Book: Combining Aristotle and Freud
A Book that Explores the Meaning of Life and Moralism
By Mohammad Ali Salih — Washington
Jonathan Lear (72-years-old), a long-time professor at Yale University and currently at the University of Chicago, has combined both practicing psychoanalysis and studying philosophy, in the sense of specializing in both Greek philosopher Aristotle (he wrote at least three books about him), and psychologist Sigmund Freud (at least two books).
In between, he became interested in the subject of the soul, as analyzed in his book, “Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul,” arguing that the soul might be both spiritual and physical, and finding explanations again in both Aristotle and Freud.
A dictionary defines “soul” as “the spiritual or immaterial part of a human,” and another dictionary adds, “believed to exist after death.”
The author elaborates the definition in his book and uses phrases like “the principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans … a distinct entity separates from the body … (and) the spiritual part of humans as distinct from the physical part.”
While the Quran says that the “ruh” (soul) is from God, and is separate from “nafs” (self), as does the Bible and some other religious books in a variety of ways, Leartries to stay away from religion, most probably because he has also been a political commentator and is trying to avoid being supportive of one religion but not others.
In this book, although he criticizes Freud for trying to solve all of humanity’s problems with one theory (as does Aristotle), he defends Freud for his work in the field of conscious and unconscious, and in relation to the human soul.
Author Lear argues that humans have complex psychological features that are beneath the surface of their conscious understanding — but are “deceiving” themselves for thinking that they know their minds.
As with most of his books, in this book he added another factor to his twin factors of psychoanalysis and philosophy: everyday events.
In a chapter titled “When Meghan Married Harry,” he explains that American Meghan Markle’s 2018 marriage to British Prince Harry had two layers: a secret wedding ceremony with only the two of them and the Archbishop of Canterbury, which was conducted a few days before the big public one.
The author quotes Markle saying that she wanted to “live authentically,” because there was something “phony” about the spectacular royal weddings. The author credits Markle for using her “intuition” (without using conscious thinking and reasoning), then he moved to argue that Markle’s situation was, in a sense, like all human situation — we are all “trapped.”
The book’s title, “Imagining the End: Mourning and Ethical Life,” relates the above-mentioned subjects’ to the “End,” of people and of the meaning of life. In other words, actual death, and thinking about death — and the future of mankind — can give meaning to the complexities of our life. From the American Civil War to Coronavirus, the author details examples of wondering about the meaning of life in times of death and near death.
All throughout, the author is concerned about moralism, as a philosophy and as an everyday practice, and repeatedly returns to the subject of the spirit and the soul.
Insofar as he is a psychologist, he stays away from established religions, although not from spiritualism. This may be because many Western moral philosophers (particularly the French) were influenced more by secularism than by spiritualism.
How to break the chains and “un-trap” ourselves? The author suggested more humanism and less materialism, as in the spectacular royal wedding of Markle and Prince Harry. In the tradition of Aristotle, the author calls for a culture that is engaged with the past of humanity so as to enrich the present and maybe solve the problems of the present.
He calls for “a capacity for critical playfulness, for re-creation and change of the very concepts with which we are thinking. We are freed up for a poetic reinterpretation of authenticity, as well as opened to the possibility of giving up the concept altogether and living according to different concepts.”
Using another everyday example in combination with psychology and philosophy, he remembered his own childhood when one day he made a mistake and was confronted by a tough teacher who, instead of punishing him, called upon him to think about moralism, the conscious and the unconscious.
The teacher was scary: “He was wearing a trench coat, belted in the middle. His hair was in a crew cut, common among men at that time. He might have been a police detective in a television show. He came over, looked me in the eyes, and said in a low, calm voice: ‘We do not use profane language on the playground.’ He then turned around and walked away. That was it.”
The message of moralism (of right and wrong) is not new to the believer. But this secular author is calling for a new way of thinking.
An example is his emphasis on imagination: “Our imaginations open the future, recreate the past, and enliven the present. These are virtues, or excellences, of imagination. But we also know that imagination can get in our way, distort our vision, and insist that falsehoods are true. When it comes to imagination, there is such a thing as ill health. So, what I am concerned with are real threats to the imagination as we face real threats coming from the world.”
He added: “We have a hunch that we are onto something important about being human, but we are also in the midst of life and thus in the midst of confusions, contradictions, and unclarities.”
A believer might think otherwise.
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Book: “Imagining the End: Mourning and Ethical Life”
Author: Jonathan Lear
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Paper pages: 162
Paper book: $29.95
