{"id":1167,"date":"2013-07-13T01:33:01","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1167"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:33:01","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:01","slug":"08-the-objective-and-subjective-views-of-life-vol-15-social-and-political-thought-volume-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/15-social-and-political-thought-volume-15\/08-the-objective-and-subjective-views-of-life-vol-15-social-and-political-thought-volume-15","title":{"rendered":"-08_The Objective and Subjective Views of Life.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nCHAPTER <\/font><\/b> VI<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

The Objective and Subjective Views of Life<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/font><\/span>T<\/font><\/b>HE
\nprinciple of individualism is the liberty of the human being regarded as a
\nseparate existence to develop himself and fulfil his life, satisfy his mental
\ntendencies, emotional and vital needs and physical being according to his own
\ndesire governed by his reason; it admits no other limit to this right and this
\nliberty except the obligation to respect the same individual liberty and right
\nin others. The balance of this liberty and this obligation is the principle
\nwhich the individualistic age adopted in its remodelling of society; it adopted
\nin effect a harmony of compromises between rights and duties, liberty and law,
\npermissions and restraints as the scheme both of the personal life and the life
\nof the society. Equally, in the life of nations the individualistic age made
\nliberty the ideal and strove though with less success than in its own proper
\nsphere to affirm a mutual respect for each other’s freedom as the proper
\nconduct of nations to one another. In this idea of life, as with the
\nindividual, so with the nation, each has the inherent right to manage its own
\naffairs freely or, if it wills, to mismanage them freely and not to be
\ninterfered with in its rights and liberties so long as it does not interfere
\nwith the rights and liberties of other nations. As a matter of fact, the egoism
\nof individual and nation does not wish to abide within these bounds; therefore
\nthe social law of the nation has been called in to enforce the violated
\nprinciple as between man and man and it has been sought to develop
\ninternational law in the same way and with the same object. The influence of
\nthese ideas is still powerful. In the recent European struggle the liberty of
\nnations was set forth as the ideal for which the war was being waged <\/font>
\n<\/span>–<\/span><\/font> in defiance of the patent fact that
\nit had come about by nothing better than a clash of interests. The development
\nof international law into an effective force which will restrain the<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-48<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

ego<\/font><\/span>ism of nations as the social law
\nrestrains the egoism of individuals, is the solution which still attracts and
\nseems the most practicable to most when they seek to deal with the difficulties
\nthe future1<\/sup> <\/font> <\/span>
\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>The growth of modern Science has
\nmeanwhile created new ideas and tendencies, on one side an exaggerated
\nindividualism rather vitalistic egoism, on the other the quite opposite ideal
\ncollectivism. Science investigating life discovered that the nature of all
\nliving is a struggle to take the best advantage the environment for
\nself-preservation, self-fulfilment, self-aggrandisement. Human thought seizing in
\nits usual arbitrary trenchant fashion upon this aspect of modern knowledge has
\nfounded on it theories of a novel kind which erect into a gospel the right for
\neach to live his own life not merely by utilising others, but even at the
\nexpense of others. The first object of life this <\/span>view<\/span> is for the individual to survive as
\nlong as he may, to become strong, efficient, powerful, to dominate his
\nenvironment .,d his fellows and to raise himself on this strenuous and egoistic
\nline to his full stature of capacity and reap his full measure enjoyment.
\nPhilosophies like Nietzsche’s, certain forms of Anarchism, – not the idealistic
\nAnarchism of the thinker which is rather the old individualism of the ideal
\nreason carried to its log<\/span>ical conclusion,<\/span> <\/span>–<\/span> certain forms too of Imperialism have been largely influenced and
\nstrengthened by this type <\/i>of ideas, <\/span>though<\/span><\/font> not actually created by them.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>On the other hand, Science
\ninvestigating life has equally di<\/font><\/span>scovered<\/span><\/font> that not only is the individual life best
\nsecured and made efficient by association with others and subjection to a law
\nof communal self-development rather than by aggressive self. affirmation, but
\nthat actually what Nature seeks to preserve is lot the individual but the type
\n<\/i>and that in her scale of values the pack, herd, hive or swarm takes
\nprecedence over the individual animal or insect and the human group over the
\nindividual human being. Therefore in the true law and nature of things the
\nindividual should live for all and constantly subordinate and<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n


