The Actualize Philosophy
Part Two: The How of Living
"Each culture has its own norms for health, for ideal states of mind, and for the functioning of individuals in society", Suman Fernando
Another important dimension of human existence is the social realm. Rather than us sharing a universal human nature that guides human behaviour, we are born into a social context that shapes human growth and development. We are not determined by our society, but we are born into a social context with specific conditions of possibility: what is possible in our society would not necessarily be possible in others.
New possibilities can come into being as the conditions of possibility change, and conditions of possibility change as a result of cultural change borne of human activity.An important consideration is what conditions of possibility exist for us as individuals. If we internalise social norms, values and expectations of what we can achieve, then our aspirations will be constructed within our cultural context. As a result, the possibilities available to us would be restricted to those possibilities presented as permissable. Restrictions of possibility can be especially acute for those of us who are old, who are young, who are female, who are disabled, who are not white, who are working class, who are not British, who have mental health difficulties, who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, who have a learning disability. It follows that barriers to actualization exist in our social world.Although British society has moved on in many respects, this classic sketch broadcast on The Frost Report in 1967 captures the prescribed possibilities of living perfectly.
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In addition to our behaviours being framed by our social experience, our emotions are also subject to the conditions of possibility existing in our society.Shame is a perfect example of our socially constructed emotional life because it relates to the act of transgressing social norms and morality. A behaviour that is acceptable and normal in one culture, for example walking around naked in a communal space, would probably elicit a sense of shame if you found yourself walking around naked in London's Oxford Street. At a more personal level, the values and norms that we have adopted and accepted within our families will vary between people, because the positions we each choose to adopt are chosen from among a range of different possibilities (the promise is that we can always choose to adopt other positions if the ones we have adopted are not helpful). Therefore, you may feel shame if you leave your home unshaven, because being clean-shaven is synonymous with being 'acceptable', while I will leave my home with stubble and without a second thought. A simple example which, nevertheless, suggests that our emotional life is also framed by the societies we live in.
Therefore, it seems that we live in a social context at this point in time, where a range of possibilities for living are available. The question is whether you've chosen the best possibilities to achieve your full potential.
Elaborations
"The categories of perception of the social world are the product of the internalization of the social space. The sense of one’s place as a sense of what one can or cannot ‘permit oneself’ implies a tacit acceptance of one’ place, a sense of limits”
Pierre Bourdieu
“Maybe the target nowadays is not to discover what we are but to refuse what we are”
Michel Foucault
“Shame is a thoroughly moral concept involving violation of a social code”
Carl Ratner
