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A Philosophical Look At The Egocentric Interpretation Of Self-transcendence In Man In The Light Of Nietzsche
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1.1.2 THE SOCIAL INTERPRETATION OF SELF- TRANSCENDENCE
Also
called the philanthropic solution. It aims at giving humanity better
state of affairs. Its target is the elimination of individualism and
egoism, an attempt to create awareness in the people such that they will
emancipate from individualism miseries and social inequalities and
consequently arrive at perfect happiness. Many people supported this
view like Karl Max, Marcus, Bloch, Garaudy etc. Their target is the
movement from individual self to the entire community. They have no
religious overtone. It is given a social dimension. That is man as a
social being is seen going beyond himself.
1.1.3 THE THEOCENTRIC INTERPRETATION OF SELF- TRANSCENDENCE.
The
crippling and devastating individualism of the egocentric position and
the incompleteness of the social\ philanthropic interpretation of
self-transcendence explains the need for man to search for something
more permanent and reliable. Therefore to cling on the egocentric and
social interpretation of self-transcendence will amount to absolutizing
the horizontal dimension of self-transcendence. When this total
dependence on the horizontal level takes place, it will be very
difficult for man to really surpass and assert himself. Therefore, the
horizontal dimension comprising egocentric and philanthropic
interpretation of self-transcendence does not provide a fertile ground
for the realization of ones ultimate end. This is because the question
of self-transcendence goes beyond the horizon of space and time and as
such, recognizes the metaphysical dimension. This is the solution that
man’s self-transcendence can only be realized completely in God. Hence,
the theocentric interpretation of self-transcendence centers on God and
sees God as the end point of every human endeavour. God as it were,
pulls all creatures onto himself due to goodness and love. God being the
unmoved mover, draws every other being to himself. Some of the
exponents of this view include: Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes,
Blondel, Lonergan etc. It is therefore only in God that one can gain
perfect fulfillment and consequently realize oneself. This is the view
of the theocentric interpretation of self-transcendence.
1.2 ABSTRACT MANIFESTATION OF SELF-TRANSCENDENCE.
The
concept of self-transcendence does not only exist in the concrete and
experiential sense of human existence but also extends to the
metaphysical realm. It goes beyond the physical world and extends itself
to abstract things. That is “from material things, the concept of
self-transcendence was transferred into the realm of a spiritual and
abstract conceptâ€4. As a result of this extension of the concept of
self-transcendence to metaphysical things, we can then say that
substance transcends accidents, the world of spirit transcends that of
matter, God transcends the world, the soul transcends the body,
intellectual knowledge transcends sensory knowledge and things of this
nature. These things are really spiritual and abstract for we cannot
touch them. We shall therefore at this juncture examine critically one
after the other this spiritual and abstract manifestation of
self-transcendence to see to what extent they are true.
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