by Con Fusion

Created on: May 26, 2008

One of the greatest human accomplishments in life is when an individual discovers himself. There are many philosophies that attempt to create an understanding of the self. Some fill entire volumes and others are comprised of a single statement. Of the many pieces that Thomas Merton wrote on finding the true self, I found one particular claim unique. "The man who lives in division is not a person but only an 'individual'". The truth of this claim can be recognized in three cases: when a person is part of the earth, when a person does not separate life and death, and when a person knows himself when his time has come to face judgment. In such instances the difference between the person and the individual becomes clearly defined as the true self is only identified in the person.

The divided man is considered to be an individual because he distances himself from the reality that he is part of the earth. In different words, the divided man is one that is living a false self, and because of this he has begun to live in a false reality. Many factors can bring about such aloofness but the largest has been societal influence. The environment surrounding the individual creates the separations he feels between himself and others. A person is considered to be a person when they are part of a community of people. The individual that Merton speaks of has distanced himself away from the community by placing himself in a superficial stratification among the persons. In this way the individual has chosen to be an individual and loses his true identity. A specific example of this can be identified on the macro scale when countries go to war. It is a popular propaganda tactic of the warring governments to portray their enemy nation in dehumanizing ways. It is easier for soldiers to kill an individual, because he is not a person, without having any moral constraints. By confining himself to a distinct place within the human community, the individual fails to find his true self as a person.

A person lives their life knowing the inevitability of death. Because of this recognition, they are much more true than the divided man, who lives yet never acknowledges the presence of death. In the aforementioned passage, Merton describes the mentality of the divided man and makes the statement "you die and I live". This quotation expresses the concern that the individual has for making a separation between life and death. The divided man is only concerned with what happens in the conscious

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>