"Oughtiness"
by
Dean Gotcher
"We have to study the conditions which maximize ought-perceptiveness." "Oughtiness is itself a fact to be perceived." "If we wish to permit the facts to tell us their oughtiness, we must learn to listen to them in a very specific way which can be called Taoistic." (Abraham Maslow, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature) Any time a person is dissatisfied with the way things are ("is") and start to dialogue with their "self" about how it "ought" to be they have entered into the realm of philosophy. According to dialectic 'reasoning,' it is from here, in dissatisfaction, that dialectic 'reasoning' has its beginning, i.e., without the dissatisfaction, reasoning remains external to the person, forcing him to do that which is not of (and for) his carnal nature, i.e., preventing him from knowing and becoming his "self," i.e., of and for the world, i.e., of and for nature, i.e., "of and for self" only. By the person humbling, denying, dying to "self" in order to do the father's/Father's will, reasoning remains subject to authorities desires, external to the child's carnal nature, i.e., "human nature." It is from here, i.e., in the child's "ought" that 'reasoning' has its 'purpose—the child thinking about, i.e., reasoning with his "self" how the world can be providing certain conditions are met, that that which is initiating and sustaining the dissatisfaction is negated. This is the conflict between the child's carnal nature and the father's/Father's authority, i.e., "the age old problem of the relationship between is and ought." (ibid)
Abraham Maslow wrote: "Discovering one's real nature is simultaneously an ought quest and an is quest. An 'Ought-Is-Quest' is a religious quest in the naturalistic sense. Is becomes the same as ought. Fact becomes the same as value. The world which is becomes the world which ought to be." "Here the fusion comes not so much from an improvement of actuality, the is, but from a scaling down of the ought, from a redefining of expectations so that they come closer and closer to actuality and therefore to attainability." "'fusion-words' . . . to solve the 'is' and 'ought' problem." [A] "'heuristic' . . . part of the new humanistic Weltanschauung." [Examples:] "mature, evolved, developed, stunted, crippled, fully functioning, graceful, awkward, clumsy." "The process of acceptance.... Move toward resignation [giving up hope on set standards which seem to be interfering with the process] .... Move toward thinking [freedom in thinking, to ponder those things previously unthought-of, due to ridged standards preventing inquiry, influenced by approval of actions by others we now relate with or seek to relate with, actions which were formerly unapproved of]...." "After all that's not so bad. It's really quite human . . ." "The more 'is' something becomes [the more the parent demands obedience], the more 'ought' it becomes [the more the child wants his way], the louder it 'calls for' particular action [the more the child looks for ways to escape obedience, i.e. justifies disobedience]." (ibid)
By accentuating the "ought" in the children (through their dialoguing with one anther, striving for unity, i.e., consensus), helping them remove the "is'" they bring with their "ought," i.e., wanting things "there way" (preventing unity), the children find common group with one another, affirming the outcome, i.e., a world of their own making, i.e., a world of 'change' 'liberated' from the world of restraint.
"For this cause [because they "did not like to retain God in their knowledge"] God gave them up unto vile affections [let them have what they wanted, i.e., the carnal pleasures of the 'moment' they "lusted" after—to their own demise]:" Romans 1:21, 25 "And for this cause [because men, as "children of disobedience," 'justify' themselves, i.e., their love of "self" and the world, i.e., their love of the pleasures of the 'moment' over and therefore against the Father's authority] God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie [that pleasure is the standard for "good" instead of doing the Father's will]: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth [in the Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ], but had pleasure in unrighteousness [in their "self" and the pleasures of the 'moment' which the world stimulated]." 2 Thessalonians 2:11, 12
© Institution for Authority Research, Dean Gotcher 2017