Example research essay topic: Objective Reality Existential Mode - 1,646 words

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Discuss Bauman (1) Since the end of WWII, many people become disillusioned with the traditional view of history as the process of continuous progress. The positivism, as philosophical method, began to lose its appeal even before this. It was becoming obvious for many philosophers that human behavior cannot simply be defined by economical factors, as Marxism suggests, and neither can we think of such behavior as being exclusively motivated by ethical considerations. This coincided with the emergence of what is now being commonly referred to as theory of post-modernism.

It is impossible to come up with the definition of this term, which would hold a universal value. Postmodernism is best described as subconscious drive, within human psyche, to re conciliate logical inconsistencies of existence, by analyzing them from psychological perspective. (2) Zigmunt Bauman is a highly credited British sociologist and philosopher, who contributed more than anyone else to our present understanding of the essence of post -modernity. In his works, Bauman promotes the idea of incompatibility between traditional ethics and todays objective reality, in which these ethics are supposed to be organically integrated. Many critics suggest that Bauman's view of postmodernism is being emotionally motivated, because he was personally affected by Jewish Holocaust.

This, of course is valid suggestion. Nevertheless, it does not undermine the legitimacy of Bauman's suggestions. Bauman's personal experiences allowed him to create a worldview, where his sees a social apparatus as something self-efficient, which exists independently of people and often suppresses them. Bauman sees modern civilization as the vehicle, which is being propelled forward by inertia alone. Just as during the decline of Roman Empire, when marginalized crowds were only concerned about satisfying its immediate anomalistic urges, while being surrounded by the great buildings, built hundreds of years earlier, modern people continue to live in the realm of positivist values, while not being able to understand their essence, because they had lost their ability to relate abstract categories to objective reality. The reason why Jurisprudence became one of the most influential social sciences, according to Bauman, is that it is no longer necessary for the people to understand what many abstract categories actually stand for.

They simply need to be able to orient among them. Post-modern worlds greatest product is nothingness, because even money had lost its link to a concrete material value today they are just a consequence of ones and zeroes, within computers memory. According to Bauman, people are essentially social beings, therefore we cannot think of their existence as something that can be taken out of social context. At the same time, for the individual to be able to exist as an integral part of society, he must associate itself with the some universal values, which society imposes upon people.

However, the process of continuous atomization within Western societies has lead to a situation when social values are being transformed into the form of ritual, because the conventional morality, upon which these values used to rest, ceased to have a metaphysical backing. This is because morality rests on logic, while the existence of modern man is defined by largely irrational factors. In his book Alone Again, author points out to the conflict between morality and existential mode of majority of people in post-modern society: Thus arose the great divide which was to become the trademark of modern living: one between reason and emotion, taken to be the substance and the foundation of all life-and-death choices: like those between order and chaos, civilized life and the war of all against all. Moral persons cannot be buffeted by erratic impulses; they can only be guided, consistently and in a systematic fashion by laws, rules and norms; principles which clearly specify what in a given situation one should do and what one should desist from (Bauman, p. 10). The traditional code of ethics is based upon a necessity. We might think that the reason why murder used to be considered as one of the worst crimes, throughout the history, is because the power of religious influence.

However, it is not the case. When society loses one of its members, it inevitably becomes weaker. Still, the categories of weakness and strength, in relation to society, only have a meaning if society has a purpose. This was the case with traditional societies that were built on positivist perception of the world.

This is why Bauman associates the rise of post-modernism with the end of countries colonial expansion and with totalitarianism becoming socially unacceptable, as the form of government. Democratic societies essentially do not have a greater purpose for their existence. This is why, the weakening of such societies cannot be considered as something utterly evil. Thus, it is quite possible for the people to come to conclusion that the traditional vision of murder, as having properties of categorical imperative, does not correspond to their fears and anxieties, as social beings. In other words, we come to a situation when our personal ethics are not reflected in society's functioning.

