Introductory Remarks: Reflecting on my own life, I have come to appreciate the unique consciousness of man, among other creatures. Flashing back to my three years of philosophical research and studies, I am pleased about the form in which my worldview of reality has resulted into – I mean my way of exploring and looking at reality. Undoubtedly, human beings are often affected and hence shaped by the environment in which they find themselves; be it positively or negatively. In stating my worldview, therefore, there are components, which require no justication in order to be or exist i.e. my own existence, existence of the world and that of God. These 3 are undeniable facts indeed.
In talking about man, I have been reflecting on my own reality but with a reference to Gabriel Marcel, who presents man as comprising of the notions of problem – having – and mystery – being. He says that man is a mystery because in defining the human person, he is defining himself. This is a difficult task. Man is even a bundle of antinomies. It is noted that the more man strives to understand himself, the more reality enfolds to him, lest these paradoxes remain obscure to man himself and others.
Man is a rational animal – His rationality goes beyond animality. Man’s reason makes him recognize himself as a paradox. St. Augustine says that man is endowed with intellect and will. This makes him recognize his creator and the other beings in the world. In the midst of reality, man knows and yet does not know. Although man has this power of knowing, Freud through his Psychoanalysis tells us that there is an aspect in ourselves that is yet to be discovered i.e. the unconscious. C. Jung says that our unconsciousness comprises of: Inherited – collective consciousness and Acquired – individual consciousness. Man’s rationality through the mind flashes or moves from back (memories) through (now) to the future, unlike the animals. Such a fact enables man to deliberate on instances with the guide of his conscience so as to make true meaning in life.
Man is a life-meaning giver – The fact that man is a knower distinguishes him from other beings in the world. He recognizes them and relates with them. The wonderful things that I perceive and experience make me wonder of my own being and that of other beings around me. Man knows that he knows and being conscious of his existence in the world, he knows that he is part of the world with other beings. He therefore strives to give reason and meaning to whatever he encounters in life. If one may imagine a world without man, a question calls to my mind as to whether such a world could be called a world, any way. It is man who calls himself man, talks of the world…, assigns meaning, purpose, names etc to things. Otherwise, things would exist unnoticed or with no body to attach value to them.
St. Augustine says that man truly belongs to this material world and he is subject to its limitations of material nature; pains, sufferings, joy, time and space. Having recognized that man is aware that he also shares in the spiritual world besides the physical world, he is the only creature that knows how to love and to choose among options.
Man is individual yet a social animal – Though an individual, man is born in a family
in order to realize himself. But to love applies to man and the other. In describing man, Aristotle says that man lives in the society and in the society, he becomes more human by interacting with fellow men. It is in the society that man finds fulfillment and develops his potentials because no man is an island. Some philosophers have looked on social aspect of man from different perspectives: Camus considers the other as his hell because he threatens his existence, while Marcel looks at the other as part of him. The more one sees the other, the more he sees and realises himself. Nonetheless, one notices that the ‘I’ does not exist independent of the ‘We’ – as in the African Philosophy, where Mbiti says, “I am because you are and since you’re therefore I am.” One ought to note that socialization should enable man to gain more experiences from fellow man, for left to himself as an individual, he is bound to be narrow and limited in his approach to reality. In the African context, outside the social life (community life), the individual is not fully understood.
Man is free and yet limited – Man is free even in oppressive conditions, just as Victor Frankl would testify after his experience in the concentration camp with the Nazi’s in Germany. Man is dynamic and he can make choices. He is free morally, spiritually, politically etc., but we do not claim absolute freedom. Our freedom is limited by some external or internal factors. Human freedom is conditioned by situation as in religion, society, culture, economics, politics, training. Rousseau in his book Social Contract says: “Man is born free and he is everywhere in chains i.e. he is born tied on the umbrical cord of the mother.” In talking about freedom, does this mean that man can do whatever he wishes whenever and wherever he likes? Rather his conscience reminds him of the conscious responsibility of his every act and thought in the world before his God.
Man is Subsistent and yet a Task – As a human being, a person is a complete whole in body structure and alignment but at the same time, he is a task – something to be completed – a potency to be actualized, whilst considering his human responsibility. Every other time, man always has something to accomplish. He normally looks forward to something, for instance as a student, I am in potency of being a lecturer, psychologist, priest etc. Even in life, one is in potency of after life. The whole concept goes up to infinity, culminating in the Supreme Being - God. There are a number of tasks e.g. freedom, beauty, good. Though these tasks are part of man, he strives to achieve them in full, so as to complete himself. Now how do I complete these tasks? I realize that one has to start by a positive attitude of self-consciousness and a revised relationship with the society in which he lives. The society therefore helps man to complete himself as he continues living in this world. In the Christian perspective we could say that man is already (subsistent) but not yet (a task).
The world and Man – Philosophers ponder on the question as to whether it is an
illusion or reality that man is in the world. Some see man as just being there in the world – Dasein – throwness. One notices that man in the world is not just by chance as existentialists have claimed. I tend to believe that man has a mission to fulfill in the world, just as Leibnitz would say: “if a thing exists and does not have to exist, it exists because there is a sufficient reason for it to exist.” Similarly, the world does not choose to exist but it exists because there is a reason for its existence. We bear in mind that the world is moving towards certain perfection and fulfillment in the Omega point on which the entire world depends, as Telhard would hold. It is on this dependency that the world attains meaning in its situatedness.
