SECTION 3. PHILOSOPHICAL SCIENCES

Transcription

1 St Andrews, Scotland, UK 1 December 2016 SECTION 3. PHILOSOPHICAL SCIENCES 23 УДК THE PHENOMENON OF LOVE IN CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOURSE Mariya Alchuk Professor of the Departent of Theory and History of Culture Ivan Franko National University of Lviv Vitalina Kovalchuk Ph.D Ukraine Summary. Love is exposed as a principal existential, anthropological and gnosiological phenomenon in human life. The article introduces Mykola Berdyev s philosophical view of love as the basis of world order that becomes a manifestation of human freedom and creativity inalienable quality of person s entity. Love as a discovery of existence of Other displayed through by atheistic existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre. Presented concept is also revealed in the light of Ukrainian philosophy, analyzed its connection with such phenomena as spirituality and nation. Keywords: love, spirituality, freedom, creativity, existence, person. At the end of XX at the beginning of XXI centuries the problem of spirituality was investigated by contemporary Ukrainian philosophers. S. Krymskii, Ie. Osychniuk, S. Proleiev, T. Starchenko, I. Stepanenko, V. Shynkaruk analyze content, disposition, trend, correlation of such notions as spirit, soul, spirituality.. Specific spiritual notions (knowledge, ideal, aim) and socio-institutionalized forms of spiritual life are revealed: Spirituality as a form of spirit is an interior form (form of organization, way of functioning and development), and exterior form (means of seclusion and co-existence of spiritual phenomena) [14; р. 40]. The analysis of such concepts as spirituality, spirit, soul enables to reveal their essence and utilizing not only in philosophical, but also in all humanitarian disciplines. Researchers in their interpretation distinguish the following tendencies: firstly, the Soviet period understanding of spirituality is still widespread. Prevalently are used its research units, analytical apparatus. Secondly, there is an attempt to recreate the understanding of spirituality in the Ukrainian analytics of the ending of XIX century. Here dominates a religious interpretation. Thirdly, there is a tendency which reveals methodological analysis of western sociological and cultural thought, which is concentrated on separate elements, notions of spirituality, ideal. In practice the usage of these notions does not come to these three positions. The synthesis in their understanding is traced, especially, in the last years of XX century. Spirituality is fairly complicated formation which reveals human essence, their knowledge, feelings, values, and mentality. Ukrainian philosopher S. Krymskyi emphasizes: Spirituality is an ability to transfer universe of external existence into inward life of a person on the ethical basis, ability to create the inward life by means of which person s self-identity and liberties are implemented [6; р. 23]. He also remarks that humanitarisation of contemporary reality just accentuates attention on individual qualities of a person, but not on the ideas of humankind in general. Prominence is given to the role of spiritual self-determination of a person (not the category of good, but good in the meaning of personal virtue). The author also mentions that spirituality leads to combination of world view with person s moral code. Therefore, spirituality is an opportunity of a person to give sense of one s own individual existence. The foundation for its understanding lies in Christian trinity

2 24 The scientific potential of the present Faith, Hope and Charity (Love). Spirituality differs from spirit by means of certain shades of meaning. Yes, spirituality comes out as an equivalent of the category of spirit, representing the whole sense plentitude of the phenomenon of spiritual. Herewith, it carries a certain interpretation, namely: defines spirit as a human achievement. In the other words, the concept of spirituality includes the whole sphere of spiritual phenomena, defines spirit as a characteristic of a human being and their existence. On the other hand, the spirit (spiritual phenomenon) covers a very wide range of various phenomena from the specific spiritual entities (knowledge, ideals, feelings) to objectivized, subject, and socially institutionalized forms of spiritual life [8; p. 17]. Spirituality expresses spiritual development, interconnection between social and individual life. Love as spirituality is deeply interpreted in philosophy of the outstanding Ukrainian philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda. As it was noted by Ukrainian researchers (M. Kashuba, I. Zakhara, V. Nichyk), philosophical legacy of Skovoroda has laid the foundation for the formation of the Ukrainian and Western European philosophical thought of humanistic existentialism. Thereby, one of the major problems in Skovoroda s creativity is the problem of love. The philosopher has mentioned that Love is an everlasting union between God and a human, the invisible fire which kindles heart to God s word or will, and that s why it is God itself [13; p. 61]. Get to know yourself, your heart Good, Truth, Beauty, and Love means to get to know God. It is the spiritual nature of a person, as well as their spirit and soul, revealing the foundations of Christian morality inherent in the Scriptures. He himself never