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12019-04-07T22:03:46-07:00Sam Henrickson5cd0ff97c337b26d01e84db58bdb9506b40fff7a3351914Hubvisual_path8569102019-04-20T19:42:41-07:00Sam Henrickson5cd0ff97c337b26d01e84db58bdb9506b40fff7aThe phrase "Maximal Greatness" is one used by religious philosophers in an ontological argument about the existence of God. The premise takes Anselm of Canterbury's argument that God is the greatest of all- there is no one-upping what we consider to be the most great, even in contemplation. Philosophers like Alvin Plantinga took this through an analytical process, separating the concepts of Maximal Greatness and Maximal Excellence, and came up with this concept:
1. Something is Maximally Excellent if it is omniscient, omnipotent and morally perfect. 2. It is Maximally Great if it is Maximally Excellent in all possible strings of existence.
There is significantly more to this argument that I neither can nor wish to get into, but this line of thinking did give me pause: what does Maximal Greatness, or, more reasonably, Maximal Excellence look like in humans? And then, another thought: what does it look like outside of humans?
Therefore, I propose that all species have something they are looking to attain within and by the boundaries of their "religion." Since "goodness" or "moral perfection" as described by Plantinga are inarguably an intrinsically human construct, and since a human's version of Maximal Excellence includes these blatantly human concepts along with all-knowledge and all-sight, this is what humans consider to be the Ultimate Perfection- something to strive to be but something understood to be unattainable. The intrinsic desperation to become something that is not what one currently is, despite the impossibility, includes a kind of faith and constant forward motion inherent to religion.
The word "perfection" is obviously a flawed word, since the concept of "perfect" is inherently human, but unfortunately as a human being I (the author) only have so many words to choose from: language is a flawed vice I am bound to.
Ultimate Perfection is the living goal of all practitioners of religion-- it is distinct from any and all eschatological concerns (what happens after death, what happens when the world ends) and instead it encompasses the desire both individually and as a species to move upward and forward and ever outward into the constant state of becoming Ultimately Perfect, despite the knowledge it is an impossible feat to achieve.'
“Anselm: Ontological Argument for God's Existence.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, www.iep.utm.edu/ont-arg/.
