How we Experience the World: Final Exam

The human experience is a jumble of experiences, influences, and our own biological makeup that make each individual special and unique. Evolution has even played a dramatic role in how we now experience the world. First each person has a right and left side of their brain.  Our left side is cognitive and rational, while our right side is creative and artistic. Having both rational and creative functions in our brains allows us to live a more balanced and functioning life. The left side is the analytical side that we use for math equations, interpreting, and solving everyday problems. The right side is the portion of the brain that allows us to be imaginative and create beautiful pieces of art. It is the emotional half of our mind. Now when writing was introduced into our culture, it changed the way we act, think, and experience the world. We transformed from drawing pictures on cave walls to tell a story to using letters with no image attachment to do the same thing. So our brains went from emotionally interpreting images (right side) to reading phonetics. This in turn made us a lot more left sided, meaning we became much more analytical because we didn’t have the images constantly in our every day life.

Now besides our biological and evolutionary influences, sacred space and nature play a tremendous role in how we experience life. One’s sacred space is what is natural to them. It could be a religious sanctuary of theirs, a special open field that they know of, or simply their bed in their room. It is different for every individual and is where he/she goes to find peace and escape reality. The world is a complex and confusing place and without one’s sacred place, we would become overwhelmed and lost. The most common generalized sacred place is nature. People view nature as pure and innocent, therefore the perfect place to escape from the traffic of our daily lives. When something is as pure and untouched as nature, individuals strive to become as close to that thing as possible. That is done in a multitude of ways. Some become natural themselves, eliminating any artificial or superficial quality that they may possess. Others just go to nature to bring themselves back to a place internally that they want to be at. All are marvelous ways that we as humans keep ourselves in check and able ourselves to keep on living and experiencing fully.

When we are out in the real world we experience love and beauty everyday, and each human being has their own interpretation of what that is. This makes every person experience those qualities of life diversely. Beauty can be inside (personality) and/or outside (appearance). Beauty can also be what is pure and innocent or what is natural. It all depends on the individual and what their interpretations are. For me I experience beauty as a combination of all of those things. I think that beauty is what is natural, but it is also appearances and how a person acts. Beauty is superficial and deep to me. But if one is overriding the other, then something may become ugly even though one aspect of themselves is beautiful. For example if a girl is immensely gorgeous and pleasing to the eye on the outside, but they a cruel and ruthless person on the inside, then they become ugly because their inner self is taking over. Beauty has a huge role with love and can affect one falling in or out of love. When something is beautiful we want to possess it and have it for ourselves, thus gravitating to approach that special thing. Once we acquire it, a lot of us think that we are in love, which we may be truly feeling that, but what that really is your body acknowledging that you have accomplished what you set out to do. We tend to fall out love because that person we have such strong feelings for has given up on trying and are not the same diamond that you may have once found. Love is, I think, the topic and experience in a person’s journey that causes the most ups and downs and effects in one’s life.

Law and ethics play a huge role in the human experience because they dictate what we can and cannot allow ourselves to do and everyone has their own opinion on what they should be. The most influential concept in regards to law and ethics is religion. America says that we are not suppose to mix religion and government, but religion is what convinces us of what is right and wrong, so it is predominately influencing our decisions when it comes to our laws. The bible goes through a list of things that is right or wrong and also has consequences for sinning, the holiness code. This forces us to create our own set of ethics and boundaries that we must follow in order to achieve entrance into heaven. Even though there is a set moral code, every one has a different interpretation of that code, creating a diversified community, all thinking that they are doing right. Who really knows if there is a god or heaven, but everyone in one way or another strives to get there by being a ‘good’ person. Who wants to go to Hell right?

To bring this all to an end, everything that we experience in society, love, beauty, nature, sacred space, evolution, law, and ethics create our own personal inner journey that make our worldly experience unique to ourselves. While the craziness of society is happening around us, we are having our own inner experience that no one else can feel but you. One can try to explain it, but not a single person, no matter how much of an understanding they may have, can truly know and feel what you are describing. This is because we all have different minds and therefore interpret things differently. For example in Hamlet, Hamlet’s feelings for Oephelia are more out of lust than love, while she is madly in love with him and naively falls for his trickery. This just goes to show that everyone is experiencing the same exact situation differently, creating a wonderful place where there is a unique situation everywhere you turn.

Story of Life

What would life be without its story. Many strive to leave there own legacy behind so that they will leave a tremendous mark on time. No one ever wants to be forgotten. So the way people are remembered is through others sharing that person's life in a story. We use them to guide us, teach us, and amuse us. They always serve as entertainment, but in the background they are always having an impact on how we choose to live our life. A person never wants to be a stray wolf from the pact learning on its own, so we as humans all come together to help each other out. Every human being serves as in influence in their present life and their past. What they have journeyed through in their life will serve as a guide as to what to do and not to do when it comes to certain experiences they've had. Everyone has a different journey and therefore can teach something different than anyone else.

In an individual's life there are countless journeys that they go through. Each turning point is the start of a brand new journey. For example becoming a parent or starting your very first job are both examples of new journeys being created. Our personal journey's serve as our stepping stones to growing as a human being and as to finding more and more about ourselves and who we are becoming. If we all didn't have those experiences and stories then we all would be robots wandering around purely functioning. Life would be uninteresting and not a single person would be 'living.'

Humanities Final

Being human is a great mystery that every person on this world has in common, yet not everybody has searched the world around them and their minds to try to figure it out.  For those who have not, Humanities is the origin where these answers can be found.  Yet no one can know for sure what his existence means, Humanities can put him in the right direction to further understanding the meaning of his life.  At the Keene High School, the Humanities class is the best at digging deep inside one’s mind to find opinions and possible explanations to our existence.  At the beginning of the class we learned about Humnaities’ introductory unit, consisting of right and left brains, metaphors, symbolism, forms of storytelling and more.  I learned that I am a strong right brainer through our varius right brain and left brain readings.  This made much sense to me when I found out because I love to act, sing, perform, and be on stage in front of hundreds of people.  Our readings on the experiences of time and info on native American tradition helped me understand as a human that there is a spiritual world I believe in that is something greater than what humans can wrap our heads around.

    The second unit our class covered consisted of humans, nature, and sacred space.  We learned much about this unit when we read the short poems on Mother Nature.  We learned that nature was the thing that allows us to survive, providing us with never-ending (theoretically) food, air, and water.  Along with that, it is the thing that gives us shelter and the wonderful environment that people love to be in.  Inside these wonders of nature, sacred spaces can be found, and I remember talking about a sacred space of mine known as turtle rock.  The readings on sacred space were important to me, because they reminded me of turtle rock, a place I visited many times as a young boy.  I could go into my backyard, walk up the long forest, and find this sacred rock where nothing else, rather than the leaves and peace, could find me.  This helped me through my journey of life because I understood at an early age I had an affinity for the rural wonders of forests and outside living.  Nature and my sacred spaces shaped who I am to this day, and who I will be in a few years.

   Next we covered the unit of love and beauty.  This was my favorite unit in the class, and it probably was most others, as the concepts of love and beauty are prevalent and present in all of our lives.  We watched a movie, The Shape Of Things, which was mainly themed on love.  Evelyn uses love to persuade and pursue the character Adam, and she uses his love and emotions as the centerpiece for a big art project.  This hits close to home base because people often feel used or are hurt from love, but it is a part of being human to overcome the sadness and find other love.  In life, not everyone will be able to love whatever he wants, but the back and forth pursuit of love and personal relation is something that can not be too easy, or humans would not find it as magical.  We also read the book Dorian Gray in this unit, and beauty was quite prevalent.  We learned about the beauty of being youthful and young, and that we should embrace the time we have to be young and have fun, but a big part of being human is growing up and that we can not be children for the rest of our lives.  There is a part of life where we become adults and have to settle more, or else being youthful and young would turn against us and become a bad thing.  If everybody in the world goofed off and did whatever pleased them, the world would be much less successful and organized, and the time to do goofy things is as a youth.  This does not mean older people can not have fun however!  We also learned about love when we read on Philosophers such as Plato, who believes people strive for the concept of beauty when they love someone, rather than the person him/herself.  This is important in understanding what it is to be human because everyone in the world loves something, whether it is another person, a pet, or item, but we love the concept of beauty whether it is just the concept or the thing itself.

