Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

A gentle answer turns away wrath,
    but a harsh word stirs up anger.

• Proverbs 15:1

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

• Colossians 3:13

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,

• James 1:19

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

• Ephesians 4:32

“ ‘Hell is Other People’ – Jean-Paul Sartre”

• Bryan Magee, The Story of Philosophy

“Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.”

• C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (1905-1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, etc.  He was a Marxist.  His philosophy covered a few schools of thought, but hovering around existential phenomenology.

From a Christian point of view, we should focus more on loving others than taking care of self.  God takes care of us, and as we let God take care of us, we should not worry.  We have faith that we are in God’s hands.  Thus, caring for others and loving others is never a burden.  The effort and strength come from within through God’s power.

But for the secular person, the other person can be a benefit if you can manipulate them into doing something for you.  If you want to have the endorphins flowing, you can get that natural high by helping someone in need, especially when the cameras are running.  And you can be like Sartre, seeing the other person as being a bump in the road that must be driven over or through.

But to the existential phenomenologist, everything that precious me needs is what the philosopher cares about.  Occasionally, the philosopher needs a chair, a table, a computer, whatever.  Each of these things are phenomena.  They are exterior to self.  And if these phenomena are well-made, they serve their purpose so that precious me and the necessities of life (more phenomena) can exist peacefully.

But what if the phenomenon known as a table has a crooked or uneven leg?  A different phenomenon, a human being, or as Sartre states one of the “Other people,” made a mistake that caused precious me to be out of sorts.

You can level the table with a piece of cardboard or poker chips, useful phenomena in a pinch.  You can reboot the computer.  You can change a lightbulb.

What you cannot control is the other person.  The other person may not respond the way you wish for them to respond.

Thus, your existential phenomenological philosophy is marred by one factor, in your mind.  That one factor is “other people.”

If you are so much into self without seeing that the other people are also fiefdoms of their own and you are one of the malfunctioning phenomena of their lives, you will indeed feel that other people are hell.

But when we keep our eyes on Jesus and work as hard as we can to follow Jesus’ commandment, then “other people” become our reason for living.  Jesus commanded us to love one another.  He states that when we help the least of these “other people,” it is as if we were helping Him.

“Other people” are not hell.  They are not the bump in our smooth road of life.  They are the reason that the road is there.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.