Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Ownership
I think we are all comforted by the concept of having owner ship over the things in our life (from cars houses, computers, clothes, games to our pets and our very lives) feeling we own something gives me the feeling that it can't be taken away, not easily anyway, and that is comforting. All material things however can be taken away, even in this "free" country where we like to think they won't and shouldn't. Recently, in having many things stripped from me, i began to wonder "what defines ownership" and "what do i own". I don't really care about the material things in my life getting taken away, because it wouldn't affect me besides maybe causeing some discomfort. But i do care about the more important things like, do i own my life? I really wish i did, but if i owned my life i could do what i want with it , or even destroy it if i so chose, correct? so i ask you, what defines ownership? What do we own? and re asking the question of this year's philosophy club, do we own our lives?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Josh,
Thanks for starting a new thread, posing some very challenging questions, and reminding us how pivotal a deeper understanding of one’s “own” life really is. Some of Albert Camus’ essays have a lot to say on this topic of one’s own life. I have a few (hopefully) relevant thoughts, though few answers… Here are some less-than philosophical arguments… sentiments maybe.
I started by looking up some definitions. “Own,” “possess,” “have,” and “hold” helped clarify some of my thoughts. “Life” is an important, but tricky one to define here. I have a book by Erwin Schrodinger titled “What is Life?” but it focuses almost exclusively on the material elements of life, such as cells, mutations, the physics of life, etc.. You and I seem to be concerned with more than the material elements of life, so I guess I’ll leave that one undefined for now.
To own some ‘thing,’ such as one’s life, seems to say that you are entitled to certain privileged rights regarding that ‘thing’ that others do not. I certainly feel as though I have privileges concerning my own life that others do not, and visa versa.
One of those rights seems to be that of control; to have/possess/own something is to exercise some measure of control over it, and although I don’t control every aspect of my life, I seem to have a unique and privileged control over certain aspects of my life. I control some of my thoughts, feelings, desires, memories, choices, and efforts in ways that others cannot in like manner, although others can certainly influence those aspects of my life in powerful ways. And I have that inner perspective on my own life/being that no one else can have; no one can perceive the world and my own self through my senses exactly the way I do.
A brief metaphor and some distinctions… I might ‘have’ lungs full of air, and I may even say that I ‘possess’ my current breath of air, but it seems somehow improper to consider myself the ‘owner’ of the air I breathe. Is my life any different? I have it. I may even possess it. But I don’t own it?
I’ve always aspired to be a ‘conduit,’ a vessel through which many ‘things’ (including life) flow from one source to another. In a way, I contain those things, but without the intention of grasping or holding in a selfish sense, but rather directing and delivering those things and ‘energies’ that flow through me. Responsible for them, without claiming to own them. Directing them, which is to restrict them in one sense, and focus a free and unrestricted flow in another sense. Benefiting from that flow, much like a heart benefits from the flow of blood through its chambers, but at the same time recognizing that each beat of my heart/life, each effort, depends upon so much more than me, and supports and serves so much more than me. More life. Other life. The life of the whole, of which I am only part.
So perhaps I am a part-owner of my life. I must own at least some of it, because it seems to me that a necessary requirement to give something, give life to my children for instance, is that I first have/possess/own that gift/life myself.
Which leads me to wonder: How ownership of some ‘thing’ seems to come about in the first place, seems to determine the nature and substance of that ownership in many ways. Stolen, found, given, earned… these possibilities seem to greatly influence the nature of the ownership that follows.
Maybe we have to ask the question, is life stolen, found, given, earned… what’s the right way to describe it? Might the answer to that question can inform us as to the nature of our ownership (or lack thereof) of our own life?
Can anyone else help Josh and I clarify these questions?
i think there are many instances when life can be owned from different directions. for example: life can be stolen in execution, found in an orphan, given at birth, and earned through work. but i don't think we're talking about owning life anymore, we're back on the subject of freedom. owning the freedom in our own lives can prove to be a struggle. owning the freedom in somebody elses life could very well start to "decay" a person from the inside out. so, why is freedom so necessary for happiness in life?
that last comment was from me....
had trouble logging in....
Hmmm... good points Annie. Thanks for providing some tangible instances where the origin of ownership might be different. And yes, freedom seems to be a vital condition of ownership. I'll have to ponder that one some more.
It might be interesting to consider Josh's questions within a 'thought experiment':
If you were the last (or first) person alive on this planet, would you own your life?
i think you'd reach a state of owning everything which would take away from the pride/happiness of owning something because there would be nobody else to see what you own. ownership seems to centralize on the reactions of other people. some people want to own as many things as they can so that other people will want to be them even when they don't want to be themselves. some people get fed up with the rat race of superiority by ownership and try to own nothing, or next to nothing. i find it to be rather sad that more people don't want to give up their superiority because it makes them feel "bigger" than other people. what happens when that sensation of "bigger" can't be obtained anymore?
Post a Comment