"Man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find someone quickly to whom he can hand over that great gift of freedom with which the ill-fated creature is born." - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, from The Grand Inquisitor chapter.
Are we condemned to be free? Are The Human's choice and freedom in life the source of much tragedy in The Human's life? Do you believe in the Tragedy of Human Freedom? Do you agree or disagree with the quote above? Why or Why not?
I believe that there is truth to man's existence in this quote. Man often appears to be yearning for order, submission, and subscription. Man does not seem to handle freedom well, especially for long durations of time. Yet I find the quote troublesome to ponder on due to man's hope to be free from restraint and order even if it is short-lived...What are your thoughts? Let us discuss this. — The Questioning Bookworm
My basic view is that the modern conception of freedom is spiritually barren and so incapable of nourishing any real sense of purpose — Wayfarer
This is related to our sense of the place of humans in the Universe. — Wayfarer
At any rate, it's widely assumed that our existence is fortuitous, a fluke, the 'outcome of the accidental collocation of atoms' as Bertrand Russell once put it. — Wayfarer
It's too easy to equate 'freedom' with 'freedom of choice' which in effect means 'having enough money to do what I want'. But that doesn't necessarily answer the question as to what is worth wanting. — Wayfarer
"Man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find someone quickly to whom he can hand over that great gift of freedom with which the ill-fated creature is born." - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, from The Grand Inquisitor chapter. — The Questioning Bookworm
In essence, when people speak of the meaning of life, their aims are high, they're looking beyond this world and seeking some kind of cosmic significance to their existence and I refer to this kind of meaning as cosmic meaning — TheMadFool
In regards to the quote, yeah -- whether it's society and its institutions or organized religion, man is quick to surrender his natural freedom. Freedom -- the unknown -- is scary. What if something goes wrong? Who do we fall back on? Why risk keeping my own money when I can just store it away in a safe, insured bank? We delegate so much of our lives to institutions whether religious or secular because these things are deemed safe and they keep our anxiety at bay. — BitconnectCarlos
Freedom, our desire, our yearning, for it, its irresistible allure, its captivating charm, leads us all, if not in actuality then at least in our imagination, down a long, sometimes painful, sometimes exhilarating, road and where that road ends is, you might've already guessed it, omnipotence - the power/ability to do anything one wants. It's part of what I suppose is the god-complex - to desire to be, or feel like, or act like, a god. — TheMadFool
Everyone wants freedom but...are we fit to be gods? — TheMadFool
Without wisdom and the sense of right and wrong, freedom is just power in disguise and rarely anyone ever says, "I want power" and if there are those who say that, they're usually viewed with great suspicion - they're looked upon, whether true/false, as tyrants in the making. :chin: — TheMadFool
So, for the most part, we're content to stay within systems that have set authority figures that dictate the extent of our freedoms — 8livesleft
On a more practical note, when society is filled with hope and opportunity then we see people care more about their freedom. People can set goals for themselves and thus won't surrender those goals easily. In periods where it seems like there is no future, no opportunity and no hope, that's when people actively hand away their freedom, the hopeless are easy to control but it's not because they want to give away their freedom it's because they want something better for themselves. — Judaka
I view the problem of human freedom as one of contradictory human desires. One the one hand, we want to be free, because we like the idea of being in control of our destiny. On the other hand, however, we do not want to be free, because then we must take responsibility for our actions. Then the question of handing over the gift of freedom becomes more a question of handing over responsibility. — Alvin Capello
But what is the source of this contentment? — The Questioning Bookworm
If you asked a pre-modern human 'what is the meaning of it all', they wouldn't have the foggiest notion of what you were on about. If you tried to explain it, they would excuse themselves and go on their way, because time didn't permit such nonsense. 'The meaning of it all' was, for them (or us, back then) to do what had to be done, for all kinds of compelling reasons to do with staying alive and providing, and about which we didn't have the luxury of philosophizing.
But us moderns, having been delivered from subsistence livelihoods and mortal toil, then find ourselves twiddling our thumbs and asking ourselves what it's all about. ( 'what's it all about, Alfie? Is it just for the moment we're here?')
So we become 'marooned in the present'. Cut off from any sense of our ancestral heritage, from any visceral connection to the world and to our fellows. — Wayfarer
This has a lot to do with The Enlightenment. The Enlightenment knew what it wanted to be free from - the Church - but not what it wanted to be free for, except Progress, and more of everything. Unfortunately, the apogee of 'progress' seems to be interstellar travel, and it's impossible. And we simply can't consume more and more. We're already consuming more than one planet-year's worth of resources by half-way through each year. — Wayfarer
'the reason for it all' — Wayfarer
The man seems to yearn for this, correct. However, the man appears to wallow in anguish and despair sometimes as a result of having freedom - or choice as some people put it. — The Questioning Bookworm
This question is very relevant and interesting. — The Questioning Bookworm
Where do we define the line of this? — The Questioning Bookworm
That pre-modern humans were preoccupied with just getting by - satisfying their so-called basic needs - is precisely what modern humans believe is pointless because there's no real reason why they should bother in the first place. — TheMadFool
In social science, disenchantment (German: Entzauberung) is the cultural rationalization and devaluation of religion apparent in modern society. The term was borrowed from Friedrich Schiller by Max Weber to describe the character of modernized, bureaucratic, secularized Western society.[1] In Western society, according to Weber, scientific understanding is more highly valued than belief, and processes are oriented toward rational goals, as opposed to traditional society, whereby "the world remains a great enchanted garden."[2] — Wikipedia
a man struck by an arrow lying in the Buddha's arms — TheMadFool
What is unique about humans? The only exclusively-human quality I can think of is thinking itself - humans, if not think well, think better than all other animals combined. — TheMadFool
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