Understanding Human Nature: Examples from Philosophy and the Arts :: Philosophy

Understanding Human Nature Examples from Philosophy and the Arts gip Ours is not the first time philosophers have looked to art for examples to illustrate their arguments. One example would be Kierkegaard, who turned to Mozarts operas in an attempt to expose what he called the esthetical realm of founding. I hold that if Kierkegaard lived today, he would consider the main character of Nikita Mikhalkovs Dark Eyes (1987) as a prototype of the aesthetic way of existence. In order to support my thesis, I first discuss Kierkegaards theory of the triad spheres of existence. I look especially at what he considers to be the main device characteristic of the aesthetic stage, as well as the figure of Don Giovanni in Mozarts opera. Second, I will look at the character of Romano Podroni in Dark Eyes. Finally, I will point out what organises these two characters prototypes of the aesthetic existence the in human being way in which they live the temporal dimension of human existence.1. Kiereg aards theory of the spheres of existenceThe question of human existence is the focal point of all Kierkegaards thought. For Kierkegaard, existing ungeneroust becoming more and more individual, but this is not given to all human beings in the same measure, because we may be living in an inauthentic way. The fact that someone belongs to the species homo sapiens does not guarantee that that person leads a human existence. In fact, Kierkegaard seems to think that few people or at least, a minority of people genuinely live as human beings.So, what does Kierkegaard mean by living in a fully human way? In his view, existence is above all something that has to be shaped. People must make themselves if they want to be themselves. A man cannot evade this self-realisation that would be as impossible as evading ones very self wich is really the same thing, as the self is the same as self-realisation. (1) The self cannot be itself unless it is creating itself. So, the fact that people have t o form themselves means that human existence is a task. (2) Kierkegaard writes of three basic stages in this process of self-realisation the aesthetic stage, the ethical stage and the religious stage. (3) All human beings are currently at one of this stages, depending on the extent to which they have achieved their life-project. Each stage is a way of seeing life, a way of understanding the world.