The Incompleteness In Philosophy

“If you wish to become a philosopher, the first thing to realise is that most people go through life with a whole world of beliefs that have no sort of rational justification, and that one man’s world of beliefs is apt to be incompatible with another man’s, so that they cannot both be right. People’s opinions are mainly designed to make them feel comfortable; truth, for most people is a secondary consideration.”

― Bertrand Russell, The Art of Philosophizing and other Essays (1942)

I really enjoy the study of philosophy (the love of wisdom). Over the years, I’ve read a lot of it. I’ve read everything from the old Greeks and Romans to modern thinkers, and I suppose I know just enough to be dangerous. In reality, I really don’t know much at all. I’ll save that for another time.

After reading Becker, I have a different view on philosophy. Now, it feels like the major philosophical theories are only halfway there or not complete; they feel unfinished. Russell’s quote (above) is a good example. While I completely agree with it, it doesn’t finish the thought. It falls short without Becker’s theories to complete it. All philosophy feels this way to me now: always referring to the answer but never really answering.

I'm not saying I disagree with the major philosophers about life and ideas on the human condition; on the contrary, however, I believe Becker's ideas are at the top of the philosophical pyramid. Everything, including all human behavior and thought, comes below his theories. His ideas and theories answer questions about the human condition. And they answer them definitively—at least in my mind, they do.

I know this is a bad analogy, but it’s a lot like treating the cough when you have a cold and not addressing the virus. That’s how it feels to me. I want to address the virus, not the cough. Becker gets to the heart of these matters.

I’ve always been a person who seeks the truth. I want logic and rational thought in my life. I’m not a believer in magic or superstition. In the context of life philosophy, those things seem trivial and unimportant. If there are no answers to the "big" questions, I’ll live with that. I don’t have the desire to make something up to say that I know the answer.

A good example of this today is the number of people who believe in conspiracy theories. These are "answers" that attempt to satisfy complicated questions or outright fantasies. The people who believe in these kinds of things feel empowered because they know something that most don’t. Feelings and opinions are irrelevant to me in the context of facts. I want evidence for positions and ideas put out there for discussion. This is where Russell’s quote is spot on.

I digress.

So let us address the virus, not the cough, of life's big questions. Let’s be clear and definitive when we have evidence for our position. Becker gives us those tools. He answers the most vital and important questions in life through his theories. And Solomon, Greenberg, and Pyszczynski go on and give us empirical evidence to show Becker’s theories are correct.

“We don’t want to admit that we are fundamentally dishonest about reality, that we do not really control our own lives. We don’t want to admit that we do not stand alone, that we always rely on something that transcends us, some system of ideas and powers in which we are embedded and which support us. This power is not always obvious. It need not be overtly a god or openly a stronger person, but it can be the power of an all-absorbing activity, a passion, a dedication to a game, a way of life, that like a comfortable web keeps a person buoyed up and ignorant of himself, of the fact that he does not rest on his own center. All of us are driven to be supported in a self-forgetful way, ignorant of what energies we really draw on, of the kind of lie we have fashioned in order to live securely and serenely. Augustine was a master analyst of this, as were Kierkegaard, Scheler, and Tillich in our day. They saw that man could strut and boast all he wanted, but that he really drew his “courage to be” from a god, a string of sexual conquests, a Big Brother, a flag, the proletariat, and the fetish of money and the size of a bank balance.”

—Ernest Becker

“Rocky Mountain Cotton Grass—Blown Away"—a cyanotype on waxed vellum paper. The wind is blowing away the last seeds of the Rocky Mountain cotton grass. November, 2022.

The last light of the day sets on an old Ponderosa Pine tree stump. Many years ago, it was struck by lightning.

Almost 40 paper negatives (calotypes) I’ll make more of these over the winter. This is a good start for what I want to do for the project.

Immortality Projects & Being Tranquilized by the Trivial

My work always references the human condition. My goal is to have every photograph represent, in some way, mortality salience. I’m attempting to do that both indirectly and abstractly. It’s a big order to fill. Sometimes, as I review the prints I’ve made, the images I thought worked well seem to fall short. And the images that I thought wouldn’t make the cut suddenly have new life. I'm more drawn to the work's narrative quality than I am to its technical skill. I simply care more about making a body of work that is cohesive, interesting, and communicative. I believe the more you learn about what you're doing, the more your aesthetic desires change. And it seems that the images themselves start to morph and change in the context of a clearer and more precise narrative. It’s progress in the best way possible.

SYMBOLIC IMMORTALITY & IMMORTALITY PROJECTS
Ernest Becker wrote a lot about “symbolic immortality.” It’s the only type of immortality human beings can pursue. Symbolic immortality is achieved through the projects we devise to buffer us from the anxiety of our mortality.

This symbolic self-focus takes the form of an individual's "causa sui project," (sometimes called an “immortality project,” or a “heroism project”). Causa sui is a Latin term that denotes something that is generated within itself. The pronunciation is “cow-sa swee.” I like the term, “immortality project.” I think it clearly describes the objective. It’s important to remember that all of our immortality projects are based on illusions. In the end, none of it matters. It’s important, however, that we keep the (good) illusions and projects going. We can find meaning and significance in our culture through them. In 1844, Soren Kierkegaard explained anxiety as the dizzying effect of freedom, of paralyzing possibility, and of the boundlessness of one’s own existence — a kind of existential paradox of choice. Anxiety can be either destructive or generative. The point is to select the latter.

