Life stages and life ages.

In the aesthetic stage, one lives in the present and at this point in my life I would consider myself living in the present; however, I have recently planned a lot of what is to come in my future. I have made myself focus more on school to raise my GPA and I have considered life options for when I finish with school. I could consider myself ethical in that I have buckled down this semester to focus more on my grades, which will affect my future, and less on socializing, which deals more with my present life. I think it is possible for one to be at different stages in their life on a daily schedule and switch from aesthetic to ethical every day, in regards to religious, I feel most people hit that stage at a later point in their life when they focus more on the future, but when a naïve young adult first steps out into the world, he or she is probably not at the religious stage, and is more in the 'now'.

My Stage

I cannot say for sure which stage I am in right now, but I can say for sure that for a long time I was in the Religious stage. I can also say for sure that I know when I grew out of that stage... my senior year of high school. For many years all i could focus on and all I put first was my religion. It was a way of life for me. Not to say I'm not religious anymore, but not to the degree I was in a few years ago. I hope that I am in a stage where I'm still learning and absorbing lessons from experiences in life.

3 Stages. One For You.

After talking about the three Stages of Life, I was wondering how any one person can be in just one stage. How does that work? I don't even know which stage I belong in, but I do believe I do not belong in the Religious one. Is there some kind of test one can take to see which one they "supposedly" fit into? I think it would be interesting to find out.

Sex, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll

After hearing about Aesthetics it reminded me of the stereotypical college lifestyle. It is always about living in the immediate and the now. Both lifestyles tend to do this. College students (some) tend to live life like life won't be there tomorrow. Many students will do many things to satisfy their boredom (excessive drinking, sex, drugs and rock n' roll) The Aesthetics 1) no authentic self 2) life is a game/show/work of art/ a production 3) Avoid the either/or decision of life, of commitment. It is STRIKINGLY similar to college life. However, why is this stereotype so important? Because it causes many problems with many students. It is only doing these activities out of boredom (Kierkegaard)

Hegels Political Obligations

This week I was reading a article about Hegel and his political theory. Although I disagreed with a lot of what Hegel wrote, it amazes me how he sounds like a philosopher that would be alive today. His writing has ideas that I would consider modern and possibly timeless. I found his ideas of duty appealing and find myself agreeing with him. He gives the example of political obligations, such as: military, taxes, and state laws. He connects the following of political obligations with the need to live a ethical life and the way we are brought up, which makes following obligations second nature. Hegel warns when we do not understand why we are complying with political obligations, then compliance is merely based on authority. This is a problem that you see all to often today, I even do this myself. For example, why do we follow speed limit laws? Is it because we understand that speed limit laws were put in place to keep the community safe or because a police officer may write us a ticket? If these laws were not enforced who would follow them? Hegel makes a great point in that if you understand the laws you are more likely to follow them without enforcement. I agree and disagree with this statement, I think if the law is being enforced you may be more likely to break it. And if the law was not being enforced but there was a common understanding and thought of responsibility of why it was important to follow the law, you may feel this strong sense of obligation to lead by example and follow the law. I would rather have speed limit laws than have none at all. And this makes me reflect on why I break speed limit laws if I agree they need to be in place. Because speed limit laws are being enforced, by breaking the law this does not mean that everyone will be allowed to break the law without a consequence. This consequence (a monetary fine) is enough for some drivers not to take the risk at all. By myself breaking the law this does not have the consequence of everyone being able to break the law. But if there was no enforcement of the laws, by myself breaking a speeding law what would stop others from doing the same? So if there was no enforcement I would have to follow the speed laws to make them relevant by example. I think that reason has been lost in the fast pace of life, excepting something because it is and not thinking about the reason behind why it is, has become very common.

A college students stage

When I look back on my freshmen year I can definitely say that my friends and I could all fall under the Aesthetic stage of life. Though it's a stereotype of freshmen, it is so true that your freshmen year you completely are living in the moment. It's your first time completely free. But now as a sophomore I see how even over the summer I began taking the "leap" to the next stage of life. I think it was especially when I turned twenty and my sister told me "In this next decade of your life you will most likely get your first real job, pay your first bills, buy a house, buy a car, get married, possibly have your first child, and be on your own health insurance." That scared me just a bit but it definitely made me realize that you can no longer live your life in the "Aesthetic" stage you have to be ethical. In my opinion, sophomore year is when all those decisions really start shaping you.

The 3 Stages

I too was considering what stage I am at when we were discussing Kierkegaard's Stages on Life's Way. I think that I probably fall equally into the asthetic and the ethical. But can one be in two stages at once? Is it possible to have qualities from all three or does a person have to be in one stage exclusively?