Higher Immediacy Contrasted with Ethical and Aesthetic :: essays research papers

Explain higher immediacy by contrasting it with the ethical and the esthetical.Higher immediacy or religious faith is the most important achievement made bya person because only faith offers an individual to prepare a chance to become a"true self". Self is what is done throughout life which paragon judges forinfinity. Consequently, humans have a huge responsibility because thosedecided choices in life constitute the eternal salvation or damnation. Withthe religious faith, the ethical and aesthetic are needed to form it, that iswhy they can not be the same. "Faith itself cannot be mediated into theuniversal, for it would thereby be destroyed." (p.69) To arrive in theposition of religious faith, the ethical mustiness first be accepted, and a cargo must be made to choose the ethical and step away from theaesthetic. The ethical, the universal, is what decides what is good and whatis evil. These traits are not decided upon by society, however. They aredependent of Go d and God decides what is good and evil and His definitionwould outrank any human definition, so humans are constantly in sin. Therehas to be a recognition of a duty to a higher being, not to just socialnorms. For example, in the case of Abraham, his actions could have been veryirrational and wrong if there was no belief in the religious faith. It issomething that must be decided on by the individual, to believe that Abrahamwas legitimate in obeying God or not. That is was what must be decided as amatter of religious faith. Abrahams "ethical relation is reduced to arelative position contrast with the peremptory relation to God." (p. 69). IfAbrahams actions were ethically analyzed, it would seem he hated Isaacbecause he killed him. But since faith is not in the ethical, "by itsparadoxical opposition to his revel for God, made his act a sacrifice." (p71).Then you have the aesthetic, which is the lowest immediacy because there isno order and order is needed for a stru ctured life. The aesthetic is not away to live because there is no conscience, or moral sense, where you havethat in the ethical and the religious. Living in the moment is bad, self-lovingand egotistic. In the aesthetic, one is always striving to transform theboring into something interesting for ones own selfish reasons.. In higherimmediacy, you already have the sense of completeness and are not striving