I believe it's the theory of relativity that states that moving fast enough changes your experience of time. I don't suppose my body was traveling so much more quickly than usual, though I covered a lot of ground from Los Angeles to San Diego to Pomona to San Diego and back to Los Angles, but my essence, my spirit, my shadow has been all over the place and in many of those places all at once.
It was every kind of time, really, including the best time.
What is still hanging on is a question of philosophy. This trip seems to have been about free will, fatalism and humanism.
I would define free will as a sense of power, that humans are active agents with the ability to affect the outcome of the future, which is not to say that free will is absolute power. It has little to do with truth and everything to do with intention. It is prescriptive, but not predictive.
Fatalism, on the other hand, reminds me of hopelessness. Fatalism means giving oneself over to the whimsy of chance. It accepts no responsibility for the past or future. There is no such thing as a promise, and no need for apologies. The comfort seemingly is that you can do no wrong.
Humanism is where it gets interesting. Humanism is about desire and possibility. It seems to have all the freedom of free will, unfettered by responsibility, but I don't think philosophical humanism is quite the right title for the philosophy wedging itself between fatalism and free will this past week. This one had more to do with truth. It seemed to be a descriptive art concerned more with acknowledging the fallibility of intention than with the potential to achieve its desires.
What I don't understand is the interface between free will and humanism. It seems wrong to conflate humanism with fatalism, but if free will can accept that truth is fleeting and variable, that humans are not the sole determinants of future outcomes, what problem does humanism have with intention?
The interesting thing is that humanism should be able to go either way. You could focus on human weakness or human power, but this seemed to be more of a fatalistic breed, in which the ability to pursue the desires afforded by fate is an inalienable right. Fate or chance, once it comes into the picture, seems to give everything a sense of urgency that free will doesn't as much feel because it is empowered to recreate circumstances to its own benefit.
But yes, I am curious about this tug between truth and intention, action and contentment.
2 comments:
First off I would like to issue a disclaimer that I may be muddying up (bastardizing) some of these definitions but the following is my perspective on these philosophical standpoints.
I am without a doubt a Free Will girl. Everything down from vocabulary to morning musical preference is a choice in my humble opinion. You are your friends, what you eat, the movies you watch, the jokes you make, your annoying habits, etc. Because of this I see this whole “human condition” crap as a total cop out. This humanism deal makes us out to be these weak, needy, emotional puddles. Humanism sets the bar low, marking any sort of success or earnest effort to get yourself back on your feet after a fall some sort of huge breakthrough or accomplishment. Then again I’m a rather strong individual and can’t assume everyone is the same as me. However! I sense that this is due to inadequate exposure, not challenging yourself enough, not getting out of your comfort zone – or perhaps underdeveloped educational standards. Most people get emotional, freak out, and fall apart. Emotions are not themselves signs of weakness but it is a lack of understanding about these emotions and your control over them, that lack of insight, that allows room for this humanistic (cop out) crap to bubble up. It all comes down to this overarching “human” weakness that people hobble on like a crutch. I get it though, it’s much easier to blame being human than to grow up and get smart.
Now, what do fatalism and free will have to do with each other other than choosing to be a fatalist? To me, fatalism is a viewpoint or perspective, like expecting the worst and, however unintentional, seeking it out. I like to refer to that great thinker, ahem, Paul Simon who so eloquently quotes, “Still man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.” You think bad and thus color your life with it. Usually people call you a fatalist, you don’t call yourself a fatalist. And usually it’s immediately following some downtrodden statement you made about the state of your life. They’ve made bumper stickers for you, “Cheer up emo kid.”
As for buddhism, contentment has more to do with a detached, peaceable, soul-less, lack of desire, for desire is the root of suffering (to a buddhist anyway). Feel free to google the Four Noble Truths but suffice it to say that, in a nutshell, desire causes pain. I for one love samsara (the world of desire/suffering… where us unenlightened people inhabit), I love desire, I love the sticky grey parts. Suffering gives me something to talk about, cry about, strive for. Ok I guess here I should mention, for context, that I am a, hmm, a “spiritual agnostic” who doesn’t believe in an afterlife. So bring on the dukka, I choose to suffer for it.
Free will is active sure I’ll give you that, fatalism breeds depression, and humanism is a cop out – or an explanation for why we fail at best. Failure is human, ok, but so is success if you ask me. I do not believe we are inclined to fail by nature. That’s bullshit. How have we evolved this far if that were even remotely true?
Ok that’s all for now. In sum: Grow up, own up, and get a life. Amen.
Well, I would make a distinction between fatalism and pessimism. Fatalism doesn't expect the worst to happen. It allows that bad things can happen outside of your control, but fatalists can be lucky. Pessimism is more like a bad attitude, which I don't think is necessarily tied to any philosophy.
I think the easiest way to get to fatalism is through a sort of Buddhist contentment and lack of desire because desire seems to be what really drives humanism and free will. Learning to appreciate what you have seems a goal noble enough, but I don't think such a thing need necessarily to be tied to fatalism exclusively.
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