The world that exists – In Genesis, it is written that the world was created by God for man to live in. In this world, man strives to discover himself and other created things of which man dominates over all. Since man is conscious in the world, it is upon him to coordinate and benefit reciprocally from the world. Philosophers have different opinions as to whether the world was created or it evolved. Creationists – claim creation of the world, while the evolutionists oppose it as they hold that everything evolved through stages. Phenomenologists claim that the world has no independent existence out of the mind. These are just ideas where as the realists affirm that there is a physical world existing apart from our mind. Nonetheless, one notices that the basic thing is that the world was initiated by a certain Supreme power and hence did not come to be by itself.
The world as finite – owing to the fact that the supreme brings things into existence, those that he creates are finite. The world is 2-fold as Martin Bubber says i.e. the world of things and the world of man. There are things in the world for man in the world. The world is a prey for man. Because the world is caused by a Creator, it is said to be limited. Things in the world, because of their nature, come to an end, though they may take another form of existence. They are not perpetual in their existence. They are limited by their nature as opposed to the infinity of the Supreme Being.
The contingency of the world – because it is created. It is not necessary for the world to exist. God remains God without the created world. All things in the world are contingent because nothing is permanent. The phenomenon of birth life and death of worldly things give an impression that there must be something somewhere that is solely responsible for all the fleeting world things. The world does not choose to be what it is. The world is all dependant on the one that brought it into existence – God
The world as a participating unity – The world is a manifestation of God who is one and undivided. What makes up the world is so vast that we cannot comprehend and accommodate. The world therefore leaves man in a state of wonder! That is why in the state of wonder, the early cosmologists in their innocence of reality started contemplating on the world stuff – some saying water, air etc. whatever exists in the world is a unique individual entity that is for the service for the other beings. In being, there is a communication of interior unity. There is an interconnectivity of the things in the world. The particular existent things in the world therefore participate in unity of being. No particular existent could call itself complete and perfect unity, since every individual thing participates in the one complete Being. Man for example participates in the nature and unity of his Creator. Therefore the world by itself is an imperfect unity unless it participates in the unity of man and God.
God is invisible but real – the world’s imperfection makes man to refer to his God in man’s own inadequate comprehension. God’s existence is attributed to the unmoved mover of Aristotle in the ancient philosophy. He is a spiritual in nature and because we cannot see him empirically, we easily attribute him through the existence of the visible realities around us. God’s existence – related to ‘MANGO’ of St. Thomas, that is; Motion, Action, Necessity, Grade and Order of how things appear. This implies that when we see the coordination of the material things, we learn that they cannot come to be out of nothing, for, from nothing, nothing comes. Hence there is a power that transcends the material and cause things to move. The unmoved mover in this case is one God, though others refer to him with different names as in their own dialects.
God transcends the world (creation) and man in particular. Regardless of the attributes of man, God remains God. God is not created, immutable and he is unchangeable. Considering the nature of God, he is a divine being. He makes things happen in the universe. Man just notices them happen and the immediate thing for him to do with his reason is to wonder. God is an undivided being for he is perfect and lacks nothing. He is not limited to a place, space or time. He transcends all that is and that is not as man’s mind can imagine.
The mysterious and omnipresent God – the way things happen in the world, man cannot easily understand e.g. orderliness of things of the universe, e.g. stars, sun etc. it is a battle of the mind. The mysterious God –human knowledge on God is so limited. Man cannot easily understand God’s plan. We look at things happening in the world as mysteries that we cannot explain. However, God being a mystery for man in the world does not presuppose that man cannot speak about him., that is he is present everywhere and is not limited by space and time as other beings are. He is an unlimited God – in knowledge and power. It is a no wonder that in the Old Testament times, he discloses himself to the early prophets such as Abraham and Moses as ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ No one needs to question God’s being. God cannot be located, because to locate him means to limit him. Because he is the one who made whatever he made and positioned it wherever he put it, God is the only Being that has total access to the visible and the invisible realities that exist.
God is eternal and infinite – Man is limited and is in potency but God is pure act. His existence is equal to his essence. He did not start somewhere. He is alpha and omega. God is the source and end of reality and truth. Everything begins and ought to culminate in God. God’s essence is to be hence his existence is equal to his essence. When everything else has perished, God alone is, was and will be without end. This is because he was not created, just as the world and man are.
God is omniscient – God has an enormous power and is all-knowing. Humanly speaking, one can say that everything is from and is in the mind of God and there is nothing that escapes his immeasurable mind. God’s knowledge is so vast that man’s mind cannot comprehend it easily except through revelation, which comes from God himself. He is a necessary being as contrasted to the contingency of man. For instance it is stated in the Holy Bible that the peak of the wisdom of man is the foolishness of God or the beginning of God’s wisdom. Man, unlike other things in the world, is the only creature that shares in God’s unlimited knowledge through his consciousness. God stands out as one who cannot be known fully for to know him, man has to be knowledgeable like God.
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