\n\t\t1 <\/font><\/span><\/sup>
\nNo
\nlonger perhaps now, except with a dwindling minority – now that the League of
\nNations, constantly misused or hampered from its true functioning by the egoism
\nand insincerity of its greater members, has collapsed into impotence and failure<\/font><\/span>.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-49<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

sacrifice himself to the growth, efficiency and progress
\nof the race rather than live for his own self-fulfilment and subordinate the
\nrace-life to his’ own needs. Modern collectivism derives its victorious
\nstrength from the impression made upon human thought by this opposite aspect of
\nmodern knowledge. We have seen how the German mind took up both these ideas and
\ncombined them on the basis of the present facts of human life: it affirmed the
\nentire subordination of the individual to the community, nation or State; it
\naffirmed, on the other hand, with equal force the egoistic self-assertion of
\nthe individual nation as against others or against any group or all the groups
\nof nations which constitute the totality of the human race.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>But behind this conflict between
\nthe idea of a nationalistic and imperialistic egoism and the old
\nindividualistic doctrine of individual and national liberty and separateness,
\nthere is striving to arise a new idea of human universalism or collectivism for
\nthe race which, if it succeeds in becoming a power, is likely to overcome the
\nideal of national separatism and liberty as it has overcome within the society
\nitself the ideal of individual freedom and separate self-fulfilment. This new
\nidea demands of the nation that it shall subordinate, if not merge and
\nsacrifice, its free separateness to the life of a larger collectivity, whether
\nthat ‘of an imperialistic group or a continental or cultural unity, as in the
\nidea of a united Europe, or the total united life of the human race. The
\nprinciple of subjectivism entering into human thought and action, while
\nnecessarily it must make a great difference in the viewpoint, the motive-power
\nand the character of our living, does not at first appear to make any
\ndifference in its factors. Subjectivism and objectivism start from the same
\ndata, the individual and the collectivity, the complex nature of each with its
\nvarious powers of the mind, life and body and the search for the law of their
\nself-fulfilment and harmony. But objectivism proceeding by the analytical
\nreason takes an external and mechanical view of the whole problem. It looks at
\nthe world as a thing, an object, a process to be studied by an observing reason
\nwhich places itself abstractly outside the elements and the sum of what it has
\nto consider and observes it thus from outside as one would an intricate
\nmechanism. The laws of this process are<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 50<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

considered as so many mechanical rules or settled forces
\nacting upon the individual or the group which, when they have been observed and
\ndistinguished by the reason, have by one’s will or by some will to be organised
\nand applied fully much as Science applies the laws it discovers. These laws or
\nrules have to be imposed on the individual by his own abstract reason and will
\nisolated as a ruling authority from his other parts or by the reason and will
\nof other individuals or of the group, and they have to be imposed on the group
\nitself either by its own collective reason and will embodied in some machinery
\nof control which the mind considers as something apart from the life of the
\ngroup or by the reason and will of some other group external to it or of which
\nit is in some way a part. So the State is viewed in modern political thought as
\nan entity in itself, as if it were something apart from the community and its
\nindividuals, something which has the right to impose itself on them and control
\nthem in the fulfilment of some idea of right, good or interest which is
\ninflicted on them by a restraining and fashioning power rather than developed
\nin them and by them as a thing towards which their self and nature are impelled
\nto grow. Life is to be managed, harmonised, perfected by an adjustment, a
\nmanipulation, a machinery through which it is passed and by which it is shaped.
\nA law outside oneself, – <\/font> outside even when it is discovered or
\ndetermined by<\/font><\/span> the individual
\nreason and accepted or enforced by the individual will, – this is the governing idea of objectivism; a mechanical
\nprocess of management, ordering, perfection, this is its conception of
\npractice.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Subjectivism proceeds from within
\nand regards everything from the point of view of a containing and developing
\nself- consciousness. The law here is within ourselves; life is a self- creating
\nprocess, a growth and development at first subconscious, then half-conscious
\nand at last more and more fully conscious of that which we are potentially and
\nhold within ourselves; the principle of its progress is an increasing
\nself-recognition, self-realisation and a resultant self-shaping. Reason and
\nwill are only effective movements of the self, reason a process in self-
\nrecognition, will a force for self-affirmation and self-shaping. Moreover,
\nreason and intellectual will are only a part of the<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 51<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

