The Essence of Human Existence
Human nature has several meanings, including the following.
- Individuals who have a rational nature who are responsible for intellectual and social behavior.
- Individuals who are able to direct themselves to positive goals, are able to organize and control themselves and be able to determine their destiny.
- Individuals who always involve themselves in their efforts to manifest themselves, help others and make the world a better place to live in.
- An individual who is highly influenced by the environment, especially the social environment, cannot even develop in accordance with his human dignity without living in a social environment.
As an individual being, he lives and is responsible for his life as an individual. It lives and develops in a social environment and acquires social characteristics. However, according to individualists, human social character is only secondary, additional to the human being. This understanding puts the individual first and emphasizes individual freedom rather than social freedom. Consequently, efforts to fulfill various individual interests are prioritized over efforts to fulfill social and community interests. Here the assumption applies that individuals have absolute rights that must be fulfilled by society, and these individual rights must not be sacrificed for the common interest or for the benefit of the state.
As a collective or social being, he is responsible as part of the collective / social life. Society consists of individuals. However, individuals are merely a means of society as a whole. This view prioritizes the interests of society over individual interests. Collectivism is a characteristic of individual interests as free and responsible beings for the interests and collective will of society, nation or state. Therefore, individuals can be sacrificed for the benefit of society.
The two views mentioned above are extreme views, which are more concerned with one dimension and ignore the other. There is another view, namely balanced understanding, which sees humans as individual-social beings. According to this understanding, humans are a substantial unity (an inseparable unity) between the individual aspects and the aspects of their sociality. In his individuality there is his sociality. Likewise in his sociality there is his individuality. This view emphasizes that the individual and society cannot be separated from each other. Society, essentially determines human individuality and personality. Individual life and development is very dependent on others. This is due to the fact that humans have social dimensions.
Human Social Dimensions
According to Franz Magnis Suseno, the dependence and involvement of individuals with society which is abbreviated as "human socialism" expresses itself in three dimensions:
- in the spontaneous appreciation of the individual;
- dealing with social institutions; and
- through symbolic meanings of reality.
The dependence on society is first of all experienced by humans in a concrete and spontaneous life every day. In everything he does, he feels determined by the presence of other human beings. He needs togetherness.
Social relations are not amorphous (formless), but structured. There are individual needs that can only be fulfilled in the company of others, and there are many more where their fulfillment is greatly facilitated if pursued together. In order to ensure that these functions are sustainable, patterns of collective action are developed that are no longer dependent on certain people and situations. These patterns of collective action are called institutions.
The third dimension of human socialism is what Peter L. Berger calls the symbolic universe of meaning, namely all kinds of understandings, beliefs, views of the meaning of reality as a whole, and so on. The symbolic world, its meaning includes religion, world views, value systems and moral, political and aesthetic views, philosophical beliefs and all kinds of ideologies. The main function of these systems is to provide legitimacy to the social structures faced by humans so that they receive orientation and certainty.
The Political Dimensions of Human Life
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| Besides having a social dimension, humans also have another dimension, namely the political dimension of human life. According to Franz Magnis Suseno, the political dimension of man is the dimension of society as a whole. Thus, what is characteristic of an approach called "political", is that it occurs within a frame of reference that is oriented towards the community as a whole. Thus, the political dimension of man can be determined as a dimension in which man realizes himself as a member of society as a whole that determines the framework of his life and is redefined by his actions. This political dimension includes the circle of legal and state institutions, value systems and ideologies which legitimize it. |