emma_goldman
4th August 2006, 04:25
These quotes are from an article called "Do animals help resolve existential questions?" by Ian Robinson. I thought it was quite interesting. You can probably find it on the internet somewhere.
For it could be said that all that we do to other animals is psychological preparation for our own interpersonal relationships.
According to Sarte, consciousness takes on the structure of being-for-others, it becomes an object in the world, when it is subjected to the look (le regard) of the other. In experiencing the look I can establish a new realtion to myself, as in the attitude of shame: I am ashamed of myself as I appear to the other (Warnock, 1970). The look of the other reduces me to a reified object, a being-in-itself. I experience my freedom as threatened by another who is aboust to ingest and absorb me into the orbits of their concerns. I can defend and reaffirm my freedom, in relatiation, by rendering the other into an object; but the other can stage a similar counter attack, and the cycle simply repeats itself (Howells,1992). The fundamental character of interpersonal relations is thus a confontation between freedoms, which Sarte sees as generating relations of reciprocal conflict. Thus, the basic modes o fhuman relationship embody self-defeating projects. Love ist he wish to possess the other's freedom, for the other to be freely enslaved; but this is not possible as the possession self defeatingly impleies an exercise of freedom, so the object of love is futile. Bieng a being-for-others implies a confrontation with them. The essence of the relationship with others, then, is conflict. Each seeks to dominate the other as a free being (Howells, 1992).
Just the same as projection and introjectio, we express our selves (and are expressed ourselves thorugh others. As in friendship, it is my feeling towards my being that the Other produces that makes me wish to make room in my own project for the Others, so as to shelter or lend assistance to it (Howells, 1992).
Human beings are prone to want material objects to be completely predictable and completely under their control (Warnock, 1970). Therefore, given that the world is naturally in-itself, one of the main reasons we exploit other animals is to give us an illusion of control over this in-itself element.
This desire for order may be seen as an attempt to gain an element of control over the unpredictable, unknowable future.
The human obsessions of clothing and cosmetics could be seen as attempts to conceal and manipulate the in-itself within us, and to create a being for ourselves under the gaze of the Other.
For it could be said that all that we do to other animals is psychological preparation for our own interpersonal relationships.
According to Sarte, consciousness takes on the structure of being-for-others, it becomes an object in the world, when it is subjected to the look (le regard) of the other. In experiencing the look I can establish a new realtion to myself, as in the attitude of shame: I am ashamed of myself as I appear to the other (Warnock, 1970). The look of the other reduces me to a reified object, a being-in-itself. I experience my freedom as threatened by another who is aboust to ingest and absorb me into the orbits of their concerns. I can defend and reaffirm my freedom, in relatiation, by rendering the other into an object; but the other can stage a similar counter attack, and the cycle simply repeats itself (Howells,1992). The fundamental character of interpersonal relations is thus a confontation between freedoms, which Sarte sees as generating relations of reciprocal conflict. Thus, the basic modes o fhuman relationship embody self-defeating projects. Love ist he wish to possess the other's freedom, for the other to be freely enslaved; but this is not possible as the possession self defeatingly impleies an exercise of freedom, so the object of love is futile. Bieng a being-for-others implies a confrontation with them. The essence of the relationship with others, then, is conflict. Each seeks to dominate the other as a free being (Howells, 1992).
Just the same as projection and introjectio, we express our selves (and are expressed ourselves thorugh others. As in friendship, it is my feeling towards my being that the Other produces that makes me wish to make room in my own project for the Others, so as to shelter or lend assistance to it (Howells, 1992).
Human beings are prone to want material objects to be completely predictable and completely under their control (Warnock, 1970). Therefore, given that the world is naturally in-itself, one of the main reasons we exploit other animals is to give us an illusion of control over this in-itself element.
This desire for order may be seen as an attempt to gain an element of control over the unpredictable, unknowable future.
The human obsessions of clothing and cosmetics could be seen as attempts to conceal and manipulate the in-itself within us, and to create a being for ourselves under the gaze of the Other.