parted from the Bible because it teaches the human heart of good, truth, love, and beauty. He interpreted the biblical texts as a set of specific symbols, behind which the mysterious essence of the book of wisdom is concealed. Almost in all his writings the philosopher reveals an allegorical meaning of the Bible. He respected the Bible and was a pious man. Skovoroda wrote about the importance of God s Commandments for proper education and achievement of true happiness. These Commandments Decalogue lay a solid foundation of Christian morality, which should enter into flesh and minds of our children. The true essence and strength of Decalogue can fit in one word Love. This is the way to achieve true happiness for a person, who allows self-determination and self-assertion in earthly life. Skovoroda wrote: there is nothing sweeter and more necessary for humans than happiness; there is nothing easier. Gratitude to beatific God. The Kingship of God is in us. Happiness is in heart, heart in love, love in the eternal law [13; p. 58]. The investigations of the phenomenon of love as spirituality has only recently developed and remain somehow fragmented, and don t have a determined categorical, semantic and methodological background. Important is clarification of existential bases, reasons for emergence and development of spirituality, spiritual impoverishment, establishing criteria for their separation, detection of their ontological dimension. One of the most important characteristics of ontological choice of a nation is its spirituality. Spirituality as a form of integration of a person into the national life is time conditions of its self-determination. Multidimensionality of a person, their Self is revealed through spiritual world. Originality of Ukrainian nation is a premises and principal mover of social, economical, and cultural development of society. Spirituality is formed by an individual in processes of vigorous activity, in searching for sense of one s own life, in self-perfection. Spirituality is rather complex formation, which reveals person s essence, their knowledge, feelings, values, and mentality. Spirituality is characterized by the presence in person capabilities and opportunities of changing the conditions of their life and themselves. One can distinguish that this is self-sentiment, self-realization, and self-actualization of human essence. At the present time spirituality should convey interests of Ukrainian nation in Ukraine. In spirituality Truth, Good, and Beauty are harmoniously combined. This trinity Truth, Good, Beauty can be united into one world Love. The history of philosophical world-views on the problem of love shows multiversion of its comprehension and understanding. Love appears as embodiment of ontology of natural and cosmic; rise of hedonism and individual sensuality; preaching of the cult of asceticism and contempt for physicality; sacralization of oneself as divine energy; understanding as the most important value in culture. However, existential anthropology, as a new view on a human in the philosophy of the XX century, is trying to find the fundamentals of human existence. This concept reflects a complex system of moral and spiritual dimensions of a person s life and philosophical understanding of love on the basis of syncretism of ethics, aesthetics, psychology, human apprehension of divine.

3 St Andrews, Scotland, UK 1 December The phenomenon of love sets the dominant of spiritual existence, becomes a source of spiritual experience, is a value principle, which provides improvement, selfaffirmation, self-knowledge, establishes unity, creativity, self-realization of Self in the world. According to E. Fromm love means to evince productive activity, which implicitly includes the need to worry about another creature or object, trying to cognize it, aspire to it, enjoy... Loving someone means to worry for someone, to stimulate him to life, to reinforce the desire to live; and at the same time love is a process of self-revival and self-renewal [5; p. 260]. Love is an ontological, epistemological, axiological, and praxeological basis of human s self-consciousness. It is the structure-forming principle of self-organization of existence as a unity of essence and being. Love in conjunction with other phenomena is world-viewing support of individual, center of spiritual settling of surrounding world, orientation and the sense of person s self-determination. Representation of human being in its versatility through love can also be seen in the following major forms: in the form of subjective reality I (love-feeling, love-process phenomenological aspect of the content of the comprehension of the content of love); in the form of objective reality You (love-relation ontological aspect of understanding the nature and essence of love); in the form of transcendent reality We (love-value, love-idea axiological aspect of understanding the meaning of love). However, it is important for us to analyze the sphere, where the love is seen as designation of a person and appears to be an ability to sacrifice oneself, to limit needs of one s own Self, to recognize the absoluteness of existence of Other, the ability to love and desire to be loved. Love creates between I and You ( Other ) intersubjective meeting an ontological event of achieving true mutual community, where, according to M. Buber, love is a responsibility for