I perceive myself as a self- aware being capable of choice. I am surer of that than of the evidence of my senses, which seem to me less reliable. I also perceive myself as circumstanced in a world which is not- me, since it is recalcitrant, and inherently limits my choices. My "empirical self" seems to be constructed out of the interaction between myself and the world, or experience. The primary locus of experience is my body, particularly the senses and the place where they are processed (the brain). I perceive my body as "belonging to me", but not me. That part of the "empirical self" which I perceive as being me is called the personality, and is the primary locus of interaction between myself and the world.
I encounter beings with bodies, like mine, and interact with them. They appear to have personalities. Some of these personalities seem primitive and problematic, merely reactive rather than reflective, and so I enter into relationship with them ambiguously. Such are the higher order animals, especially those domesticated as pets, like cats and dogs. Some, though, are capable of speech, and clearly reflective, able to evaluate experience and make plans, much as I do. Given that they seem to have fully developed personalities with which I can enter into close relationship, I assume that they, like me, have "selves" underlying their empirical selves. I perceive all of us as persons.
One of the characteristics of persons is that they seek to understand the world around them, limited by their resources. They also seek to devise ways of improving their lot through the application of whatever knowledge they have culled. But beyond that, they evaluate the world around them. They introduce ideas of beauty and goodness, and treat them as qualities one can discern in things, as important ways of ordering experience. In fact, attempting to discern value seems central to what it means to be a fully developed person.
Our ideas of beauty and goodness arise from our affects, and the responses that we have to things. Certain things seem worthy of aesthetic contemplation, otherwise useless, and we call them beautiful. Certain things, or actions, seem worthy of admiration and praise, and we call them good. The perception of things as beautiful or good precedes choice and acculturation, and are spontaneous responses upon which acculturation and choice depend.
We care about those things that arouse our admiration, whether aesthetic or moral, and feel called upon to cultivate them or defend them. Love arises from the sentiment of admiration, and those things we do not love directly, we love for the sake of something we value, as when we cherish keepsakes.
Love seems to be as central to the development of a fully formed person as the urge to understand things....... |