  On our fourth unit we learned about Law and Ethics.  We watched the movie Crimes and Misdemeanors, which played an important source to understanding the unit.  The movie consisted of killing, lying to survive, relationships that should not have happened, and actions that leave consequence because they are ethically wrong.  The movie helped determine that choices in our futures can lead to consequence or regret if we do not play it wise.  We also read a lot about great philosophers, such as John Stuart Mill, where he had pages and pages of ethic beliefs.  Being human is all about the choices you make, and we learned from his point of view that actions could have good consequences but still not be permissible, and that we avoid bad decisions because we know they have terrible results.  Not everyone has to follow how Mill feels, but the class learned the goods and bads that could pop up in the future.  We learned more about good and bad decisions when we read The Sermon on the Mount as well, and received a better understanding of general commandments and rules that applied hundreds of years ago and still have prevalence in today’s society.  As an example, it listed the importance of mourning over the dead, being merciful, and being pure at heart, which many of us are today.  These good or bad choices and consequences helped the class realize that the decisions in our lives will shape who we are, and that we should make good choices if we want to live consequence-free lives and become overall better humans.

The last unit we tackled consisted of the meaning of existence and the hero’s journey.  In this unit we watched and read Hamlet, and this helped the class understand our existence because we learned about an inner journey.  The main character in Hamlet (Hamlet) must go through a hero’s journey alone to free Denmark of a foul king, and this relates to everyone reading because we all have journeys ourselves.  Even at the start of our birth, we are heros because we have survived the dark, life-changing experience of being born and taken out of our mothers.  Little do we know at that point, we have a long journey ahead of us, where we will need to survive the world and gather the skills and friends to make our lives as enjoyable and successful as we can.  Although everyone’s journey in life will be different, every human shares the fact that we are surviving and living life, which Hamlet and any person we know about is also doing.  Hamlet ends up dying after he kills King Claudius, which is a pivotal event in his life.  Pivotal events will spring up and happen a lot in our lives, and we need to make the best of our journey to become the human we want to become.

final

To truly be human, one must be able to analyze, interpret, and communicate. In Shlain's Alphabet Versus Goddess, he discusses the major differences between the right and left brain, and how this affects the way humans process information. The right brain expresses a state of feeling and being while the left brain is concerned with doing and the willingness to do. The right brain interprets information in the form of emotion, without any effort to translate into words. An example Shlain uses is that of human facial expression; the brain reads the expression and understands it on a deep, emotional level, but it does not translate the feelings into words like "happy" or "sad" without the help of the left brain. This way of thinking and interpreting is uniquely human. David Abram also discusses the brains way of processing information in The Spell of the Sensuous, but with more of an emphasis on the evolution of language. When humans started communicating through pictures (the first step on the way to a fully developed written language), the began the shift away from human gestures and voices and started focusing on these man made images. When the rebus came along, however, the drawn picture or character was no longer meant to simply represent a material thing, it was meant to invoke a specific sound of the human voice. This communication process is uniquely human. Native American oral tradition is an example of the importance of spoken language and its power though history. It has lasted hundreds of years, and some of the stories still exist.

In the Tempest, the relationship humans have with nature plays a major role. Right from the start of the play, a powerful storm leaves a ship and its crew at the mercy of nature. Prospero is a God like figure throughout the show, and he uses the power of nature to control people. In another instance, Prospero is the reason a group of people get lost on the woods of the island. He uses the power of nature to create a confusing maze of trees. According to this show, being human means being at the mercy of nature. Much like the storm in in the Tempest, the flood in Genesis shows how powerless humans are against nature. God uses the power of nature to control the evil that is spreading among humans. Another example of how the God from the Bible uses the power of nature is the 10 plagues. God uses disease, light depravation, and hail storms to punish the people of Egypt. This shows that humans are at the mercy of nature. In Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, he uses nature imagery to pain a vivid picture. He depicts the contrast between a maiden he loves and beautiful aspect of nature (the sun, flowers, and snow). He does this to show that even though his maiden isn't perfect, he loves her all the same. This shows natures powerful influence on humans. Shakespeare uses this power in his poems to make them more effective.

In Dorian Gray, Dorian is a model of youth and beauty. He make people around him envious of his outward appearance. He eventually becomes corrupt by Lord Henry, but it seems to have no affect on his beauty. It does however, have an effect on his inward beauty (as shown by his decaying portrait). This goes to show that being a beautiful human means being beautiful on the inside. In the movie the Shape of Things, Evelyn makes Adam her project much like Henry makes Dorian. Evelyn turns Adam into what society views as beautiful in order to make an artistic statement about beauty and society. This shows that society's view of beauty is skewed, and to be truly beautiful, on must find beauty within ones self. In Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, he treats love as an eternal force that is the reality of everyones life. Even if people are lost in life, the can still be saves by the power of love. This shows that to be human means to find love.

In the movie Crimes and Misdemeanors the protagonist is in a difficult moral situation. He has trouble with the thought of ethics and God. After he has an old girlfriend killed to make his life easier, he feels as though he will be punished by a higher power because there is a moral structure to the universe. This movie shows that there is a moral and ethical structure to the universe.  The Bible dictates many moral standards, specifically in the 10 commandments. According to this, there is a very strict and moral code to the universe: abide by these rules and you will be rewarded, if you do not, you will be punished. In the Stranger, Meursault kills a man. This is against the moral standards of the universe and he is therefore punished. The punishment isn't standard punishment, but he is punished with the hard life he is given and the consequences of the murder.

Hamlet is a prime example of the inner journey. Unlike many standard "heroic" journeys, Hamlet's is in his mind. He must get revenge and discover if there is as true meaning to life in order to feel at peace. Moyre's description of the inner journey is through story; he says everyone finds truth through storytelling.

Final

Our introductory unit encompassed much of the human capacity for experiencing the world. We dicussed cyclical time, linear time, the roles of the creative right and logical left hemispheres, how we process and relate our knowledge, and the symbolism that we are able to see in our own world. This was a unit that touched on exactly how the human experience is possible within us. One of the main points was focused on the way we relate stories, specifically our written languages. In David Abrams' "Spell of the Sensuous", he describes how written language has defined how we process our stories in terms of time and space. He believed that once a story passed from oral to written form it lost part of its circumstantial power, as the writing allowed the story to be uprooted from its origin and carried elsewhere to be shared in an identical way. Abrams also implies that these formal writing systems served as part of an end to what we could refer to as "cyclical time", in that once stories were written down, they were anchored in the past, thus providing the vantage point of a past, present and future, rather than a story that time and time again comes around. In John Bowker's "God- A Brief History" he goes into detail on how humans began to incorporate symbols and such into our culture. In his writing, he details the differences in the types of sign that first emerged. An icon is a sign containing qualities of that which is being signified, an index has a dynamic relationship with that thing being signified, and a symbol is a sign with a meaning agreed on by all who use it. However, the most basic form of relating the human experience was with our words through memory. In the film Australia's Aborigine's, the people of the outback have to this day relayed all of their knowledge by mouth, passed down through generations, in an attempt to keep the stories connected to their surroundings and the dreamtime.

As humans we have always held a need to keep some places sacred, whether these places be churches, our own rooms, or in the case of some native cultures, the natural world in its entirety. The Choctaw Indians, as referenced in the text "North America's Mother Earth, Father Sky" held burial grounds as highly sacred: "'And where,' they wondered, 'shall we leave the remains of our loved ones?' 'Let us place them in this sacred mound of earth,' the twins said. 'The place of the Fruitful mound is our home forever.' As in this example, people often need a connection to nature, though this need has strongly diminished over time. Despite this diminished nature, we can see a clear connection in landscape art, as pointed out in our packet on How Art Made the World. Landscape painting, and the need to portray our natural surroundings is evidenced in virtually all cultures, from 17th century Chinese art to Mosaics from 120 BC, all the way to Tischbein's "Goethe by the Campagna" circa 1787. What changes is the human perspective by culture. The latter painting, European in nature, puts the human subject front and center with nature as a background, while the earlier paintings, such as those of the Chinese culture mentioned put human kind as an afterthought, a part of nature and the landscape. In Nigel Spivey's work on the caves in Lascaux in the documentary How Art Made the World he sees a whole other dynamic, which is nature, specifically wild animals, depicted as the quintessential part of the culture, sacred in their location (the cave galleries) and ritualistic reproductions.

Love and beauty are two of the driving concepts behind humanity. Without them, we lose a very large piece of what makes us human. That is, the capacity to discern the beautiful from the unattractive or displeasing, and the ability to feel, develop, and display true love. Aesthetics is a concept that has been highly talked about over the years. Many philosophers had an aesthetic philosophy on what they regarded as beautiful that was entirely unique. Plato, as evidenced in his "Symposium", specifically "The Love of Beauty", states that he believes beauty is existent in a realm of ideals beyond our own, and that all things are mere recreations of this ideal. Aristotle took a similar view that was explained well in the packet titled "Truth Resides in The World Around Us". In his mind, ideals were formed when we viewed many forms of something and derived from these viewings the appropriate common characteristics that make up the ideal form of whatever it is we are considering. When we see a person whom we believe is ideal, we fall in love, which is an experience that is uniquely human. In our packet on Egyptian Love Poetry, we see many of the common themes of human loves, and the qualities that make it unique. These authors, clearly veterans of love, make allusions to the power of love, describing physical illness, or making comparisons to powerful or beautiful forces of nature, such as flowers, rivers, or the oceans. One such example would be when an author proclaims
"Not even old crocodile
There on the Sandbank between us
Can keep us Apart."

