Acidae and Basis: Phulisophies of Interaction
In many theories of social construction a great deal of debate focuses on whether or not the most fundamental aspect of human nature, emotion, is, itself, a product of social construct. Emphasis supporting this claim seems to orbit around the notion that certain emotions that existed at one time in a particular culture have waned or ceased to exist all together. It is my belief, however, that it is impossible to categorize or label an emotion purely by virtue of its public display, or lack thereof. Therefore, the idea that emotions are socially constructed seems to be nothing more than the idea of an ever-changing cultural perspective of linguistic framework. One of the emotions brought up in social construction argument is accidie. Before we can decide the role of this emotion in the context of social construction, it is important to understand exactly what is meant by the word. Accidie, in its simplest form, means the rejection of life. It has been likened to more contemporary terms such as sloth or laziness; however, these ideas seem to have a more trivial nature when juxtaposed with the original cultural significance of accidie. (Harre & Finlay-Johns 1986) Unlike its counterparts, accidie
With this perspective, it is very difficult to classify accidie into their idea of social construction theory since, so far as I can tell, it does not deal with emotions head on. The philosophical idea that accidie went through a cycle of life, death and possible rebirth is absurd for several reasons. For lack of a better term, this longing and possible joy combination can be translated contemporarily as greed, which is merely a newer way of expressing the said feeling. A sense of joy, due to the notion that he is not really responsible for anything at that point, may also become a factor. Does this mean that the infant who screams and cries because of a nightmare is not yet a part of society merely by virtue of age? It appears that these philosophers have taken a sound theory of economics and attempted to apply it to an unrelated area which has resulted in some rather far-fetched and absurd ideas. The same emotional equation could be carried out at any given point in time and in any given culture, provided that there is the idea of a higher power to be upset with. Because the other members of the tribe are supposed to be forgiving of the actions of a person with the disease and because all debts are written off, the said person may see the disease as a way out of his burden. It deals only with language and its variances. It seems, in my opinion, that there is a confusion regarding the definition of what constitutes an emotion. Like social normative behavior, linguistic framework differs vastly between cultures and times. This can be illustrated quite clearly by the class discussion of what a bum is. The emotion does not simply disappear because the majority of a society chooses to ignore it or simply forgets about it. Accidie, for example, is the name given to how a given person deals with a specific situation involving grief of an unknown or subconscious nature, longing for something new in his or her life, and possibly a level of disgust with the current situation. Throughout our brief history on this planet, societal norms have undergone many changes.
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