Community as a Psychological Reality

Mary F. Rousseau’s Book Review 

Yanu Endar Prasetyo

email: yepw33@mail.missouri.edu

  

         

"Be what you is, because If you be what you ain’t, then, you ain’t what you is"

Community is a term that we often hear and read in the literature of social sciences. However, the sense of community can be very diverse depending on the viewpoint of the thinker. One of the books of philosophy that dissects the sense of community was written by Mary F. Rousseau from Marquette University, entitled "Community: The Tie that Binds". In the beginning of her book, Rousseau started her discussion on community with the linguistic approach (etymology) of the community, then, observed the empirical significance of the community inhuman existence, human relations and social groups that are more complex. The important answer about the tie that binds us as a community can be decomposed in a logical and empirical study of Rousseau's.

The original form of community terminology comes from the Latin language, comm which means together and unus which means one. Therefore, many of community definitions then attached to the place, where people who live together at one particular time and place. However, Rousseau has a different view about this definition. She criticized the first paradox in the Latin terminology because a single and multiple (more than one) are different. The question raised after the definition, of whether it is possible many in one and one in many could exist at the same time.

In addition, this question opens our horizons about the importance of understanding not only the textual term, but also the contextual. In this case, Rousseau, following the Aristotelian philosophy, then take the example of the word person, personal and personality as an analogy for the problems of many become one. Within a human being, we are not just composed of the physical material, but also has a spirit of thought, imagination, feeling, and so forth, including personality. For this reason, many things in one places are possible and proven in real life.

Another question raised from the discussion is how human relate to the others and what binds them into the community.  Answering these questions, Rousseau refers again to the Aristotelian philosophy about philia or friendship. Friendship is reciprocal benevolence or well wishing. They wish each other well and have some genuine concern for each other's well-being. Without minimal benevolence, they would be enemies (Rousseau, 12-13). From the establishment of this relationship between two people, then Rousseau tried to explain the original form of the community. In friendship, people are required to loving than being loved. In this condition, it is known the so-called altruistic love or the willingness to sacrifice oneself for others. This is the reasons that spawned a friendship will give someone the self-fulfillment or feeling as part of a particular community.

Where there is altruism, there is a community. Without altruistic love, then, there is no community. In the concept of human relations the two actually complement each other. Rousseau observation shows that when somebody sacrifices for others, the feeling of being a whole human being will appear. If someone just thinking of himself without willing to sacrifice for others, then it’s called egocentric, the opponents of altruistic. Egoism are negate the bond of community. Although, altruistic and egoistic attitudes are not necessarily contradictory. For example, by feeding it to a beggar or bring relief to a friend, it appears contentment in ourselves. This self-satisfaction is part of selfishness, but both can be mutually supportive.

In this context, the community actually is a psychological reality. Community is not the same as physical proximity. Although people are close physically - staying at the same location, working in the same office, or together in the same room – it is not necessarily interwoven communion or community ties between them. Community is not just intimacy, because loving deeper than knowing, will deeper than mind. Community is a psychological reality that makes people willing to sacrifice for others with love. And for that willingness attitude there is a process of identification, which people think other person are just like them, so they will treat that other person as well as they treat themselves.

Rousseau discussion moves on to a topic of freedom and rights. She distinguishes a community with a social contract or association, which has the basic principles for protecting the rights and freedoms of the individual and not in terms of sacrifice for others. The social contract has egocentric motivation and impact on depersonalization. While community has an altruistic motivation and impact on ontological loneliness healing. Because of altruistic love and action from one people are not enough, peoples need the same attitude of those who interact, which is called reciprocal altruism. The willingness to sacrifice one another must be based on adequate knowledge, honesty, sincerity, commitment, and responsibility for decisions taken. At this point, then the community means the moral guidelines for living together.

As a moral compass, then the community has morally right or good and morally wrong or evil for their actions. This kind of moral values demanded deliberative actions, actions that are in control of our human consciousness and commitment to responsible for every act. This kind of moral attitude is already owned by homo sapiens with their habit of sharing food in their community. Finally, "If I want my human fulfillment, I must live in community. And if I want to live in community, I must perform hese actions and not those, with these motives and not those. But right now, I do not care about my human fulfillment. I would rather enjoy the pleasure I get from this adultery than to be manly fulfilled in being faithful to my spouse in altruistic love" (Rousseau, 116). Altruistic love may be difficult, complicated and harder still to enact in praxis, but it is not utopian, and we really have no alternative.