Other Examples: Polytheism in general, the
majority of pagan mass movements in general (especially empiric
pantheons like those of the Egyptians, the Greco-Romans, the
Babylonians, etc), possibly Ayn Rand's ethics, conformity.
This structural pattern is exemplified by polytheism on the religious level (or really, more properly, religious pluralism in general7),
national zealotry on the state level, the disagreeable person (or even
someone with narcissistic personality disorder) on the individual
level, and tissue having suffered nerve damage or scar tissue or even
benign tumors on the cellular level.
Although these movements
tend to be genuinely positive in orientation, in that the personal
values of this structural pattern are taken to be objective and it is
not tempered by actual knowledge, it can come to disregard the
interests of others and take on a "I Win, Others Lose format.
Face Icon: )
Archetype: The Miser.
Watership Down corollary: Sandleford Warren, location on map: A1.
Architectural analogy: Take the 54 blocks in a Jenga
set and try to build a tower straight up (with each level having only
one block, for 54 levels in all). The vertical exposure represents
transcendence (autonomy), and the lack of horizontal exposure
represents a lack of facticity (pattern of noncommitment).
Pragmatic Idealism
Primary Example: Shamanism (those that know)
Phenomenalistic.
Animistic/Animatistic. Goal: Affirm the will of life. Shamanism derives
its facts from experience and its values from desire. What happens when
you die? "Your spirit enters into the dreamtime--the great mystery--from
which we, the shamans, can access you if need be. Or we can enter into
the spirit realm ourselves through astral projection. We can sense the
spirits of nature and can speak with the various forces of life.
Eventually perhaps you will reincarnate as a human, or an animal if you
so choose--both of which are wonderful--and when one reincarnates
everyone in the village can tell that it is that person. We can see it.
It is obvious. What is good and evil? "There are forces that oppose us
and our people and we seek to either make friends with or fight off any
forces that may threaten us. Power is power--and if it is used for us it
is good, and if it is used against us it is evil. But ultimately
everything is perfect, and part of our job is to help people understand
this when they have forgotten.
"Now wait," you're saying,
"Those assertions sound as outlandish as those of any of the other
groups. Why is shamanism being listed as pragmatic rather than
dogmatic?" The difference is, right or wrong, a shaman's beliefs are
based on direct experience and an experimental model. When it comes to
assessing epistemology, the question isn't so much "what do you
believe? as "why do you believe it? If I ask you why you think
something is the case, do you make reference back to experience and
remain open to talking about it and updating your beliefs based on new
evidence (a pragmatic epistemology), or do you hide behind faith (a
dogmatic epistemology)?
Other Examples: Nietzsche, Spinoza,
Hume, the Islamic Golden Age, the Renaissance, Taoism (Taoism may
appear passive, and it may lack a sense of overcoming, but everything
it teaches is to help the individual survive and live effectively--treat
life and death the same so you can move through them like water), maybe
Confucius and Aristotle (to the extent they understand their values to
be subjective), the self-actualized individual (in Maslow's sense),
innovation, in short: all movements that affirm life and self and seek
to build something desirable out of the reality of this world, for
which they expresses love rather than disdain.
This structural
pattern is exemplified by shamanism on the religious level, the open
and free society on the state level, the self-actualized individual on
the individual level, and healthy tissue on the cellular level.
Aware
of its own interests and tempered by genuine knowledge, this structural
pattern is the most likely to be able to negotiate a "Win-Win, or at
least a compromise, solution when conflicts of interest arise.
Face Icon: 8)
Archetype: The Sacred Clown / Cosmic Fool.
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Ben Dench graduated valedictorian of his class from The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in the Spring Semester of 2007 with a B.A. in philosophy (his graduation speech, which received high praise, is available on YouTube). He is currently (
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