by David S. Lawyer Russian Intellectual Thought (Russian 40) Take-home Final Examination 1. Ouspensky's "Psychology" [long] Peter Demianovitch Ouspensky was a Russian philosopher who taught the principles developed by G.I. Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff launched his system of psycho-physical culture in Russia in 1912 and Ouspensky was initially one of his students. After the Soviet revolution, Ouspensky spilt from Gurdjieff and developed his own philosophy (or cult). Lectures given by Ouspensky prior to World War II have been published in a book entitled "The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution". This book appeared after Ouspensky's death in 1947. This book is really neither about psychology or evolution but it is about what Ouspensky defines as "psychology" and "evolution". [p.37 means page 37 of this book]. By "psychology" Ouspensky means everything regarding the mind and by "evolution" he means the change in man's culture and acquired ideas (especially Ouspensky's ideas) as opposed to biological evolution. Ouspensky's prescriptive philosophy is almost like a religion but he fails to include God in his teachings. Ouspensky's code of life is quite humanistic but it is also egoistic in a sense since it may help one to find meaning in life and result in more inner peace. It also contains a number of statements and ideas that are not in conformance with biological science and some statements are so dogmatic and extreme that at times I wonder if Ouspensky is little more than a mystical charlatan. If one excludes the parts of Ouspensky's philosophy which are anti-scientific, then one is left with a philosophy that is competitive with other philosophies of life. A major point of Ouspensky's philosophy is that one should "unlearn" what he calls "negative emotions": anger, boredom, irritation, jealousy, envy, and fear [p.84]. On the contrary I would argue that these emotions have been developed through biological evolution and therefore probably have some survival value for the individual. For example, when attempting to climb around a steep waterfall on a hike, fear of falling leads me to descend and find a safer (but longer) route around the waterfall. Fear may often lead to action that contributes to our survival. Fear of war may induce people to join a peace movement etc. Boredom may induce some people to change their activities or life so that they are not as bored. Irritation may also stimulate change to avoid it. Envy may also induce favorable change. If you envy someone else's intellect or knowledge, this may prompt you to improve your own intellect or knowledge. If you envy someones wealth, this may prompt you to support higher taxes on the wealthy etc. Thus in my opinion "negative emotions" may be beneficial. Another beneficial aspect of negative emotions is that they sometimes serve as a means of communication. Emotional feelings are sometimes transmitted by non-verbal communication. Some reasonable goals proposed by Ouspensky (and my comments on them prefaced by >) are: 1. Know thyself. > One should not be too introspective since the benefits may not be > worth the cost. 2. Get rid of mechanical conditioning. Don't function like a machine. [p.13] > This is impossible to do if the universe is based on deterministic > laws which make all of our actions merely a result of our heredity > and environment. 3. Be truthful. We "can only know the truth in the state of objective consciousness." [p.40] > Here is where mysticism enter the picture. Do there really exist > other state of consciousness? Being truthful is not always the best > policy. For example should a person lie about being fired from a job > in order to get another job? 4. Don't give in to imagination. Man "realizes that imagination is a destructive faculty, that he can never control it" [p.49] > Sometimes imagination has value. It can contribute to creativity, > depending on what one is imagining. Why can't one control it? 5. Avoid excessive talking. "With unresisted talking one cannot observe anything." p.[50] > In some cases, for example a speech or debate, one needs to do much > talking. Of course its possible to make some observations while > talking. I can both be observing the sunset and talking about it. 6. Work with a school to learn Ouspensky's philosophy. "Knowledge is necessary, but knowledge can come only from those who passed the same way before." [p.116]. > Why can't one learn it from books or does it require the peer > pressure of a group to imbue one with Ouspensky's views? Other goals are that of achievement (overcome the law of accidents), being unified within oneself, learning not to be blindly absorbed and taking into account the needs & wants of others. Another major feature of Ouspensky's system are the four states of consciousness he defines: sleep, waking state, self-consciousness, and objective consciousness. He claims that the state which almost everyone is in while awake is the "waking state'. By going through his school one may supposedly get into the last two states. This brings to mind the supposed state of "Clear" which believers of Scientology strive to obtain. On the whole, Ouspensky's views are humanistic but an ominous note is sounded by Ouspensky's view that many of man's sufferings are "based on man's imagination ... like the idea of injustice ... and the belief in the possibility of destroying injustice" [p.88]. It appears that Ouspensky is saying that we should not imagine (or even strive for) a better world where injustice does not exist. Ouspensky makes the claim that the emotional center of man is located in the middle part of the body (and not in the head). [p.76]. This is not in accord with contemporary biology. He makes the absurd claim that the emotional center works 30,000 times faster than the moving and instinctive centers which in turn work 30,000 times faster than the intellectual center (in the head). [p.79]. This obviously implies that the emotional center works 900,000,000 (almost a billion) times faster than the intellectual center. Adding 1 + 1 is done in the intellectual center and surely does not take a billion times longer than exhibiting the emotion such as anger. According to Ouspensky, if it takes only a thousandth of a second to become angry, then it would take about 250 hours to perform some intellectual exercise such as adding 1 + 1. Some other absurd statements are: "... we know nothing about the origin of man" [p.7]; "... we must deny any possibility of future mechanical evolution of man" [p.7]; "If we knew the quantity of wrong observations, wrong theories, wrong deductions and conclusions made in this state [the ordinary state of consciousness], we should cease to believe ourselves altogether" [p.29]; "Functions can exist without consciousness, and consciousness can exist without functions [p.30]. By functions is meant thinking, emotions, inner work of the body, moving, and sex. Without both consciousness and functions we would be dead so one can't exist without the other. "People ... in reality ... do not know anything, even about themselves" [p.40]; Man "is immortal within the limits of the solar system" [p.55]. And on and on. When Ouspensky says "You must remember that people must pay for what they hear" regarding schools which teach Ouspensky's teachings, then it make one wonder if money was not a major reason for Ouspensky's pursuits. Before this book was published, the Ouspensky teachings were kept secret for otherwise one would not need to pay to attend a school. However, the existence of this books with its statement that you must attend a school to fully understand the topic still gives some motivation for some to do this. There are Gurdjieff/Ouspensky schools in the US today but I know little about them. Thus in conclusion, if one had a friend that needed to overcome various problems and difficulties of life, I'm not sure that Ouspensky would be of much help. The main relevant point of Ouspensky is (in my opinion) that most people are stuck in an environment where they have little freedom of independent thought and action (they are part of a machine). A realization of this and steps to break away from this trap can often be beneficial, both for the individual and for society as a whole.