Hettinger (hettingr@iglou.com)
Wed, 5 Nov 1997 19:08:17 +0100
Hi, Steve and TLS,
Stephen Christy wrote:
> Greetings LS,
>
> Today in my philosophy class we were discussing the philosophy of
> the existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre. We covered his concepts of freedom
> and anguish. I will cite a paragraph from one of his texts and then
> show how I believe it reflects DQ and SPoV.
>
> "Consciousness is terrified of its own spontaneity, because it feels
> this spontaneity as beyond freedom. This can be clearly seen in an
> example from Janet. A young wife was in terror, when her husband left
> her alone, of sitting at the window and soliciting the passersby like a
> prostitute. Nothing in her education, in her past, or character could
> explain such a fear. It seems to me that a negligible circumstance
> (reading, conversation, etc.) had produced what might be called a
> "vertigo of possibility." She found herself monstrously free, and this
> vertiginous freedom appeared to her as the occasion for this gesture
> which she was afraid of making. But this vertigo is understandable only
> in terms of consciousness suddenly appearing to itself as infinitely
> overflowing in its possibilities the I which ordinarily serves as its
> unity..... On this level there is no longer any distinction between the
> possible and the real, since the appearance is the absolute." (The
> Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre, Robert Denoon Cumming, p.55)
>
> Now, the spontaneity, or utter freedom, that so effects the
> consciuosness in this way immediately brought to my mind DQ. This
> freedom of Sartre's is something which isn't limited by any one form or
> the other. He goes on to describe a sense of anguish which we
> experience when we become aware of this utter freedom. This anguish
> finds its roots in the fact that we cannot complete control our own
> actions or future. DQ, cannot be controled by us.. and it can be
> intimidating. When you approach a new environment or situation, when
> everything is a new experience, the possibilities of what can or may
> happen are imposing. This is because we are on some level aware of the
> utter freedom we have from any absolute restrictions or determinism.
> This is where Sartre begins to introduce "responsibility".
> Responsibility in the sense that people form values and beliefs of
> things to protect themselves from being lost within this torrent of
> freedom. Things that give some kind of foothold. And this, to me,
> starting sounding suspiciously like SPoV. This responsibility that we
> must take on to protect ourselves from degeneration is P's SPoV. The
> freedom is DQ. In the case of the woman left alone, as cited above, she
> was aware of this dynamic freedom, a freedom in which she may act
> against her own beliefs of right or wrong, but her intellectual SPoV
> protected her from these actions. She knew she believed it wrong to
> prostitute herself, and this awareness of dynamic quality threatened
> these patterns.
> I am going to stop here and wait for responses before I go any
> further. There are numerous other, perhaps more concise and better,
> examples I could cite from Sartre to show the similarities between his
> Freedom and P's Q, but I will refrain until I know if anyone wants me to
> pursue this any further. Thanks for bearing with me and reading this.
> :)
>
>
Thanks, Steve. I like the way you put this: "In the case of the woman left
alone, as cited above, she was aware of this dynamic freedom, a freedom in
which she may act
against her own beliefs of right or wrong, but her intellectual SPoV
protected her from these actions". There's somthing of alignment and
centering involved here, and I wish I could figure it out.
I think it's interesting that in Sartre's expression of the woman's reaction
to DQ, we are immediately presented with a strongly biological image.
I've been starting to look at Max Weber's three sources of authority (I'm
just beginning, here, and haven't even read much original material, only a
lot of attributions and one summary article) ,
Weber seems to define three sources of authority [MoQ: static Quality]
1. Traditional--stems from a long-lasting system of beliefs (customs).
[MoQ: Sounds very much like a definition of social patterns, although I'm
beginning to lean more toward saying that these are social-biological
interactions.]
2. Rational--legal, based on written rules.
[MoQ: Sounds like a definition of intellectual patterns, although I'm
beginning to lean more toward saying that these are social-intellectual
interactions.]
3. Charismatic--an individual that derives his/her authority from
extraordinary abilities or characteristics, or more likely simply from the
belief on the part of followers that the leader has such traits.
[MoQ:
Now, to me, "charisma", in most situations, seems to be a very close
literary analogue to awareness of having experienced DQ, or being able to do
that on a regular basis, but that's not what the common usage in educational
and group dynamics literature defines.
One of my sources said...
Weber writes that "pure charisma does not know any 'legitimacy' other than
that flowing
from personal strength, that is, one which is constantly being proved."
...which sounds like biological Quality to me. Still, Dynamic Quality seems
to be mixed in here, too. (Not as often, but does the academic world accept
DQ as real?)
So, in common parlance and common perception, biological Quality and DQ are
mixed, confused, lumped together.
Is this because of the dualism habit? Modern man lives in the
social-intellectual realm, so non-social/intellectual patterns are perceived
as one and the same.?
OR
Is it because mainstream intellectual Quality and social Quality are so far
off-target from DQ, that BQ is perceived as a correcting agent, bringing the
individual's personal center more into line with DQ?
Thanks for Sartre. My philosophology background is practically nil, so I'm
interested in anything you find.
Maggie
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