion is the foundation upon
which God is formed and our morals kept in check. Together, these three things make up a good
way for persons to live their lives and a good balance between them helps in
making such lives (good) authentic.
INTRODUCTION
Imagine a world in which there is no common ground for people to communicate, a world that never formed any type of social awareness or societies to control people and to keep them from doing whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. What kind of world do you think it would be? At first glance, this world might seem like a good one. Humans would be free to do and act anyway they wanted to. But take a minute to really ponder this question. Is this really such a good thing to have? A world free from rules and constraints would be a nightmare. It would be very chaotic and savage. Language would have no meaning because there would never have been any standards put into place from which to learn. There would be no right and wrong, just what felt good and what felt bad. Values would not exist and a belief in God would be meaningless since there would have been no language in which to convey God’s message. The world I am talking about is a little planet we all know as Earth, before humans and the development of human culture.
Earth used to be exactly as I have described above. Then, somewhere along the way, humans arrived on the scene. At first humans were just as savage and barbaric as the rest of the animals that inhabited the planet. But humans were special. They had the ability to learn and develop ways to communicate with each other. This communication led to our ability to survive on this planet by working together to hunt and gather food, make shelters, and inevitably trade amongst one another. Out of chaos came order and structure. As language developed, so did our need to implement social order and societies where people could live, work, and play without the fear of dying for lack of shelter or food.
As societies began to grow, so
does the need to drive them along a safe path.
This is where God and religion come into play. God was a great way to control the masses and
explain away things that early humans were not capable of explaining. Religion was a way to instill morals and
values into the people and control the actions of the people. Thus began enculturation as a way to maintain
the status quo and re-instill the belief system that a person has according to
his/her culture. This culture became the
socially constructed reality in which we live today.
I will start this discourse by explaining socially constructed reality, citing different examples of it, and explaining how enculturation perpetuates the spread of a socially constructed reality by brainwashing the youth of a society to conform to the same belief structure in which they live. Then I will define what living an authentic existential life is according to Martin Heidegger and how his “Dasein” and “Being” fit into his existentialism and just what exactly living a good authentic existential life means to us. Finally, I will focus on God and religion and how they fit into our socially constructed lives. My focus will not be on just one religion, but all religions and whether or not it would be acceptable to not have a religion or belief in God(s). Then I will conclude with a summary of this discourse and show why it is important to maintain a balance between our socially constructed reality, living an authentic life, and God.
SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED REALITIES
There are two
realities we humans live are aware of, the physical and biological reality and
the socially constructed reality. First,
the physical and biological reality is the actual world (Earth) where we humans
live. It comprises everything that is
physical. We are sentient beings living
on planet Earth which is the third planet from the sun in this solar system and
part of the Milky Way Galaxy flying through the Universe which has existed for billions
of years. Also, when things in the physical
and biological reality react with each other, there is a physical
reaction. For example, when I push on an
object, the object moves within the physical and biological reality; if I light
an object on fire, there is a physical reaction taking place.
Second, is the socially
constructed reality Searle talks about.
He says our socially constructed reality is a reality that is purely
human in design and was created for humans to live in. Socially constructed reality is how society
has conformed the physical and biological reality to suit its needs. Most people have forgotten all about the
physical and biological reality and focus solely on socially constructed realities
and how other people view themselves and others in our socially constructed reality. Hence, the need for people to “find their
place” in society and fit in. Importance
is placed on the non-physical and the interactions that one has within a given
society and the perceived reality in our socially constructed reality is real only
so long as we believe it is real. There
is nothing physical about it. Also, when
things in our socially constructed reality react with each other, there is no
reaction taking place between them except what we produce. For example, when I hand someone money for
services rendered, or to purchase a product, there is no reaction between the
money and the person. The reaction takes
place between the people and conforms to their socially constructed reality.
Let’s use money as
an example. Money is nothing more than
oddly shaped fibers which are arranged in a certain manner so that inks and
dies can be coated over its surface. In the
physical and biological reality this is the physical description, and in this
sense the money is real. But in our socially
constructed reality money is not only real, but it also holds value based on
the worth society has placed on it. A twenty
dollar bill is worth twenty dollars and represents the length of time a person
will work or the amount of products which can be purchased or traded for twenty
dollars. Now, if we take the same piece
of paper and change a number or two to reflect its worth as being one hundred
dollars instead of twenty dollars, we have now increased its value five times,
but the piece of paper remains the same in the physical and biological
world. The value placed on the money in
our socially constructed world has changed.
Sometimes we try to change the value of an object on purpose, like
counterfeiting, or we may just lie to our self and wrongly believe that
something has value in our socially constructed reality, when it does not. Take “Bad Faith” for example.
