The Disenchantment od World and the Sense of Awe

Abstract

The object of the research is the sense of trembling, which is considered as a special human experience. In the philosophical literature, the trembling as the position is associated with this feeling as fear. The Danish philosopher S. Kierkegaard for the first time in European philosophy held demarcation between fear caused by the worldly and by the sacred. In our daily life we meet with real threats, hazards and shocks. Such fears have an obvious cause. But there is a fear of a different type. In a sense it can be called unreasonable. More precisely, its existence is caused by vague, undefined circumstances. In Kierkegaard’s book "Fear and trembling" this state is inspired by the dream of Abraham: God ordered Abraham to lay his eldest son on the altar. Wake up, Abraham is perplexed: why God condemns me to such a test? Kierkegaard assesses the fear as trivial. You never know what can dream! But Abraham is a faithful Christian. He turns to God for clarification. But the sky is silent. The fear is born in the soul of the believer, but it has an inexplicable nature. Abraham undergoes a state of trembling: it is impossible to disobey God even if you have an idea that He is wrong.

The trembling opens the way to transcendence. In a state of awe, in deep prayer or in meditation, a person appears to us as a spiritual being, not just biological. The sense of awe arises in the sphere of religious and mystical experience. There are several approaches to the problem of the origin of religion and various other beliefs, but it is important to note that the idea of the emergence of religion out of fear is unfounded. This explanation is too simple and too superficial. Simple fear could not lead person to become a seeker of meaning and a creator of culture. The religion arose not from the fright and the fear of the forces of nature. Their origin is in the awe, the particular emotional state, which is the peak state of mind. The author tries to determine the essential difference between the trembling and other, similar experiences.

First of all, the magical practice is accompanied by trembling. The magic arose in the most ancient times; the religious rites, the mysteries, the chants and dance - all this, in the opinion of the author, is no less important for the definition of an entity of human nature, than the creation of tools and labor. However, all this is the part of so-called religious worldview. Apparently, the human existence began with mystical visions and insights, and later the first tools were created by the man, and the fire obeyed him. At first the man perceived the world enthusiastically and prayerfully, and after started to learn it in a practical manner. The beginnings of religion and culture must be sought not in fear of natural phenomena and the sense of deep awe of nature and universe.

The author also addresses the problem of the numinous. This concept is introduced into literature by Rudolf Otto. The feeling of the sublime contains a duality: a person experiences helplessness in the face of elements, while has a desire to overcome this natural phenomenon, to confront the threat, to tame nature. In those moments, a person towering over oneself, and in this case natural objects and phenomena engender a feeling of the sublime not because of fear but because they awaken a higher power in man. The trembling of the sublime is overcoming fear, it is elation, a calling to action, overcoming and accomplishment. While the sense of the numinous can occur before the feeling of something that cannot even think in full.

The author emphasizes link between metaphoric image of the abyss and freedom and trembling. The abyss of freedom frightens man infinitely, because his life is finite, it fleets at the scale of the universe and eternity.

The abyss produces a trembling, which accompanies man in his forced actions within a vast emptiness. But man himself is obliged to give meaning to this emptiness. He must fill existing being with his personal and genuine sense. And then the cosmic infinity of B. Pascal, the cosmic abyss is that you have to master, to fill with your inner depths, with the same abyss. Only the infinity of the inner mental world you can fill with the infinity of the outer world. But the outer spatial infinity pales next to the inner, spiritual infinity, because the infinity of space, I can only imagine speculative, and my own inner depth, I can feel myself, to make sure by my own experience.

Trembling is a feeling, which is caused by the existential development of knowledge, as a result of genuine exploration and understanding of the information received. The actual touching to existence makes shudder the deepest levels of the human soul. But a deliberate rejection of pervasive, all-encompassing, rational, scientific knowledge can be a condition of the most complete and true knowledge. When I consciously reject attempts of rationally comprehending the world and turn to the knowledge of the irrational, the insane, open world in all its contradictions and absurdity, only then I can approach to my personal existential truth.

Trembling is a complete rejection of the authentic knowledge and the handing oneself to the faith and the transcendental beginning of the world, to the absolute, and if you will - to God. It takes great courage to jump into the abyss with the boldness of faith, to make a "leap of faith" according to Kierkegaard, to receive all, or to lose everything. In this act of faith, this volitional effort, person is always somewhere on the edge of the abyss. There are no guarantees; there is no strict logic of reason.

The author comes to the conclusion that in the modern world the sphere of trembling is reduced because, according to M. Weber, there was a "disenchantment" of the world (Entzauberung der Welt). But the sense of awe continues to be a purely human experience.