Isn’t our financial crisis fair warning?

[coberst]

Isn’t our financial crisis fair warning?

To the self-actualizing self-learner who has studied briefly the high points in human history the prospect of ever comprehending the human condition seems overwhelming. Where to begin? Perhaps some comprehension as to why the ancients could only propose eschatological solutions becomes apparent. Explanations for the human condition can come only from the beyond; perhaps only the will of God can be a starting point.

When we realize this we perhaps will be less condescending regarding the errors of the early thinkers when they began to seek a human solution for a crisis in human knowledge. How to set a coherent path to alleviate the chaotic drift in education and the fragmentation of thought?

The term ‘Renaissance Man’ suggests a wo/man of many accomplishments. S/he is a person who is not a specialist but a generalist, a person who knows a significant amount about many domains of knowledge rather than knowing more and more about less and less as does the specialist.

We might consider two classifications of knowledge similar to Aristotle’s definition. Accordingly one can have a ‘scientific knowledge’ of a matter or one can have an ‘educational acquaintance’ with that matter. Scientific knowledge is the possession of the specialist who knows not just general principles and conclusions of the field but also many of the detailed findings included therein. Educational acquaintance comes with a comprehension of the methods of the subject, not just the details, particulars, and conclusions. A person with an educational acquaintance with a domain of knowledge is a person who is “critical” in that field.

To quote Aristotle “It will, however, of course, be understood that we only ascribe universal education to one who in his own individual person is thus critical in all or nearly all branches of knowledge, and not to one who has a like ability merely in some special subject. For it is possible for a man to have this competence in some one branch of knowledge without having it in all.”

The individual with an educational acquaintance in a field of knowledge is one who is capable of sorting out sense from non-sense in that field.

Some will whine that today, with all of our knowledge, it is impossible for anyone to become a Renaissance Person. I say non-sense! With the world’s accumulated knowledge at our finger-tips anyone who has practiced the art and science of navigating knowledge can quickly gain an educational acquaintance with any domain of knowledge in a matter of weeks rather than a matter of years as would be required in ancient times.

Is a modern day Renaissance man or woman impossible?

I do not think that is impossible. Today becoming a Bacon or a Thomas is, relatively, a piece of cake.

 

[Tao_Equus]

I agree wholeheartedly. Yet ignorance still seems to dominate. We see dumbing down of our educational establishments to produce compliant workers and this is not leading to a revolution in critical thinking as was dreamed of a few decades ago. The exceptionally gifted are removed and corralled together and trained to be but smarter robots than the workers, but robots none the less, serving profit and profit alone. Multi-disciplinarianism is not encouraged, specialisation is. Researchers are forced into a covetous protectionism of ideas for patents are the ultimate goal these days, not the knowledge itself. This hinders the collectivisation of knowledge and prevents the revolutionary ideas that can only stem from cross-discipline expertise.

 

[coberst]

I have often wondered what the world would be like if adults had the energy level I see constantly displayed by children at play. Perhaps we see a bit of this energy when we see the old tycoon still struggling for more money and grasping for more power even as death appears eminent.

It appears to me that energy is generated in humans when we are in action and when that action meets certain needs. If we extrapolate from the children and adults at play we might very well conclude that when action is play, energy will continue to be generated.

How do we adults make our actions seem to be play rather than work? Action becomes play when we are creating. Also action becomes energy generating when it fulfills our needs for immortality.

I would claim that play, power, survival, and the need for immortality are the four sources of human energy.

In the beginning of civilization thought and knowledge was regarded as valuable things. However, we have discovered that thought and knowledge can also be dangerous and destructive. Today technology, one of our most touted accomplishments, is often presenting us with daunting dangers. “Therefore, with the growth of technology the human race is faced with tremendous crisis.”—David Bohm

“So the kind of thought that’s going on all around us begins to take over in every one of us, without our even knowing it. It’s spreading like a virus and each one of us is nourishing that virus…I’m trying to say that most of our thought in its general form is not individual. It originates in the whole culture and it pervades us.”--David Bohm

A fundamental need of our being is self-activation. The self-activation demanded of me may prove to be without inner friction, i.e. with inner pleasure or it may, contrarily, create inner discord and un-pleasure. The feeling of pleasure with self-activation “is always a feeling of free self-activation”.

Economics is a good example of how some sciences handle human relationships. Economics treats humans like objects and ignores there subjective aspects. Humans are treated as two dimensional rather than like a diamond with multiple facets. Economics is a good example of a science that ignores nonlinear problems, i.e. problems not under the lamp-post.

 

[c0de]

Is a modern day Renaissance man or woman impossible?

I do not think that is impossible. Today becoming a Bacon or a Thomas is, relatively, a piece of cake.

If Einstein was born today, his Special Relativity (or something equally revolutionary in today's field) probably wont even find publication in a peer-reviewed journal. This, I read in an article a couple of months back. There is no more room for originality, as any geniuses, wherever they do exist, are drowned by the multitude of mediocrity that fill all the established publications and scientific journals. The researcher interviewed editors from such journals who said that they receive so many interesting papers that they have no choice but to throw away, and for all they know one of them could have contained the Theory of Everything.

Also, you are talking about pioneers. People who created entire fields of thinking. The standards that the polymaths of the past have set are so high that just to reach their level itself is a task which would make mincemeat of most of the institutionalized mass-produced "intellectuals" you will find at your local university. The reason for this is because today knowledge is produced wholesale, in a systematic way. The net result of this is that "Progress" today is nothing more than a runaway train, a purpose in itself. I suspect that this "information society" of ours would have been detested by the geniuses of the past.