Final Thoughts

Throughout the extent of this class, a multitude of specific topics have been explored, all pertaining to the overarching category of The Humanities. We transitioned fluidly from  brain processes, early communication, story telling, and experiences of time to historical interpretations on humans, nature, and sacred space, continuing on to deeply philosophical evaluations on love, beauty, art, and the purpose of all these things. From there, we dove into more philosophy, concerning ethics and therefore law as well, ending upon the study of reality and the inner journey through personal preferences and religions. All five of these topics, each equally unique but all under the scope of Humanities, reinforce and connect to each other and create a definition for the experience of being human: to explain the inexplicable.

The introductory unit focused on the technicalities of the human brain and the beginnings of literature's influence on humanity. One of the more controversial topics discussed is the different processes that take place within each hemisphere of the brain: right and left. The right brain is commonly associated with inventive, musical, and imaginative people while the left is associated with logical, calculating, and responsible. The main ideas expressed by Leonard Shlain in his book, The Alphabet versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image, come in two different forms. The first being the right and left brain category and the second being the male and female brain. Both of these categories explain how the brain processes, different personality types, and the differences between how both genders process and react to their surrounding and stimuli. The next topic discussed in this unit was the origins and history of myths and oral tradition. Oral tradition is the first form of storytelling and is the basis for all literature, as stated by Karen Armstrong in her book A Short History of Myth. Oral tradition stems from times as ancient as the Palaeolithic Period and it is suggested that oral tradition in the form of myths was used to explain why humans had to kill animals and other such moral dilemmas as well as explain natural phenomena. Lastly, we explored Genesis, a book in the bible that tells of the creation of the world. In studying this, we discovered that humans have an unquenchable thirst for the knowledge of our existence. Humans must find reason in everything. It is novel to the expansion of knowledge that we do so and inquiry into the creation of everything as far back as the hundreds AD backs up the idea that humans have had a thirst for knowledge and explanation for a very long time.

The next unit we unwrapped pertained to nature, human beings, and sacred space. In Natural Geographic's Australia's Aborigines, a population of humans seemingly untouched by modern society was explored and examined. This movie tied in all three topics. It touched on the importance of nature in the Aboriginal religion and how they believe that all animals and special places are not only important on the mortal plane, but have clout in the spiritual world as well. This points to the human need to explain what we cannot see. To attribute spiritual importance to objects that are vital to survival, the animals in this case, and to inexplicable phenomena, amazing natural scenery in this case, is just another facet in humanity's thirst for explanation. In The Tempest by William Shakespeare, the theme of humanity was informative and insightful. The Tempest used Caliban to embody the English opinion of indigenous cultures and the dilemma of which lifestyle is better arose. Again, interest peaks when an inexplicable topic arises. The cultures of indigenous people proved to be such a popular topic in England and the rest of the modern world at that time that a famous French author, Michel de Montaigne, wrote about them in his essay "Of Cannibals" and actually praised the simplicity and honesty of these cultures and how they conduct inter-tribal affairs. He wrote of a lack of greed and the prevalence of fairness. How could this guttural and old fashioned culture be so superior to modern culture? This question and the answers, in the form of literature from the time, are proof of human curiosity towards the inexplicable.

Transitioning from these three topics to love, beauty, and art, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, philosophies on beauty, and All the Mornings of the World, a movie by Alain Corneau, were used to incite discussion on the aforementioned topics. In Oscar Wilde's book, the luring of bodily and physical pleasure was pitted against societal morals. Humans feel bad when they do bad things. This is intrinsic to humanity and is rather inexplicable especially concerning moral decision making and concerns of the purpose of life. The true purpose of life is an answer to a question that people have been asking for centuries and have yet to be satisfied with an answer. The Picture of Dorian Gray brings to light a new idea, but it is not without its drawbacks i.e. Dorian's untimely death. Now for beauty. Why to people label things as beautiful? All five philosophers that we have studied have distinctly different opinions on the matter, which, ironically, is key to understanding the question along with the answer. It seems that every person has a different interpretation of beauty and that is just how it is. There is no definite answer to this inexplicable question. In All the Mornings of the World, which follows the life of a reclusive musician, beauty was found in simplicity, modesty, and pure expression. Still, there is and cannot be one true definition or subject of beauty, but nevertheless, humanity will carry on to search for a universal answer even though it is probable that one does not exist. Thus is the nature of humans.