Ethics is what defines our moral and civilized society. Without ethics and rules, human culture is nothing. We have been assigning ourselves these codes since the beginning of human interaction, attempts to keep order and make life safer for all involved. These codes are often presented in the form of religion. Christianity is an easy example because of its prominence and influence within our own culture. In "The Sermon on the Mount", rule after rule is proclaimed by Jesus, the laws of human kind pouring forth like a river: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy," "Love your enemies and pray for those who prosecute you" and many more. These are condensed and specified in the "The Holiness Code": "Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie to one another." "Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind." These and the other multitude of codes to be found in this text are often perpetuated in religious text. Some people don’t possess an internal moral or ethical code. For example, someone like Merseault of Camus’ “The Stranger” may understand morality and ethics, but take a stance of indifference. Merseault fails to grieve for his mother’s death, lacks the feeling of true love, and kills a man with excessive violence, all without any sort of strong reaction.

My Final Humanities Blog Post

        The evolution of the left brain was a revolutionary change that changed the human experience more than any other event in  human history. As we read in Shlain, the left brain allows us to use logic and rational thought. The left brain makes rational logical thought a reality. It is the source of our ability to suspend emotion in favor of logic, a trait unique to humans, as well as the organ that allows us to communicate effectively in complex forms of language. Spoken language requires the cooperation of both sides of the brain in order to function to its fullest capacity, as we learned in Abrahms’ The Spell of the Sensuous. The left brain interprets the mouth movements in conjunction with the sounds which reach the ear, while the right brain simultaneously translates much more subtle signals that are revealed in the other person’(s) tone, expression, and body language. With the valuable information supplied by the right brain, we can more accurately gauge the reaction to our words and adjust accordingly. This is an intrinsic part of entertaining storytelling. As such, stories lose much of their meaning when they are read or heard without being seen. When stories are read, only the left brain is engaged. There are no non-verbal signals to interpret, only the mechanical nature of written language, depriving us of  more immersive experience. If we are able to hear the story read aloud, as we did with the excerpt from David Sedaris’ work, we may understand the meaning better through the reader’s tone and inflection. However, neither of these can match the immersive, engaging experience of observing an animated storyteller while he or she relates some tale.

        Whether we admit it or not, all humans are intrinsically linked to nature. At some point in every culture’s history, its people express a deep connection to the natural world.  In more “primitive” cultures, such as that of Native Americans, individuals are encouraged to respect nature from birth through their creation myth. In most Native American tribes, the creation myth very often features animals that wield god-like powers, and these animals are often portrayed as the creators of human life. In other stories, the animals enable the humans to survive, such as the story of the heavenly women who fell to Earth. One of the birds brought sediment from the ocean bottom to form land on the back of a giant turtle’s shell to save the women from drowning. However, in many of the “more civilized” cultures of the world, the creation myth suggests, whether explicitly or through implication, that humans are superior to animals. A good example of this is found in some interpretations of Genesis. In this creation story, it states that God created man before all the animals, and gave him dominion over all of nature.

        As a result of these opposing viewpoints, significant differences between the behavior of the cultures are evident. Native Americans show great reverence and respect for every part of the natural world, from the smallest organism to the largest. They base their entire lives around living in harmony with nature. In contrast, many western civilizations show little to no regard for Mother Nature. Environments are destroyed with impunity, and animals are hunted to extinction without a hint of scruple. 

        A culture’s creation beliefs also affect the definition of a sacred space. For example, the Australian Aborigines believe that all land untainted by industry is sacred because during the Dreamtime, their gods walked throughout the land, forming the topography and seeding life. Every topographical feature is the direct result of manipulation by gods, which makes all the earth sacred. In western culture, sacred spaces are most often artificial structures, constructed by mortal hands and often completely unrelated to any direct act by their deity. Practitioners must travel to that one arbitrary location in order to worship fully, which limits the appeal of that sacred space.

    Sacred spaces do not necessarily have to have any religious significance.  In Grizzly Man, Timothy Treadwell flees the civilized world in search of serenity and solitude. He discovers “his” island, as well as the bears that inhabit it. He instantly recognizes this sanctuary to be a sacred  place, free from the harmful influences of man and his machines. His time with the bears gives Timothy a level of clarity that allows him to think about his existence. He realizes that he must protect this sacred space from any who would seek to defile it, and dedicates the remainder of his life to this goal.

    The ability to understand the abstract idea of beauty is another trait found in no other species other than humans. No two individuals or cultures share the exact same definition of beauty. In older cultures, beauty often meant simply whatever features were most useful. For example, Nigel Speevey explains that while the Woman of Willendorf appears to be an incredibly crude interpretation of a woman, each feature was designed for a specific purpose. Desirable traits, such as large hips and large breasts, were emphasized due to the great importance of child-bearing in that era and culture. Her genitalia was also exaggerated to suggest fertility. However, other features, such as arms, lower legs, and facial features were minimized because they had no bearing on a woman’s primary use: reproduction.

    Throughout history, philosophers have expressed a plethora of opinions on beauty itself, as well as its relationship to love. Plato believed that love was nothing more than the desire to possess something beautiful.  Even the love a parent has for his or her child is the desire to possess something beautiful: a kind of immortality through the continuation of one’s bloodline. In the every love poem that we read, such as Song of Songs, there are no more than a few lines without mention of beauty. It is the catalyst for all real love, and holds a great fascination and preoccupation for humans.

    Unfortunately, many individuals use their beauty for darker purposes, as seen in The Picture of Dorian Gray, written by Oscar Wilde. Dorian uses his surpassing to beauty and charm to live a life inundated with  carnal pleasure. Whenever a problem arose, others would forgive him for no other reason other than his unchanging beauty. Dorian even managed to talk his way out of murder, using his looks to his advantage and overwhelming lesser persons. However, despite the ease in which he could bed anyone he chose, Dorian never truly found love, and was driven mad by guilt over his crimes. He does not have the courage to confess his crimes, and when he stabs his portrait in a fit of rage, he inadvertently kills himself. 

    In contrast to Dorian, Meursault, the protagonist of Albert Camus’ L’étranger, makes no attempt to weasel his way  out of iron grip of the law. He does not deny his crimes, and instead of struggling fruitlessly, he uses the many days of his incarceration to reflect on his past, as well as life in general. When his time comes, he is far better prepared to die than Dorian. Meursault accepts his sentence with composure and resigns himself to fate, knowing that the laws which had convicted him were just and fair.

    Although he would have denied this vehemently, his convictions about murder were in agreement with the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were given to Moses to give the Israelites a foundation upon which to base their legal and ethical codes. These values were continued by Christians, and by extension, the laws of our great nation. The commandments are clear, concise, and apply to just about every situation and time period, a fact which led to their adoption into our laws. Even though some commandments were not signed into law, they did become the basis of the ethical code that most people follow currently. Interestingly, there are a great many similarities between the eight-fold path of Buddhism and the commandments. For example, both forbid murder, adultery, and greed. These points are simply written in a different manner in the eight-fold path.

    Humans have and always will struggle to  understand why certain things happen to them. Every culture created its own stories to help explain these phenomena. These stories  often feature unwilling heroes reluctantly  embark upon an adventure that changes them into a completely different person. Interestingly, Joseph Campbell discovered that these stories are ubiquitous across nearly every culture. In addition, each of those myriad stories follows the same general path, which he dubbed “The Hero’s Journey,” or monomyth.  The hero starts in the real world, but is called or sent to somewhere unfamiliar to them. They face challenges, and eventually fall to the lowest level (the Abyss), which may be a mental or physical condition. There they experience a sort of death and rebirth. Eventually, they emerge and are transformed into a different being and return home.

    Every human being undergoes this journey, although they are rarely so  exciting. Instead, they happen subtly, making small changes within our psyches that eventually manifest themselves and cause visible change in behavior and outlook. Without this journey, we would be doomed to make mistakes without the hope of learning a lesson from them.

