Paul Tillich believed the creative individual has the ability to carry a greater capacity for self-affirmation than the average man, yet with this power can synchronously be dominated by the burden and knowledge of self-negation. These illustrious artists exemplify the plight of man to overcome the threat of non-being. Although I don’t believe of any of the following artists reached the state of complete self-actualization The distinguished author, Leo Tolstoy, knew at a developing age what his moral code was. From a ethical viewpoint, he found himself falling short and knew that everyone else was too. Tolstoy efforts to be a morally good person were often trumped by external influences. Due in part to the nullifying forces, his path to true …show more content…
Underneath Leo Tolstoy’s seemingly charmed life of worldly pleasures and aristocratic wealth lied a man who grappled with the implications of a life purely devoted to rational thought: “Is there “a meaning which gives meaning to all meanings?” (Tillich 47) For Tolstoy and many other, "it was a question without answering which one cannot live” (21). In Tolstoy’s search, he found no reprieve in his peers and mentors of great knowledge. The answers to his questions were not concrete in philosophy or science but went beyond them, “it was precisely the loss of a spiritual center which took away the meaning from the special contents of the spiritual life” (Tillich 48). Tolstoy’s question, “Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy?”, was—for him— an inquiry only the divine may have explanation for (21). While Tolstoy may have never completely reconciled the discrepancy between meaningfulness and reality in his newfound doctrine, he did assert his selfhood in an extent which many have …show more content…
This lead her "toward complete self-rejection, to the feeling of being condemned" (Tillich 52-53). One casts aside the self and accepts emptiness. Through this end (suicide), one’s true destiny is not met. Suicide may be considered the ultimate negation of one’s self although one can also wager it is one of the highest forms of self assertion. For Martha Graham, dance is that which gives meaning to life. Graham believed she was a vessel in which to be used for the exploration and celebration of life. A “doom eager” as she called herself, for the very essence of life coursed through her in dance (“Blood Memory” 118). Dance was such an integral part of her being that “without [it], [she] wished to die” (“Blood Memory” 238). Graham’s absolute devotion to her artistic work eventually contributed to her near self-negation. Her advancing years “cut [her] off from creative participation” in her field (Tillich 47). As Graham once said, “A dancer…dies two deaths: the first, the physical when the…body will no longer respond as you would wish” (“Blood Memory” 238). And thus, She was confronted with “the loss of [her] ultimate concern” (Tillich