Are We Alone?

The Fermi paradox (check it out here) the idea that there are so many opportunities for life within the universe that it must exist somewhere, and yet we can find no evidence- prompts the question “are we alone in the universe?”

A fascinating question, but what if we turned the focus back inward, pointed the spotlight at ourselves, and asked “are we alone?” Much of Western philosophic thought traces itself back to Aristotle, who made a distinction between the soul and the body. Further, Western thought makes a distinction between individuals. Each soul and body makes a single entity which then interacts with other entities.

Government then becomes an organization to police these interactions, and society the overall structure given to the mess of interactions entities have with each other. But entertain the thought that this might not be true. Perhaps closer to the truth is Eastern thought, which places the definition of a human person somewhere between an individual locus and the relationships that locus develops with others, all of which in part define who that locus becomes.

Theologically, the explanation is simple. God is alone in power and glory, yet He is not alone. The Divine Mystery of the Trinity- three persons in one- seems to claim that part of who God is, at His core, is relationship. After all, God is love, and love is other centered– it must have an object. God’s love spills out into creation, and He loves what He sees so much that he rushes to embrace it- incarnation theology refers to Jesus, God and Man, as God’s kiss with His creation. He created matter and loved it so much He wished to embrace it. God is relational. It is part of who He is. In like manner, we are relational, created in His image and likeness.

But as in all things, we should not stop with theology. Philosophy should reach the same result too. Fortunately, simple human experience should suffice. Imagine if you had not known your mother, if you had not known your best friend, or if you had not had that teacher in school that motivated you to take the extra effort, or who inspired you into your major. Would you not be a different person? We cannot escape the reality that we are relational, and defined by our relations.

There’s a reason why you become like those you spend the most time with (this has led some to pose that you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Check out the truth, and danger, of that here). When two people are in love, do they not take a hurt to their significant other as a hurt on themselves? This is because part of who they are is entangled up in their relationship with the other. A certain feminist philosopher famously defined human beings as “embodied inter-subjectivity.” She argued that even hermits could not escape a context of having been born and raised in connection with others.

While we all consist of subjective consciousnesses, and experience the world through our own bodies, part of what defines that subjectivity are our relationships with other subjects, consciousnesses themselves that are experiencing the world in their own bodies.

So what does this mean for us? It means that part of who we are is tied up in others, and our relationship with them. It means that how we treat others can directly affect who we make ourselves to be. It means that if we desire to be better people, perhaps we should look outward, at the same time as looking inward. It means that if we struggle, we can look to others for aid, for after all, their relationship with us partly defines us. It means that in always trying to be a more perfect follower of Christ, of goodness and virtue, we must take care to pay attention to our relationships, and strive to make them better relationships, for in making our relationships better, we make ourselves better.

So we look inward. Are we alone? The emphatic answer is no. We are never alone. Spiritually, God is always with us. A relational God, He desires intimacy with His creation, and comes to embrace us. But philosophically, we are interconnected. When I hurt you, I hurt myself. When I help you, I help myself. I was born into relation, I live in relation, and through that relationship I affect, change, and significantly help to define others. We are not alone. Everyone you are in contact with is a part of you.

So perhaps we should look to our relationships. We are not always the best people in the world. The unfortunate thing about subjectivity is that we cannot get into the point of view of someone else. But we can try to understand. So, how might you make one of your relationships better in some way today?