The Human Existence

An essential part of the human experience is the biological differences between cultures. Everyone has their own, unique genetic make-up, but similar evolutionary traits are often exhibited in separate civilizations. In Leonard Shlain's "The Alphabet Versus the Goddess," he describes the different hemispheres of the brain and their separate functions. He goes on, however, to write that these functions have evolved due to the culture in which they are present. Even though all individuals in a culture have right and left sides of the brain, their brains could have a stronger senses of smell, or a heightened feelings of love. I have heard of a group in Africa that is immune to AIDS. Another cultural phenomenon is the advancement of the written language. As David Abram indicates, groups can develop a written language unique to their own living situation. Glyphs were originally created to copy the images we see in life, and then be copied down for future stories. Stories incorporated written language later in human history, but primarily started as an oral tradition. Cultures from around the world have been known to tell stories, often about the same subjects, but the way in which they tell them are always different. Europeans often told stories that related to Jesus and his ideas with Christian morals. These stories always follow a linear, chronological pattern. The Native Americans, however, told stories that approached the same topics as the Europeans (death, life, ethics, etc.), but used a more cyclical pattern and involved the natural world around them more. The way humans change due to their surroundings is a common theme of humanity.

Our next unit was about Nature and Sacred Spaces. These deal with the human experience because it approaches a very common theme among all people. We assign different amounts of value to places according to our individual beliefs and the values of our culture combined. Our internal beliefs guide us to hold certain places holy, like religious locations, such as the Kaaba and the Chartres Cathedral. These two locations hold great merit for people who believe in those two religions, but would not have as profound an effect on people outside the faith. These need not be solely religious, too. Many sacred spaces are simply places that we, personally, find to be important, even if they aren’t important to others. Timothy Treadwell decided to live in the Alaskan Tundra with grizzly bears because he thought they were the most special creatures on the planet. He considered that his Sacred Space although it did not have the same impact on him as it did others. Nature is a place that can produce profound, Sacred Space-like, emotions, but also can be considered something to be dominated. In The Tempest, by William Shakespeare, Nature is a sacred space to characters like Caliban, but is equally unimportant to people like Sebastian. Nature is simply another Sacred Space that could have an effect on the individual or not.

Love and Beauty are the most common themes. They are ideas that are exhibited cross-culturally. They are humungous parts of literature, stories, and evolution. They are probably the most common theme in all of history. The Venus of Willendorf is a figure that exhibited a focus on beauty in the probable years of 22,000-24,000 B.C.E. Whatever culture she came from thought that a figure like this was beautiful. She has enormous breasts and hips and no head and no arms. She is an example of what that culture found beautiful. About 25,900 years later, Oscar Wilde published The Picture of Dorian Gray. Beauty is described in this book as much less practical as the Venus of Willendorf. It is now thought of in tandem with the possession of money. If a person has money and exhibits in their clothing and appearance, they are considered beautiful. We studied many Philosophers who tried to tackle this monumental figure that is love. Nietzsche believed that you reflect yourself in who you love, while Kant believed in the power of universal beauty. Love and beauty is a prevalent topic in all cultures and thus is a massive part of the human experience.]

Ethics are representative of the human experience because they are most influenced by others. Ethics is an idea that would not exist without social constructs. Many of our ethics, here in the United States, are based off of European values. These values are mainly Judeo-Christian ideas that have been imposed on our culture. We covered such topics as the 10 commandments, the Holiness Code, the Buddhist precepts, and the Sermon on the Mount. These all have similar values but with distinct differences that alter cultures. The Buddhist precepts focus more on the rightousness of the mind, and not the righteousness of the actions. These leas a culture to be more intuitive, irrational, and probably right-brained dominant as many Eastern Civilizations are. The Judeo-Christian values are more action based, and less idea based. That will lead to a civilization filled with logic and actions, probably a more left-brained dominant culture. We read the Stranger by Kamus. His ideas of ethics were a little more vague, as he is an absurdist. He believed in the randomness of the universe and that there was no order to life. His ethics, however, were still indicative of being affected by outside sources. He alludes in his writing that murder and coldness is wrong, and compassion and Judeo-Christian values are right. The piece of art that directly faced many ethical dilemmas was Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors. In the film, he approaches ideas of solidarity vs. submission into a system. He essentially proves that those who follow a system are the successful ones and those who try to verge are usually unsuccessful. This take on ethics heavily influenced by others thoughts and feelings. The unit delves deeply into the topic of human existence.

Finally, we covered the Hero’s Journey. This is the most external idea that will challenge our inner souls. The Hero’s Journey is not an inborn idea. It is something that is imposed on us by figures like Hamlet, from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Moses, and pop icons like Simba. These characters have to go into an abyss, discover something about themselves and return to the world outside them. This idea is most described the most by philosopher Joseph Campbell. He describes the hero’s journey as an idea that is a valuable part of human existence. He shows it as a part of life that is heavily influenced by others, as we use these people as our personal models. The Hero’s Journey is an idea that influences the situations around us and is a valuable part of human existence. 

Final Blog Post

Humanities have an origin that began both in history and even within the human brain. This is what we focused on in the introductory unit: the basic way in which we as individuals and as society view the human condition. Within this realm we looked at the domains of the left and right hemispheres of the human brain, and their differences in function. In Shlain’s The Alphabet vs. the Goddess, he discusses the respective roles of each half of the brain. Essentially, Shlain states that the right brain is concerned with “being” in a special and emotional sense, while the left brain functions linearly in the way that time does. The Spell of the Sensuous, David Abram wrote about the evolution of written language. Written language has its origins in meaningful symbols that have, over the ages, transformed into symbols with no other value than the letter-sound. It was with the Greek aleph-beth that written language moved entirely out of the realm of the right brain (which interprets meaningful symbols), into the left brain where the symbols are simple and meaningless. This transition shows the transition humanity has made from being primarily right brained to almost completely left brained, in the way that Shlain defined the two hemispheres. We followed this evolution in a sort of class experiment. First we read a passage for homework and took notes on our awareness of our surroundings while reading and the degree of how well absorbed we felt while reading the text. Next we listened to an audiotape of a story told by David Sedaris, and took notes in the same way. Lastly, we watched people tell stories in front of the class and observed our reactions to this method. It was clear that reading the story was the most left brained way of absorbing a story, essentially because of the way in which we read: in a linear pattern across the page. In the next two trials, more of our senses were being used, and the experience became more right brained. While listening to the story, we could hear the inflection and emotion of the reader’s voice, which is interpreted by our right brain. In the final stage, the storytellers took up physical space and used both their inflection and body movements to engage in the story.

The following unit focused on the relationship between nature and human beings, and with these two subjects we also looked at sacred space. As part of this unit we watched a portion of the documentary entitled, “How Art Made the World.” In this Spivey talks about ancient art and how it all began. Some of the most basic shapes in art are universal and the documentary explored how these appeared in cave paintings around the world. The movie explains that when in the darkness of the cave, the artist experiences such sensory deprivation that they begin to “hallucinate” and see certain shapes and patterns. This is why we see dots and rectangular patterns in caves all around the world, because they are patterns made by the human mind in the absence of any light. In this unit, we watched another movie called “Grizzly Man”, which follows Timothy Treadwell and his encounters with the grizzly bears that he lives among. After watching this movie we spoke, as a class, about the different views that one may have of nature. There is the view that nature is a caring and good thing and that humans should in tern take care of nature. This is Treadwell’s view. However, the producer of the film, Werner Herzog, has a different idea of nature, and it is apparent in his narration of the film. Herzog believes that nature is a brutal force that is essentially built for destruction and does not have the ability to show mercy. Treadwell believed that he belonged with the bears and not with humans, because they understood him better. He felt that his relationships with the bears were more meaningful than the relationships he had with human beings. In order to further our understanding of he relationship between humans and nature, we next read Of Cannibals by Montaigne. In Of Cannibals, Montaigne talks about the levels of barbarism by comparing cannibals to European high society. Montaigne makes the claim that the Europeans are just as barbaric as the cannibals because, while the cannibals are following their true nature while the Europeans are dressing themselves up in fancy clothing and pretending to be above all of that. While, in reality they are waging wars and killing other humans just as the cannibals do, but they claim to be of a higher kind. Essentially, Montaigne is stating that one is less like a barbarian when he or she follows the tendencies that come naturally.

The most uncomfortable unit, Love and Beauty, followed the unit on nature. In this we discussed the views of humanity on beauty and love through time. We spoke about the Venus of Willendorf, which was created by an ancient nomadic tribe of Europe. This Venus displays very prominent hips, breasts, and stomach, while features such as her face and arms are not at all important. This find gives us insight into the views on beauty of that time. It is obvious that the features that relate to reproduction were emphasized, which shows that a beautiful woman of that time was one who was very well qualified for carrying children. Following a time line, we then read Greek myths about beauty and love. One that I believe stood out to the entire class was The Phallic Priapus. In this story, a man carves a woman’s figure out of marble. She is so life-like that the man calls her his wife and sleeps with her in his bed every night. Aphrodite sees how this man loves the stone and decides to turn her into a real woman. This story gives us a view into the nature of love in these times. He loves the woman, not for her personality, but for the way the smooth marble feels under his had. This speaks to the value of physical beauty in this time. As a class, we also looked at the views that philosophers have on beauty. Two that we looked at were Neitsche and Kant, who have almost apposing views of beauty. Neitsche believed that we reflect something of ourselves onto the world and that is what makes it beautiful. While Kant believed that beauty is a universal thing, and that if one person believes something is beautiful then the whole world must as well.

