Abstract
The article focuses on investigating the human need for performing fundamentally non-utilitarian actions and on people’s orientation towards being disinterested whereby they are introduced to, and partake of, the whole. The actualization of our life is connected with the human ability to act and with our performing deeds, when we associate ourselves with a principle and thereby undertake the labour of collecting ourselves. In this context, it is essential to turn to the ultimate and the border , since they are connected with our need for expending ourselves and abandoning ourselves to the other, when an extended perception of life as a gift (an act of giving) is defined and the other turns out to be included into our understanding. The author discusses the meaning of the act of symbolization and analyses the symbol and the sign in the context of the human being’s engagement with sense and reasoning. Special emphasis is given to the idea that the human need for performing disinterested acts becomes more acute with the weakening and disappearance of a presumption according to which any moment of life can, in principle, be consciously comprehended, whereas consciousness itself is perceived as an unlimited power enabling the human being to associate himself with anything whatsoever.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Aristotle. Metaphysics. Book IX. Chapter 6. In A. V. Kubitsky’s 1935 Russian translation “entity” [sushcheye] is connected with “activity” [deyatelnost’]. See: Aristotle. Metafizika [Metaphysics]. Moscow and Leningrad, 1935, pp. 155–156. In the edition of this translation published in 1975 by M. I. Itkin “entity” manifests itself in “actualization” [osushestvleniye]. See: Aristotle. Metafizika [Metaphysics] in Aristotle, Sochineniya v 4-kh tomakh [Collected Works in 4 volumes], vol. 1. Moscow, 1975, p. 242. The Greek word is ἐνέργεια (1048b-35).
- 2.
It is noteworthy that identity as such is comparable to what is invariable: the Latin individuum retains in itself the Greek ἄτομος.
- 3.
A quotation from a poem by Bulat Okudzhava (1924–1997).—Translator’s Note.
- 4.
It is easy to see that one of the motivations behind M. Heidegger’s early philosophy was the reception of such an attitude by modern European philosophy. However it became clear soon enough that it was something fairly difficult to do, and Heidegger decided to make a radical break with the modern European strategy of understanding truth: it is quite possible to interpret in this way all his efforts connected both with the analytic of Da-sein, and with grounding ontology in the ontic, as well as with detecting the mobility of the relationships between entity (Seiendes) and Being (Sein).
- 5.
See: Svyashchennik Pavel Florensky [Father Pavel Florensky], “Iz bogoslovskogo naslediya” [From His Theological Heritage], in Bogoslovskiye trudy [Theological Works]. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Moskovsoy Patriarkhii, 1977, pp. 101–109. It is important to mention here that both the production of things—in the form of tools and machines, and the production of words—in the form of concepts and terms, as well as the production of meanings transforming the givenness of the material are connected by Florensky with his view that man produces various organs by means of which, on the one hand, he establishes a connection with life, and on the other hand, his being itself is established.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sergeev, A. (2019). The Need for Being Disinterested as a Key Characteristic of Human Nature. In: Methi, J., Sergeev, A., Bieńkowska, M., Nikiforova, B. (eds) Borderology: Cross-disciplinary Insights from the Border Zone. Springer Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99392-8_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99392-8_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-99391-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-99392-8
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)