“Bad Faith,”
according to Sartre, is the ability to lie to one’s own self. Most of the time, we are so caught up in our
own socially constructed reality and we are hardly aware we are lying to
ourselves. We have the ability to
rationalize an event, or situation, to suit our own needs and goals. This all takes place in our own socially constructed
reality. For example, people on a diet
know what foods to eat and what exercises need to be done in order to lose
weight. But, should the weight not come
off, then we tend to rationalize the results and explain it away as something
external to what we did and that we had no control over the outcome. When, in reality, had the person actually
followed the diet correctly without cheating, they would more than likely have
lost the weight and wouldn’t have had to deal with trying to rationalize their
failure. Although common, this is an
important example of bad faith and not taking responsibility for one’s own
actions.
I’ve mention how socially constructed reality affects people, but how does it foster and grow in a society? How can it perpetuate over the life of a person? These are very good questions to ask. The answer to them is, of course, enculturation. Enculturation is the key element that helps maintain the belief structure of our socially constructed reality. It has allowed us the ability to instill values into people from the beginning of one’s life and perpetuates a belief system throughout a person’s life.
What is enculturation exactly? “Enculturation is a process by which culture helps to shape our values, preferences, choices, assumptions, etc... about values (religious, moral, and otherwise), gender roles and expectations, political views, food preferences, aesthetic preferences, etc.”[14] Enculturation is practiced, and preached, literally from the time we are born and continues on throughout the rest of our lives. It is strengthened by the interactions we have with our family, friends, co-workers, schools, religion, and our location in the world. Society has a way of segregating people by their beliefs and values and enculturation enforces these beliefs and values.
Enculturation
is not the end. The cycle can be broken. People need to seek out information on their
own and decide for themselves what to believe and what not to believe. The
belief structure of most people is based in their socially constructed reality
and is biased towards the location in which they currently reside. Take Islamic people, for instance. Persons born in the Middle East is more
likely to grow up Muslim believing in Islam as opposed to Christianity for the
simple fact that they are surrounded by Muslim people and constantly bombarded
with the morals and values of Islam. The
same could be said of a person growing up in
One of the reasons enculturation has worked so well is because people tend to be followers and not leaders. Heidegger would say these people would not be living an authentic existential life because they have succumbed to peer pressure and did what the “they” (society) said to do. It is easy to follow someone else. There is less work involved and most of the major decisions have already been decided leaving a person the time to pursue the more fun aspects of life. That doesn’t sound so bad, does it? Then again, could you really call this a good and authentic life? I think not.
LIVING AN AUTHENTIC
EXISTENTIAL LIFE ACCORDING TO HEIDEGGER
What is an
authentic existential life according to Heidegger? The length and brevity of this paper will not
allow me fully to go into this subject, but put simply, an authentic existential
life is the awareness of one’s own existence and the ability to make decisions
and take full responsibility for those decisions. Heidegger would say living an authentic
existential life is all about “Dasein” and “Being.” “Dasein” is the awareness of our “Being” and
existing in the universe as nothing else can know because “Dasein” is uniquely
known only to humans, and “…the ‘essence’ of being there lies in its
existence.”[15] Therefore, someone who is aware of their
existence in the physical and biological reality would be “Dasein,” according
to Heidegger.
“Dasein”
is the awareness of our Being and existing in the universe as nothing else can
know, other than man or other sentient beings.
Put simply, it is the awareness we humans exist within this
universe. “The ‘essence’ of being there
lies in its existence.”[16] Humans are aware of their existence to a
certain degree and it is because of this that “Dasein” differs from
consciousness and rational animals.
Someone who is aware of one’s own existence in the physical and
biological reality and takes responsibility for their own actions would be
considered to be “Dasein” according to Heidegger and living an authentic
existential life..
Heidegger says that "death" is inevitable, but it is not something one can experience, so there is not much to "death itself." Anticipation of death, however, is one’s own most and extreme potentiality-of-being. To know and acknowledge that one is going to die is to take responsibility for one’s impending death and is said to be very “Dasein” according to Heidegger. This might also explain why religion is such a major factor in people’s lives. Since death is an unexplained phenomenon, religion provides us with an answer to what lies beyond death and helps us by giving us hope that there is real meaning to our lives. We are intelligent beings who like to ask questions to things we do not, or cannot, understand. When there is no answer to be had, we will come up with a spiritual one, i.e., it is God’s will or it is Spiritual.
