Guilt Reaction Paper
By
Guilt is defined as any tension, discomfort, sense of shame, or other unpleasant feeling that humans experience. Kenneth Burke argued that guilt is the central motive for human action, specifically communication. According to Burke, the ability to feel guilt is an emotion only felt by humans, and is possible because we are symbol using animals. Burke argued humans always feel guilt thus are always trying to purge themselves of the discomfort that guilt causes us.
Kenneth Burke identifies three ways in which he felt symbolic abilities cause guilt: hierarchy, perfection, and the negative. Hierarchy is a system of ranking and organizing things or people, where each element of the system (except for the top element) is subordinate to a single other element. Hierarchy explains the human tendency towards war and conquest. Guilt is created by being both above some people and by not being higher in the social hierarchy. In either situation humans are......
Join Now or Login to view the rest of this paper.
Approximate Word Count: 633
Approximate Pages: 3 (260 words per double-spaced page) |