A Means for Self-Actualizing (tradition, Abraham, Roman)

[coberst]

A Means for Self Actualization

Abraham Maslow defined a hierarchy of needs to be:
1) Biological and Physiological (water, food, shelter, air, sex, etc.)
2) Safety (security, law and order, stability, etc.)
3) Belonging and love (family, affection, community, etc.)
4) Esteem (self-esteem, independence, prestige, achievement, etc.)
5) Self-Actualization (self-fulfillment, personal growth, realizing personal potential, etc.)

This hierarchy makes us conscious of the obvious fact that we did not fret about the absence of self-esteem if we did not already have security nor did we worry about security if we did not have water to drink or air to breath.

"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This is the need we may call self-actualization ... It refers to man's desire for fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become actually in what he is potentially: to become everything that one is capable of becoming ..."

I think that the area in which Western society fails most egregiously is in the matter of an intellectual life after schooling. We have a marvelous brain that goes into the attic after schooling is complete and is brought out only occasionally on the job or when we try to play bridge or chess.

It appears to me that the fundamental problem faced by most Western democracies is a lack of intellectual sophistication of the total population. Our colleges and universities have prepared young people to become good producers and consumers. The college graduate has a large specialized database that allows that individual to quickly enter the corporate world as a useful cog in the machine. The results display themselves in our thriving high standard of living, high technology corporate driven life styles.

We are excellent at instrumental rationality and deficient at developing the rationality and understanding required for determining normative values. It seems to me that our societies are not prepared intellectually for the demanding task ahead. The only solution seems to be a change that will significantly increase the intellectual sophistication of the society as a whole. We need a rising tide of intellectual sophistication and Self-Actualization might be the way for our adults to add an intellectual life to their acquisitions.


Maslow learned to distinguish “special talent creativeness” from “self-actualizing (SA) creativeness”,
which springs more directly from the personality, and showed itself in the ordinary affairs of daily life. This is all potentiality given to most people at birth and is generally lost or buried or inhibited, as the person becomes more acculturated. These self-actualizing humans “do not neglect the unknown, or deny it, or run away from it or try to make believe it is really known…They do not cling to the familiar, nor is their quest for the truth a catastrophic need for certainty, safety, definiteness, and order.”

The creativity of self-actualizing individuals is a derivative of their “greater wholeness and integration”. SA creativeness stress first the personality, individuality, character and attitude rather than accomplishments. Character traits, the habits of behavior, such as boldness, courage, freedom, spontaneity, perspicuity, integration, and self-acceptance express itself in the creative life. “It is emitted like sunshine.”

What means do we have to consciously help us to become self-actualizing adults? I think that self-actualization can best come through self-learning (autodidactic).

I would like to introduce a concept that perhaps many have not given consideration. I would like to introduce post-schooling scholarship. I do not use the word ‘scholarship’ to mean some form of education stipend. I mean ‘scholarship’ as tailor-made learning. The individual creates her or his own learning in a process of developing a Self-Actualizing person.

I think we have placed scholarship on a too lofty pedestal and in doing so we have placed it beyond reach or consideration. I want to suggest that middle class scholarship is something that we all should consider as a friend to be embraced as our own.

The development of an economic middle class is the hallmark of success in any mature nation. I think it is possible that the development of a scholarly middle class could represent a similar development in the life of democracy of a nation. We might express the concept as middle class scholarship or post-schooling scholarship.

I think that post-schooling scholarship is a means to self-actualization. If you do not find this to be a means for self-actualization what means would you suggest?

[eudaimonia]

Originally Posted by coberst

The creativity of self-actualizing individuals is a derivative of their “greater wholeness and integration”. SA creativeness stress first the personality, individuality, character and attitude rather than accomplishments. Character traits, the habits of behavior, such as boldness, courage, freedom, spontaneity, perspicuity, integration, and self-acceptance express itself in the creative life. “It is emitted like sunshine.”

What means do we have to consciously help us to become self-actualizing adults?

Why, the Fellowship of Reason! [shameless plug] FOR offers various forms of adult education in the attempt to encourage a life-long pattern of learning and reflection on the important issues of life. It also tackles the issue of nourishing self-actualization from other angles.

I would like to introduce a concept that perhaps many have not given consideration. I would like to introduce post-schooling scholarship. I do not use the word ‘scholarship’ to mean some form of education stipend. I mean ‘scholarship’ as tailor-made learning. The individual creates her or his own learning in a process of developing a Self-Actualizing person.

I think that's a great idea!

I think that post-schooling scholarship is a means to self-actualization. If you do not find this to be a means for self-actualization what means would you suggest?

It's not the sole means of self-actualization, but it is certainly one, possibly necessary, means. Adult education will not magically create whole and integrated people, but it may be a tool for someone interested in wholeness and integration to work on themselves in order to achieve these goals.

I think what's needed is a system of values that lead one in the direction of self-actualization. Such values may include a profound understanding and appreciation for personal relationships with friends, family, and community (tier 3), and the pursuit of personal accomplishments and honors that nourish self-esteem (tier 4), but must (IMO) also include and understanding and appreciation for self-actualization itself (tier 5), such as "self-fulfillment, personal growth, realizing personal potential, etc".

Without these values, I'm afraid that people just won't be interested in self-actualization, and are unlikely to achieve it since they won't be aiming in that direction. But for those people who are interested, pursuing personal intellectual development in one's adult years should be a big help.


eudaimonia,

Mark

[coberst]

Mark

You are correct. The big problem is the 'bootstrap problem'. How to overcome the difficult barrier that stands between being conscious of the need before we comprehend the need.

[doppelgänger]

Originally Posted by coberst

Mark

You are correct. The big problem is the 'bootstrap problem'. How to overcome the difficult barrier that stands between being conscious of the need before we comprehend the need.

At the outset, it seems we have a barrier to becoming conscious of the need. Anti-intellectualism is a deep-rooted tradition in the West (particularly the U.S.). Busy westerners are told constantly we don't have time to figure out who we are. We like to be told who we are. Pre-packaged identities are easier, cheaper and quicker to acquire than self-actualization.

The only problem is that they aren't real identities. They are like Cheez Whiz. It shares some pleasant characteristics with cheese, and it's cheap and easy to use. But it's made out of entirely different stuff and if you make a regular diet of it, you'll end up extremely sick.

[coberst]

Yes, it appears to me that anti-intellectualism is considered by the young to be cool. I do not comprehend why adults have such an impulse except that I guess it becomes a habit.

[Kungfuzed]

How does one know where to start? Looking at the list I'm probably still on number 3.