The next unit focused on the subjects of ethics, law, power, and human frailty. In this unit we talked about religious codes of ethics, specifically the Ten Commandments, The Holiness Code, the Buddhist Precepts, and the Sermon on the Mount. These four texts have differences, but there are some subjects that are universal across culture and religion, such as no murdering, coveting, or stealing. All of these texts provide a code of morals that should be followed by the people in order to live a fulfilling life. In most of these texts a fulfilling life is one that pleases God, but in the Buddhist Precepts it is one without attachment because that is what leads to suffering. The Buddhist Precepts are meant to lead one to a life of further enlightenment, through detachment. The Ten Commandments are a set of rules dictated by God that must be followed in order to have a place in heaven. The Ten Commandments say that one does not covet, kill, steal, commit adultery, say the Lords name in vain, bear false witness against a neighbor, or have idols, and one must remember the Sabbath, honor the parents, have only one God. At the end of this unit we watched the Woody Allen movie, Crimes and Misdemeanors. This movie talks about different views on morals. Ben, a rabbi is the moral example in the movie and believes entirely in a moral system and that all are good. Ben consults his eye doctor in a matter about infidelity, but the man does not listen to Ben and instead takes the advice of his highly immoral brother and kills the woman he has been sleeping with. However, at the end of the movie he no longer has guilt about the murder and feels that he is freed from it. These are two opposing sides of a moral code: one where there exists a natural moral code and those who do not follow it will be punished, and the other that there is no moral code and there are no repercussions.

In the final unit, we discussed the hero’s journey. We read Shakespeare’s Hamlet. According the movie The Power of Myth, an interview with Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers. The hero’s journey is about coming out of an abyss and moving forward. Hamlet’s character models this by coming out of his negative ideas of death, given to him by the restless ghost of his father, and moving past it and accepting his own death. Joseph Campbell’s view of the hero is that there is a set path for heroes, almost like a formula. Moyer believes that through stories, such as stories of the hero, we try to relate our lives to reality and make sense of it all. The example that they used in this movie was Star Wars. This follows the exact path of the hero’s journey. They travel to somewhere far away and overcome the dark side to bring good to the galaxy.

The Human Experience; Truth

In the beginning of the Humanities Honors course we were taught about the left and right hemispheres of the brain, metaphors, symbolism, written and oral language, forms of storytelling, and how different cultures experience time. Throughout this introductory unit, as a class, we used many references to help comprehend the concepts. There were three texts in particular that stood out and related the most to the concepts in this unit; the Genesis, Australia's Aborigines, and  Native American Myths. The Genesis is the story of the creation of the world, every kind of living creature, and lastly the creation of man and woman. This story is a large part of the human experience, it gives us a "truth" of how everything came about on this Earth and how we experience and understand it all. Another text that helped in the comprehension of the world was Australia's Aborigines. The film and the readings explored their relationship with the natural world, the meaning behind their process of making art and the actual art pieces themselves, their traditions, as well as their experience of dream time. The Aborigines dream time experiences teach them the history of creation (time of Genesis). It also explores the connection between humans and the natural world. Native American myths are similar in making connections to the natural world through symbolism. A good example of this would be from a text read during class called "Earthdivers and Creators". The purpose of this myth is to learn how Earth was created and also how humans came to exist on it. These myths show the closer connection to the natural world than humans have today. The introductory unit was very important in the comprehension of the human experience because we learned how various cultures interpret different ways of the creation of Earth and human beings.

The second unit our class explored was all about humans, nature (the natural world), and what humans consider a sacred space to be. A connection was made between these three subjects as well as our knowledge of the greater meaning of this holy connection. In this unit, there was one film in particular that made a unique connection between a human, the natural world (specifically bears and the Alaskan wilderness), and how this Alaskan space was a space this man considered to be sacred; that film was Grizzly Man. Timothy Treadwell, as we learned from this movie, believed that the role of human beings in the natural world is being caretakers for animals. He would travel and camp all over Alaska to care and watch over the bears that inhabited this space. Treadwell's peace of mind and happiness both stemmed from beings in Alaska and being one with the bears native to that space. He considered this part of Alaska his sacred space; a place where he could escape from the modern world, relax and enjoy his life. Although Timothy Treadwell was attacked and killed by a grizzly bear, he raised a lot of awareness to the natural world. The text and play, The Tempest also brings up an interesting awareness to that same connection, although just opposite. A recurring theme in this play is how the human culture is the theory that humans are not one with the natural world, but in fact above it. The idea of nature is a monstrosity because it is unknown and unusual. The definition of "monstrosity" is also a major recurring theme throughout this play; the difficulty the humans have distinguishing men from monsters. The theory that humans are above nature is a complete opposite theory than that of Treadwell's, but in the text, Toward Climax (written by Gary Synder) we see the evolution of this theory. Snyder writes of the decline of human's close connection to nature. Humans slowly started losing that connection when we made our first sounds, then later our first words. Next, written language made the biggest gap between humans and the natural world. This unit really gave us a good glimpse at what humans relationship should be like with the natural world and what it unfortunately looks like today.

Out of all the units, the love and beauty one is by far my favorite. We discussed the role that beauty plays in a person's feeling of love for another. In class we studied quite a number of philosophers that have their own themes of aesthetics, but one in particular stood apart from the rest to me and that philosopher was Kant. Kant has a very interesting and understandable theory about aesthetics. He believes that beauty is a judgment that is based on feeling, and specifically, the feeling of pleasure or displeasure. In his "Critique of Aesthetic Judgment" he discusses topics such as "fine art" or "beautiful art" and "genius". The most distinctive part of Kant's aesthetic theory is his account of pure judgments of beauty; which is his belief that the natural world has aesthetic appeal. This theory was very interesting to me, especially after reading the novel, Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray is a story of a beautiful, innocent, young man's seduction, moral corruption, and eventual downfall. A beautiful portrait was painted of him before meeting Lord Henry. By the end of the novel, Lord Henry has negatively influenced Dorian so much that when Dorian again faces his portrait, he is no longer able to see a beautiful man, but instead an evil and distorted one. Dorian becomes so incredibly distraught that he stabs the portrait and then himself. The movie, The Shape of Things, has a similar story to that of Dorian Gray. Adam, a not so beautiful, innocent man becomes negatively influenced upon meeting Evelyn. She convinces him to change his appearance, from his clothing and hairstyle to his drastic nose surgery. After his aesthetics improvements, Adam's attitude changes from shy to outgoing and not confident to self-absorbed. In the end of the film, Evelyn reveals that Adam was nothing more than a thesis project. After the heartbreaking news, Adam is left alone in the gallery that showcases the bits and pieces of his ruined life. Both Dorian Gray and Adam's beauty becomes their weakness; the weakness that led them both to their life ending or life changing downfall. In relation to the experience of humans, aesthetics should not play such a large role in our society. Almost everything nowadays is a fake beautiful, enhanced either by photo shop or makeup. Natural beauty is what aesthetic beauty should really be judged by.

Throughout the law and ethics unit, our class did a lot of work on universal moral law and social control. Ethics is a system of moral principles and morality is knowing the difference between what is right and what is wrong. Human beings use various references when figuring out their own set of personal morals. They may be influenced from the parents' morals (how the person was raised), religious morals or they may be decided through society's view of what is right or wrong. As a class, we viewed and studied the ten commandments, Sermon on the Mount, and the Eightfold Path. Each of those text examples are religious, but back in the early decades, religious morals was what societies were based off of. The ten commandments are simply; do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness against your neighbor, do not covet your neighbor's property, keep the sabbath, always honor your parents, do not use the lord's name in vain, do not worship other Gods, and lastly do not make any idols. The Eightfold Path is very similar, but goes into further detail than the ten commandments do. The Eightfold Path consists of the concepts; right understanding, right thought, right speech, right actions, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration (single-mindedness). In Buddhism, life means suffering, the origin of suffering is attachment, the cessation of suffering is attainable, and the path to the cessation of suffering. Most of these concepts are the law, such as do not kill, and do not steal. Those concepts as well as the others are principle, depending on if they are within your personal morals. Morals are crucial to the experience of human beings. If humans did not feel remorse or guilt for a wrong doing, nothing would separate us from animals. Human beings distinctive quality is that feeling of emotion, without it we are no different from any other creature on this Earth.

