What is human identity; is it a characteristic defined by humanism, interpreted into arbitrary degrees of humanity or rather is it the manifestation, or possession of a soul, of divinity? If such defines our identity, then is being human an inherited genetic attribute or is it a state we achieve through rationality derived from knowledge and wisdom? Identity, however, is not always stable; it can be interpreted as a dynamic balance between humanity’s divine and animalistic personas – a debate of “dominance” between rationalism, curiosity and desire.
While philosophers, like Plato, describes human identity through the possession of soul, Marc Chagall’s painting I and the Village and Paul Gauguin’s painting Tahitian Woman with Evil Spirit emphasize …show more content…
Religion, itself, is a man-made symbolization derived from the humanistic need of self-expression, our need to become self-aware of reality. In Chagall painting, the green-colored man, whom represents religion, is shown to be holding a symbolization of “the tree of life.” While both human and nonhuman animals are a part of nature, no greater or lesser than any of the other parts, due to society’s anthropomorphic interpretation of nature, human animals believe that they are superior to nonhuman animals. Chagall uses this biased perception of nature to criticize how people’s obliviousness to their own awareness is no longer capable of thinking about. Rather, they are merely reacting to the social norms and ideologies presented to them, neglecting the physical realm and centralizing around metaphorical abstractions meant to describe reality. Pliny also criticizes the lack of self-awareness, writing how “[human animals] are supposed to have notion, too, of the differences of religion; and when about to cross the sea, they cannot be prevailed upon to go on board the ship, until their [gods] has promised upon oath that they shall return home again. In other words, humanity’s distortion of reality through religion represents the devolution of rigorous intellectual thinking and self-identity, deliberating human animals from the qualities of human
While philosophers, like Plato, describes human identity through the possession of soul, Marc Chagall’s painting I and the Village and Paul Gauguin’s painting Tahitian Woman with Evil Spirit emphasize …show more content…
Religion, itself, is a man-made symbolization derived from the humanistic need of self-expression, our need to become self-aware of reality. In Chagall painting, the green-colored man, whom represents religion, is shown to be holding a symbolization of “the tree of life.” While both human and nonhuman animals are a part of nature, no greater or lesser than any of the other parts, due to society’s anthropomorphic interpretation of nature, human animals believe that they are superior to nonhuman animals. Chagall uses this biased perception of nature to criticize how people’s obliviousness to their own awareness is no longer capable of thinking about. Rather, they are merely reacting to the social norms and ideologies presented to them, neglecting the physical realm and centralizing around metaphorical abstractions meant to describe reality. Pliny also criticizes the lack of self-awareness, writing how “[human animals] are supposed to have notion, too, of the differences of religion; and when about to cross the sea, they cannot be prevailed upon to go on board the ship, until their [gods] has promised upon oath that they shall return home again. In other words, humanity’s distortion of reality through religion represents the devolution of rigorous intellectual thinking and self-identity, deliberating human animals from the qualities of human