There are three fundamental characteristics of “Dasein” and “Being”: Existence, facticity, and falleness. Existence is our basic ontological state. Facticity are certain facts that a person did not choose, i.e., a person does not choose when and where to be born and that they now exist. Falleness (falling) is simply the “they” in society, more commonly known as peer pressure. A person has the responsibility to choose to do what “they” say, what society says, and conform, or one can simply choose to make one’s own decision and decide for themselves what to do and what not to do.
Living
an authentic existential life is not something that is very easy to do, but it has
many great benefits. The best thing
about living an authentic existential life is that there is a lot less
stress. Knowing that things don’t really
matter too much in the grand scheme of things allows a person to not worry
quite so much on what other people think and do. Making decisions are easier to make as well,
since we only have to focus on our immediate needs and wants. But one must also take responsibility of
one’s own actions even in a socially constructed reality. There is no real need to find one’s place in
society, other than to fulfill personal needs or wants. While living in society, an existentialist is
confronted with certain socially constructed realities that need to be
addressed. That is, unless you don’t
care about being free to live your life the way you chose. Society usually requires a person to pay
taxes and find a way to support one’s self and one’s family members, if one chooses
to have a family. Living an authentic
existential life is not quite such a happy and care free life as it may sound. In fact it is more of a solicitous life. A life filled with careful thoughts about
decisions and the outcomes of those decisions.
It is a life filled responsibility for one’s own actions and a life that
is also concerned for the well being of others around them. After all, people still have to get along
together to function properly in any society no matter what your own personal
beliefs are.
Living an authentic existential life on a daily basis, a person constantly makes decisions they know have no real value other than to please people right now for the current moment in time. They are aware that they live in a socially constructed reality, but do their best to not get caught up in it. Human beings can’t be “authentic” twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; so they have to learn to walk a fine line between “Dasein” and living within a socially constructed reality. They must monitor themselves and try to stay away from “Bad Faith” because lying to one’s self does not do anybody any good and can only set a person back in the pursuit of living an authentic existential life.
As I stated
earlier “Bad Faith” is simply telling a lie to one’s self. If we can avoid this, then we may avoid the
problems which arise from the perpetual lies that will follow. They say it is a tangled web we weave when
first we practice to deceive. This is a
very true and accurate statement because as a lie grows, more lies are needed
to perpetuate it. This in turn allows
for “Bad Faith” to become more commonplace and accepted.
GOD
How does God fit into the grand scheme of things? God is not a cure all solution to everyone’s problems. Even though it may seem at times that God is the answer to everything, this is not the case. First off, which God does a person talk about when they refer to God, is there more than one God, and why would anyone believe in a God or Gods to begin with?
There are literally thousands of different religions in the world today. For example, there are over nine hundred different branches of the Christian religion like Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, and so on. Still the are other religions like Buddhism and Shintoism, and Islam, and so on. Most are monotheistic, but there are a few that believe in more than one God. God has not been proven to exist and is not necessary for existence, but where do these religions get their proof for the existence of God(s)? This is where “faith” comes into play. Faith, for a true believer, is the belief in God(s) in the absence of proof. If proof were ever given for the existence of God(s), then faith would lose its validity as it would no longer be needed. Which God or Gods a person believes in or follows is, for the most part, up to that individual’s enculturation.
Different religions play different roles within a person’s life. The different religions of the world perpetuate enculturation to their given society based on the geographic location of the society as mentioned earlier (i.e., a person is Muslim if born in the Middle East, and a person is Jewish if born in Israel, etc.). As with anything in life however, a person is free to choose what he/she wants to believe. As Epictetus says, “Your will is always within your power. Nothing truly stops you. Nothing truly holds you back. For your own will is always within your control.”[17]
If God does exist, then our socially constructed reality is irrelevant to the grand scheme of things. Our place would be one which God has created for us, not the other way around. The belief structure behind what we give value to, like the accumulation of wealth and objects, would be irrelevant to God. Unless, of course, this were all just a test and we were here for God’s entertainment or test purposes. Wouldn’t that be ironic, if we were all just lab rats in this giant maze that we call life?
Is it acceptable or authentic not to have a religion or believe in God? The simple answer to that question is “yes” it is perfectly okay not to have a religion or believe in God. People have free will and because of this, they are free to believe in whatever they want to believe in and follow, or not follow, any religion they desire. As long as one accepts the responsibility for their actions, then it is perfectly acceptable to believe in whatever they want to.