The Answer is 42

The experience of being human is very vague and hard to define. That is why any explanation must start with the very basic of how humans think. In his book, Alphabet of the Goddess, Leonard Shlain explains the different responsibilities and purpose of each hemisphere of the brain. "The right sphere integrates feelings, recognizes images, and appreciates music... synthesizing multiple converging determinants so... the mind can rasp the sense's inputs all at once." The right hemephere is the oldest and first developed. It interprets gesture, expression, intonation, and intuition. It is emotional and has no words. it is undefinable directly so the left hemisphere, in charge of logic , order, and language, must try to convert emotion into words through metaphor. This ability to connect the unconnected on a very basic level is human. From these connections come integrated things like art, music, and language. It is this ability of metaphor that allows cultures to have a voice and create.  God, a brief History says that art is a type of language, the expression of emotion  and the intangible to into other visible left brain-ish type of physical expression. Raven Armstrong, in a Short History of Myth, says myth lets us cope with anxiety, deal with trauma and explain those inexplicable emotions much like art or language. The connection humans make through metaphor is a crucial and basic component to the human experience.

Another basic component to being human is humanities' relationship to nature or more exactly degree of cultural estrangement from the natural world. The National Geographic's Australian Aborigines film shows that unlike western society, they do not feel dominant over nature. Their deities come from nature and their ancestors inhabit the very earth we walk upon. The Human- Nature Relation, however quite clearly puts western views that nature is an alien place of temptation that must be dominated. Genesis 2 even states that Adam named nature, and therefore it belongs to him. The conquering or integrating of nature in society greatly reflects human culture. How Art Made the World talks of different times view of owning, abusing, and controlling nature in the west and demonstrates that our environment has always housed the human experience and therefore has a major role in shaping it.

This next component is a combination of  human emotion and cultural standard, love and beauty. Love,has captivated humanity since the beginning. Plato's symposium claims that love is logical and the desire for the good and a force between god and man. Love desires wisdom, order and the true world of ideals. Love is also a type of immortality. To Ficino, Love comes from god and creates order out of chaos. whatever it is, humanity obsesses over this feeling we call love and a part of the human experience is trying to find and define it. Beauty,  is a different matter, it is both cultural and transcendent of culture. Kant calls it an adjective tat an object possesses, Oscar Wilde sees the destruction false over and outer beauty cause , and Nietzsche says its pleasure.  Humans want to experience the awe that comes from natural beauty and want to feel an overpowering love. The search for both, whether we realize it or not also guides and determines our lives.

Every culture has their own set of Laws and own standard or ethics. It is this universality that renders law and ethics vital to the definition of the human experience. The connection of law and ethics to a deity is also note worthy. Whether it be the Ten Commandments of Judaism or the Buddhist Precepts the rules against killing and harming others is a constant. the question of "do we have a moral obligation to others?" plague every society and at some level every individual. Ayn Rand says we have an obligation to help ourselves first, Mills says that we must think of everyone else. This conflict of morality guides the way humans live life and are also a personal combination of culture, tradition, faith, and personal beliefs. But as ethics and laws guide our life, they are very important.

Finally, the meaning of human experience. the question am ruminating on right now. Myth tells of the hero's journey and the interview The Hero's Journey explains that this mythological plot of descending into the unknown and emerging from the abyss changed pertains to every individual not just Luke Skywalker or Odysseus. This hero's journey is a universal for every human and every person has there own. The myths of the past aid us but as we are alone in this outer or inner journey it's life changing and therefore important to the human experience. Shakespeare's Hamlet also explores one hero's journey of confronting morality. Not a physical journey but an intellectual one. His decent into revenge and the contemplation of life ends in eventual acceptance of death. We all, as people, have our own transformations. Whether it be switching roles from child to adult or something more literal along the lines of  The Epic of Gilgamesh it is something experienced by all and therefore a defining point of existence.  

    

    

What It Means To Be Human

Being human is something unique. We are the only creatures that can express ourselves and think about the world around us. Through human experience we learn how to adapt and to survive, and through that we also express how we did it too. It is these qualities that make us who we are, and what we offer to the rest of the world.

Humans never really skim over things. We always are looking for meaning, and truth. We wouldn't be able to do this without using our minds. Even though the mind is a single thing, it has two parts; the left and the right, which "control" some human qualities. The right side of the brain is the more artistic side, which involves emotions, music, intuition, imagination, and being. The left side is the more intellectual side, and involves, mathematics, writing, linear thinking, analysis, and doing. These two parts are essential in making a human a being like no other. It's not just the brain that makes us human, but how we use it. In the collage excersize, we analyzed photos on the board and had to interpret the people's facial expressions and body language to make a conclusion on what makes human beings have universal expressions. The other activity we did was the symbolic activity, in which everyone had to bring an object that was had meaning to them, and we as a class analyzed the universal meanings to the personal meanings.  It is through symbols and analyzing that humans are able to make connections with the outside world.

Every animal has some sort of "territory," but humans have something else called sacred space. It can be anything, a religious structure, a forest, etc... The sacred space project had just few of the sacred spaces that are known to humans. The one structure that our group did was the Brihadeeswara Temple. The temple was a place for Hindu worship and was definitely a very sacred spot. Some places were inaccessible to non-Hindu worshipers, because it was so sacred. It's not just buildings that are sacred to humans. In the Aborigines movie the Aborigines land was extremely sacred, and full of good and bad "spirits." The culture itself was very religious in everything they did. In the Tempest the island was a sacred spot and a connection of nature to Prospero who guarded the island. Through the whole story Prospero manipulates those who have done him wrong with his magic powers, and in the end he ends up resolving the problems he had and decides to leave the island with them. The connection with sacred spaces and humans is that we hold them dear to us and we have new experiences and feeling when inside a sacred space.    

Humans, unlike many creatures can feel love. Not only that, but we are capable of finding beauty in things that other creatures are unable to see, such as a sunset. It's not just the ability to see art that humans are able to do, but we can also create art. In the Ancient Sculpture bookwork, they showed the evolution of art as times and culture change. It also showed how various places around the world defined beauty, such as women having protruding stomachs and big thighs. In How Art Made the World movie, it showed ow beauty is seen in specific time periods, and what makes humans portray themselves differently. For example, when they talked about the Egyptian and how their art is not realistic at all, they wondered why humans back then were making them this way. They figured out that the Egyptians had a grid-like system that was used in every piece of their art. This showed that they wanted everyone to look exactly the same. In All the Mornings of the World, there is a different type of art, and that is music. Sainte Columbe's playing of the viole was moving, and gave the audience a whole new meaning of art. He would constantly talk about those that just imitate songs, but could never play music. Through all different experiences and emotions, humans are able to create all types of art which makes us like no other being.

It is not just our feeling and experiences that make us human, but what laws and ethics that we have. In nature, there are no laws or ethics that creature abide by, and as humans we do not agree. We all have universal laws and societal laws. In The Stranger the main character had no code of ethics which made him seem like a emotionless "monster." Even when he killed a man he felt no remorse or felt that he didn't do anything wrong. Though the character was not likable by readers, he was symbolic proof that we need ethics and morals. Not only is there laws in society, but in religion as well. In The Ten Commandment, Sermon on the Mount, Holiness Code, and the Eightfold Path there are very similar laws that followers abide and some that are very different. Though three of the passages from the list are from the Bible they all have different laws, and some that are the same as the Eightfold Path, which shows that these laws are universal. There are those who sometimes question ethics and laws, and those are philosophers. For instance, Ayn Rand thought that everyone should look our for themselves and not to care for those around them. If society followed that type of teaching, we wouldn't have many laws or ethics. Humans need laws and ethics to keep balance in our lives and to know from right and wrong.

Humans huge question is where will we go when we die? This is where the inner journey and meaning of human existence comes from. Some people think that no matter what we do we will die and there will be nothing more, but others believe that if we do good deeds and live a pious life we shall seek eternal life. In the hero's journey a person must travel alone to some far away land and into the "abyss" and then come back as a hero. Not only do they gain knowledge of the world, but they contribute to human kind and learn about their true selves. In Hamlet, he would constantly talk about how humans, no matter how great they were always end up being worm food. Though he struggled with this reality he finally accepts this when he is faced with possible death. It is not just myths and legends that the hero's journey occurs, but to every day people who want to face the treacherous journey. We have the hero's journey to not only keep records of myths, but to give us a sort of "guideline" to live our lives as heroes. Not only would this be a noble way of living, but it would make a person feel good about what they have contributed to the existence of humans.

