9/11/14
Humans have this wondrous ability to ponder the world around them and to create ideas pertaining to it. But with this amazing capability, which seems to just be a by-product of evolution and natural processes, problems arise that deal with the very nature of oneself. Humans have to face philosophical issues due to the fact that we have conscience thought. Most of these issues are in the form of a question that seems to have no answer, or an answer that is too much for us to handle. Some of these questions are: What is our purpose? How were we created? Is there a supreme being? Why ______________? These questions are so large that simple speculation just leads you astray, and trying to answer them from a scientific approach is virtually impossible. The answers to these questions may be that we have no purpose; we were created through natural processes; "God" could be an illusion of the mind, "God"could just be the inner-workings of the universe.
Art helps us to cope with these questions; whether they be unanswerable, or their answer disturbs us. I believe art is an expression of emotion through any means. And it doesn't even necessarily have to be what we are feeling at that particular moment. Art can look at different perspectives of the human condition and express to others truths to these questions that we could not have answered by a logical sense. When you listen to a piece of music there is a flood of emotions and feelings that surge through your head. You move the way the rhythm does and you sense the emotion of the melody and feel it as your own. A thought that could come to mind while listening to the piece of music is that this is the purpose of life; this is it, live now. Art allows an escape from the mundane, giving meaning, and it gives us a more satisfied answer to some of our philosophical issues.
The quotation, "Our insistence on cognitive knowing may already have robbed us of some of our capacity for being human" is false. The very nature of being human is to pursue the unknown, and to find meaning in things (apparently even if there is no meaning to be held we should still try to find meaning, look at our life...if there is no meaning we should still search). This is part of the human condition. So, to say that our capacity for being human has been decreased due to the fact that we crave cognitive knowledge is false. In fact, I believe it does the opposite. This drive for knowledge makes us more humanlike than most other human characteristics. Our curiosity could be the entire reason for our philosophical issues. So it looks like facing these issues, is just part of the human condition.
Quinn Watson, this post was beautiful. The first paragraph made me re-read it's words because it was so well worded I couldn't comprehend. I could not agree more with your interpretation of the quotation, "Our insistence on cognitive knowing may already have robbed us of some of our capacity for being human". I, also, believe that a large part of being human is our thirst for knowledge even if it leads to potential destruction. The "meaning of life" has so many prospective answers but one answer is absolutely that our purpose is to search and to find and to search again: to keep on searching until you can no longer, or you meet death. Your post made me think more deeply in a way I hadn't thought, so thank you, sir.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the paragraph about art. I love the fact that you said it is an expression of emotion "through any means", because most people just think of art as drawing or painting, when it truly is so much more. But while I do somewhat agree with the thoughts on the quote being false, I also think it is somewhat true. Maybe our search for knowledge about absolutely EVERYTHING is killing the part of humans that are simplistic and go with the flow of things. While I completely understand the fact that it is part of human nature to question things, sometimes I do believe it is good to embrace the side of us that longs to spend time in the woods surrounded by nature instead of surrounded by technology and new things that are being developed by humans.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, bro. Although i agree with the quote, I find it interesting how you how you disagree with the quote "Our insistence on cognitive knowing may already have robbed us of some of our capacity for being human." You brought up an interesting point on how it is in our nature to pursue the unknown. It made me look at the quote differently and it reminded me that everyone has their own opinion.
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