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Philosophy
The Essay “Philosophy and the Vicious Cycle of Suffering” by Pezhman Ranjbar
Human suffering is rooted in mental patterns and negative emotions, as the character Stepan Trofimovich in the novel Demons illustrates. According to Epicurus, philosophy should act as a physician, providing a cure for this inner suffering and breaking its vicious cycle.
In one of his novels, Demons, Dostoevsky introduces a character who embodies traits worthy of reflection. This character, referred to in the novel as Stepan Trofimovich, is a relatively educated man who completed his studies in France, or, one might say, in Europe, a fact evident throughout the novel in his speech, which is replete with French phrases. Nevertheless, that is, despite possessing a respectable appearance as a learned sage in that era of Russia, this individual has practically never managed to accomplish anything in his life, and in his livelihood and subsistence is dependent on an aristocratic widow who holds every aspect of his life under her dominion, with this man being like a child in her hands. In the novel, the reader observes that Stepan Trofimovich fusses like a child, is touchy, impatient, and the smallest things cause him agitation; at the same time, it is observed that those around him occasionally look upon him as a seasoned scholar. He, too, considers himself a person who has rare words for the world that will bring about fundamental changes, yet the further the story progresses, the less trace is seen of him, and he ultimately passes away like a malformed infant whose fate was bound to suffering and torment from eternity.
This example in the history of literature is one of those fundamental examples that demonstrates the link between life and suffering. The fates of the other characters in that story are not much better than Stepan Trofimovich's, and all ultimately suffer in some way. Looking at this literary example, a question can be raised: Must a human being truly always be in such suffering? Is humanity bound to suffering? Is there a way by which one can, with its aid and assistance, overcome this painful chain of suffering and triumph? War, famine, disease, and natural disasters are among the usual themes of human life. Throughout history, humanity has not had a moment's respite from these dangers. Just recently, in our own country, Iran, natural disasters gave the people no quarter, bringing death, destruction, and deprivation. It is true that these cases have nothing to do with the case of Stepan Trofimovich, but their fundamental theme is suffering, whether inner suffering or outer suffering. Thus, alongside external sufferings, internal sufferings also exist.
The Greek philosopher Epicurus poses a pertinent question, and the author, as a student of philosophy, also feels obliged to raise it in this context: it is true that philosophy can do nothing against a flood, cannot cure fatal diseases, cannot prevent an earthquake, but will it also be powerless to help the people after the flood, the people after the earthquake, and the Stepan Trofimoviches? Epicurus said that just as a physician is useless if he cannot soothe and cure bodily pain, philosophy too is useless if it cannot cure "inner suffering" or πάθος.[1] Well, the question is how we can better understand inner suffering; how we can better identify its instances so that, based on that, we can expect philosophy to offer a solution. If we look closely, we will see that inner suffering is fundamentally tied to a specific set of emotions; meaning that the suffering individual experiences emotions that are burdensome to them and cause their torment. Stepan Trofimovich had not suffered a flood or famine, but it was as if events were occurring in his inner world that, like a tragic play, constantly plunged him into the abyss of "error."[2] He suffers from these events, even while living, in a sense, in comfort and luxury. The suffering Stepan Trofimovich experiences is the suffering of the soul,[3] precisely what Epicurus considered the cure and expulsion of to be the task of philosophy. If we refer to the novel, we will see that he is afflicted by emotions such as anger, disgust, hatred, deprivation, and rejection; it is as if he is a person constantly seeking the approval of others, as if he is always trying to reassure himself that he is a valuable person to others and that they will not reject him, while he himself has abandoned his child. It seems his inner suffering or that of his soul is due to the emotions and feelings that have so preoccupied him that he cannot even show affection to his child, but rather fears him and occasionally tries to push him away.
If we accept that our mind constantly "encodes"[4] the surrounding environment, then the emotions that arise as a result of these encodings are the product of the very conception and thought we have of the world around us. To make this matter a little clearer, we must visually reconstruct some of Stepan Trofimovich's emotions. Although he is now a middle-aged man, his behaviors, intense dependency, and the emotions he displays indicate a wounded childhood. In this visualization, we can liken him to a child who has suffered greatly at the hands of his parents and could not receive sufficient emotional security in the earliest moments of his life, consequently harboring a kind of suspicion mixed with weakness toward the world. This conception has formed in him; he cannot separate from others, because if he does so, terror will overwhelm his entire being; as indeed ultimately happens; this very terror and helplessness brings him down.
Our mind, in a thoroughly metaphorical way, by transforming its impressions of the surrounding space and the world we live in into mental forms, creates materials for formulating the world around us. These images cause positive or negative emotions to be aroused in us. To verify such a claim, it is enough to close your eyes and imagine a perfectly delightful day, a day in which nothing bothers you and you find everything you love beside you. Now imagine a great dragon (or something or someone you fear most) suddenly appears and burns all your happiness; what happened? In one minute, did you transition from happiness and joy to sorrow, fear, and anger? Now consider if these imaginings have been in our minds for many long years, they become the conduct of our lives. What caused Stepan Trofimovich's suffering were precisely these vicious imaginings. These imaginings had become his mental patterns for formulating and understanding matters and were played and heard like a constant melody throughout all the different parts of his life.