Humanity is a circle

    Being human means many different things depending on the perspective. During the introductory unit we looked at what it means to be human in the context of the purpose of the hemispheres of the brain, writing and oral language, and various forms of storytelling. In the textbook introduction we read about the differences between the sciences and the humanities, as well as how people perceive art. This has to do with the experience of being human, because in order to lead a balanced and well educated life, one must open themselves up to both aspects of the world. We must have the ability to view art, and we also must have the ability to understand sciences. According to Shlain both the right and left hemispheres have designated purposes, and some tasks require usage of both. Cognitive thinking is a key part of being human, in fact that’s what separates humans from other creatures. Some people have stronger right brain tendencies, meaning they are stronger in fields such the arts, and design. Other people have stronger left brain  traits, and those people tend to be stronger in fields such as math and science.  It’s also possible to have balanced strength between the two hemispheres. The differences in strength helps build a diverse population. In class we experienced storytelling in three different formats, audio, visual, and oral. All three types were different experiences for me as a reader. Being able to experience and process various formats of storytelling is a key part of being a human. Storytelling has been a key part of history for thousands of years, more specifically oral storytelling. Without it we may not have the knowledge of native American traditions that we do.  The information we learned in the unit helps us understand the basic concepts that make us human.
    During the nature unit we explored the role that nature and sacred space plays in humanity. In the Calicott reading he discussed the difference between the native American view on nature, as well as the European view on nature. Europeans view nature as something to be possessed, whereas the Native Americans view it as a live being, and something to be protected. Nature is part of the world we live in and part of the human experience is interacting with nature. Depending on the view of the individual that experience with nature could be moving, if the person has a more Native American view, and if the person has a European view on nature than they would probably view their interaction with nature as an opportunity for power. Timothy Treadwell definitely had a Native American view on nature. He believed that the grizzly maze were a part of him, and when faced with death he chose not to kill the bear that was consuming him alive. Part of the human experience is having something you’d be willing to die for, and while Timothy’s something was a little out there he still had a human experience. Werner Herzog had a very opposing view on nature. He believed that nature is something that should be left alone and undisturbed. He believes that animals don’t have souls, and that they are simply carnivorous monsters. Both Timothy and Werner had opposing views on the role of humans within nature, but the thing that they both had in common was that they had a view. They had experienced the world around them in some context.  We all live on the same earth. We all play some role in the world around us, and as humans we have a responsibility to be involved in the natural world in some way or another. Whether it’s the European influenced agriculture, or the Native American influenced belief of conservation, we as humans have an obligation to nature.
    Beauty and love are two things as humans we crave. Some people go to extreme lengths to become beautiful, others are blessed with beauty and seek to preserve it. Throughout history the perception of beauty has changed. In the film How Art Made the World: More Human Than Human, we saw how in art throughout history the way we perceive beauty has changed. During prehistoric times men perceived larger hips, and swollen reproductive organs as beautiful because during that time everyone was starving and largeness symbolized fertility and health. In today’s society the perception of beautiful is very unrealistic, and distorted. Women who are 5’ 10” and weigh 110 pounds are considered the embodiment of beauty. Everyone is different and we can’t expect everyone to meet the standard upheld by women on the cover of Vogue. As humans we all have insecurities about our bodies, but we should be teaching women to embrace those insecurities instead of going to drastic measures to alter them.  In The Shape of Things, Adam’s exterior was manipulated by Evelyn. She used a man’s greatest biological weakness, sex, to get him to do things he never would have done otherwise. She lead him to believe that he would be more sexually attractive to him if he lost weight, got a nose job, and changed his sense of style. We are all guilty of changing some part of ourselves for another person at some point in our lives. Sometimes that change can be for the better, if and only if the person making the change consents to it. If the change is something that’s forced or if the person doesn’t feel it’s necessary than that is wrong. There are so many people out there that if someone is leading you to believe that they won’t love you unless you lose 20 pounds they aren’t worth it. Love is something that is amazing to experience. If the pull of love is strong enough it has the power to transform even the strongest man into a lovesick puppy. It also has the power to break people.  In the Egyptian love poem Pleasant Songs of the Sweetheart Who Meets You in the Fields the writer describes herself as being blinded by the love she feels for her love, but then he leaves and she is nothing without him. She lays waiting for him years after he left. As humans it is crucial for us to have some sort of love in our life. It’s an instinct rooted deep within our nature. We are aware of the pain that love can bring however, but the instinct to love is so powerful that we ignore it. The perception of beauty has changed throughout history, but love is one emotion that has remained a constant part of human existence.
    There are laws established by society that we must obey in order to maintain a productive society. We have unwritten ethical codes to maintain a morally right society. Various religions have their own ethical codes in order to maintain a good standing with god. The Ten Commandments are probably the most well known religious rules. They have long been the moral compass for both religious and nonreligious people alike. It is common knowledge not to cheat on one’s spouse, as well as not to steal. Some people disregard the moral rules, and ethics that are understood in our society, but most people unconsciously obey them, because it’s simply how it’s done. However are we obligated to follow those rules? Some people don’t think so. In The Stranger Mersault kills a man with little to no remorse. Does that make him immoral ? In the eyes of god yes. As humans we must make decisions on a daily basis regarding our morals. Part of being human is living with the consequences of the choices we make. In Buddhism, there are laws similar to the ten commandments that one must follow in order to achieve enlightenment. The laws are very strict, but for a purpose. Enlightenment is the highest honor one can achieve and must be made difficult to ensure only the most morally right people can achieve the most prestigious religious honor. Not everyone will get there, because not everyone is morally sound, just like in our society how not everyone will graduate Summa Cum Laude, and not everyone will be president. The highest honors people can achieve come to those who work the hardest. Life is not black and white, right and wrong, there are lots of gray areas, it’s a matter of making the choices that are best for you and the life you want to lead.
    The Inner Journey and the Meaning of human existence is a unit that everyone in this class can relate to on some level. In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Hamlet experienced a hero’s journey. He avenged his father’s death, by killing his manipulative and murderous uncle. A key part to his journey was that he experienced it on his own. He alone killed his uncle and lost his own live in the process. Not everyone is going to be a hero like Hamlet or Luke Skywalker in Starwars, but that doesn’t make our existence any less important. We all need to strive for happiness within our own life. In the film The Hero’s Journey Bill Moyer interviews Joseph Campbell a famous Mythologist, and Bill Moyer discusses how we need to be able to understand and cope with death. Some people may view that as morbid, but I don’t believe that is meant to be that way. No one is immortal. At some point we are going to be faced with our mortality, and I believe that by understanding that death is imminent, we will be able to live much fuller lives. We should all ask ourselves what we want to see when we look back on our lives 50 years from now. Being human isn’t easy, and not everyone is going to be a hero, but that does not mean life is a waste. The best thing we can do as humans is live our lives and try to experience as much as we can.

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When starting Humanities, the first question we were faced with was: “What made humans human?” One theory was communication. It could have started with language, oral then written. Communication between humans is due to the human brain. Shlain examined the two hemispheres of the brain. The right brain is instinctual, which is the more like an animal. While in the left hemisphere seems more developed by helping us speak and think linearly. The progression of human brain development allowed storytelling and creative thought to become expressed. Storytelling has been the oldest past times of humans.

The nature and sacred space unit examined the human relationship nature. In the film Grizzly Man, the main character, Timothy Treadwell, found peace in Alaska among the grizzly bears. He had a deep connection to the land and animals. The documentary Australia’s Aborigines, the oldest native tribe of Australia was dying out. They worshiped the land and animals. The last play of Shakespeare The Tempest, took place on a dessert island. Prospero, a former king and his daughter lived there.

Love and Beauty is essential to the human experience. Beauty gives humans both subjective and objective opinions on what to call beautiful. In the novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian is obsessed with his beauty and the desire to keep it forever. Dorian was influenced to have a disregard of morals by Lord Henry. Dorian became morally corrupt and succumbed to it. Similar to the possession and beauty aspect to the Picture Dorian Gray, The film The Shape of Things takes place in college. The main character Adam was fat and unattractive until a young woman came along and persuaded him to change ever aspect of his life. While those two references concern on physical beauty, the film All the Mornings of the World shows a father and his two daughters entranced by the beauty of music.

Law and Ethics involve what you should do and what you have to follow. Genesis is the first story of the Bible, it tells how the earth was made and the first humans to exist, how Christians believe it. Adam and Eve were the first male and female. They became aware of what was right and wrong when they took a bite of the forbidden fruit of knowledge. God gave humans the knowledge of write and wrong. Further in the Bible comes The Sermon on the Mount. This story tells of Moses receiving the 10 Commandments from God. God gave the knowledge to Adam and Eve, but he gave the formal written commandments to Moses and the world. Ethics are to be followed honorably and the Law is follows and is punishable by disobeying. The Stranger, a novel, had a main character who lacked empathy for life’s tragedies. Meursault felt no remorse for his actions, which lead to him murdering and end up at the gallows.

