The Condition

1
Chapter 2

• The Condition the Odyssey

2
The Predicament

• All philosophizing is rooted in one simple fact
  of our existence each of us is trapped in an
  egocentric predicament that sets limits on the
  way we perceive the world and relate to others.
• Can we overcome such a deep-rooted and troubling
  condition?

3
The Coherent Worldview

• A worldview is a more or less coherent,
  all-inclusive frame of reference through which
  one sees the world it is a subjective attempt to
  provide unity and consistency to the totality of
  ones experience
• It is one purpose of philosophy to help the
  individual build a worldview that is functional
• The ideal worldview will be internally
  consistent, pragmatically realistic, and
  personally fulfilling

4
The Egocentric Predicament

• 1910, Ralph Barton Perry
• To know what any real object/event is, we have to
  perceive it.
• How then can we know whether our perception of an
  object/event changes it?
• I am the center of MY universe, but not THE
  universe

5
Blaise Pascal

• It is pitiful to see so many Turks, heretics,
  and infidels following in their fathers track,
  for the sole reason that each has been
  conditioned to believe that this track is best.
  This accident of birth is also what decides
  everyones condition in life, making one man a
  locksmith, another man a soldier, et cetera.

6
Aristocentric Claims

• Whenever any creature fails to correct for his
  egocentric illusion and begins to feel that he
  really is the center of the universe, and
  further, if he feels that he should be treated by
  others as though he were the center, then he has
  taken a giant step beyond the illusion itself.
• He is making an aristocentric claim.

7
Egocentric Illusions in Time Space

• Time our lifetimes are short in the perspective
  of geological time or human history, yet we tend
  to think of all existence in terms of our
  allotted span
• Space our life-space becomes the center of all
  things good, and more distant regions somehow
  lack the reality of our vicinity

8
We Live in Two Worlds

• From birth till death each of us is locked into
  a physical organism from which there is no
  escape. This condition is known as
  encapsulation.
• We confuse the world in here and the world out
  there
• Reification

9
Albert CamusMan the Absurd

• The problem lies in the individuals relationship
  to the world. Man is not absurd, and the world is
  not absurd. Its at the interface between man and
  the world that the Absurd is encountered.

10
Reflections

• The story of the Three Christs of Ypsilanti is
  more than a case study. It is a metaphor. As a
  metaphor, what does the account say to you about
  the claims and rationalizations that universally
  characterize the human species?

11
Self

• Not a few philosophers have argued that the
  development of an authentic self is the central
  lifelong project for each of us
• What does it mean to be a self?
• Is the self something we can know and
  understand?

12
From the Movie Cleopatra

• Mark Antony to Cleopatra, as he lay dying speaks
  of his impending death as the ultimate
  separation of my self from myself
• What does he mean?

13
News Item

• A man is indicted for embezzlement, but he is
  never caught, and lives under an assumed name in
  another state for twenty-six years. Then, in a
  freak move, a relative turns him in. Yes, he
  confesses, I did it.
• But did he?

14
From The Sixth Sense (ABC-TV)

• Where are you?
• I am sitting on a rock by the lake
• What do you see?
• I am not really at the lake. I am in the large
  mansion looking at the man I am about to kill
• But you were not in the mansion were you?
• No, I was sitting at the lake
• Yes, I know, because I was sitting beside you

15
A Sense of Self

• What each of us can become during our lifetime is
  determined by two fundamental conditions (1) the
  degree to which we experience a more or less
  consistent sense of self or identity, and (2)
  whether the feelings we have developed about that
  self are predominantly good

16
A Sense of Worth

• How we feel about our selves strongly reflects
  how others felt about us during our earliest
  years
• If we are loved then we feel lovable we can
  love ourselves
• Most of us never move beyond self-consciousness

17
The Autonomous Self

• Autonomy refers to ones ability to function
  independently in terms of an authentic self
• The ability to make autonomous decisions 1)
  courage to be 2) courage of self-affirmation 3)
  understanding of culture-patterns

18
Ayn RandThe Productive Life

• Who is John Galt?
• Ayn Rand was for rationality, individuality,
  living life as an end in itself, courage,
  happiness, success, life, pleasure, joy, freedom,
  Aristotle, Aquinas, atheism, love, friendship
• Ayn Rand was against the irrational,
  self-sacrifice, martyrdom, belief, anything that
  erodes self-esteem, sheep, suffering, failure,
  death, pain, hedonism, Kant
• Three cardinal virtues reason, purpose,
  self-esteem

19
Reflections

• Have you ever made a list of the things you are
  for and the things you are against? How much of
  Ayn Rands fors and againsts can you agree
  with? Now clarify (to yourself) why you are for
  or against these things

