Directions
There are 3 different discussion posts for this assignment. Each discussion post must be one page long and over 250 words. I have pasted the articles and YouTube videos below.
Discussion 1:
We have become acquainted with the “Eight Limbs” of Yoga Practice.
Using your lecture notes, videos, and the online notes, write a post that explains (1) which one of the Eight Limbs is most interesting to you and (2) explain why that is. (3) Is there anything familiar to you about this “limb”? Or would it represent a different kind of experience for you?
Discussion 2:
There is no reality except in action. Humans are nothing else than their plans; they exist only to the extent that they fulfill themselves; they are therefore nothing else than the ensemble of their acts, nothing else than their lives. –Jean Paul Sartre, from Existentialism is a Humanism (our reading).
Your task in this assignment and discussion is to see how someone in your life (or more than one person), responds to the idea that it is our choices and actions that make up who we are. Owning up to these choices and actions creates our authenticty. Refelcting on whether or not our choices and actions are truly our own and we take responsibility for them –for better or worse–creates authenticity. Failing to own our choices and take responsibility for them or avoiding choices and responsibility or blaming others for them creates inauthenticity. You can ask someone what they understand living an authentic (or inauthentic life) is.
As usual — the means to do this invesitgation is wide open. You can ask a friend, familiy member, neighbor, roomate or use social media,
Write up a report on this invesitgation and post it in this discussion board.
Discussion 3:
In his essay, “Existentialism is a Humanism,” Sartre presents his idea that for human beings “Existence precedes Essence.”
An Essence is the set of qualities that makes something what it is — what defines something. What makes water what it is? It is H2O. What makes a knife a knife? It is something that has a blade and is a tool typically used for cutting things. Importantly, when things have an “essence” this dictates what it is, how it will be made, and what roles it can play. The “soul” of a human being would be it’s essence. Likewise, DNA.
In this sense, when we believe things including people have essences, we find the Essence precedes Existence. That the way that something is (pre)designed determines how it exists.
Sartre claims this is totally wrong for how to regard humans and our actions. He says, “Existence precedes Essence” (the reverse.)
Existence precedes Essence means that first we exist — we are born and begin our lives in this world — and the choices that we make (or do not make) determine who we are — what our Essence is.
We create our own essence and nothing else can define us. We are totally free to decide. We are self-defining!
With this comes great responsibility. We can choose to go along with things and let them define us and make our decisions for us, or we can try our best to live authentically and own up to the decisions we make.
In this discussion board, write a post explaining what you think is one benefit of thinking of ourselves as totally self-defining and then explain what might be one cost of thinking this.