An inner journey is experienced through the individual. Joseph Campbell, a modern day philosopher was interviewed on his belief of the “Hero’s Journey” He relayed the steps of the Hero’s Journey. Hamlet, an angsty thirty year old, goes slightly made when he discovers his father was poisoned by his uncle who marries his mother. Hamlet eventually avenges his father’s death. Hamlet’s inner journey allowed him to be titled heroic. In the 1990’s pop culture a movies main character Ace Ventura faces many obstacles, which result in hero status. He saves animals all over the world and takes down those who are cruel to animals.

The Final Experience

Introductory Unit

Different humans experience life and its mysteries in a vast variety of manners due to biological and sociological influences. Leonard Shlain wrote of the left versus right brain, and how the analytical left brain of men, dominant in Western cultures, distances humans from emotions, intuition, and nature while promoting science, intellect, and action. Human experience is shaped by which side of the brain is dominant, whether one's intuitive right brain or rational left brain controls his or her view of the world. Not only is human experience influenced by the biological, but the sociological as well. In The Spell of the Sensuous, David Abrams speaks of the human experience as viewed through linear time and cyclical time. In linear time, people are individuals, little dots that need to make their mark in order to be remembered. Events are distinct, and are never to be repeated. In cyclical time, events repeat themselves over and over again, with only small details changing each time. There is far less pressure to 'make your mark' and space and time are often seen as inseparable, with no concept of 'time' and 'space' as elements on their own. Another sociological influence on the human experience is one's culture's creation myths. If, in the case of the first chapter of Genesis, Man is created at the same time as Animal, it sets up a preliminary equality and leads to a more positive and cautious relationship with the natural world. However, when Man is created before Animal, as in the second chapter of Genesis, it provides humans with an excuse to claim superiority, to treat the natural world as a possession, and say it was created for humans to use. This view leads to a dissociation from nature, and with nature, the animalistic and primal aspects of 'human nature.' A person with this relationship will value traits of the left-brain and linear time far more, as he is made to be above nature, should make his mark, and needs the cold, rational ways of the left-brain to do so. A person with a concept of being equal, or even inferior, to nature will value right-brain and aspects of cyclical time more, as he or she tends toward a more spiritual, emotional relationship with the world around him or her.

Humans, Nature, and Sacred Space

As stated in the previous paragraph, the relationship with nature profoundly influences the experience of a human being. In a codependent relationship, as with the Australian Aborigines, nature is to be respected, feared, and loved, and the co-dependance forces an intimate relationship in which humans are forced to care for the natural world about them, as it is an enormous part of everyday life. When this co-dependance with non-domesticated terrain is gone, as with most Western civilizations where food is largely provided for by large-scale farms and slaughterhouses, the natural world is far less important in the average day. This means science and progress are worshiped rather than 'Dreamtime' and the animals and landscapes of the natural world. Humans become independent of nature, and so revel in themselves. This is further exemplified in Shakespeare's The Tempest, where Caliban, the island-born son familiar with the land has a far different outlook from Prospero, the scholarly, former-Duke of Milan. Caliban is used to the island providing for him, and requiring the island to live. he respects the powers of the island, and is willing to believe in a new god with just a few sips of wine. Prospero, however, has had others worry about whee his food comes from, has always had shelter, and had the free time and education to become a scholar and scientist, and even magician, rather than being forced to interact with nature directly. Prospero uses the island, Caliban, and the sprite Ariel as tools and slaves, forcing the natural world to bend to his will rather than be ruled by natural forces. In Montaigne's essay Of Cannibals, he discusses the difference between the Western cultures and the native peoples they have encountered with expansion and exploration. He challenges the ethnocentric Western belief of superiority, and states that the natives are fascinating because they are closer to nature and to the way God created them than any Western society. He asks if the violence and seemed barbaric acts of the native peoples are truly any worse than what Western armies and individuals have done in the past. He mentions the oddities natives found in Western society, such as choosing an inexperienced man as king, rather than someone his elder who would have a better idea of politics and the way in which the world works. Clearly the difference in the way in which a human interacts with nature drastically affects his or her life, and they way he or she interacts with all things.

Love and Beauty

In Plato's Symposium, he states through a conversation between Socrates and Diotima: '"When a man loves the beautiful, what does he desire?" "That the beautiful may be his."' Love is an act of coveting, of wanting to possess that which attracts a person's interest. Who, or what, a person loves will deeply impact his or her experience, such as with Dante who wrote about the unattainable Beatrice for his entire life, or Tristan and Isolde whose tragic courtly romance lasts through marriage and separation, right up to Tristan's death. Beauty and love inspire humans to go beyond the ordinary to achieve what they would not have done otherwise, or to commit acts they never would have considered before they fell victim to their passions. A man can be driven to murder in a jealous rage, or he can be convinced to change his ways and become better for his love. He might write beautiful sonnets, as did Shakespeare, or write a play based on the betrayal of a loved one. The way in which one seeks out love also has a drastic impact on one's life. The experience of love, or lust, is extremely different between a one night stand and a long-term monogamous relationship. A person who goes through countless relationships has a more shallow connection with others when compared to someone who takes time to form a lasting bond with the people around him or her. In the Art of Courtly Love, Andreas Capellanus goes so far as to say that men who spend time with too many women are undeserving of love. Others are also more unlikely to wish to form friendships and relationships with those with a fickle disposition. Depending on how one treats love, and in turn the others affected by his or her love, he or she will be treated differently by the people around them. In The Shape of Things, Adam first loves Evelyn, but his friends dislike her because they can see the way he is being used and changed to her liking. When he discovers that, for Evelyn, he was a graduate thesis project, his love turns to hatred and the scorn others felt for her is now his as well. Love drives people to extreme emotions and acts done in a passionate frenzy that is not entirely under rational control, and yet can shape the course of a life.

Law and Ethics

All civilizations are guided by certain rules, taboos, and morals which create distinct differences in the human experience. In Western civilizations, the Old Testament is the dominant force, and we follow the Ten Commandments and Holiness Code, not necessarily because of religion, but because it is what we are taught is right. 'Thou shalt not kill,' and 'thou shalt not steal' are found in nearly every culture, but others, such as Sunday being a day of rest, are distinctly Western. Where one culture says a thirty year old man marrying a fourteen year old girl is perfectly acceptable, even the norm, another says it is repulsive and wrong. The morals we are taught and the laws we follow create a distinct human experience for every individual. In Crimes and Misdemeanors Judah feels little regret for the death of Delores, where another person might be so driven with guilt that he or she could not live with themselves. In the same movie, there is a conversation at a family dinner about the existence of God and how that affects morality. Aunt May insists that there is no God and no morality, that we do only what we feel, while others at the table take stances ranging from the extremely religious to the moderate, to agreeing with May. Aquinas would disagree, saying that goodness promotes God and his will, while evil does not and is based in lust and a self-serving attitude. The way situations appear to each of these people would seem extremely different, and the decision each of them would make, and consider to be 'good,' could be extremely different because of these views. Where Aunt May might not feel an obligation to help a stranger, the Holiness Code states that helping those less fortunate is a requirement for moral behavior. John Stuart Mill would act in the way that would best help the largest number of people, Aquinas would do as God bids, and Nietzsche would do what his emotions tell him is most pleasurable. These acts might all be different, but none of the men would feel guilt over his actions, yet might condemn the actions of another man. Since we, generally, act based on what we feel is right or wrong, ethics shape our reactions, our decisions, and our actions.

The Inner Journey and the Meaning of Human Existence

Life is often called a journey, and the transitions between birth and death are numerous and rely heavily on one's inner self. In The Hero's Journey, Joseph Campbell speaks of life as an adventure, one complete with a monster, abyss, and return. He says that all people undergo some adventure where they must fight their personal demons, be it physical, mental, or otherwise, and must alone travel into a place of confusion and darkness within which they will discover something about themselves and come out of it a better person. Finally, there is the triumphant return of the hero who brings back some contribution to society. What this means for the human experience is that a person ought to find his or her personal adventure, confront their problem and return with some benefit to others. It gives human existence meaning in bettering oneself as well as helping others. Hamlet has a similar take on this meaning, giving the message that one should contemplate life intellectually, as Hamlet does, but not to the extent that the physical world has no meaning. Hamlet's contemplations are interrupted by the murder of his father, and revenge on Claudius takes over. Even as Hamlet ponders philosophy and the meaning of human life when all people turn to dust and food for worms, he grows to accept his fate and is at peace when he is killed after avenging his father. He has bettered himself as well as found justice for the murdered King. Each person ought to complete an inner journey that ends in progress in their intellect, as well as progress in their actions to improve the world around him or her.