means by which we recognise and realise ourselves.
\nSubjectivism tends to take a large and complex view of our nature and being and
\nto recognise many powers of knowledge, many forces of effectuation. Even, we
\nsee it in its first movement away from the external and objective method
\ndiscount and belittle the importance of the work of the reason and assert the
\nsupremacy of the life-impulse or the essential Will-to-be in opposition to the
\nclaims of the intellect or else affirm some deeper power of know- ledge, called
\nnowadays the intuition, which sees things in the whole, in their truth, in
\ntheir profundities and harmonies while intellectual reason breaks up,
\nfalsifies, affirms superficial appearances and harmonises only by a mechanical
\nadjustment. But substantially we can see that what is meant by this intuition
\nis the self-consciousness, feeling, perceiving, grasping in its substance and
\naspects rather than analysing in its mechanism its own truth and nature and
\npowers. The whole impulse of subjectivism is to get at the self, to live in the
\nself, to see by the self, to live out the truth of the self internally and
\nexternally but always from an <\/font>
\ninternal
\ninitiation and centre.<\/font><\/span>
\n<\/font>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span><\/span>
\nBut still there is the
\nquestion of the truth of the self, what it is, where is its real abiding-place;
\nand here subjectivism has to deal with the same factors as the objective view
\nof life and existence. We may concentrate on the individual life and
\nconsciousness as the self and regard its power, freedom, increasing light and
\nsatisfaction and joy as the object of living and thus arrive at a subjective
\nindividualism. We may, on the other hand, lay stress on the group
\nconsciousness, the collective self; we may see man only as an expression of
\nthis group-self necessarily incomplete in his individual or separate being,
\ncomplete only by that larger entity, and we may wish to subordinate the life of
\nthe individual man to the growing power, efficiency, knowledge, happiness,
\nself-fulfilment of the race or even sacrifice it and consider it as nothing
\nexcept in so far as it lends itself to the life and growth of the community or
\nthe kind. We may claim to exercise a righteous oppression on the individual and
\nteach him intellectually and practically that he has no claim to exist, no
\nright to fulfil himself except in his relations to the collectivity. These
\nalone then are to determine his thought, action and existence and the<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-52<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

claim of the individual to have a law of his own being,
\na law of his own nature which he has a right to fulfil and his demand for
\nfreedom of thought involving necessarily the freedom to err and for freedom of
\naction involving necessarily the freedom to stumble and sin may be regarded as
\nan insolence and a chimera. The collective self-consciousness will then have
\nthe right to invade at every point the life of the individual, to refuse to it
\nall privacy and apartness, all self-concentration and isolation, all
\nindependence and self-guidance and determine everything for it by what it
\nconceives to be the best thought and highest will and rightly dominant feeling,
\ntendency, sense of need, desire for self- satisfaction of the collectivity.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n