I and You... [4; p. 23]. Human I is accepted freely and feasible, through the establishment of completeness and authenticity of one s own existence. Through love and the integrity of our I the search for true freedom is implemented, which in its turn occurs through consciousness that is rooted in existence. Love, being the ontological foundation of personal fulfillment, makes its transition to the completeness and integrity of the universal existence awareness of own ontology, reality, potential, possible, necessary, i.e. true-existent being. The focus of consciousness on the unity of the world reveals significative nature of love. Awareness of rootedness of I in the overall structure of the universe, leads to the phenomenally experienced co-existence of I and the surrounding world society, nature, culture, and space. Love, opening phenomenally experienced vision to an individual, manifests itself as unconditional value in being of Other, a response to their existence; it is, to a certain degree, a movement by means of which we refer to Other ; it is a radical change of all our thoughts and actions. M. Merleau- Ponty says: For... those who live by loving, love has no name, is not a thing that could be described and indicated; this is not that love, which is represented in books and newspapers, because it is the means by which they set their relationships with the world, this existential value [7; p. 485]. The ontological status of love appears as an act of going beyond one s own limits through establishment of attitude towards Other : it refers to Other, requiring its return and at the same time owning it. In human being love is the integrating element, as it involves an act of transcendentality beyond existing practices and human existence. In this regard, M. Scheler notes: existential relation which we call knowledge always involves this initial act: the act of moving away from oneself and one s own states, one s own contents of consciousness, its transcendence, in order to enter into contact-experience with the world. The same thing which we call real, actual, uppermost foresees an act of realizing volition of a particular subject, and the given act of volition that precedes it, which gives it a direction and meaning of love. So, love always provokes to knowledge and volition, moreover, love is a mother of the spirit and mind [12; p. 352]. Religious existential anthropology shows a particular interest in understanding the problems of love, as it is closely intertwined not only with rights but also with the existence of the divine. The person himself is regarded as personality and primary creative reality that exists in the world the manifestation of God s creative activity. Accordingly, we consider philosophical achievements of the Russian philosopher Mykola Berdyaev to be very important. In his philosophy Berdyaev unites the Christian ideas of love with philosophical views of Plato, A. Schopenhauer, V. Soloviov, Z. Freud. It does not create systematization of love, but interprets it in relation to a person, liberty, creativity. Berdiaiev s philosophical pondering is an attempt to reveal and find ways to overcome the crisis of a person, to disprove thecontradictions of the world and the individual through a deep understanding

4 26 The scientific potential of the present of love, understanding of religious and existential meaning of their being. In Berdyaev s understanding love arises as a cognitive process which is the process of the cognition of God, the world, Other. However, love is not just an epistemological field. This is the area in which Jesus appears as free love of creation that combines human freedom and divine destiny. Creativity as an act of knowing is an act of love that can only choose the only good between the multiplicity of wrong. This free love is the foundation of the New Testament, which combines the divine and the human. Philosopher says that the meaning of creation lies in the fact that a person and then the whole world love God-Love, but will not be afraid of God-Force [3; р. 157]. Love is the love towards a person and the person s vision in God, consolidation of eternal life, because love fully individualizes, goes from person to person. At its core, it is the principle that unites spiritual and physical, because without this unity love cannot occur as such. Love is an ascent, entering of spiritual into mental and physical [1; p. 203]. In its substance love comes forward as a certain relation, but not just a relation of natural to supernatural, but above all, the relation of a person to a person, personality of a person to personality of God, one person to another person. Divine love in combination with freedom has become the basis of human redemption. Freedom is inseparable from the world of content; in creativity it appears to be freedom-for. In the secret of creativity an infinite nature of a person is opened; and their highest purpose is realized. Love is not only grace but also activity of the very person [2; p. 340]. Creative human being is combined with God, however, it does not completely disappear in them, because the very creativity requires that God triple person, but not the sole, faceless one. The philosopher thinks that creativity as an act of love involves three elements freedom, gift, and the related person s purpose; and also the world that was created from love, in which is the very