Human Thought & Reality: Discourses of Understanding
Humanity: Thought, Language, and Symbolic Expression
Human beings are unique because they are fundamentally thinking animals. While other animals perform various actions, only humans possess the capacity for complex thought and language, enabling them to translate their experiences symbolically.
Through linguistic thought, humans acquired and transmitted knowledge and skills, crucial for survival against dangers and success in hunting and gathering. Only humans can speak, reason, and imagine the future. The Greek philosopher Aristotle defined humans as animal rationale or an animal possessing logos, meaning both ‘reason’ and ‘word’.
Interpreting Reality: Diverse Discourses
Discourses interpreting reality deal with things and facts—what we see, hear, or touch. Such discourse is essentially an interpretation of reality. An interpretive discourse of reality is any narration (spoken or written) that addresses existence, explains events (past or present), and attempts to predict future occurrences. These discourses often provide justifications or reasons.
Types of Interpretive Discourses
- Mythical Discourse: Posits that supernatural beings (gods, spirits, demons, or fairies) played a role in the origins, relationships, and purpose of all phenomena.
- Philosophical Discourse: Offers explanations based on reason and logic, seeking fundamental truths.
- Scientific Discourse: Distinguished by its rigor, precision, and empirical approach in explaining facts.
Common Characteristics of Discourses
These discourses often share several characteristics:
- Truth-Claim: They assert a claim to truth, aiming to be credible.
- Domain Claim: They seek to understand and master nature for practical benefit.
- Organizational Claims: They often organize and control society, sometimes presenting social differences as inevitable due to “divine law” or “natural order.”
Understanding Mythical Discourse
Myths are narratives about gods or supernatural beings intervening in extraordinary events that occur outside of historical human time. The primary function of myth is to explain the origin of a whole or a specific reality. It is not considered fiction, but rather a true and sacred narrative.
A dogma is a myth that has been revealed as an unquestionable truth.
A priest is an individual devoted to worshipping a deity and caring for sacred matters.
Mythical and Religious Discourses Compared
Mythical discourse often provides a simple level of explanation, as its narratives are frequently vague and lack detailed specifics. This simplicity can make it particularly appealing to those seeking straightforward answers to complex questions. It is presented as an absolutely true story, without room for doubt.
Religious discourse seeks to understand the world as a result of the will of one or more gods, asserting that human destiny depends on the relationship with these deities. It comprises an aggregate of myths, rituals, moral prescriptions, and prohibitions.
The Rigor of Scientific Discourse
Scientific discourse is arguably the most rigorous and reliable method humans have developed to understand reality. While its roots are as old as humankind, with practices dating back tens of thousands of years, modern scientific discourse emerged between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, making it over five hundred years old. It is characterized by its intersubjectivity, meaning that any properly informed person can understand its formulations in the same way as any other, and is also aware of the procedures that would allow for its verification.