20
Growth

• What happens when we remove our masks if we
  can?
• What do we then become?
• We are what we pretend to be, so we must be
  careful about what we pretend to be. --Kurt
  Vonnegut, Mother Night

21
When Things Go Wrong

• Harlows and the young monkeys
• Human psychological development 1)
  reassurance/security/trust 2) courage/aggression/
  exploration 3) self/autonomy/maturity
• We know that something has gone wrong (when
  things go wrong)and we wonder why

22
The Masks We Wear

• When things go wrong, the feeling that one does
  not know who he is may be intuited by ourselves
  and inferred by others, but it is perhaps the
  last thing we will confess. The pain of unmasking
  is too great. We cant risk being open. We are
  ever fearful that someone might see beneath our
  masks and discovernothing.
• It is easy to become lost in the other when we
  have no real sense of self. --Richard Moss

23
I Will Not Stop Till I Know

• To be innocent is to not know
• Therefore, to be innocent is to be dependent
• Dependence requires trust and faith
• Dependence requires obedience
• Innocence is an instrument of control

24
Growth Insecurity

• Neophobia we are afraid of new objects,
  unfamiliar behavioral patterns in others, strange
  feelings in ourselves, or any other new and
  threatening elements of life that we do not
  understand
• Neophilia if we have enough security when we
  need it, then we can explore more and more of the
  unknowns, assimilate them, explore some more,
  widen our horizons, and grow

25
The Answer-Givers

• The actual fact is that answer-givers have a need
  to persuade. One of their goals is to contain us
  within a state of innocence and thereby establish
  control over us.
• Their true motivation is disguised by perhaps the
  commonest of human rationalizations that they
  are really helping us

26
Crisis of Authority

• One of the major roadblocks to autonomy is
  failure to achieve separation from authority

27
Developing Self-Awareness

• When we are open to experiencing our selves
  precisely as they are rather than expending
  energy feeling anxious or guilty over what they
  are not a change in feeling can take place

28
The Law of Pathei Mathos

• It is a painful insight to discover that one
  holds a belief because one needs the belief, and
  not because the belief is true. This is the sort
  of insight one would like to make go away, like a
  bad dream or clouds on a rainy day

29
Sigmund FreudHumanity is Blocked by Our Pain

• We are blocked from being human by our own
  repressed pain and seeing the truth about
  ourselves could release enormous stores of
  bound-up energy for rich and responsible living
• Id
• Superego
• Ego

30
Reflections

• Zero in on the problem of dealing with those who
  would provide us with the answers before we
  have asked the questions. Do you agree with the
  problem as stated in this chapter? How would you
  suggest that we confront such answer-givers?

31
Life Time

• Direction?
• Is life then goal-directed?
• Are we driven, deeply and perhaps unconsciously,
  toward something or away from something? Is life
  inherently meaningful, carrying us toward a
  telos, or is it meaning-less?

32
All the Worlds a Stage

• All the worlds a stage
• And all the men and women merely players
• They have their exits and their entrances
• And one man in his time plays many parts.

33
Mapping a Lifetime

• The four ashramas
• Japanese fivefold division of the human lifespan
• Freuds five distinct stages in the development
  of a young human being from age zero to about
  eighteen
• Shakespeares seven ages

34
The Ground Plan

• Scientific studies have discovered that there
  exists within us a psychophysiological timetable
  that provides a plot for each individual human
  drams
• The unfolding of this ground plan gives our lives
  a predictable structure and allows us to achieve
  a general overview of a full human life from
  birth to death

35
Infancy to Childhood

• Infancy
• Early Childhood
• Middle Childhood
• Late Childhood

36
The Adolescent Years

• Early Adolescence
• Midadolescence
• Late Adolescence

37
The Maturing Years

• Early Adulthood
• Intermediate Adulthood
• Middle Adulthood
• Later Adulthood

38
The Final Phase

• It begins when we must face that fact that our
  own death is imminent
• Reliving our past
• An attempt to see the life/time drama in
  perspective, and to write a good completion

39
The Shriek of Ivan Ilytch

• Tolstoys Death of Ivan IIytch
• As Ivan reflects upon the meaningless of his
  death, what hits him so forcefully is the
  meaninglessness of his life

40
The Heros Journey

• Joseph Campbell
• The Importance of Myth
• There is a single formula, a single plot, to the
  heros adventure

41
VoltaireThe Laughing Philosopher

• Crush the infamy!
• My baffled curiosity continues to be
  insatiable.
• He had an abiding faith in the intelligence and
  rationality of man
• This century begins to see the triumph of
  reason
• If God did not exist, it would be necessary to
  invent him.

42
Reflections

• If you think of life metaphorically as a path
  or road, can you locate yourself with some
  accuracy (somewhere) along that path? Did you
  personally go through the earlier challenges as
  described in this chapter?