Upbuilding and Awakening Essay Example for Free

Upbuilding and Awakening EssayIn Herbert Marcuses (1955) book entitled sexual desire and Civilization, he appends an elaborate explanation to Sigmund Freuds idea of unconscious and the principle behind it. Freuds pleasure principle is the incumbent factor that prevails in the soil of the unconscious. The unconscious operates mainly for the realization of pleasure and orients itself to the most profitable scenario in which it can achieve pleasurable reward that is free of pain. However, due to the environment to which whatever human is not capable of living without, the operation and orientation of the unconscious are impossible to realize. In this regard, Freud formulates anformer(a) principle that safeguards and dictates moderation to the pleasure principle. Marcuse suggests that thither can be found some evidences that there were varying forms of repression happened in the course of history in investigating the taboos that are locked in the unconscious. It can be viewed tha t Marcuse is pointing that humans are not totally free in the sense that he can literally get all the things he wishes to have or do that will unquestionably provide him the utmost form of gratification.In some of his passages, we could get an idea that this particular condition of humans in the elegance reveals that the culture that we have had is built by the antagonistic forces namely the pleasure and reality principle. The unconscious is always being repressed, and safeguarded by reality. Soren Kierkegaard, on the other hand, has presented many accounts in relation to the unconscious. His idea of unconscious is rather incompatible with that of Marcuse and Freud.Accordingly, he states that the unconscious that is relevant is the one which we wish not to notice, or have chosen to ignore, or perhaps made myself unable to comprehend (Conway, 2002 p. 73). Kierkegaard regards the unconscious as the unearthly being which must be directed towards immortal and not, in Freud and Mar cuses sense, to the painless gratification. Another objection that Kierkegaard might raise a throw outst Freuds notion of the unconscious is his argument that multitude have to balance the antagonistic actions of their physical and spiritual beings and not the two principles (pleasure and reality) that run against each other.The proper understanding of the unconscious makes it possible for a person to fully realize his self. This understanding is one of the necessary things that a person has to have in order to rule his own unconscious thereby making him conscious of his self and probably have a conscious relationship to God. The direction and orientation of the unconscious, contrary to that of Marcuses account, are toward God. Kierkegaard, in his writings, criticizes the middle class Christians because of his view that these people are not definitely having an excellent relationship with God.He considers this flaw of these middle class Christians as the ultimate source of problem in terms of their gullmingly stagnant life. Consequently, he offers an accusation stating that these people are lacking of vision in life, that they are afraid of going out of their limitations, they are scared of change for the most gain and that they are merely conformists. It seems, at this point, that he has a high expectation of those who claim to be Christians. He so believes that if you are a child of God, and assert an excellent relationship with Him, you must not be afraid of going beyond what is normally expect of you.Hence, Christians have to be a living modelling of how great God can do to His people. There must be no ordinary average religious people. People who claim to have religious belief must be have a genuine faith, and that, it should be manifested in all of their endeavor. Going back to Kierkegaards criticisms of the middle class Christians, we can see directly that he is taking it too seriously in his view of faith and its manifestation in the Christians li ves. Moderation, apparently, is being relegated to the background.The idea that Christians must have a superior living because his faith along with his actions would bring them the fortune is like a conclusion based upon a hasty generalization and fallacious claims. If God truly blesses his children, and we regard that fortune and intelligence, for example, are considered blessings, it can also be surmised that there might be other blessings that He might give to his other children that are far more important than what Kierkegaard is arguing about. Social conformity should not be taken against anyone.Though his criticisms somehow reflect the scenario during his times, they did not provide a strong justification such that we would be able to accept them completely and have them against middle class Christians. The case that Kierkegaard has presented pertaining to those average religious people in his time can also be observed at this point in time, only that, these criticisms come in different situations and necessitate perspectives that may or may not contradict that of Kierkegaards.ReferencesBooks Conway, D. and Gover, K. E. (Eds. ). (2002). Soren Kierkegaard Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers. Routledge, Kierkegaard, Soren. (1983). The Sickness Unto Death A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening. (H. V. Hong and E. H. Hong, Eds. ) Princeton University Press. Marcuse, Herbert. (1955). Eros and Civilization A Philosophical Into Freud. Boston, USA Beacon Press. Internet Sources Banks, Robert. (n. d. ). The Middle Class and Urban Mission. December 16, 2008, from http//www. urbana. org/_articles. cfm? RecordId=370