機能と実存
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概要
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Human life consists of two elements, one the functional and the other the existential. The functional pertains to the activities for subsistence, and the existential the spiritual activities peculiar to mankind. In the primitive ages, human energy was almost solely spent for subsistence. Even at present most of our activities belong to the functional side of our life. Human activities for subsistence can be simplified into three stages of development-hunting, agriculture and technological industry. This is the process of the so-called progress of civilization. In the field of the functional life, it is inevitable that we are assorted into hierarchical order according to our physique, ability, talent, etc.; but in the other field, that is, the existential, all men are equal. From immemorial past to the present day, the functional has had the preponderance over the existential. The development of the means of production from hunting, agriculture to technological industry is the changes within the field of functional life. In the old and Mediaeval ages, subsistence required such a hard labour that men were obliged to depend upon aggregational way of life. Further, they were too weak to be able to overcome the tyranny of nature. Emotionalism, therefore, was the keynote of their life. At the Renaissance, at long last, men were awakened to the consciousness of individual ego, and acquired the intellectual power of control over nature. For the first time in the history of mankind, intellect predominates over emotion. The scientific ages dawned upon human beings, and thereafter there has been a tremendous and rapid progress of science and technology. And now we are faced with the pollution of land, water and atmosphere caused by the technological industry. Our life is at stake. This is the bitterest irony. If we are to survive, we should learn to put the predominance not on the functional, but on the existential. If we fail to do so, the result will be disastrous.
- 東京女子大学の論文