Purpose
Chapter 2 in Thesis – On the Universal Meaning and Significance of Spirituality –
The overarching purpose of this thesis is to understand the universal meaning and significance of spirituality for human life. More centrally it is to answer the research question “Should Spirituality be Considered a Universal and Vital Dimension of Human Life? This thesis consists of five major chapters, each with the purpose of making a unique contribution to this overarching purpose. I will now proceed to explain how these subordinate purposes relate to the overarching purpose.
Part (1) Before going into the big questions on the universal meaning and significance of spirituality, it is important to establish a historical context for the topic. Therefore the purpose of the first section will be to understand spirituality in a historical context.
Part (2) In order to perform investigations into the universal vitality of spirituality for human life, we will first need to establish a universal understanding of vitality and spirituality. With these definitions in place, it will be possible to properly identify spirituality, even in those who do not consider themselves to be spiritual, and to determine whether spirituality should be considered a universal and vital dimension of human life. Therefore, the purpose of the second section is to establish a universal definition of vitality and spirituality.
Part (3) If spirituality is vital to human life, then we must first of all establish that spirituality is a universal part of human nature such as we might say of thoughts, dreams and emotions, as opposed to a cultural product such as we might say of this or that ideology. If spirituality is truly a universal part of human nature, then we would predict to find spirituality universally across cultures and for the different forms of spirituality to display a significant degree of regularity, as this would reflect a universal underlying nature. By extension, we would also expect to find spirituality in those who do not consider themselves spiritual. Therefore, the purpose of the third section of this thesis will be to investigate to what extent spirituality is universal across cultures.
Part (4) To further establish whether spirituality is a universal aspect of human nature and to what extent it may be vital for human life, we will look for evidence in universal human biology. If spirituality is truly universal and vital to human life, then we would expect it to be reflected in universal human biology and therefore to play a natural role in ordinary human functioning, even for those who do not consider themselves spiritual. Therefore the purpose of the fourth section is to investigate whether indeed there is a universal biological basis for spirituality and how it relates to ordinary human functioning.
Part (5) Finally, to determine the extent to which spirituality is vital to human life, we will look into the relationship between spirituality and human health. If indeed spirituality is a vital dimension of human life then we would expect it to be proportionally correlated with human health. Therefore the purpose of the third section is to investigate the relationship between spirituality and human health.
Before going into the thesis, it is also important to understand what the purpose is not. The purpose of this thesis is not to understand the ultimate nature of spirituality, i.e. whether spirituality is a product of the brain, a feature of the universe, or something else. For this reason spirituality will be defined purely in terms of universal human experience, not in terms of an interpretation of those experiences. The reason for this, is that any worldview specific definition of spirituality, will by definition not be universal. It may be argued – is it not necessary to know the nature of something to determine whether it should be considered a vital dimension of human life? To answer this, we might think of sleep by comparison. Is it not necessary to know the ultimate nature of sleep in order to determine if it is vital for human life? Not necessarily. To determine this, one need only know whether the experience of sleep is present. So long as it is known when and to what extent a person is sleeping it is possible to determine whether it is vital for human life. For instance, with this knowledge, one can abstain from sleeping and observe the consequences. In this thesis, it will be assumed that the same is true of spirituality, and for this reason and for the purpose of establishing a universal definition of spirituality, this thesis will not make any claims about the nature of spirituality. The only assumption that will be made about spirituality in this thesis, is that it reflects something real in the human experience.
In summary the purpose of this thesis is to understand the universal vitality of spirituality for human life, by 1. Providing a universal definition of vitality and spirituality, 2. Investigating to what extent spirituality is universal across cultures, 3. Investigating whether and to what extent there is a universal biological basis for spirituality and how it relates to ordinary human functioning, and 4. investigating the relationship between spirituality and human health
Author – Sagi Andersen