One of the most often asked questions is: If there is no God, and/or we believe there is no God, then where do morals and ethics come from? Ah, the $64,000 question. I briefly touched upon this issue earlier when I talked about enculturation. For the most part we learn our ethical and moral values when we grow up via enculturation. These values can, and do, change over the years with our environment and our experiences. For example, living in a poor section of a city as opposed to an upper class section of a city can shape our view of the people living in the upper class section, and getting mistreated can lead us to distrust people or even hate a specific class of person if it seems that we only get mistreated by a certain type of person. This is a slippery slope that leads to stereotyping and racial tension. My point here is that we rely upon our enculturation, not God, for our ethical and moral values.
This is one reason why I believe a belief in God is not mandatory for someone to have good strong moral and ethical values. Moral and ethical values will be taught to a person as they grow up by the society around them. Society will teach them what is right and what is wrong. Very rarely does one break free from the bonds of enculturation at an early age. It takes many years and knowledge of things not normally taught through enculturation to break free from its bonds. But it can, and does, happen to young people. These people are sometimes outcast or seen as rebels. But to me, they are simply enlightened people who have realized they are free to pick what they want to believe.
Next time you go to church, temple, synagogue, or whatever you do, ask yourself why? Why do you believe what you believe? Did you chose it, or were you enculturated into believing what you believe? That is the real question. Most people don’t even realize they didn’t pick the religion they are following. They believe in what they believe because that is all they have ever known and they either fear change or, they are simpletons who do what they are told and what they think is right without question. This is not to say there aren’t those people out there who have truly chosen what religion to follow, because there are; I’m just saying that most people haven’t. So how does one go about choosing a religion?
Is your religion right for you? If it is, then how do you know? How does someone go about finding out if a religion is right for them? This is not an easy task. A person doesn’t just wake up one day and say, “Yep, today I think I will be a Buddhist.” Religion is something that is learned over many years, usually through enculturation from birth. However, if someone questions their own religion and decides to pursue learning a new and/or different religion, all one has to do is simply desire change and learn about the different religions available. But which religion should you pick from the many thousands available?
Religions are, for the most part, sets of rules and values that guide people along specific paths in life. These rules and values could be seen as a great way to control the masses and there has been plenty of evidence throughout the years that suggests it has done so for thousands of years. Take the Crusades, for example, or the Inquisition. They were both contrived and pursued because of religion and a strict adherence to the values and rules placed in the religion. The best way to find out if there is a religion out there for you is to gain knowledge about the different religions out there. Ask yourself what your beliefs are and then ask yourself if these beliefs are truly yours or were they beliefs passed onto you by your religion through enculturation? If you can make a clear distinction between your beliefs and those that were passed onto you, then your religion is not right for you.
You should seek
out a religion that holds the same values and beliefs you do. But religion is not necessary for you to live
a good and happy authentic life. Just
because you don’t go to church, the temple, or a synagogue, doesn’t mean that
you are a bad person. This is a
prejudice that has been helped along to prevent people from leaving their own
religion. It is built on fear, to
control the followers of religion to stay and conform. But due to the fact that there are thousands
of religions out there, one can plainly see this is merely a minor
deterrent. When people realize they are
free to choose their own path, they do so.
If you cannot find a religion that holds the same beliefs as you, don’t
worry, because it’s not the end of the world.
The main thing to remember is to take responsibility for your actions
and live as authentically as you can.
Trust your own instincts and follow what you believe.
CONCLUSION
Take a good look at all the stars in the night sky and ask yourself if humans are really so important to the grand scheme of things in the universe. If there really is no God, then how important are we to the grand scheme of things. Could it be that we are all just star dust that has coalesced on this tiny planet and have formed into sentient beings as a fluke? However, if there really is a God or Gods, then I would not even begin to presume or speculate what our role in this Universe could possibly be. Except, to say, I do believe that humans are special in one respect, we are intelligent enough to know that we are alive and a part of this Universe no matter what the true reasons behind it all are. We have grown as a species and coexist with the other animals on this planet and hopefully will continue to do so for a very long time to come.
Socially constructed reality, perpetuated through enculturation, provides us with a guide to interact and live with the other people on this planet. Living an authentic existential life provides us with a method to take responsibility for our actions within our socially constructed reality. And God, if there is a God, is a way for people to provide some meaning to their life and their existence through faith. Properly balanced, these three things can lead a person down a path to a good and authentic life.
In conclusion, being aware of one’s place in the physical and biological reality and being true to one’s self within the socially constructed reality will greatly improve the quality of the life one lives. I wasn’t around a hundred years ago and I won’t be around a hundred years from now. But I’m here now, and that’s why I live life for the moment and I live life for today. After all, for me there is no real purpose to life or my existence for that matter, other than to just live it the best way I know how, take responsibility for my actions, and pursue an authentic existential life. After all, life is too short to be worried about things which we cannot control.
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