THE THING by Fr. Michael Moga, SJ
- Clarification on understanding of the various ways that we humans think- it will show why it is that our usual ways of thinking "miss" things
- 1st thinking approach focused on natures, guiding us to think about the basic general character (nature) of various beings. Man is a rational animal
- 2nd approach is subjectivity, aware of an objective world that surrounds us, a world filled with various human and nonhuman objects, know things as objects
Human Worlds
-there are distinctive types of human awareness which arise in our living cultural and personal worlds
Cultural Things
- a basic background context for our human lives, a communal context that we share with all the other members of our culture
- gives us certain rules to follow
- It is part of any culture that certain things are given special meaning and power
- Our culture is responsible for rich experience that is given us by these places
- Our human culture is a world that we inhabit, a world that is filled with many meaningful and powerful "things." Our human lives are enriched by them
Personal Things
- caught up with careers for teachers is blackboard, book etc. Such things play a meaningful role in those particular careers
- We become involved in various hobbies and discover that there are things closely connected to those hobbies.
- Table as rich experience of each family for their every meal
Conclusion
- Human life is very thingy when we understand that life in terms of the many human worlds which are the basis of those lives.
- So it is that the worlds of our personal existence are full of things
