A short story of good and bad ACBS Parma 2011 Rainer F. Sonntag
Olpe Slide 2 Sorry for my English. All translations are mine. Slide
3 Normal philosophy Diverse The concept of existence Slide 4 Sren
Kierkegaard Gabriel Marcel Karl Jaspers Martin Heidegger Jean-Paul
Sartre Albert Camus Slide 5 Specifically human Behaving towards
ones behavior Action Existence precedes essence Freedom ( as
blessing and as curse) Slide 6 Philadelphia Philadelphia 2005 2005
Slide 7 Albert Camus (1913-1960) Slide 8 When Karl Jaspers,
revealing the impossibility of constituting the world as a unity,
exclaims: This limitation leads me to myself, where I can no longer
withdraw behind an objective point of view that I am merely
representing, where neither I myself nor the existence of others
can any longer become an object for me, Slide 9 he is evoking after
many others those waterless deserts where thought reaches its
confines. After many others, yes indeed, but how eager they were to
get out of them! At that last crossroad where thought hesitates,
many men have arrived and even some of the humblest. They then
abdicated what was most precious to them, their life. Slide 10
Others, princes of the mind, abdicated likewise, but they initiated
the suicide of their thought in its purest revolt. The real effort
is to stay there, rather, in so far as that is possible, and to
examine closely the odd vegetation of those distant regions.
Tenacity and acumen are privileged spectators of this inhuman show
in which absurdity, hope, and death carry on their dialogue..
(Camus: Myth of Sisiphus) Slide 11 This citation expresses the deep
experience of human ambivalence. Just when it is most important to
us we do not succeed in deciding between two alternatives by
rational, calculating weighing of pros and cons. Slide 12 In a
similar vein Richard Rorty characterizes a liberal ironic as
someone who denies that there is a rational answer to questions
like: Why not being cruel? Such questions are as hopeless as: Slide
13 Is it right to deliver n innocents over to be tortured to save
the lives of m x n other innocents? If so, what are the correct
values of m and n? Anybody who thinks that there are well-grounded
theoretical answers to this sort of questions algorithms for
resolving moral dilemmas of this sort is still, in his heart, a
theologian or a metaphysician. (Rorty, 1989, p. xv) Slide 14
Interesting, isnt it? Calculating thinking (Heidegger), i.e.
rational thinking as theology and metaphysics! And if we cant
calculate decisions what then? Slide 15 Relinquish solid ground
& confide Slide 16 Present moment and then: Jumping
(Kierkegaard) with eyes open Not easy! We dont like to think
without bannister (Hannah Arendt) Slide 17 On the other hand:
Jumping can feel free (bungee jumbing) The jump voluntarily We are
thrown into our freedom to decide and choose (Heidegger) How do we
deal with that? Slide 18 The way to freedom The way to freedom (to
a free self) Slide 19 Montesquieu Rousseau Diderot Voltaire
Philippe Pinel Predecessors Slide 20 Slide 21 Isaak Newton
(1642-1726) breaks the power of theology David Hume (1711-1776):
Religion cannot be justified rationally Hume again: Causality is a
fiction. No way from being (science) to ought (ethics) Slide 22
Nowhere solid ground Religion pass Even science cannot give us
direction Slide 23 I am living in a new world since a read the
Critique of Pure Reason. Sentences I believed to be unfailable are
made failed; Kant Slide 24 things I thought to be unproofable, e.g.
the concept of absolute freedom, der Pflicht etc., have been
proofed for me, and about that I am much the more happy. It is
unbelievable what respect for human kind, what power this system
gives us! Kant Slide 25 1762-1814 Slide 26 I am writing, so I have
an imagination of my writing, however, others are writing beside
me. How do I know that my writing is not the writing of another
one? why do I see my seeing as mine? [] Why do we count our
imaginations as belonging to us? (zit. n. Groheim, 2004, S. 199).
Slide 27 Fichte and the wall: See the difference between your-self
and the wall Slide 28 The self sets itself, and it is, by virtue of
this mere setting through itself; and vice versa: the self is, and
it sets its being, by virtue of its mere being. Slide 29 At the
same time it is the acting, and the product of the action; the
doing, and that, what is put forth through the actions; acting and
deed are one and the same; therefore is: Slide 30 I am, expression
of a deed-action; [] The self is as whatever it sets itself; and it
sets itself as that what it is. Thus: I am quite, what I am
(Fichte, 1794, S. 16). Slide 31 Thats it Thats it Slide 32
Difficult Difficult Freedom Freedom Slide 33 Slide 34 A free and
educated human being should be able to arbitrary and as he likes
put himself into a philosophical or philological, critiqual or
poetic, historical or rhetoric, antique or modern mood, totally
voluntary, just as one tunes an instrument, at any time, and at any
intensity. Kritische Friedrich-Schlegel-Ausgabe. Erste Abteilung:
Kritische Neuausgabe, Band 2, Mnchen, Paderborn, Wien, Zrich 1967,
S. 147-164. http://www.zeno.org/nid/20005618886
http://www.zeno.org/nid/20005618886 Slide 35 Riders on the storm
Into this house we're born Into this world we're thrown Like a dog
without a bone An actor out alone Riders on the storm Slide 36
Coercion to authenticity Political existentialism Adventure
existentialism Slide 37 Inauthenticity as a sin Fundamental
ontology as solution The vlkische in National Socialism Heidegger
Slide 38 Karl Jaspers & Defusion Slide 39 Concordance therapy:
Learning to bring thoughts, bodily processes, and motor actions
into accordance Slide 40 What counts, is total dedication (Sartre,
1946 in his diary) Terrorism The eerie world of absolute
selflessness (Hannah Arendt, 1951) Slide 41 Glorification of war
The males courage really is the most delicious (The fight as inner
experience, 1926) Ernst Jnger Slide 42 Our time shows strong
pacifist tendencies. This trend comes from two sources: idealism
blood-dread. The first avoids war because he loves human beings,
the other because he is afraid. Slide 43 The whole life as a dare
Slide 44 Take it lightly Defusion with Richard Rorty: Its all just
stories Slide 45 The purpose of freedom? The purpose of freedom?
Slide 46 Well, Well, Slide 47 Love! Love! Slide 48 Self-knowledge
is of social origin. It is only when a persons private world
becomes important to others that it is made important to him.
(About behaviorism. 1974) Slide 49 Human Flourishing Slide 50
Science and Ancient Ideas of What it Means to be Human: Exploring
the Implicit Values Underlying ACT Slide 51 Slide 52 Thank you
