Life is a journey, especially in the philosophical sense, according to philosopher and Pomona College professor Stephen Erickson.
Erickson gave a lecture Thursday in the Gerlinger Alumni Lounge to a group of students, faculty and community members about the ever-changing face of how humans recognize and understand themselves.
He made his points by briefly scanning the major players in Western philosophy, including Immanuel Kant, Fredrich Nietzche, George Frederick Hegel, Karl Jaspers.
Erickson admitted during a question-and-answer session that he “grossly” summarized the history of philosophers, but graduate philosophy student Grant Silva said that added to the overall lesson that human existence is a journey.
“He had a good point pertaining to the notion of humanity as something in progress, rather than something set,” Silva said.
Erickson discussed the “axial model of understanding,” a technical term that he says has dominated philosophical and religious thinking during the common era, which explains life as a journey between two orders: from confusion to enlightenment, from darkness and light and others.
“To be human is to be in between that journey,” Erickson said.
In Kant’s studies he asks three questions: What can I know? What ought I know? And for what can I hope?
Erickson said these questions led to the philosophical question: “What is it to be human?” To Kant, it is a natural disposition of the human soul that these questions be asked, but Sigmund Freud said asking the questions reflects illness, Erickson said.
Many in the crowd were delighted by Erickson’s explanation of the contrast between Kant, Freud and Nietzche.
“Nietzche splits the difference; he says to be human is to be ill,” Erickson said.
The professor expressed that humans have a desire to belong that is not completely satisfied in this world, and that in such an uncertain world, the sense of human belonging may be endangered.
He touched on the issue of biotechnology and how it’s redefining what it means to be human. If scientific knowledge extends to a certain point, humans will no longer see themselves as human or as a superior race, Erickson said.
“I see the possibility of very-well-to-do people that will engineer their children for (the child’s) benefit,” he said.
Erickson ended his lecture by asking whether philosophy can re-emerge and become the child of our time – or whether that has already begun.
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