Bauman suggests that human beings have moral capacity, but the reality of post-modern world do not allow them to realise it. In his book Postmodern Ethics, Bauman downplays the role of society's repressive apparatus as something that encourages people to act in socially acceptable manner: It is society, its continuing existence and its well-being, that is made possible by the moral competence of its members not the other way round. Rather than reiterating that there would be no moral individuals if not for the training / drilling job performed by society, we move toward the understanding that it must be the moral capacity of human beings that makes them so conspicuously capable to form societies and against all odds to secure their happy or less happy survival (Bauman, p. 34). One of the most striking phenomenons of modern era is the rise of bureaucracy.

Originally, the bureaucracy was only prescribed with organising functions, because the increasing complexity of economic and political affairs needed to be dealt with in most effective manner. However, ever since the industrialism ceased to define the essence of Western civilization, bureaucracy gained the status of independence body, within society. Now it exists for the sake of its existence. It is a bureaucracy that created a social machine of spiritual suppression, which now exists quite independently from its creators and affects them to the same degree as it affects everybody else. The advice work the system dont fight the system describes the mentality of people in Western countries better than any contemporary sociological theory. This machine strives towards social uniformity, which explains the fact why many prominent people cannot actuality their potential in modern society.

This is because the machine considers them as such that represent danger to its very existence. In audition, Bauman suggests that bureaucracy deprives people of their moral autonomy, which explains the fact why most horrendous crimes, in the history of humankind, were being perpetrated by individuals who never even considered participation in the mass murder of people as being wrong: The modern organization is the way of doing things that is free from moral constraints. Because of that, cruel deeds can in principle be perpetrated by modern organizations from which individual members acting on their own would most certainly recoil in horror. Even if this does not happen, though, one harmful effect is virtually unavoidable: people who come within the orbit of bureaucratic action cease to be responsible moral subjects, are deprived of their moral autonomy and are trained not to exercise (nor trust) their moral judgment (Bauman, p. 14).

Bauman characterises post-modernity by three socio-political trends. The first one is the fact that people lose their ability to influence social dynamics, within society, because their ethical code is being divided between their understanding what is moral and what is necessary. These two factors of their existential mode do not correlate any longer, since post-modernity encourages people to indulge in spiritual hedonism. The second one is individuals increasing inability to protect itself, while facing numerous social perils, because he is being deprived of the comprehensive worldview.

Peoples social activity was traditionally powered by their idealistic aspirations, which had nothing to do with acquiring material assets. Even for Spanish conquistadors, the acquisition of gold did not serve as sole motivation for their endeavours. Thus, in post-modern world, people are being deprived of psychological comfort, while embarking on different social pursuits. The third one is the fact that post-modern reality prompts people to seek instant gratification, rather than to invest time and money in reaching long-term goals. We can say that, even though that Bauman is considered as Liberal thinker, his philosophy contains criticism of Liberal ideology.

This criticism does not come as result of his conscious desire to expose the dangers of social atom ising, but rather as a result of his general awareness that something is conceptually wrong about how people relate themselves to the society, where they live. It is very hard to disagree with Bauman, when he suggests that it is not the threat Islamic invasion, or the depletion of natural resources, which poses the biggest danger to Western civilization, as we know it, but ourselves: When possible, we buy ourselves individually out of the under-provided shabby schools, overcrowded, under-nourished hospitals or miserly old-age pensions as we have already bought ourselves, with the consequences which most of us belatedly bewail, out of shrinking and wilting public transport systems. The more we do so, the more reasons we have for doing it, as the schools grow shabbier, hospital queues longer, and old-age provisions more miserly still; and the fewer reasons we see to make sacrifices for the sake of those who failed to follow suit (Bauman, p. 26). Bauman foresees the coming of egoistic totalitarianism, when increasing rate of cultural and class secularism among people, will result in Western society turning into one large Roman lunar, where...

Research essay sample on Objective Reality Existential Mode