The Human Abstract

One way of relating to ourselves is as an abstraction of a fundamental condition. One that has presented itself due to a set of conditions that allow due the laws of physics our existence. This does no pertain to understanding physics as an icon but rather an effort to relate at that level to what we can comprehend of ourselves.

Humanity is an exception to the rule of what happens to organic molecules.

Pity would be no more,
If we did not make somebody Poor:
And Mercy no more could be,
If all were as happy as we;

And mutual fear brings peace;
Till the selfish loves increase.
Then Cruelty knits a snare,
And spreads his baits with care.

He sits down with holy fears,
And waters the ground with tears:
Then Humility takes its root
Underneath his foot.

Soon spreads the dismal shade
Of Mystery over his head;
And the Caterpillar and Fly,
Feed on the Mystery.

And it bears the fruit of Deceit,
Ruddy and sweet to eat;
And the Raven his nest has made
In its thickest shade.

The Gods of the earth and sea
Sought thro' Nature to find this Tree
But their search was all in vain:
There grows one in the Human Brain

en.wikipedia.org...


Mankind is an expression of what is possible within a frame or referent and despite in potential its rarity.

The Human Abstract" keeps to an AABB couplet rhyme scheme throughout, invoking the childhood rhyming of Innocence. The first two stanzas are didactic, offering simple lessons in the unfortunate roots of human virtue. The third stanza begins a narrative starring "He" (a sort of Everyman), whose first act is to sit down and cry. The fourth stanza breaks the strict AABB rhyme pattern, with "shade" and "head" only barely rhyming while "Fly" and "Mystery" only rhyme if read similarly to "eye" and "Symmetry" from "The Tyger." This discord focuses the reader on the "Mystery," which is the only capitalized noun to be repeated in the poem, here even in the same stanza. This Mystery probably referrs to the "mystery religion" aspect of Christianity and in particular to the problem of suffering, and it hangs over the head of the crying man, but is itself devoured by the caterpillar and fly, which are agents of decay and death in Blake's poetry. The fifth stanza returns to the AABB rhyme scheme to finish the narrative, then the sixth stanza ends with a moralizing couplet: the search for the "Tree" of knowledge is found within the human mind.

An unnamed “he” grows humility only by watering the ground with tears borne of “holy fears.” This tree is the Mystery of Religion, and it grows quite tall and strong until “the Caterpillar and the Fly” eat at it. These two destroyers represent the clergy, a class often the subject of Blake’s criticism and scorn for their abuse of religious authority to their own selfish benefit and the harm of others. Once infested, the Mystery Tree bears fruit “of Deceit” and becomes the dwelling place of the raven, a harbinger of death. Blake claims that “The Gods of the earth and sea” sought to find this tree, or create religious experience through nature, but their efforts were in vain: this tree grows “in the human brain.”

As Bloom notes, the final two stanzas rely upon imagery found in Norse mythology. Odin hanged himself upon the world-tree Yggdrasil in order to gain knowledge of the runes. The fruit of Deceit is therefore not only an allusion to the tempting fruit in the Garden of Eden, but also the runes as a means of discerning the mystery of nature. The "Raven" is not only a death-related image, but also a symbol of Odin. The final stanza includes the gods' search throughout Nature to find "this Tree," a reference to the Norse gods' search for the mistletoe that killed one of their own, Balder. Their search, however, is in vain, since the murderous element is not part of Nature, but is inherent in the human mind.

www.gradesaver.com...

The central concern in All Religions are One is the notion of the "Poetic Genius", which is roughly analogous to the imagination. Blake argues that the Poetic Genius is greater than all else and "is the true man." The Poetic Genius thus replaces traditional concepts of divinity insofar as "The body or outward form of Man is derived from the Poetic Genius [...] the forms of all things are derived from their Genius. which by the Ancients was called an Angel & Spirit & Demon." Thus, the Poetic Genius supplants theological belief. This Poetic Genius is universal, common to all Mankind; "as all men are alike in outward form [...] all men are alike in the Poetic Genius." Similarly, all philosophies are derived from the Poetic Genius; "all sects of Philosophies are from the Poetic Genius adapted to the weaknesses of every individual", and so too are all religions, which are merely expressions of the Poetic Genius; "the Religions of all Nations are derived from each Nations different reception of the Poetic Genius which is everywhere called the Spirit of Prophecy," again emphasizing the theological character of the Poetic Genius. Even the Bible originates with the Poetic Genius; "The Jewish & Christian Testaments are An original derivation from the Poetic Genius." Thus, as all Men are alike in their Poetic Genius, and as all religions originate with the Poetic Genius, so too must all religions be alike, thus all religions are one.

en.wikipedia.org...

