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Pathetic Fallacy

My friend Roman and I were spilling the contents of our brains last night instead of studying for exams. It was a more fulfilling experience anyway, to sit and discuss the philosophy of your own mind than to the read the philosophies of others, or in his case, a financial (statement?) analysis textbook. I do believe I am more interesting than his textbook.

One of the many things discussed was the notion of fatality, specifically my irrational belief that things get better because God wills it to get better; or classes go as they do because I relinquish a nonexistent work ethic to chance (or God); or people walk away from me because that is how it was supposed to be; or I will marry X because he was prescribed to me. Today in Harper's I found an interesting word to describe this phenomenon

PATHETIC FALLACY: the anthropomorphic projection of human feeling or volition onto nature

Why does God have all these human attributes--anger, disapproval, e.g.--when He is Transcendent over all things? My explanation: because it is the only way we can know something, through analogy, through similes, and metaphors, through our experiences in this world. Yet, when it comes to experiencing the world, so much of the world is prohibited, so much of it is prescribed the "no-touch" policy. Why is this the case? And what is the rational foundation for faith? Other than the name "Kirkegaard"--I stumble trying to explain to him.

This is what people of faith do: they relinquensh a lot of human agency. God helps those that help themselves. Yes, there's that proverb, but in times of stress, frustration, confusion, God will be played like a ace of spade in a game of spades. What is faith? It is a type of belief. What is belief? It is not knowledge. What is Knowledge? Please consult Plato and Aristotle.

Comments

  1. Anonymous12/18/2005

    assalaamu alaikum,

    i hope studying is going well, and i wonder why you removed your last post. I feel an itch to comment on the last two paragraphs of the current post specifically.

    "...so much of the world is prohibited..." please elaborate on this thought. I actually believe very little of this world is prohibited (and that very little falls into the "no-touch" category). By the way, why is it that we should feel limited by our modest choices, isn't that in and of itself an experience? why do we as humans believe that by not giving into our desires we are doing a disservice to ourselves?

    At any rate...
    belief - mental acceptance of and conviction in the truth, actuality, or validity of something (by now you know who is posting).
    knowledge - the state or fact of knowing
    faith - Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.

    faith is not what Islam is about, as i understand it. Islam is submission. Screw faith. It is giving in to the Lord that is known. Look around you for proof.

    and as a Muslim confidant of yours, times of stress, frustration, confusion are times of clouded judgment that are not true representations of awareness/knowledge of God. Sure, it may be when we remember God, but that is due to our forgetful/ADD nature. An awareness of God pushes us to be better people, not to have God serve as a scapegoat for our uncertainties and deficiencies.

    For instance, some of the greatest thinkers were in search of better explanations for God and His creations (Newton, Darwin, even Einstein). Bring it down to our level, and we see that a slight awareness of God pushes us to pray five times a day amidst a heavy work schedule. It brings people to relinquish their livelihood to help those around them.

    Also, your second paragraph speaks to God's will and then you finish it by discussing anthropomorphic projection of human feeling. Aren't they completely separate thoughts? What does anger, disapproval, etc. have to do with will? or for that matter your (and my) bad work ethic?

    I know you got the whole stream of consciousness thing going, but it's difficult to get an idea of your discussion with Roman, except for the ultimate conclusion that God is difficult to understand. I guess you're right; that's why we have Messengers.

    And yet, as humans we also have the innate desire to create difficulty where there is facility, to establish complexity when there is simplicity.

    ~meh, just scratching, and i didn't even do justice to my thoughts or yours...i don't like this whole commenting bit. i think i'm done.

    ReplyDelete

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