Humanity at the Test of Ambiguity

Extract

[...] Humanity must therefore exercise prudence. In his treatise On Anger, Seneca shows that our judgment can be the victim of the first representations, the images of the external world engraved in the mind by the senses. A given situation, for example, a word perceived as an outrage, has such a strong likelihood that it imposes itself as a truth. However, this deception provokes an error of judgment and a harmful reaction. Man confounds what seems true with what is true2. [...]

[...] C ~ The Ambiguity and Wisdom While fanaticism feeds on certainties and simplistic visions, wisdom resides in nuance. Recognizing the ambiguity of reality is to be wise, choosing chiaroscuro, refusing blinding certainties. Montaigne puts at the heart of his Essays the acceptance of diversity and human inconstancy. His motto 'What do I know?' characterizes this refusal of systems. Before the ambiguity of customs, religions and opinions, he does not seek to impose a truth. Human spirit is great when it accommodates the incessant movement of the world and opens itself to the other. [...]

[...] After her apparent death, he descends into obsession. When he meets a young woman who resembles her, Judy, he tries to turn her into a perfect double of Madeleine. But it's a ruse. C ~Ideology instead of thought When the truth becomes difficult to discern, when judgment is misled by appearances, man can take refuge in ideology, which reassures him. Reflection is replaced by dogma. Critical thinking disappears, Hannah Arendt shows that Eichmann took shelter behind slogans and blind respect for orders. [...]

[...] General Culture - Literature - Philosophy Dissertation Subject: Humanity at the Test of Ambiguity. Introduction « "What is above all characteristic of Man is the search for and investigation of truth." wrote Cicero1. In fact, Man aspires to clarity and certainty. However, this aspiration collides with ambiguity, which destabilizes him. How then could ambiguity, far from being a simple obstacle to reason and will, become a chance, a terrain where the greatness of Man is affirmed? If ambiguity appears at first as a threat that puts our intelligence in crisis and blurs the criteria of the true, it imposes itself as a requirement that forces our will to deliberate and assume responsible choices. [...]

[...] Conclusion The test of ambiguity shakes the certainties of intelligence, by confronting Man to the doubt of fallacious appearances and the comfort of ideologies. It pushes to act in a surge of will. Man must deliberate with prudence and, by throwing himself into the unknown, he exercises his responsibility. It is precisely in this courageous movement that true human greatness is revealed. The world being ambiguous, Man invents his freedom and accesses virtue and wisdom. Nuance is the queen. To refuse ambiguity is to fall into fanaticism, while accepting it at first to surpass it later allows to fully realize one's humanity. [...]