A Guide For The Perplexed Analysis

I am Perplexed
E.F. Schumacher’s A Guide for the Perplexed was written in an age where theology and namely God have been taken off from a pedestal and set aside for other things to become kingdoms. In this text Schumacher attempts to show Christianity as the foundation of life and its principles for understanding, knowing yourself, and knowing God. Schumacher is able to accomplish this through taking the arguments for faith and Gods existence and breaking them down and explaining the accuracies from the “levels of being” to the “Four Fields of Knowledge”. He also encounters several theories and beliefs as to why to disprove Christianity, namely God. He uses several methods and themes throughout the text but I have chosen three of which to
analyze. The first is the reoccurring theme of Science. Science and Faith can go hand in hand, however most do not see it this way. The past one hundred and fifty years science has taken over the minds of the masses as being the truth to all questions. Schumacher puts it well as a shift from “science from understanding to science for manipulation”. (104) Science from understanding “saw man in the image of God” and “was directed primarily towards the sovereign good, i.e., the True, the Good, and the Beautiful, knowledge that would bring happiness and salvation.”(54) Science for manipulation was the complete opposite. It seen man as “…nothing but an accidental product of evolution, a higher animal, a social animal…”(55) The problem that arises with this is the use of scientific reason to manipulate everything so that “I” have the power. This way a person can find his kingdoms within himself without looking towards a higher being. Schumacher tries to break this down with the understanding of the “levels of being”. This is a hierarchal structure of beings starting from the lowest (matter) to the highest (God). If I am to use Schumacher’s method to demonstrate the meaning in this I would use the letter “M” as matter. Rocks have no consciousness and no life just “M”. If I move a step higher into the levels I would come to plants. Plants have “M”, but also contain an additional “X” which represents life.
A step higher moves to animals. Animals have matter “M”, they have life “X” and they also have something that rocks and plants do not; they have “Y” consciousness. Now at the highest position that is seen with the senses is Human Beings. Humans have matter “M”, they have life “X”, they have consciousness “Y”, but finally they have something that puts humans as the highest being according to our senses, they have “Z” self-awareness. Other than matter, the rest of these attributes cannot have closures in science and that is precisely why the humanities are less respected than the material sciences which only focus on matter. In fact most material sciences have success in studying the human body and what makes the human body function. This material science however does not cover the topic on “what makes a human a human?” With this, science tries to come to the ideological closure that humans and animals are alike as a complex system of arranged molecules and focus little attention to our invisible traits that all humans share. “To say that life is nothing but a property of certain peculiar combinations of atoms is like saying that Shakespeare’s Hamlet is nothing but a property
of a peculiar combination of letters.” (19) Because human beings do not operate under instinct like animals there needs to be that recognization of what sets apart humans from animals. There are two different types of traits that humans share that are the visible and the invisible. The visible traits are those which are picked up by the human senses such as the way a person speaks or his gestures. The invisible traits are those which are not picked up by our senses and are difficult for science to prove. These traits include emotional pain, sympathy, happiness, etc. Human beings have the power of self awareness and this is a trait that puts the human race closer to God than the other levels of being. We were made in the likeness of his son Jesus Christ. Some however have a hard time distinguishing between consciousness and self awareness and how they are two completely different traits. This is what normally sets up the argument for the human soul. In the animal kingdom there is consciousness and that is a fact. Humans however can relate to something that an animal cannot, the feeling of “I”. It is through this “I” that one can look inside themselves and try to understand their inner parts. One can start to understand inner parts if it was compared to that of an animal. An animal that does have consciousness but does not have self awareness acts upon instinct and makes its intentions known through its actions. For example, when you walk up on a dog you can somewhat determine what the dog is thinking. If the hair is standing up on its back and it is growling, this probably refers to the dog being angry. However if the dog wags its tail and licks your hand, you can assume this dog is friendly and not angry. Human beings are much more complex than this because of the trait of self awareness. It is also through this self awareness that humans can try to use reason or science to try and disprove Christianity and God. This is a trait that God gives the human race knowing well what powers it entails. It is normal to test our understanding, we must do this to not come to an ideological closure on the matter. Now becoming more and more popular is this sense of “I” becoming God. Our morals have swung from the Christian faith of helping our fellow man towards a better good, towards helping “myself” towards a better good. Humans all have different ideals and different morals which is why humans seek out to understand one another. You must first understand yourself before you can understand another person. Through reason you can come to the conclusion that God exists, but you cannot know and understand God through reason alone.