A person’s "causa sui project” acts as their immortality vessel, whereby a person creates meaning or continues to create meaning beyond their own life span. (Becker's Synthesis – Ernest Becker Foundation, ernestbecker.org.) By being part of symbolic constructs with more significance and longevity than one’s body—cultural activities and beliefs—one can gain a sense of legacy or (in the case of religion) an afterlife. In other words, by living up to (or especially exceeding) cultural standards, people feel they can become part of something eternal: something that will never die as compared to their physical body. This, in turn, gives people the feeling that their lives have meaning, a purpose, and significance in the grand scheme of things, i.e., that they are “heroic contributors to world life” engaged in an “immortality project.”

TRANQUILIZING WITH THE TRIVIAL
Immortality projects are one way that people manage death anxiety. Some people, however, will engage in hedonic pursuits like drugs, alcohol, shopping, the pursuit of eternal youth, and entertainment to escape their death anxiety—often to compensate for a lack of "heroism" or culturally-based self-esteem—resulting in a lack of contribution to the "immortality project". (Becker, Ernest, “The Denial of Death,” Chapter 1).

Others will try to manage the terror of death by “tranquilizing themselves with the trivial,” i.e., strongly focusing on trivial matters and exaggerating their importance—often through busyness and frenetic activity. Becker describes the current prevalence of hedonism and triviality as a result of the downfall of religious worldviews such as Christianity that could take “slaves, cripples, imbeciles, the simple and the mighty” and allow them all to accept their animal nature in the context of a spiritual reality and an afterlife. (Becker, Ernest, “The Denial of Death,” chapter 8). Soren Kierkegaard said that they "tranquilize themselves with the trivial" so they can lead normal lives.

Humanity's traditional "hero systems,” such as religion, are no longer convincing in the age of reason. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) said, "God is dead! And we have killed him! How can we console ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? The holiest and the mightiest thing the world has ever possessed has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood from us?" What did he mean by this? He was actually referring to our collective belief in God. Our religious beliefs acted as a buffer for our anxiety about our mortality. Nietzsche saw that this collective belief, post-enlightenment, the industrial revolution, Darwin, etc. was waining and no longer sustainable as a buffer or immortality project.

Becker argues that the loss of religion leaves humanity with impoverished resources for necessary illusions. Science attempts to serve as an immortality project, something that Becker believes it can never do because it is unable to provide agreeable, absolute meanings to human life. The Denial of Death states that we need new convincing "illusions" that enable us to feel heroic in ways that are agreeable. (Podgorski, Daniel, October 22, 2019. "The Denial of Life: A Critique of Pessimism, Pathologization, and Structuralism in Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death". The Gemsbok).

But Becker doesn’t provide any definitive answers, mainly because he believes that there is no perfect solution. Instead, he hopes that the gradual realization of humanity's innate motivations, namely death, can help to bring about a better world. He argues that the conflict between contradictory immortality projects (particularly in religion) is a wellspring for the violence and misery in the world caused by wars, genocide, racism, nationalism, and so forth, since immortality projects that contradict one another threaten one’s core beliefs and sense of security. (Becker's Synthesis – Ernest Becker Foundation. ernestbecker.org.)

MY THOUGHTS & HOPES
I am very grateful for my life. I’m in awe every day. I do my best to be satisfied with what I have. I’m in want of nothing, and that’s very humbling to me. The older I get, the more I want peace and understanding in my life. Material things are becoming less and less important to me. Social status, professional status, and all things related to notoriety are gone. I couldn’t care less about those kinds of things.

I would, however, like to contribute something to the “big” discourse. This is where my art means a lot to me. I want it to be my voice and a catalyst to open a dialogue about being decent to one another and being considerate to all living things and our world in general. In light that we’re all suffering from death anxiety, it would be fantastic for all of us to come to the “proverbial table” to acknowledge that. Simply understanding and accepting that it’s our condition would make a big difference in the world. That’s what I would like to be a part of, and I hope my art contributes to that in some small way.

That doesn’t mean I’m without concern in other areas of life. To me, America is on the precipice of a major change for the better, an “awakening” if you will, or it’s in the most dangerous place it’s ever been. Most days, I consider the latter to be more accurate. Look around. You can see the conflict between our cultural worldviews; they’re colliding and creating a very volatile situation in our country and worldwide. We’re siloed—we’re being fed the news and politics we want to hear and agree with, nothing else. No challenges, no thoughtful or critical thinking. We’re constantly seeking to reinforce our own cultural worldview. It gives us security, meaning, and significance. It keeps death anxiety at bay. This is one of the things that A.I. (artificial intelligence) and (social media) algorithms have played a big part in making happen. In my opinion, it’s a dangerous world we’re living in. We could be in for a major societal collapse if things don’t change.

As Becker said, “Each person nourishes his immortality in the ideology of self-perpetuation to which he gives self-allegiance; this gives life the only abiding significance it can have. No wonder men go into a rage over fine points of belief: if your adversary wins the argument about truth, you die. Your immortality system has been shown to be fallible, your life becomes fallible.“ (Escape from Evil-page 64) He goes on to say, “All power is, in essence, power to deny mortality. Either that or it is not real power at all, not ultimate power, not the power that mankind is really obsessed with. Power means power to increase oneself, to change one’s natural situation from one of smallness, helplessness, and finitude, to one of bigness, control, durability, and importance.” (Escape from Evil-page 81)

I try to be optimistic, but I understand how history repeats itself. And I understand the nature of humanity and what motivates people to do what they do. The German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, said, “A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts.”

“A River of Wood”: The delicacy of this paper makes it difficult to work with. I love the results. Because the paper is transparent, the white matboard behind it makes the blue color very vibrant. The metaphor is wonderful as well. It’s a whoie plate cyanotype on Canson vellum/tracing paper from a wet collodion negative.