You sound like a Gnostic...

a reply to: madmac5150

ab·strac·tion
[abˈstrakSH(ə)n]

NOUN
the quality of dealing with ideas rather than events:

"topics will vary in degrees of abstraction"

freedom from representational qualities in art:

"geometric abstraction has been a mainstay in her work"

a state of preoccupation:

"she sensed his momentary abstraction"

synonyms: absentmindedness · distraction · preoccupation · dreaminess ·

 

the process of considering something independently of its associations, attributes, or concrete accompaniments:

"duty is no longer determined in abstraction from the consequences"

I am a Nagual.

Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process by which general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or "concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" is the product of this process — a concept that acts as a super-categorical noun for all subordinate concepts, and connects any related concepts as a group, field, or category.[1]
Conceptual abstractions may be formed by filtering the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon, selecting only the aspects which are relevant for a particular purpose. For example, abstracting a leather soccer ball to the more general idea of a ball selects only the information on general ball attributes and behavior, eliminating the other characteristics of that particular ball.[1] In a type–token distinction, a type (e.g., a 'ball') is more abstract than its tokens (e.g., 'that leather soccer ball').

Abstraction in its secondary use is a material process,[2] discussed in the themes below

en.wikipedia.org...

To hypothesize; we are an expression of survival that could be no different than offering our expression as not dissimilar, to the reaction to plants at sunrise.

My wife and I had a discussion earlier... FAITH is a personal thing. RELIGION is a social construct.

I didn't mean to belittle your faith, nor would I ever.

Humans and all other life in the universe are living expressions of the universal whole. God can do anything he wants and he does exactly that through us.

We are the microcosm of the macrocosm and vice versa, we are the way in which the universe experiences itself and does everything there is to do for eternity. It would be awfully boring if you knew everything and had experienced everything so God who is limitless functions in a limited or finite way through us and our short lives and experiences in order to be able to feel wonder and excitement and every other good feeling that comes with life.

S&F

The most elegant expression of "life"... absolutely brilliant, my friend....

I am Gnostic, and I recognized the beauty of your words. My wife is Baptist, and that post actually made her cry...

a reply to: madmac5150


No problema

Social constructs are derived from nature and are reflected in nature in earnest.



Faith = "its a jungle out their".

Religion = How to deal with it.

In philosophy an issue is the relevance of the human condition to reality and in relation to our environment.

One response is that we are holistically an abstraction of a consistency that in and of itself presents a set of behaviors.

These behaviors cannot in analysis be separated from it origins in some absolute way as in reality it is a source for how we process information.

originally posted by: Kashai
a reply to: madmac5150


No problema

Social constructs are derived from nature and are reflected in nature in earnest.



Faith = "its a jungle out their".

Religion = How to deal with it.

In philosophy an issue is the relevance of the human condition to reality and in relation to our environment.

One response is that we are holistically an abstraction of a consistency that in and of itself presents a set of behaviors.

These behaviors cannot in analysis be separated from it origins in some absolute way as in reality it is a source for how we process information.

They say that there are no Atheists in foxholes.... very true.

I have met men of "faith", and "religious men"... I would rather follow the man of faith..... religion has been a scourge on society.

a reply to: madmac5150


Same link...

