The extreme scales of human beliefs and notions on reality
Definition
Emmanuel Kant
“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity”
Where immaturity is self-inflicted following an individuals lack of courage and use one intellect or reason. Kant believed that most people are not enlightened since they cannot take away their immaturity yokes that have obliged them to institutions of authority and religious institutions.
Age of enlightenment
Philosophical movement that dominated Europe in the 17th and 18th century where English French and French writers believed the world could be changed through rational thinking. These ideals were key to the American and French revolutionists.
Some of the significant contributors of the era include:
Francis Bacon (English)– Presumed as the father of empiricism
Thomas Hobbes (English) – An empiricist with interesting ideals
Such as the remaining of obscure remnants of sensations after the sensory event and that understanding was some form of imagination.
René Descartes (French) – Mathematician and Metaphysis who developed various algebraic geometry techniques, snell’s-law of refraction, and the naturalistic account for the formation of earth and planets. Created a new though process for the mind body problem where an immaterial mind is connected to the brain.
Galileo Galilei – Astronomist who promoted the Copernican theory also disputed Aristotle’s theory on the four elements of earth, air, water and fire. Most significant is his 1633 summoning to Rome and heretic charge.
Johannes Kepler – Astronomist who devised the laws of planetary motion
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz – known as the last universal genius. Criticized Descartes view of the human body such as corporeal substance such as the argument that matter is infinitely indivisible.
Optimist Principle of the best – The current world is God best possible
Principle of contradiction – A proposition cannot be true and false at the same time
Principle of the Identity of Indiscernible – it is not true that two substances can resemble each other completely and differ only in number
Principle of continuity – no motion can emanate from a position of complete rest.
Differential and integral calculus
Pioneer of the modern calculator
Refined the modern binary system
Key ideas
Pursuit for happiness – push for political freedom, liberty and access to material opportunities (Philosophical)
- The pleasant life – enjoying every moment
- The good life – identifying our skills and talents and using them to enrich our lives
- The meaningful life – using our talents for the better good.
(Psychological)
Sovereignty of reason – The insistence on the use of rationalization and logic in thinking and decision making.
Empiricism – The belief that knowledge should only come from sensory experiences
Spiritual enlightenment
The definitions of enlightenment vary depending on the respective religion
In buddhism, the enlightened person is considered one that has reached a state of nirvana. In this state, one is able to eliminate all negative emotions and physical desires. However, the understanding has been altered in western literature where the believe that true enlightment comes from self-realization.
In Hinduism enlightenment is achieved by recognizing the self through training, knowledge of the scriptures, the renunciation of worldly desires. In Hinduism, one can be able to achieve full enlighten by reaching the brahman. The brahman in this case refers to the fundamental reality of the universe that explains all the diversity found in the universe.
In Jainism, enlightenment is achieved when one has concurred all his/her internal enemies and released himself or herself from the bondage of birth and death. The main tenets of Jainism involve non-violence, truth, non-possessiveness, honesty, and sexual consistence.
In Abrahamic religions, enlightenment can be explained through the principle of divine illumination (Numinous experiences). In this case, one believed that his or her actions are guided by a divine grace. The concepts can be seen in the saved Christian, the Sufi Muslim and mystic tradition of Kaballah in Judaism.
The fourth way
Set of teachings by George Gurdjieff a respected spiritual leader of the 20th century
Believed that the currently religious teaching have lost touch with their ancient tenets and were retrogressing to instances of mass psychosis. He argued that the human has ignored some of embodiments such as the mind, body, and emotion leading to an imbalanced state. Gurdjieff believed that the enlightened or woke human is one who has achieve self mastery by being able to control emotions, physical desires, and mental habits and abilities.
Basis of the teachings
Conscious labor – The ability to perform an act efficiently without exhibiting absentmindedness.
Intentional suffering – ability to fight automatism incidences such as material desires, food, daydreaming
Self-observation – the ability to reflect on one’s self without passing judgement for the actions
Need for effort – Ability of one to push to the limit even after exhaustion
Ability to deal with one’s contradictory needs
Great Awakenings
Describes periods in American History where ideology of Christianity were being spread against a high growth of secular rationalism.
The great awakenings used fear by referring to human beings as sinners who had made God angry. The key ideas of the awakenings include:
All beings are sinners
The wages of sin is going to hell
People have an emotional connection to God
In the second a wakening there was a surge in the number of churches in the country
The awakenings impacted the society by increasing the number of denominations, and encouraging nationalism and rights ideologies.
Delusion
A delusion is a belief that is clearly false and exhibits an abnormality in a person’s thought process. Thus, one is deluded he or she will hold firmly to the believes despite contradictory evidence.
Delusions are quite difficult to distinguish from overvalued ideas, which constitute some of the unreasonable ideas that someone holds.
Can be in the form of psychotic disorders
- Bipolar disorder
- Depressive disorder
- Delirium
- Dementia
Forms of belief
Normal belief
over-valued idea
delusion-like idea – gambling- the constant belief on one’s luck despite one operating against the house’s/bookmarker odds.
Primary delusion – it is unmediated by thought
- ununderstood
Factors determining delusional severity
- Conviction: The degree to which the patient is convinced of the reality of the delusional beliefs.
- Extension: The degree to which the delusional belief involves areas of the patient’s life.
- Bizarreness: The degree to which the delusional belief departs from culturally determined consensual reality.
- Disorganization: The degree to which the delusional beliefs are internally consistent, logical and systematized.
- Pressure: The degree to which the patient is preoccupied and concerned with the expressed delusional beliefs.
- Affective response: The degree to which the patient’s emotions are involved with such beliefs.
- Deviant behavior resulting from delusions: Patients sometimes, but not always, act upon their delusions.
Are religious beliefs a over-valued-idea/ delusion like idea?
Richard Dawkins (Famous atheist author) on religious delusion
His book the GOD delusion has sold over three million copies annually
Call’s religion the root of all evil for creating mass events such as:
Suicide bombers
Witch hunters
Persecution of Jews
Honored killings
Fraudulent televangelists
Also quotes Douglas Adams quote “Is it possible to enjoy a beautiful garden without believing there are underlying fairies”
One of Dawkins key limitations is the dependence on the Darwinist model to explain existence. Moreover, he is quite apathetic to the metaphysical.
Conclusion
Enlightenment has been explained both as understanding of the physical world, the self, and the ability to use ration to understand the world. Delusion on the other hand is a form of belief system where one is at disconnect with the current world. Delusion can occur on various scales and levels. Enlightenment and delusion can cross where one has a strong opinion of his or her beliefs. In such a case, the notion grows into a overvalued idea about one’s belief systems.
Sources
Hubert Hermans & Frans Meijers (2019) The pursuit of happiness, British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 47:2, 139-142, DOI: 10.1080/03069885.2019.1612515
Duncan, Stewart, “Thomas Hobbes”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2021/entries/hobbes/>.
Hatfield, Gary, “René Descartes”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2018/entries/descartes/>.
David Love, Who was Johannes Kepler?, Astronomy & Geophysics, Volume 50, Issue 6, December 2009, Pages 6.15–6.17, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4004.2009.50615.x
Machamer, Peter, “Galileo Galilei”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2017/entries/galileo/>.
Kiran, C., & Chaudhury, S. (2009). Understanding delusions. Industrial psychiatry journal, 18(1), 3–18. https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-6748.57851
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