Preface
This is an updated re-working of my honors thesis in psychology, written in 1978. I have been in conflict for a while as to how closely I should stick to the original essay vs. radically modifying it and updating it to bring it into line with my more present-day thoughts.
Opting more for the latter strategy, I expect that by the time I am through, it may be hard to recognize the original essay from this new, completely modified version of it.
The main differenes between the two essays (and the changes in the person writing both essays) can be mainly summarized as follows: I am a 'dialectic philosopher' now; I wasn't back then (We can attribute this to the post 1978 influence of Gestalt Therapy, Freud, Jung, and the main 'roots' of the 'dialectic influence' -- Hegel -- on my thinking and writing).
I am more of a 'wholistic philosopher' now whereas I was more of a 'reductionist/part-function' philosopher-writer back then. (This, we can attribute to the post-1978 influence of both the Natural Health industry/Eastern Philosophy/Eastern Medicine influence plus the influence of Spinoza on my thinking and writing.
Finally, I was more of an 'anal-retentive', 'from the neck up', 'robotic-scientific' 20th century 'schizoid writer' (meaning my mind more split off from my emotions') back then whereas I would like to think that my writing and my philosophy is more 'mentally and emotionally wholistic, well-rounded and artistic as well as scientific' today...
The essay in its original form was called: Evaluation and Health which I have now modified and called: Language, Epistemology, Evaluation, and Health.
Please excuse the fact that it is hard to present a rather large essay here in 'logical, book-like format' when 'blogsite structure and dynamics' is built such that 'our most recent work is presented on top -- which is not the beginning of the essay. You basically have to read the blogsite from 'bottom to top' to get the logical and chronological coherence of the full essay from its beginning to end -- unless I find a way to change this to make it more easily readable once the essay is finished...We shall see about this at a later time...Right now I just want to get the presentation out...
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Language, Epistemology, Evaluation, and Health
Introduction
The value judgments we make determine our actions, and upon their validity rests our mental health and happiness. -- Erich Fromm, 1947.
Erich Fromm was one of my earliest philosophy, psychology, and writing mentors. I liked his style of writing -- he wrote in a style that was easy to read and not so academic as to be 'robotic, reductionistic, and sterile' -- my three biggest complaints with academic and scientific writing.
In contrast, Fromm wrote about the 'big picture', from the rise and fall of authoritarianism and Nazism in Germany, to freedom vs. determinism, to his critique of Freud and his own vision of a post-neo-Freudian philosophy and psychology, complete with the structure and dynamics of the psyche, to 'the art of living' and the 'art of loving', to 'the Sane Society', his critique of the pitfalls o f 'Narcissitic Capitalism, and his trumpeting of Marx as a 'humanist' who more than anything pointed his finger at the 'division of labor' as the beginning of the treatment of man as an 'object', a 'thing', a 'market-place chess piece to be bought, sold, used and abused', and in so being reduced to the role of 'market place object', Marx sounded a 'deathnote' to the 'creativity of man as an artist and a whole person' (because whereas before he was 'crafting' for example 'a whole car', now he was stuck on an assembly line helping to put a 'bumper' on the car)...
Fromm's influence on my developing philosophy was significant even as I was reading Nathaniel Branden, Ayn Rand, and listening to my dad's 'ethical Capitalism' sentiments at the same time...Was there a way of protecting and/or promoting 'Ethical, Humanistic Capitalism' without turning flat out to Marxism, Socialism, and/or Communism? Lenin and Stalin obviously didn't have the answers to a 'Sane Society' anymore than 'unethical, abusive Capitalists and employers' did, so the question becomes: 'How do you integrate the best of both worlds -- 'fair market' (as opposed to 'free market') Capitalism complete with the ethics and humanism of 'Man for Himself' -- and for others around him at the same time -- as opposed to simply 'narcissisticly for himself' and who cares about my neighbor, my employee, my employer, my co-worker, and/or the rest of the world as long as I am safe, have a job, and/or ideally get rich by using others around me to my own narcissistic ends?
The subject and issue of values and ethics is a very tricky business but certainly one that has a profound effect on humna health -- mental, emotional, and physical. However, we are going to put aside the issue of values and ethics for the time being -- save them for another blogsite, another 'floor of Hegel's Hotel' -- and for the time being, focus on the impact, the effect, of language and epistemology (knowledge) on man's health - again, mental, emotional, and physical.
Thus, in this blogsite-section here, we will focus on Part 1 of this essay: 'Language, Semantics, Epistemology, and Health' before we turn back to the subject and issue of values and ethics in the next blogsite-section -- Part 2: Values, Evaluation, Ethics, and Health.
dgb, Friday June 6th, 2008.
