On the notion of how we get to "know stuff" at a very basic level, Kearney has this to say, "Should the child be well-tended and protected by loving arms and tender care he/she may experience a minimum of pain; an awareness of well-being and security would likely then predominate... Conversely, if the baby experiences many deprivations and traumas, his/her general image of the Other would likely be one in which all that is not-Self is mainly a source of frustration and pain... [the former leading to an] image of Self as having an ability to affect the Other, and thus in turn affect its own condition. [The latter leading to an image of Self in which Self is] relatively powerless and incapable of affecting either its own state of being or aspects of the Other." One wonders how much hope and hopelessness/purpose and purposelessness (at a societal level) may have their roots in an early-gained "view of reality" - a view tacitly gained in the environment of Self's earliest and closest caregivers. Hmm, should this be true...
Michael Kearney, Worldviews (Novato: Chandler & Sharp Publishers, Inc., 1984) 73.
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