• Drive to Understand & Need for Meaning! - "The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding."- Leonardo Da Vinci - William James, Clifford Geertz, Roy Rappaport Albert Einstein, Lev Tolstoy - w Baumeister's Paradigm w/ Order, Categorization, and Bargh So

    Author(s):
    Charles Peck Jr (see profile)
    Date:
    2023
    Group(s):
    Cultural Studies, History, History of Art, Psychology and Neuroscience, Science Studies and the History of Science
    Subject(s):
    Meaning (Philosophy), Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Ethnology, Culture, Jungian psychology, Subconsciousness
    Item Type:
    Blog Post
    Tag(s):
    motivation theory, social cognition, meaning, Theories of Truth, knowledge community, order, psychology, neuroscience
    Permanent URL:
    https://doi.org/10.17613/pd7a-hd90
    Abstract:
    Geertz, perhaps the most influential of the anthropologists, contends that symbolism and meaning are central to religion: “The view of man as a symbolizing, conceptualizing, meaning-seeking animal, which has become increasingly popular both in the social sciences and in philosophy over the past several years, opens up a whole new approach not only to the analysis of religion as such, but to the understanding of the relations between religion and values. The drive to make sense out of experience, to give it form and order, is evidently as real and pressing as the more familiar biological needs. And, this being so, it seems unnecessary to continue to interpret symbolic activities --- religion, art, ideology – as nothing but thinly disguised expressions of something other than what they seem to be: attempts to provide orientation to an organism which cannot live in a world it is unable to understand.” (p.140) That is, a basic drive of humans is to understand, shape, and influence their environment. The drive to understand and the need for meaning are pivotal in molding personal behaviors and views. William James (1842 – 1910), the brilliant philosopher and psychologist who is considered by many to be the Father of American psychology, believed that people have an innate intuitive sense of reality.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    5 months ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

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