Journal 1- The Human Condition
1) One paragraph summary of the key idea summarizing the topic of the week.
The human condition, a manifestation of evil in the world, is a result of the original sin of the first humans. This sin, possible through the gift of free will, caused humanity as a whole to fall or become �disjointed.� As a result, an element of evil entered human nature, having many effects: �the desire for happiness, ignorance, boredom, pessimism, anxiety, dread, neediness, loneliness, alienation, pain, freedom, concupiscence, and death.� Since the human condition applies to all humans simply for being human, all people everywhere are doomed to search for oneness, a healed state of perfection, without success, due to the three specific effects of original sin: concupiscence, wounded intellect, and death.
2) List and explain three of the most important ideas you want to remember from this week.
a. Wounded intellect- Through original sin, the balance between emotion and intellect was destroyed, resulting in a mind where a logical path is constantly obstructed by one�s own emotional responses. The consequence of wounded intellect is that philosophy, which is based in logic, cannot succeed in its search for the truth on its own.
b. Transference- �The process of active clinging to an outmoded view of reality.� People often develop psychological defense tactics during childhood as a way to avoid pain. Transference reveals a static worldview whose users refuse to update after the transition from childhood to adulthood. Harming the maturing individual through its inability to update itself or change at all, transference should be discarded in favor of a policy involving the revision of worldview for a new world.
c. Diversion- Since the human condition causes all people to experience pain and misery, it compels many of them to seek ways to put their attention on something else. Finding �attractive objects to which they become addicted and attached,� these people live their lives avoiding the pain of the human condition instead of confronting it and trying to understand it.
3) One image of that reminds you of the topic. Attribute, link, your source.
The Cartographer- Relief Shading
4) One good question you should keep with you to ponder.
If the core of human existence is misery and humans wish to seek happiness, why do they accept the shadows from Plato�s �The Cave� as reality and quickly deny the existence of anything greater?
5) What should you try to do to make yourself a better person, a more faithful person, from this study?
I need to work on continuously revising my worldview. Sometimes I can become convinced that I am completely right. From this I grow complacent and stop challenging myself to learn more, ask more. Complacency will only remove me from the world, and I cannot afford to be out of touch with current events. Social justice requires a keen understanding of a situation from multiple angles. If I trust only one view and stick with that view, I miss further developments as time moves on. In order to have a fuller view of things, I must be constantly and consistently open to change.