This is the second theme that Schumacher used. “Adaequatio (Adequateness) …the understanding of the knower must be adequate to the thing being known.”(39) A fortunate thing to the Human race would be the five senses that most human beings are blessed with. These bodily senses are used to have things that happen in the senses realm make sense of them to the mind. Most human beings are the same as far as the five senses; however where human beings differ is the “Adaequatio”. Schumacher also insists that self awareness and consciousness are recognizable not through our senses but through something else. This must be some sort of organ that is not our senses but is indescribable. Schumacher uses the example of Beethoven and the music that he has composed. Some human beings could listen to a piece of Beethoven’s’ music repeatedly and never grasp the meaning of it and only see it as several music notes compiled together to make a song. However a person who posesses the ability of “Adaequatio” hears the music piece for exactly as Beethoven had intended it. It is this to where some cannot know or understand God. It is through this understanding of God that I can understand what he reveals about himself and installs my faith in him. When a person can know and understand God he then can find the truth in Him. This is where reason says that a person can only
achieve the truth that he seeks through the mind and not through the heart. The bodily senses are commonly associated with truth. Nothing can be believed if it cannot be seen, heard, felt, spoken, or tasted. Schumacher says “No one denies that mathematical and geometrical truths are “seen” in this way. To prove a proposition means to give it a form, by analysis, simplification, transformation, or dissection, through which the truth can be seen; beyond this seeing there is neither the possibility of nor the need for any further proof.”(46) There are other modes of “seeing” however. Schumacher uses an example of when a friend is trying to express something to another and the friend is not communicating it to other person properly. The other person may still be able to “see” what the friend meant. St. Augustine puts it as “Faith is the heart of the matter. Faith tells us what there is to understand; it purifies the heart, and so allows reason to profit from discussion; it enables reason to arrive at an understanding of Gods revelation.”(46) The Buddhists also refer to a different type of seeing as “the Eye of the heart” (47) where it is known that a person does not know all in the beginning but rather seeks out the information and applies it. “This is the process of gaining adaequatio, of developing the instrument capable of seeing and thus understanding the truth that does not merely inform the mind but liberates the soul.” (47) The third theme that is shown in Schumacher’s text is referring to a persons “inner life”. This is something that is hard for a person to comprehend and something that science cannot make proofs about. The inner parts consist of consciousness, life, and self awareness. This understanding of the “inner life” of humans is hard to understand, even harder to understand with animals and almost impossible with plants and minerals. The Four Fields of Knowledge that Schumacher refers to helps grasp the topic with a little more understanding. First is the knowledge of a humans “inner world”. This is what a person knows and understands about himself. For instance, Schumacher brings up the topic of pain in oneself. If a person suffers a loss of a loved one they consequently understand the feeling of emotional “pain”. This is quite different than physical pain. A person cannot feel emotional pain with his senses rather they only understand the emotional feeling. But Schumacher brings up an interesting point in saying “If only that which can be observed by our senses is deemed to be real, “objective,” “scientifically respectable,” pain must be dismissed as unreal, “subjective,” “unscientific.”(83) This is interesting for the fact that every human mature enough to understand has felt emotional pain. Because this pain is not observed by the outer senses it is dismissed? Human beings acknowledge this pain with as much conviction as if it were physical pain. The second Field of Knowledge is a bit more complex than the latter. It is the focus of the “inner world” in other beings. This field is filled to the brim with assumptions and allegations. Under further investigation however I can find them to be false if I were to seek out the persons that I intend to know. I cannot rely on facial expressions and bodily posture to give myself the right assumptions on who another person is. This is broken up into what I like to call four mini fields of knowledge.
First, the communicant must know, with some precision, what the thought is he wishes to convey. Second, he must find visible (and audible) symbols—gestures, bodily movements, words, intonation, etc.—which in his judgment most accurately “externalize” his “internal” thought. This may be called “the first translation.” Third, the listener must have faultless reception of these visible (etc.) symbols, which means that he must not only accurately hear what is being said but also accurately observe the nonverbal symbols (such as gesture and intonation) that are being employed. Fourth, the listener must then in some way integrate the numerous symbols he has received and turn them back into thought. This may be called “the second translation.”(81)
The third Field of Knowledge is how I am portrayed in the eyes of others. This can be interpreted by the persons facial expressions, body posture or the things that are expressed to you through them, but none of these are very consistent or reliable unless there is complete faith in that person to tell the truth. The best way is to “Put yourself into their shoes.” This simply means that I would be able to understand the situation and the thoughts of the person or persons in question about how I am looked upon. The fourth and final Field of Knowledge is how I see the appearance of the World. Schumacher intends “appearance” to mean “…everything that offers itself to our senses.”(100) Evolution, Materialism, Greed and hatred are several things that pop out into the culture of today. We seem to find that the material sciences are more respectable than the humanities sciences even though the humanities sciences are studying human beings and the material sciences are studying matter. This seems to be a rather backwards way of practices when compared to the pre-enlightenment era. Schumacher releases this text when the candle of atheism is burning bright. However Schumacher seems to do an excellent job at showing his knowledge of the subject without creating any loop holes or skipping any major factors. The Christian faith has been under much scrutiny more so than any other religion as of late. This book comes in an important time where atheism seems to be getting more popular by the day regardless of how the statistics pile up. When I fully reflect on the themes that Schumacher has used I cannot have any disagreement towards them. When it comes to science Schumacher does a fantastic job at being accessible to everyone so that it is widely understandable. When the facts are put into terms like the “Levels of Being” it gives the reader a hard time at trying to disprove this theory. It is truly hard to deny the fact that humans have “visible” and “invisible” traits as well. Schumacher makes it very clear on these traits and how humans use them. The only thing that I would have liked Schumacher to do was to more clearly state why it has come to this point of thinking where the Christian faith is some type of disorder. The “Adaequatio” is a hard concept to grasp on its own. Schumacher does an excellent job of showing this and how it relates in our everyday lives. We need to understand God before we know God and we need to understand faith before we know faith. Some cannot understand at all. When put into these terms it does make Christianity seem somewhat exclusive. However when God is sought out to be understood, that is when the Christian faith becomes inclusive. Finally, the last theme covered, the Four Fields of Knowledge and its understanding. These four fields give the reader the final understanding on why we as human beings question ourselves and even remotely care what others think of us. This is crucial when the atheists use theories, such as humans being a computer program and they only do what they are programmed to do. Overall I believe Schumacher’s A Guide for the Perplexed was a success at challenging the theories of believers and non-believers. Schumacher is able to give a leg to stand on with all of his facts and acquired knowledge. I recommend this book to the people of faith and without so that a person can fully understand his faith or lack thereof.