Self-Actualization

[coberst]

Self Actualization

Abraham Maslow defined a hierarchy of needs to be:

1) Biological and Physiological (water, food, shelter, air, sex, etc.)

2) Safety (security, law and order, stability, etc.)

3) Belonging and love (family, affection, community, etc.)

4) Esteem (self-esteem, independence, prestige, achievement, etc.)

5) Self-Actualization (self-fulfillment, personal growth, realizing personal potential, etc.)

This hierarchy makes us conscious of the obvious fact that we did not fret about the absence of self-esteem if we did not already have security nor did we worry about security if we did not have water to drink or air to breath.

“Maslow says there are two processes necessary for self-actualization: self exploration and action. The deeper the self exploration, the closer one comes to self-actualization.”

"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This is the need we may call self-actualization ... It refers to man's desire for fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become actually in what he is potentially: to become everything that one is capable of becoming ..."

I think that the area in which Western society fails most egregiously is in the matter of an intellectual life after schooling. We have a marvelous brain that goes into the attic after schooling is complete and is brought out only occasionally on the job or when we try to play bridge or chess.

It appears to me that the fundamental problem faced by most Western democracies is a lack of intellectual sophistication of the total population. Our colleges and universities have prepared young people to become good producers and consumers. The college graduate has a large specialized database that allows that individual to quickly enter the corporate world as a useful cog in the machine. The results display themselves in our thriving high standard of living, high technology corporate driven life styles.

We are excellent at instrumental rationality and deficient at developing the rationality and understanding required for determining normative values. It seems to me that our societies are not prepared intellectually for the demanding task ahead. The only solution seems to be a change that will significantly increase the intellectual sophistication of the society as a whole. We need a rising tide of intellectual sophistication and Self-Actualization might be the way for our adults to add an intellectual life to their acquisitions.

To get an idea about S-A you might examine http://www.performance-unlimited.com/samain.htm You can do a Google and find other sites that you might find more interesting.

[Accountable]

I like Maslow. His pyramid is a cool way to generalize life's priorities. We use his teachings as part of leadership development.



Most people get stuck at the Esteem or Belonging level, constantly looking for that elusive love or fighting that battle of self-esteem - asking that question "Do I really matter in this world?" It is extremely rare that anyone reaches the SA level. We may occassionally glimpse it, but that's it.



Not to mention that the more basic needs are never fully satisfied. We always become hungry again. Rent or mortgages come due. Terrorism or the neighbor's drug dealing threatens our safety. We have to continuously shore up our base as we strive to ascend our pyramid.



It's a fine goal to increase the value of intellectual pursuits. Now we have to link it to Esteem goals, and from that to Belonging goals, for without a clear path to the goal, it will remain only a mount on the horizon.

[coberst]

Accountable

I think that CT offers a "clear path to the goal."

I once asked a philosophy professor “What is philosophy about?” He said philosophy is “radically critical self-consciousness”. This was 35 years ago. Only in the last five years have I begun to understand that statement

I took a number of courses in philosophy three decades ago but it was not until I began to study and understand Critical Thinking that I began to understand what “radically critical self-consciousness” meant.

I consider CT to be ‘philosophy light’. CT differs from other subject matter such as mathematics and geography in that it requires, for success, that the student develop a significant change in attitude.

Anyone who has been in military service recognizes the significant attitude adjustment introduced into all recruits in the eight weeks of boot camp. During the first eight weeks of military service each recruit is introduced to the proper military attitude. During the eight weeks of basic training there is certain knowledge and skills that the recruit learns but primarily s/he undergoes a significant attitude adjustment.

I would identify the CT attitude adjustment to be a movement from naïve common sense realism to critical self-consciousness. It is necessary to free many words and concepts from the limited meaning attached by normal usage”such a separation requires that the learner hold in abeyance the normal sort of concept associations.

The individual who has made the attitude adjustment recognizes that reality is multilayered and that one can only penetrate those layers through a critical attitude toward both the self and the world. To be critical does not mean to be negative, as is a common misunderstanding.

If we were to follow the cat and the turtle as they make their way through the forest we would observe two fundamentally different ways that a creature might make its way through life.

The turtle withdraws into its shell when it bumps into something new, and remains such until that something new disappears or remains long enough to become familiar to the turtle. The cat is conscious of almost everything within the range of its senses, and studies all it perceives until its curiosity is satisfied.

Formal education teaches by telling so that the graduate is prepared with a sufficient database to get a job. Such an education efficiently prepares one to make a living, but this efficiency is at the cost of curiosity and imagination. Such an education does not prepare an individual to become critically self-conscious.

If we wish to emulate the cat rather than the turtle we must revitalize our curiosity and imagination after formal education. That revitalized curiosity and imagination, together with self directed study prepares each of us for a fulfilling life that includes the ecstasy of understanding.

I think that radically critical self-consciousness combines the attitude adjustment of CT and combines it with the curiosity of the cat and then takes that combination to a radical level.

A good place to begin CT is: http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Educ/EducHare.htm

[Accountable]

Ah, but don't forget the heirarchy of needs. The cat explores nothing new unless it feels safe. A sudden unfamilar noise will send it scampering away.



Also, to abuse the analogy some more :p , people fill the entire spectrum from turtle to cat. Do you see everyone able to benefit from CT, or are you setting out a saucer of milk to find out how many cats are in this Garden?

[coberst]

Accountable

Do you see everyone able to benefit from CT, or are you setting out a saucer of milk to find out how many cats are in this Garden?

I think that everyone would benifit from CT but I can only hope for one in a thousand might become a September Scholar.



I am a retired engineer with a good bit of formal education and twenty five years of self-learning. I began the self-learning experience while in my mid-forties. I had no goal in mind; I was just following my intellectual curiosity in whatever direction it led me. This hobby, self-learning, has become very important to me. I have bounced around from one hobby to another but have always been enticed back by the excitement I have discovered in this learning process. Carl Sagan is quoted as having written; “Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.”

I label myself as a September Scholar because I began the process at mid-life and because my quest is disinterested knowledge.



If interested you can read the rest on www.septemberscholar.com

[Accountable]

coberst wrote: Accountable



Do you see everyone able to benefit from CT, or are you setting out a saucer of milk to find out how many cats are in this Garden?



I think that everyone would benifit from CT but I can only hope for one in a thousand might become a September Scholar.





I am a retired engineer with a good bit of formal education and twenty five years of self-learning. I began the self-learning experience while in my mid-forties. I had no goal in mind; I was just following my intellectual curiosity in whatever direction it led me. This hobby, self-learning, has become very important to me. I have bounced around from one hobby to another but have always been enticed back by the excitement I have discovered in this learning process. Carl Sagan is quoted as having written; “Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.”



I label myself as a September Scholar because I began the process at mid-life and because my quest is disinterested knowledge.





If interested you can read the rest on www.septemberscholar.com
I applaud you for that and encourage you in your quest. Right now, my safety/security needs are paramount, and my esteem is taking quite a beating as well. While I am intrigued, I'll have to join you later.

[Lon]

I was first introduced to Mazlow and Self Actualization in the late 60's while attending a management conference in Chicago. His book was required reading prior to the conference, along with "I'm OK You're OK".

Most of my adult working life was spent in Marketing, and Mazlow had the most profound effect in determining HOW TO MARKET AND TO WHOM.

As for CT---------I must plead guilty to distraction and not focusing. Like right now as I am typing, I am really thinking more about getting to the golf course for a tee time in the next 40 minutes.