Does man need existential redemption? Or, is existential redemption meaningful at all? If it is nothing but an academic philosopher's vain excuse to save his course from compliance's sake, we'd better be off and save our neural operations for better purposes.
What do I mean by existential redemption? Redemption is the state of being liberated from an act or external-internal force that curtails humane operations. Existential pertains to the entire bulk of possibilities and actualities, decisions and choices, freedom and will, events, cause and effects, complications, responsibilities and the like that comprises the entire human existence.
When can I therefore speak of existential redemption? This comes along with the notion of man's meaningful existence. Man's existence could be meaningful if it is lived worthy of and according to his own nature. That happens when he becomes aware of his self in knowing his self; when his possibilities are actualized to the fullest, when his existence is lived according and befitting his own essence.
Man is, first of all, determined by flesh, determined by behavioral and psychological upbringing, beseeched by emotional outbursts and unrests, but he nevertheless determines through right reason. And through this reason--coupled with conscience and morality--he decides. The quality of every decision that he makes depends on his wisdom.
The flesh, behavior, reason, emotion, conscience, and morality, and even wisdom are not means but ends to be attained and maintained. These are not individual faculties but his whole being that makes his faculties to-be. The act of thinking and deciding does not make him man. Why? Because these are means and are mere faculties of his being. Man thinks because he is a rational being; he decides because he is a choice-maker. To-be-man is to be flesh-behavioral-emotional-rational-social-moral-wise. Too diversified and opposed at times but man emerges at the point of equilibrium. Being rational alone is not half-man but not-man. To be that is human existence befitting his essence. But before he can be that he must be aware precisely about that--that there is something to be aware of and to be knowledgeable about. And the possibility to be aware is not a luxury that everyone can enjoy. But the desire to know that and do something about that is the love of wisdom. Plato once told, "the unexamined life is not worth living."
Philosophy as love of wisdom is not the philosophy that we have now. What we have now is Classroom philosophy. (Let the capital Philosophy be philosophy as love of wisdom and the small caps philosophy as classroom philosophy.) Philosophy is not against other disciplines like the classroom philosophy is presented. Rather, Philosophy tells one how to understand better physical sciences, behavioral sciences, social sciences, business science, theology and the like, and all other disciplines in that manner. The student cannot learn Philosophy in his Philo 101 along with the rest of the remaining units. To learn Philosophy is an invitation and a choice to human beings not ready to die an unexamined life.
The universe is a vast ocean of ignorance and reason is a minority in the entire realm of being, valued by a terrestrial species called homo sapiens. Existential redemption is being freed from Plato's allegorical cave--giving man the power over his existence keeping it from utter desolation due to promises of ignorance. Humans are given that essence--and, therefore, the ability to know it--to-be and to act as such, unless men try to convince themselves of the reality of mere images and remain chained to the promises of plain ignorance.
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