From Aristotle to Freud and from the Absolute to Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

Freedom of choice and freethinking is something that is considered a right to everyone nowadays. It doesn’t matter what your age, race, gender, sexuality or political view is; it is a given that, today, you have the right to identify yourself, express said identity and follow your dreams and passions as you like. It is often forgotten that this kind of freedom, although it should always be given to everyone, is only the reality of modern history.

We all know that in the past people had to follow way more social rules, but unfortunately, we seldom wonder about the “why” behind these rules. Because, even if those rules were rather restricting for individuals, they were often necessary. That is a part we are not often taught.

What is this voice in my head?

Society is a concept that has existed for so long now that people are probably not able to really think of life without it. Yet, in the past, people had a hard time creating a society and often it was not as fabulous as we make it to be in the movies. It tended to be way more boring and with way fewer people than we picture it because of media. 

This is why people needed very clear instructions on what they should do with their lives. This may sound ridiculous nowadays, but we are talking about societies that still speculated about whether or not their thoughts were their own or if Zeus was the voice within their head. This is because, it is believed that, with the advancement of language we also advanced our thinking; the more people could express themselves with words, the more they could finally think and create concepts. The problem is that when the idea of thought came so very early in time, concepts such as “subjectivity,” “fantasy” and “personal goals” were hard to comprehend.

Ideal absolutism

This is the reason the first philosophers in the world had way more “absolute” ideas on how society should operate. Most noticeably, Aristotle had the concept of “telos,” which would translate to “destination” and it is the name he gave to the theory of everyone and everything having a perfect and absolute destination for them. This concept automatically destroyed free will, as it gave very specific titles and purposes for each being just because of its form and its functions. For example, since a woman can give birth to children her “telos” (ultimate goal) is to give birth and grow strong children. Anything other than that would distract her from her purpose and thus should not exist in her life.

Similarly, his teacher Plato, even though he was way more poetic and idealistic in his philosophy, had his own absolute ideas. In his “ideal society,” the society has three classes. The lower class is the farmers who are happy to live comfortably in life but don’t make any decisions regarding politics and power. The middle class are the warriors who protect the city and overview the farms. The highest class is the philosophers who control the city and deprive themselves from pleasures in order to think clearly and provide the needed instructions for the healthy function of the city. Even though someone born within the lower class could prove themselves worthy of being in the highest class, once set in said class they cannot change their position.

We can probably see similar philosophy in other parts of the world during ancient times too. Whether we like it or not, it took a lot of thinking, resources and new ideas in order to come to the conclusion that humans are determined solely by how they are born and their attributes. It took us even longer to understand that thoughts, goals, ideals and what is meant to be “the goal in life” for each person are completely subjective.

This subjectivity started in the times of Freud when psychology was born and it continued spreading until we finally reached today where, in the West, we can finally see that each person has a different idea of what “a good life” is. But why is that?

Survival and self-identity

Well, simply because we have more knowledge, more ways to survive and actual personal time (along with some millions of revolutions). Whether we like it or not, subjectivity takes time and energy and in times of crisis or when sources are scarce, each person of the community has to have a clear and defined role within said community in order for the society to survive. It is also the reason why only the West has basically managed to create what we would call “Self-Fulfilling Prophecy”; the rest of the globe has way more structural societies with way more societal rules because they often don’t have the same amount of resources (with exceptions, of course).

Now, this does not excuse any cruel behaviour of the past bestowed on those whose societal role was considered low. I’m a huge believer that humanity is meant to see all individuals as equal and with the freedom to choose their own fate as long as they don’t do so while taking advantage of someone else.

However, it must be acknowledged that this kind of realisation needed time to come to people. Moreover, it is a reminder that people cannot think of concepts when they are in survival mode.

Society can exist only under the principle that resources are enough for everyone; else injustice and absolutes are bound to happen.