There is no civilization without the individual

Greetings,

Free-thinking, free-conscienced, beautiful people.

Continuing to look through the mirror of art...

What appears to us today in the mirror of art is the "Individual".

What is an individual, anyway? Aren't we all subjects?

Are you saying, "Don't go inventing things, Professor Abidin"?

Even if you don't say it out loud, it has crossed your mind a little bit.

We know each other, don't we?

Besides, I am not the one saying it anyway...

It is Protagoras, who lived between 481 and 420 BC, who says it.

So, what does he say?

He says, "Man is the measure of all things."

Well, there you have it.

Isn't this something that subjects like us cannot understand?

Let me answer my own question: by God, it is.

Naturally, you are curious, aren't you? Who is this troublemaker who lived 2,500 years ago and is still causing unrest today?

This analytical statement about humanity by Protagoras, considered the founder and most important philosopher of the Sophist philosophy—which is accepted as the enlightenment thought of the Ancient Greek era—has initiated a debate on the fact that a human being is a creature that must first resolve itself within itself. Because the human brain, which can elevate external reality experienced through the senses into an image in its consciousness and then into a conceptual level thanks to the ability to reflect upon it, has thus been able to realize its own autonomy and reveal its own subjective truth. But this subjective truth has turned into subjective truths. Because every human being is born into a separate story and finds existence there.

For example, the colors in flowers, trees, or the sky do not create the same effect in the brains of the people who are the owners of the eyes watching them. Data drawn from nature and humanity through sensory experience can create different emotions depending on the psychological, temporal, and spatial conditions the person is in at that moment.

Well, if what we perceive through our senses puts us in different states, just like the cases of a noun, doesn't that make us relative to one another? Of course it does.

Well... all that you have explained is fine and good, but are you saying, "Don't forget that humans have developed a verbal, literary, and visual language to externalize their interaction with the things that make up the totality called external reality, outside of their own ontological truths, and to make them an object of communication among themselves"?

Could we ever forget that? How could that be? Dear reader, if we forget this, wouldn't we forget both the individual and civilization, and wouldn't the subject of this article be left hanging in the air? It would.

Have you ever wondered? Who was the first to put the first word into speech? Who invented the first letters and who made the first picture? I bet you have thought about it....

Those who made all these firsts were people like you and me. Perhaps they were not individuals in the modern and contemporary sense, but they had separated from the herd. If they had been told back then, "Don't invent things, sit down where you are," what would have become of us? We wouldn't even be able to see what we call civilization in our dreams; that is all that would have happened.

Thanks to those among our human ancestors who took these first steps, our voices, letters, and visualizations have enabled us to communicate, write poetry, paint, create literature, and in short, to create tradition, culture, and belief by practicing every kind of art, and to do philosophy by reflecting on all of these.

Thus, the human being and their power of imagination, by integrating with their creative talents, have been able to make the human being the subject of their own thought. In other words, the first step toward becoming an individual was taken. So, who were the first to contribute historically to the formation of the social context of this journey of individualization? The Sophist philosophers, who made the human being and their social lives the subject of thought and philosophy outside of nature, accelerated this development. These philosophers, who discovered the potential of human creative acts, set out to prove, both intellectually and practically, that everyone could create their own superior versions through education. Even if these educations were not free...

Anyway, let's say every beautiful thing has a flaw and return to our topic.

Starting from the Periclean era in Ancient Athens, only men whose mothers and fathers were Athenian were accepted as free citizens, and this period hosted the first direct democracy ever implemented in history. In this period, decisions were made in popular assemblies where citizens had the right to vote directly, and appointments for many state offices were made by lot. Thus, an ordinary Athenian citizen could also serve in the bureaucracy. Thanks to democracy, citizens were able to find the opportunity to speak in courts and assemblies, and this situation forced them to improve themselves in the field of oratory. It was at this very stage that the Sophists stepped in and began to teach citizens oratory (rhetoric), the art of debate, virtue, astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, and music. These lessons and the rights provided by the political regime were very important for the creation of the social projection of the individual will, which would desire the ability to act autonomously—necessary to be an individual in the face of the governing power—and to live this legally and politically, and to be able to sustain it.