creative act occurs. In professing Christianity in the philosophy Berdyaev goes to a new level of understanding of human nature and its existence. For the philosopher Christianity appears to be a religion of free love and loving freedom, because in the New Testament revelation there is no law, no state, no family, no compulsory order; there is only grace, love, freedom [3; p. 202]. Person s victory over a sin, their lowest nature, lies in the fact that they should came out of slavery into the sphere of freedom, from the hostility of the world to cosmic love. Love is represented as a prerequisite for philosophical knowledge, which is impossible without Eros; and the philosophy itself, which is free, is an art of cognitive love, creative act which lies in matrimony with the love. Ecstasy and inspiration, every creative transformation of life is linked by Eros. Individual sexual love is the fulfillment of the eternal individual image of God, achievement of completeness for each half; but every other love is a revelation in this individual image. Berdyaev sees an importance in humanistic love as love to neighbor, where the only distant for us is only God, who still is valueneighbor. In this way, the philosopher rejects Nietzsche s position regarding Superhuman and love to the distant, because love has no boundaries. That person themselves can refuse from love to their neighbor, owing to love to God, in order to see and understand the world in its higher forms of divinity and truth. Loving God, a person loves the whole world, seeing the image of Divine and the highest sense. God created a world that is worthy of love, because everything in it is amazing, calls for irresistible attraction to human cognition; that is why, the mystery of love lies in its own ever-penetrating power, which aims to divinely beautiful world. For Berdyaev Christianity is the religion that has shown love, not only to the living but also love to the values, truth, goodness, beauty; which, in its turn, is a manifestation of love to a person, and vice versa to God. Love is love to the image of God in a person, their human form God; which reveals itself as love to divine in a person, and human in God. In his view, love perfects a person and returns them to the ideal being. There is a creative impulse in love; it frees a person from slavery, breaks through into the world, overcomes the necessity, and opens the Other as a person. Love as a disclosure of the divine and the human sense; fullness and openness to the world in Berdyaev s philosophy takes a different undertone within the meaning of this concept in philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre. Basing on the atheistic position, along with such thinkers as M. Merleau-Ponty, S. de Beauvoir, Camus, Sartre makes a person responsible for their personal being, freedom, without giving love a divine filling.

5 St Andrews, Scotland, UK 1 December Having found a structure I Other, Sartre develops a peculiar phenomenology of view, and sets out a tense dynamics of relationship between objectivity and free self. Sartre defines the conditions which are necessary for constructing of a theory of existence of Other : the theory of Other should not provide a new evidence of its existence, because it should not be expected but affirmed; Other should not be constituted, but met; entity of Other should not have nature of the knowledge of the world or self-knowledge; it must touch upon our being in the specific empirical circumstances of our factuality; Other is given in comprehension not in the image of our I, but as an internal negation, opposition as a way of comprehending Other. According to Sartre, under such conditions there is a moment of our realization of us as a certain existence. Other reveals what we were; it constitutes us in new type of being, which supports a new quality of our existence. Therefore, to understand the entire structures of person s reality of being, it is important to clarify the role of Other in the existence of this reality. Love problem involves opening Other, or Beingfor-Other as a possession. According to Sartre, Other keeps a secret the secret of what I am. It creates my being, and with the help of it possesses me; and this possession is nothing else but the realization of possessing me [11; p. 382]. Moreover, it was I that firstly appears and becomes possible owing to existence of Other the main circumstance of originating and functioning. In its turn, love as a primary attitude towards Other is a totality of projects [11; p. 381], which put a person in close contact with his freedom, with the project of their absorption. Other appears as freedom, in the area of which the I, from now on, remains in danger, because relationships I - Other» justify a conflict of freedom and plurality of identities. ` Being-for-other includes dual internal negation, where Other transcendents the transcendence of Other and makes it current for itself. Everyone wants to own not only the body but the soul of Other ; that is why, possession means possessing freedom and subjectivity. Sartre emphasizes that in love the peculiar feature is preservation of freedom of Other ; because it is just like the free decision to love, which makes the fullness of being. This existence can be called truly worthy, justified; one which has certain grounds. Love is a peculiar fusion of consciousnesses, in which each retains