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What do I fear?

Nothing. Except...

It took a few conversations with a professor of mine and a late-night discussion with someone exceptionally special to me to determine that one of my greatest fears is that of being forgotten. I don't think this fear of mine is particularly unique to me or even uncommon; I think most people should like to be remembered--and it need not be so grandiose as say, remembered by history, but as ordinary as being remembered by loved ones. Unfortunately for myself, I've been struck with the double-whammy fear of being forgotten on both fronts.

I want to be remembered fondly by those dearest to me. For all of the love that I had to give.

I want to be remembered with reverence by history. For my contributions and achievements towards the glory of mankind.

So that's some of it; the negative feedback that partially informs my motivations. Why do I do the things that I do? Because I'm afraid of being forgotten. That ought to clear up a little bit of ambiguity. Fear can be a powerful motivator; afterall, that's the basis for punishment. To motivate someone to behave well--whether that be a small child to obey her parents' directives, or a citizen observing and obeying the law--there necessarily has to be the threat of punishment to ensure proper behavior, and that punishment must instill adequate fear into the heart of the motivated agent in order to guarantee cooperation.

I think the punishment suits me extremely well, and I'm sure my enemies would find glee in the fact that--should I not operate at my best, should I not love appropriately, should I not strive, should I not work to achieve, should I not be virtuous--I will be forgotten. That is my personal Hell that I can bring upon myself if I fail to fulfill any of those aforementioned conditions. If I decide to slack off, stop learning, become bitter, accept complacency, carry scorn...that would be my justly deserved punishment. Rendered personally for me, and all culpability crushingly lies on me.

It's a demoralizing situation to find oneself in, certainly.

Sometimes I hate people. I see how ungrateful and dishonest people can be in the news and around me.

Sometimes I don't feel good. I don't want to work, I don't want to study, I don't want to exercise.

Sometimes I get tired. I don't want to struggle anymore, I want to settle, I want to be 'done'.

But I can't stop, or else my fears will come true. Fortunately, there is something to counterbalance this fear. Maybe it can rally some morale for you as well?

For this, let's turn to the wisdom of the Greeks. To think that they developed ideas about the world that had intimations towards our modern theories of evolution, astrophysics, atomics...it's truly astonishing and a testament to how great their thinkers were. Of those thinkers and of those ideas that have captured my interest are Plato and Aristotle's conceptualizations of the soul. Full disclosure: things that confuse me, contradict me, or otherwise unsettle me capture most of my attention. I never really understood these conceptualizations until recently, so they've taken residence in my mind for some time now. Now that things have 'clicked'...well, let's say that this particular set of ideas are especially moving. We'll leave it at that.

Right. So, Aristotle, in his endlessly empirical and curious disposition, noted that there were essentially three orders of animate organisms. Plants, animals, and humans. All of these creatures contained some fundamental nature to them--this fundamental nature was thought to be their soul. These souls were arranged in a hierarchical structure. At the bottom, the soul of a plant is said to be nutritive in nature: capable only of growth and reproduction. In the middle tier, the soul of an animal is said to be nutritive plus sensual in nature: capable not only of growth and reproduction, but also capable of sensation and locomotion. Finally, at the top of the hierarchy lies the human soul: nutritive, sensual, plus rational. Humans are capable of growth, reproduction, sensation, locomotion, and uniquely, rationality.

"Okay, who cares? That's obvious."

It's necessary to point out that human beings are unique in that rationality is intrinsic to their very nature, to their soul. Why? Because it's instrumental in understanding Aristotle's teacher--Plato's--theory on the immortality of the soul. Plato posited that the human soul is separable from the body, and thus it endures after death. Contrast this to Aristotle, who, being quite the contrarian, posited that the body and soul are inseparable--this sort of suggests that the soul is not immortal. What's surprising to me is how both of them, while adopting opposing viewpoints on the matter, are both right in a certain sense.

On the Platonic side of things, he is correct. When he is speaking of the human soul, he is speaking of the rationalistic 'power' of thought; the product of which are thoughts, ideas, mental constructions...whatever you'd like to call them. The highlighting point here is that these entities, as well as the capacity that produces them, are immaterial. Hence they are indestructable; they are immortal. Your own capacity for thought, as well as the ideas you generate are enduring, ad infinitum.

Incorporating the Aristotelian take on the matter, thoughts and ideas cannot manifest in the world, nor can the rationalistic 'power' of thought exist without a physical agent possessing it (and being possessed by the thoughts and ideas themselves) i.e. the mind. In this way, body and soul are inseparable, but it can still be argued that the soul itself is immortal. I find it absolutely stunning that this ancient theory of the soul is incredibly relevant today, as modern AI theorists posit that AI necessarily has to be embodied if it is ever to be remotely human-like. Digressions aside, the take-away here is that your thoughts and ideas can be propagated throughout time as they are assimilated by others' minds.

Incorporating these two arguments concerning the immortality of the soul...I find a great deal of beauty that puts that aforementioned fear of mine to rest. I will never be forgotten, and my soul will live on into eternity, so long as men continue to express their fundamental nature that includes reasoning, and so long as they acquire, embody, and propagate good ideas far into the future. The reason why I say 'good' ideas here is because it is very well possible to propagate 'bad' ideas into the future, and those ideas are just as indestructible as the good ones. However, I believe that there is a kind of goodness in truth; the truth is enduring because it is aligned with goodness. Good ideas persist because they are true; bad ones 'die' off (they are no longer embodied) because they are not true. 

In my mind, this reiterates the importance of behaving in accordance to what is right, what is true, and what is good: to comport oneself towards virtue. So long as one exercises virtue, they cannot be forgotten--not by their loved ones, not by their community, and if exercised with sincere care and enough steadfast diligence, not by mankind at large. 

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