Sittlichkeit: the ethical life as defined by Hegel……
what is the “ethical life”? does a man who steal a loaf of bread
to feed his family being ethical? For isn’t feeding one’s family
belong to the famous “inalienable rights” of “life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness” of the declaration of independence…
or does an economic system which prevents a man from feeding
his family an “unethical” system? How does a person exists in an “ethical”
life when certain basic “inalienable” rights are denied to them?
Which is more “ethical” a man who steals a loaf of bread to feed his family or, or
an economic system that prevents that man from feeding his family?
How does Sittlichkeit work in regards to the pursuit of capitalism or
communism? Individually or collectively? Now one of the key points of
Kant was that human beings were to be “self directed”… not driven by
the power and reach of authority like god, the bible, Aristotle, the church,
the state………and so what does it mean to have sittlichkeit in terms of
being self directed as Kant wanted? For hundreds of years, Sittlichkeit
was connected to the concept of Art… the ethical life was directly
connected to Art… you cannot have an ethical life without Art…Kant
makes this point as does Hegel…
so how does being self determined as defined by Kant mean in terms
of our “modern” fixation, “modern” addiction of the pursuit of profit/money?
So what does it mean to be human in light of the fact that we/society places
the pursuit of money as the “highest” ideal? Is the only value of being human,
the modern ideal of consumer/producer? and what does this idea of self determination
tell us about religion? what does Sittlichkeit have to do with religion?
“Salto Mortale” which is Jacobs leap of faith and later turns up with Kierkegaard leap of faith,
what does this have to do with Sittlichkeit? the ethical life? This “Salto Mortale” doesn’t just
exists within a religious context, it is also present in how we view the ism’s and ideologies
such as capitalism and communism…….for both capitalism and, AND communism at
their heart, takes a leap of faith into the impersonal forces of the invisible hand
of god/market forces in capitalism and the invisible forces of the laws of materialism which drive
communism……. we seek refuge in these “Salto Mortale” of capitalism and communism…
we don’t see self determination in either capitalism or communism because both are
driven by unseen and beyond human understanding and ability to direct…
both capitalism and communism is to be rejected because they both, capitalism
and communism carry the modern despair and alienation and discontentment
of modern life… because they both hold has their basic principles, impersonal forces
that exist outside of and beyond human determination……
So what is nihilism? the holding of beliefs that forces one to have as a basic premise
“Salto Mortale” as does both capitalism and communism…
we hold to other such impersonal forces theory beyond capitalism and communism,
such as Buddhism, Christianity or any ideological that preaches about any forces
beyond our control.
Until we regain our ability to self determination, we shall continually fall
victim to such impersonal forces that we must hold by “Salto Mortale”…
and what does this mean for science and the naturalism of Newton or Einstein?
do we have self determination within science or naturalism? or must we
engage in “Salto Mortale” with science and or naturalism?
more later…
Kropotkin