their otherness in order to be the basis for Other. Love serves as a basis for being of Other for its absoluteness and completeness. Sartre claims: Other is necessary for my existence, as well as for my self-knowledge. Under these conditions, revealing of my inner world at the same opens up other as a freedom, which stands in front of me; that thinks and wants for or against me. Thus, a whole world, which we call inter-subjectivity, opens. In this world, person decides what they are, and what are others [10; p. 336]. According to Sartre, love carries negative and destructive character, which indicates that each person must maintain and assert their existence. The negative character is seen in the fact that the more love manifests itself, the greater is loss of Being-For-Self. Love arises from experience that results from the exclusion and one s own escape to Other ; from the requirement to love oneself, which basically requires not the abolition of freedom of Other, but its oppression of freedom by themselves. Therefore, the views on Others destroy the absolute of love, making it relative. In love we feel ourselves captured by our own requirements, in which love is the requirement to be loving. Consequently, it is a freedom that escapes to Other, which in its own quality requires alienation. Freedom arises dependent on Other, which, in its turn, is the very facet of freedom for-self, the supreme goal, an owner of the key to being of Other. This clearly manifests alienated freedom, which becomes the victim of our desire to be loved. Sartre considers that my freedom is alienated in the presence of pure subjectivity of Other, which establishes my objectivity; non no condition should it alienate in the face of other-object [11; p. 391]. Love appears to be a controversial ideal of for-self, that is why everyone is alienated to the extent that they want Other to be alienated. Consequently, everyone is captivated by Other because they want to make themselves love; and, at the same time, everyone demands from Other love that is not reduced to a project of being loved. By possessing subjectivity, I provides objectivity of Other, satisfying desires, becoming a tool for other purposes, thing among things. In his play No Exit (1943), Sartre not without reason notes that hell is the other people [10; p. 224].Therefore, love de facto appears to be a denial; firstly, complete objection from the inside. Demanding love of Other, we do everything possible for realization of our project. However, love of Other is inherently unsteady, and the problem of my Being-for-Other remains: everyone for-self remains absolute subjectivity; nothing frees

6 28 The scientific potential of the present from the obligation to exist for-self ; nothing comes to eliminate a chance and escape from factuality. It is factuality of our existence and factuality of the existence of Other that is fortuitous, specific, and yet necessary for an adequate knowledge of Other. According to Sartre, by comprehending of Other, we understand experience of our suffering consciousness, as it is now fully vulnerable owing to the indifference of the world, its extraneity and total spontaneity, in which a person does not find the necessary element for their existence. As for the correlation to Other, it serves as such, where the core is not so much the object of knowledge but thoughts, consciousness, which tries to cut through inhumanity and emptiness of the world in search for affinity and certain foundation. And then, above all, it is not about one-way communication between objects that are in themselves, but the movement of the very relationships that reveal themselves through force of personality conflicts. The essence of the philosophical and anthropological comprehension of love lies in the fact that it is understood as a phenomenon of person s being and the most important spiritual human existential. Love has been one of the most important criteria of spirituality that tries to reveal the essence of human existence in its diversity, to subdue the social reality, to become the main principle of being; the embodiment of truth and universality. References: 1. BERDYAEV, Mykola (1931), The Destiny of Man, Paris, Sovremennyj zapiski. 2. BERDYAEV, Mykola (1989), Philosophy of Freedom, Moscow, Pravda. 3. BERDYAEV, Mykola (1989), The Meaning of the Creative Act, Moscow, Pravda. 4. BUBER, Martin (1995), I and Thou in Gurevich M., Levitt S., Lezov S. (1995), [ed.], Two Visions of Faith, Moscow, Respublika. 5. FROMM, Erich (2009), To have or to be?, Moscow, AST: Moscow. 6. KRYMSKYI, Serhiy (1992), «The outlines of spirituality: new contexts and identification» in The questions of philosophy, n. 12, pp MERLEAU-PONTY, Maurice (1999), Phenomenology of Perception, St. Petersburg, Juventa Nauka. 8. PROLEYEV, Serhiy (1991), Spirituality and human existence, Kyiv, Naukova dumka. 9. SARTRE, Jean-Paul (2006), Behind Closed Doors, Kharkiv, Folio. 10. SARTRE, Jean-Paul (1990), Existentialism is a Humanism in Yakovlev A. (1990), [ed.], Twilight of the Gods, Moscow, Politizda 11. SARTRE, Jean-Paul (2004), Being and Nothingness, Moscow, Respublika. 12. SCHELER, Max (1994), Ordo amoris in Denezhkin A. (1994), [ed.], Selected Works, Moscow, Gnosis. 13. SKOVORODA, Hryhoriy (1995), Piznay v sobi ludynu, Lviv, Svit. 14. STEPANENKO, Iryna (2002), Metamorphosis of spirituality in landscapes of being, Kharkiv, OVS.