\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>But also we
\nmay enlarge the idea of the self and, as objective Science sees a universal
\nforce of Nature which is the one reality and of which everything is the
\nprocess, we may come subjectively to the realisation of a universal Being or
\nExistence which fulfils itself in the world and the individual and the group
\nwith an impartial regard for all as equal powers of its self-manifestation.
\nThis is obviously the self-knowledge which is
\nmost<\/span> likely to be right, since it most comprehensively embraces and
\naccounts for the various aspects of the world-process and the eternal
\ntendencies of humaniy. In this view neither the separate growth of the
\nindividual nor the all-absorbing growth of the group can be the ideal, but an
\nequal, simultaneous and, as far as may be, parallel development of both, in
\nwhich each helps to fulfil the other. Each being has his own truth of
\nindependent self-realisation and his truth of self-realisation in the life of
\nothers and should feel, de- sire, help, participate more and more, as he grows
\nin largeness and power, in the harmonious and natural growth of all the
\nindividual selves and all the collective selves of the one universal Being.
\nThese two, when properly viewed, would not be separate, opposite or really
\nconflicting lines of tendency, but the same impulse of the one common
\nexistence, companion movements separating only to return upon each other in a
\nricher and larger unity and mutual consequence.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Similarly, the subjective search
\nfor the self may, like the objective, lean preponderantly to identification
\nwith the conscious physical life, because the body is or seems to be the frame<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 53<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

and determinant here of the mental and vital movements
\nand capacities. Or it may identify itself with the vital being, the life soul
\nin us and its emotions, desires, impulses, seekings for power and growth and
\negoistic fulfilment. Or it may rise to a conception of man as a mental and
\nmoral being, exalt to the first place his inner growth, power and perfection,
\nindividual and collective, and set it before us as the true aim of our
\nexistence. A sort of subjective materialism, pragmatic and outwardgoing, is a
\npossible standpoint; but in this the subjective tendency cannot long linger.
\nFor its natural impulse is to go always inward and it only begins to feel
\nitself and have satisfaction of itself when it gets to the full conscious life
\nwithin and feels all its power, joy and forceful potentiality pressing for
\nfulfilment. Man at this stage regards himself as a profound., vital Will-to-be
\nwhich uses body as its instrument and to which the powers of mind are servants
\nand ministers. This is the cast of that vitalism which in various striking
\nforms has played recently so great a part and still exercises a considerable
\ninfluence on human thought. Beyond it we get to a subjective idealism now
\nbeginning to emerge and be- come prominent, which seeks the fulfilment of man
\nin the satisfaction of his inmost religious, aesthetic, intuitive, his highest
\nintellectual and ethical, his deepest sympathetic and emotional nature and,
\nregarding this as the fullness of our being and the whole object of our being,
\ntries to subject to it the physical and vital existence. These come to be
\nconsidered rather as a possible symbol and instrument of the subjective life
\nflowing out into forms than as having any value in themselves. A certain
\ntendency to mysticism, occultism and the search for a self independent of the
\nlife and the body accompanies this new movement –
\n<\/font>new to<\/font><\/span> modem life after the reign of individualism
\nand objective intellectualism – and emphasises its real trend and character.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n


\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>But here
\nalso it is possible for subjectivism to go beyond and to discover the true Self
\nas something greater even than mind. Mind, life and body then become merely an
\ninstrumentation for the increasing expression of this Self in the world, – instruments not equal in their hierarchy, but
\nequal in their necessity to the whole, so that their complete perfection and
\nharmony and unity as elements of our self-expression become essential to the
\ntrue<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 54<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

aim of our living. And yet that aim would not be to
\nperfect life, body and mind in themselves, but to develop them so as to’ make a
\nfit basis and fit instruments for the revelation in our inner and outer life of
\nthe luminous Self, the secret Godhead who is one and yet various in all of us,
\nin every being and existence, thing and creature. The ideal of human existence
\npersonal and social would be its progressive transformation into a conscious
\nout- flowering of the joy, power, love, light, beauty of the transcendent and
\nuniversal Spirit.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 55<\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHAPTER VI The Objective and Subjective Views of Life   \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0THE principle of individualism is the liberty of the human being regarded as a separate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-15-social-and-political-thought-volume-15","wpcat-25-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}