In social theory[edit]

In social theory, abstraction is used as both an ideational and material process. Alfred Sohn-Rethel, asked "Can there be abstraction other than by thought?"[2] He used the example of commodity abstraction to show that abstraction occurs in practice as people create systems of abstract exchange that extend beyond the immediate physicality of the object and yet have real and immediate consequences. This work was extended through the 'Constitutive Abstraction' approach of writers associated with the Journal Arena. Two books that have taken this theme of the abstraction of social relations as an organizing process in human history are Nation Formation: Towards a Theory of Abstract Community.(1996) and the second volume of Towards a Theory of Abstract Community, published in 2006: Globalism, Nationalism, Tribalism: Bringing Theory Back In—Volume 2 of Towards a Theory of Abstract Community. These books argue that the nation is an abstract community bringing together strangers who will never meet as such; thus constituting materially real and substantial, but abstracted and mediated relations. The books suggest that contemporary processes of globalization and mediatization have contributed to materially abstracting relations between people, with major consequences for how we live our lives.

It can be easily argued that abstraction is an elementary methodological tool in several disciplines of social science. These disciplines have definite and different man concepts that highlight those aspects of man and his behaviour by idealization that are relevant for the given human science. For example, homo sociologicus is the man as sociology abstracts and idealizes it, depicting man as a social being. Moreover, we could talk about homo cyber sapiens[19] (the man who can extend his biologically determined intelligence thanks to new technologies), or homo creativus[20] (who is simply creative).

Abstraction (combined with Weberian idealization) plays a crucial role in economics. Breaking away from directly experienced reality was a common trend in 19th century sciences (especially physics), and this was the effort which was fundamentally determined the way economics tried and still tries to approach the economic aspects of social life. It is abstraction we meet in the case of both Newton’s physics and the neoclassical theory, since the goal was to grasp the unchangeable and timeless essence of phenomena. For example, Newton created the concept of the material point by following the abstraction method so that he abstracted from the dimension and shape of any perceptible object, preserving only inertial and translational motion. Material point is the ultimate and common feature of all bodies. Neoclassical economists created the indefinitely abstract notion of homo economicus by following the same procedure. Economists abstract from all individual and personal qualities in order to get to those characteristics that embody the essence of economic activity. Eventually, it is the substance of the economic man that they try to grasp. Any characteristic beyond it only disturbs the functioning of this essential core.[21]

A distortion within a consistency is an abstraction.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1


But could that be interpreted as a expression of a limitation upon God?

Gods love is unconditional (as commonly expressed) so what about individuality as an condition?

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
Humans and all other life in the universe are living expressions of the universal whole. God can do anything he wants and he does exactly that through us.

We are the microcosm of the macrocosm and vice versa, we are the way in which the universe experiences itself and does everything there is to do for eternity. It would be awfully boring if you knew everything and had experienced everything so God who is limitless functions in a limited or finite way through us and our short lives and experiences in order to be able to feel wonder and excitement and every other good feeling that comes with life.

S&F

you seem to be correct bliss to you

a reply to: Kashai

Possibly but the fact still remains life is eternal which means our limited lifetimes have no effect on the eternal nature of life when looking at the bigger picture and in that way God is limitless.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

What I feel allows for transcendence is an inherent relationship between a life form and its spiritual nature. life after death is life so there is no death as we commonly understand it. We just change and as to what that relates to God as love. Fundamentally emotions as objective experiences that present as such in relation to reality as a kind of realm.

We are limited in relation to observing this objective part of reality where what we commonly accept as objective is their what is subjective. But then again there is this middle ground which I consider as related to the present or the moment which, is infinite and allows access to ourselves spiritually.

To be truly infinite one need also be finite so as to encompass all creation and that God presents as a burning bush to Moses and a Man in the form of Jesus offers to me that the above seems relevant in discussion.


A bush that seems to be burning but does not die and a Man who is killed that returned from the dead.

Thank you.

originally posted by: Kashai


We are limited in relation to observing this objective part of reality where what we commonly accept as objective is their what is subjective. But then again there is this middle ground which I consider as related to the present or the moment which, is infinite and allows access to ourselves spiritually.

Right now everything is appearing as one seamless happening.... that includes the body, the mind (thoughts) and the world........
In deep sleep there is nothing.... and then everything appears as one on waking.
Thought may say that you are a human..... but really you are nothing appearing as everything.