From what has been said so far, it can be concluded that if we harbor a negative emotion—such as chronic anxiety, fear of rejection, loss, failure, illness, bankruptcy, or frustration—it is all due to patterns that have become part of our cognitive mechanism. It is like the first brick a builder lays crookedly, causing the entire structure to rise crookedly to the heavens. Epicurus also points to this, noting that the absence of mental and physical disturbance leads to happiness.[5] That is, if we have constructed dysfunctional, abnormal, and malformed structures in our cognition, these are precisely what cause us to confront a lack of meaning, to feel dissatisfied in our work and personal relationships, and consequently to become weary of life. Since our malformed mental pattern has been with us for a long time and has constantly influenced our lives, we regard it as the norm, because it has always been validated externally. For example, if we believe we are outcasts and that everyone will abandon us; a person with such a thought in mind will always either choose people who will abandon them, or through their own behavior cause others to abandon them. At this moment, that mental pattern surfaces and signals to the person, "See, I was right; you are an outcast!" Typically, the person accepts this and never doubts that perhaps they do not have a correct understanding of events. It has surely happened in all our lives that a single misinterpretation has ruined many things.
The mechanism we discussed above is what we call the "vicious cycle of suffering." This vicious cycle has three parts: 1. cognitive error, 2. negative emotion, and 3. torment. The meaning of this cycle is that if a cognitive error (e.g., rejection) exists within us, it creates a negative emotion (e.g., sadness or anger); these two, hand in hand, will cause our suffering. It is precisely at this point that philosophy enters and cuts off the cognitive error. When the cognitive error is removed from this cycle, the negative feeling will inevitably not arise, and suffering disappears. Consequently, philosophy can do three things in this domain:
1_ Philosophy provides its audience with tools by which they can discern how to have correct cognition—that is, cognition that has the greatest degree of congruence with the situation—and how we can review the cognitions others offer us and, if they are incorrect, reject them so that we do not fall back into the cycle of suffering; for instance, the concept of happiness or a meaningful life. Today, many examples are seen where happiness is drowned in the two extremes of negligence and excess, and this itself causes much suffering; for example, a person is given the cognition that happiness means detaching from all material things, or conversely, that happiness means constantly working and amassing wealth, both of which rob a person of the opportunity to live contentedly.
2_ In addition to the above, philosophy can offer strategies to a person that enable them to delve into themselves; in this exploration, a person will find a path to the long-standing patterns of their life and will, for instance, discover what kind of cognition and thinking in their life gives rise to their procrastination, or where their strict life standards come from and what causes them.
3_ Finally, after thought has been able to gain knowledge of these cognitive errors, philosophy then transforms the questions that have long kept the individual's life in a dead end into questions that deepen their life and enhance its quality; for example, an individual has great attachment and dependency on those around them. In the two previous stages, they identify and sever it. Now, the philosopher poses a question that is, in fact, another formulation of the same experience, this time, of course, without the involvement of negative emotions. The question could be: "What is human independence?", "How do we belong to one another?". This question will undoubtedly help humanity in knowing itself and the surrounding world ever more. The philosopher can help the individual ask other questions as well and, by striving to answer them, engage in self-exploration, world-study, and, in the author's terms, "being-acquaintance"—becoming more familiar with their own being and presence.
In the end, it must be said that if the world appears devoid of meaning, perhaps this emptiness is the product of the negative feelings we harbor within ourselves; perhaps it is those erroneous cognitive patterns that have been inherited by us and which we drag around with us as norms. So first we must awaken, then we must know anew, and this is perhaps one of the matters for which philosophy bears responsibility. Philosophy will help us to have a less painful and more efficient formulation of life.
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[1]. ἐκείνου φιλοσόφου λόγος, ὑφʼ οὗ μηδὲν πάθος ἀνθρώπου θεραπεύεται· ὥσπερ γὰρ
ἰατρικῆς οὐδὲν ὄφελος μὴ τὰς νόσους τῶν σωμάτων ἐκβαλλούσης, οὕτως οὐδὲ φιλοσοφίας,
εἰ μὴ τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ἐκβάλλει πάθος.
[2] . ἁμαρτία
[3] . τὸ πάθος τῆς ψυχῆς
[4] . Coding
[5] . ἡ μὲν γὰρ ἀταραξία καὶ <ἡ> ἀπονία καταστηματικαί εἰσιν ἡδοναί.
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PDF file of this article in Isfahan-e Ziba
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Source: Isfahan-e Ziba newspaper, 8 Mehr 1398
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Philosophy and the Vicious Cycle of Suffering
Author: Pezhman Ranjbar
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Discussion2 comments
با درود مقاله خوب بود هر چند مرا قانع نکرد، چرا که به نظر من حقیقی ترین چیزها مرگ است که سرنوشت نهایی و مرحله پایانی راه ابناع بشر است، آگاهی از این مساله است که در بهترین شرایطِ جسمی و مادی، زندگی فرد را بی معنا و او را دچار رنجی جانکاه می کند. اینجاست که انسانها برای فراموش کردن این حقیقت تلخ خودشان را مشغول به زندگی و شغل و کسب معاش و غیره می کنند و وقتی اینها نیز نتوانست ذهن آنها را منحرف کند پناه می برند به الکل و مواد مخدر: می گریزند ز خودی در بی خودی یا به مستی یا به شغل ای مهتدی تا دمی از هوشیاری وارهند ننگ خمر و بنگ بر خود می نهند
نوشتار خوبی بود. هر انسانی یک فرشته و یک شیطان درون دارد.اگر فرشته درون انسانی قوی تر باشد همه جهان را علیرغم کاستی ها و رنج هایش ,زیبا و بهشتی می بیند و اما اگر شیطان درونش پرقدرت تر باشد ,همه جهان را رنج و بدبختی و ناامیدی می بیند. ای نسخهٔ نامهٔ الهی که توئی وی آینهٔ جمال شاهی که توئی بیرون ز تو نیست هرچه در عالم هست در خود بطلب هر آنچه خواهی که توئی..