For the Ancient Enlightenment, the intellectual and educational contributions of the Sophists in Athens under the leadership of Pericles played a historical role in social transformation; traditional beliefs were questioned, and rationalist thought came to the fore. In other words, the possibilities of becoming an individual emerged, even if only for free citizens.

According to the KLU Philosophy Encyclopedia, the individual, which in its most basic sense means "a person" or "a human being," is defined as an independent entity with unique differences (emotional, intellectual) within a group formed by people with similar characteristics.

Attention... What does it say? It says "with unique differences." So, dear reader, what are we to understand from unique differences? We are to understand an entity that does not think like everyone else, does not perceive like everyone else, conveys its thoughts and feelings as it thinks them, and practices a life consistent with all of these.

We were saying, should our destiny be with poetry? With painting? With reason? Is our civilization visual? Auditory?

To put all of these in their proper place, it is a necessary condition for the human being, who is the designing and constructing subject, to live under a state administration that possesses the necessary legal and political mechanisms that allow for all of these (through art, politics, philosophy, etc.) so that they can realize their unique differences and put them into practice.

That is why we had to talk about Pericles, his democracy, and the Sophists because it was the first in history. Not because we are trying to glorify Ancient Greece, but let's give credit where credit is due and wrap up the topic nicely.

The religious beliefs of the Ancient Greeks did not place prohibitions on the artistic creative acts that people performed visually.

In fact, the gods in Ancient Greek mythology are like humans. They lie like humans, they are ambitious like humans, they deceive like humans, and that is why their statues were made in an anthropomorphic, or human-like, form.

When there were statues, of course, temples were needed to house them, to worship, and to offer sacrifices and gifts. Architecture and engineering knowledge were developed for magnificent temples. Castles and walls were built to protect the cities they lived in. Arches and cisterns were built to meet the water needs of the cities. Architecture and engineering knowledge were needed for these as well. The statues of gods were not only placed in temples but also in city squares, government offices, and palaces. While all these were being done, aesthetic appeal and harmony were sought. Art, architecture, and engineering together beautified the cities they lived in. Amphitheaters were built for theatrical performances, musical events, and collective activities. Books began to be written, starting with Herodotus's "Histories." The community that did all the things I listed above was a settled community, not a nomadic one.

In other words, this community was a community consisting of free citizens who had managed to create the verbal, written, and visual equivalents of an object, an experience, or the relationship between them, and who were in a state close to being an individual, even if not in today's sense. Therefore, because this community shared a common life within a city and because of the effect of the belief they possessed making itself visible, they created a culture and civilization where visuality came to the fore. Because for such settled societies, time and space were integrated, and thus all vital culture was shaped in line with this understanding. In order for the cities they lived in to look more magnificent and beautiful, people with different characteristics were encouraged to receive art education in line with their individual talents under the conditions of that day. Those who made all those magnificent statues, temples, and amphitheaters, and those who wrote the theatrical works, were individuals. They were people who had found the opportunity to realize their own existence with their own differences.

I know as well as I know my own name that you also know we cannot say the same thing for nomadic communities. Dear reader, after all this explanation, assuming that you have understood whether your civilization is with words, with the visual, with reason, and whether we are individuals or not, I present my respects.

Therefore, I do not think there is any point in dragging the subject out too long and tiring you out.

If you do not have a settled order, if you lack legal mechanisms to protect people's differences, if you are in a cultural environment where the traditional prevails and your creativity is still limited by a number of prohibitions, you have no chance of being an individual, my friend. But you have the chance to be a subject forever.

Don't invent things, continue to be a subject; what is this about whether our civilization should be with poetry? With reason? And now Professor Abidin says there is no civilization without the individual; don't you pay attention to him. Be a subject and be saved...

We cannot say that.

Do you know why we cannot say that?

Because we cannot look into the face of our Great Leader Gazi Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK, who sacrificed his life to save the Turkish Nation from being subjects.

There is no civilization without the individual. All our Republican Revolutions, especially secularism, taught us this.

Shall we say, then, long live the ATATÜRK Republic?

Of course, let's say it, and let's say it with our loudest voice.

Long live the ATATÜRK Republic.

Until our next meeting, goodbye for now; now and always, breathe with art, stay with art.