Plato’s perfectionist thinking made him to link the real being, to abstract forms. Abstract forms like geometric figures; circle, cube, and rectangle, etc can be found in any life form by direct observations. These geometric figures are perfect while living beings are imperfect. Living beings change forms and die but these perfect shapes remain. This linking of imperfect beings to perfect abstract forms, led to the concept of "essence"..... “Essence precedes existence”……………..Plato’s essence is the foundation of metaphysical thinking……. A world beyond common senses……..
On other hand, Jean Paul Sartre's imperfect thinking made him to link the "essence" as outcome of cognitive processes. Human being born empty and it is society that transfers the concepts and belief systems. Sartre concludes, “Existence precedes essence”. The idea seems logical but there is a big hole in the concept that makes it sink and that is ignoring the context of being. It observes a living being as it appears without considering its past…………..
Present is detailed and past is specific. When Astrophysicist look to past, they are forced to begin by a point, known as big bang. However at present there is dark matter, white matter and possibility of life on planets of other stars that are too detailed. It forces physicist to think in realm of "principle of uncertainty" and "entanglements". Similar problems take hang biologists. Presently the life forms are too diverse and there are millions of species of five kingdoms but back to past, biologists are forced to accept the concept of common ancestors. Without big bang in physics and common ancestor in biology, observation of present does not make sense. Present gets meaning in the context of past. Removing past les to details without any context and that is what we known as despair. It is why existentialism is known as philosophy of despair……….
Abstraction is universal. Individuals and communities draw meanings from them to turn them into oneself or ourselves. Let me explain,
Music is abstract and universal. Musicians draw meaning by composing music of themselves. Numbers are abstract and universal. Statisticians draw meaning by ordering the numbers. Geometrical objects like line, dots are abstract and universal. Artists draw meaning by expressing themselves by them. Words are abstract and universal. We draw meaning by giving context and linking them to our expressions. The universality of abstraction is the result of common origin. If by essence we mean common origin then origin is not perfect. Yes, “essence (common origin) precedes existence” but it is not perfect.
Imperfections drive life and life never gets perfected. The truth is, we never desire for perfection because perfection is seizure of meaning……. perfection is ending. We rather desire for the best. Those who confuse best with perfection go to despair and find everything meaningless as no one gets perfected.
No comments:
Post a Comment