In times of uncertainty, we somehow especially keenly want to be equal to someone “exemplary”. We are looking for directions. But is it worth looking outside?
The search for new role models has become a sign of our time. Where to look for them: perhaps among our politicians? I’m afraid we won’t. How about businessmen? Also a dubious example of exemplary behavior, especially in terms of morality.
One gets the impression that the idea of looking for authorities goes without saying. As if during a crisis, we simply cannot survive if we do not find worthy examples to follow. But isn’t it much more urgent for us now to awaken our own creative possibilities than our ability to reproduce what someone else has already created? The main difficulty lies in the very concept of the ideal — under the pretext of recalling the obvious, a controversial concept is proposed, the essence of which is this: we develop only if we follow a good example. It would be hard to find a more ambiguous statement.
In fact, we have before us a meeting of two different philosophical schools. On the one hand, Plato, for whom the imitation of the ideal is vain and is only a faint reflection of eternal ideas. Plato is echoed by Kant and Nietzsche: imitation hinders the development of a person’s talents, his originality. Both philosophers operate with the concept of exemplary, but put into it a meaning different from Plato: Kant speaks of the exemplary/exclusiveness of an artistic genius as a role model that can inspire many, while remaining unique. For Nietzsche, the exemplary nature of the superman manifests itself in the scale of the dream that he gives to people. At the same time, he himself does not become an ideal. If we follow this logic, we certainly need authorities: we need to find a new model.
On the other hand, Aristotle and Freud. They say that imitation as self-identification can contribute to the internal growth of a person. According to Freud, I become myself as I get to know myself by interacting with different people. As I get to know my own individuality, I realize that I am not at all the person with whom I identified myself.
Thus, if there is a discussion about imitation as a boon for the inner growth of a person, the concept of a moral model is, of course, an absurdity: no one can become a moral person by blindly copying patterns of moral behavior. To become moral means to root in your soul and consciousness the understanding of good and evil, not to hide from your conscience at the moment when you are torn between the desire to do good for another and to observe your own interests.
We are talking about testing the strength of that inner autonomy, in which Kant saw the foundation of human moral behavior. This idea is opposite to the concept of imitating a good example. And you can also ask yourself a question about the benefits of immoral, inappropriate behavior: perhaps its manifestations will become that sharp, but saving impetus that will wake up our dormant conscience?