HISTORY AS A WAY TO THE IDEAL

Abstract

The article examines the role of the social ideal in history according to the evolution of the Perfect Person image. The Ideal is understood as the image of the appropriate that allows one to assess the things in existence and direction of its development. The pursuit of the Ideal, the essential intention of the person required for their incarnation is one of the driving forces of history. Every historical period constructs its own image of a perfect person and strives to get closer to this image. Ideas about the Perfect Man have been shaped throughout the whole human history, which reflects the permanent dissatisfaction that is inherent to human – dissatisfaction with himself and the world around, the lack of implementation of the essence in their existence, intention to gain their own deepest identity. The first Perfect Man was a Beast. In the prehistoric period it was the Outer Beast that had to be conquered, whereas in antiquity it was the Inner Beast. That was when the first identity crisis arose as a result of inadequate self-esteem ("man as the measure of all things"). The Perfect Man of the Middle Ages was God. The Beast now belonged to the inaccessible past, while God was in the unattainable eternal. This was the second identity crisis. In modern times the Perfect Man becomes a Man. The concept of perfection (as a real possibility) within a man becomes domineering. However, depriving a Man of metaphysics leads to the third identity crisis. In modern times the Perfect Man, increasingly, appears to be a Machine as a man devoid of human weaknesses with heightened human qualities. The analogy between human and machine leads to the fourth identity crisis. The New Perfect Man will be a man as a unique result of the development of all human culture, the synthesis of the unique and the universal.