Following the art, beauty, and love unit comes the ethics, law, and human frailty unit. The former two topics are obviously related, but under further scrutiny, ethics and laws are based entirely on what humans can and cannot handle. The ethical philosophers that were presented in our class include and interesting idea that is heavily employed today: Utilitarianism. This is the belief that decisions should be made based on what benefits the most people. This can be seen today in democracies world-wide, or at least should be. Ethics ties in closely to morality and therefore can be considered as and endeavor to explain something intangible, inexplicable. In the movie, Crimes and Misdemeanors by Woody Allen, right versus work is blown up to a murderous level. The main character essentially gets away with murder and the view is left to contemplate whether or not he was right in his actions or not. How can one weigh the pros and cons of such an action? Inexplicable. The ancient connection came in the form of intense study towards The Ten Commandments, The Holiness Code, and the Five Precepts. These ancient religious doctrines outline moral, ethical, and lawful living according to what they believe their god would consider as proper behavior. Interestingly enough, even though the first two writings and the Five Precepts are from different religions and areas, they basically say the same things. They are explanations as to how humans should conduct themselves based on what we feel to be right in our inner-most being and societal controls. They tie together all three topics of this unit with obvious synchronicity.

Lastly, we arrive at a new beginning: The Inner Journey and the Meaning of Human Reality.
These final topics are questions that are ridiculously unfeasible to answer, but that is the point. It is in the contemplation of each that the treasure is found. The inner journey is a spiritual experience, and as all spiritual experiences, cannot be totally explained, unless you are a foolhardy fanatic that believes your religion is the right one for everyone and everyone who does not believe you are correct is wrong. The inner journey is touched upon by the brilliant flick I [Heart] Huckabees where a man is forced to reconcile past transgressions against him to gain the realization that everyone is the same, a story that is basically identical to the plot of Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. In the movie, the man has to go through a lot of suffering and loss in order to become familiar with it and realize that suffering is a connection that we all share, along with happiness and all of the other emotions. Siddhartha is the template for this theme, but also expands upon it and touches heavily on the meaning of human reality. The main character, Siddhartha, follows his inner voice, and inexplicable urge, to his final destination which is enlightenment, which is a one word definition for the realization of the reality of the world. Sid believes that everyone can find enlightenment if they follow their inner voice and learn for themselves. Each must take a different path but ultimately end up at the same finish line because there really is not anywhere else to go. The meaning of reality is captured by Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave". Reality is what is found when someone looks beyond what they are trained to believe to be true. Again, this is an individual journey. The fact that so much brilliant literature has been attributed to this topic affirms the thirst that humans have for explanation. All that we feel we must explain. The trick is, the topics that we crave to explain the most are ones that are liable to have only answers that hold true for the individuals that create them.

Throughout this course we have studies some of the most important questions in history, overarching questions that have plagued the minds of intellectuals for centuries.  I have to admit it was fun contributing to the ongoing search for the ultimate answers and I want to thank you, Mrs. Levin, for teaching and creating a course to facilitate these discussions because these questions are important. They are a force that moves humanity to evolution as well as a part of the experience of being human and being privileged with a brain that is much bigger than any other being's on this planet. The strive to explain what is intangible and inexplicable is an essential part of being human. There are hundreds of books and movies ranging from hella old to AD that seek to address these questions and formulate these answers. Without the ability to question, explain, and learn, humans would not be as special.