Starting tomorrow, Harari's dissent: Is man [sic] really the rational animal?
So Aristotle, our first great logician, is widely said to have said.
It isn't entirely clear what the gentleman meant by the statement which gets translated that way. But as his famous statement is commonly taken, is his statement true? Or are we "seeing ourselves from afar" when we define our own species that way?
Just how "rational" are we humans in our basic essence? We'll be exploring that question all year, including all this week.
Before long, we'll even examine the ways our brightest thinkers get led astray "when doing philosophy." After two decades of wasted time, we'll let the later Wittgenstein's jumbled but deeply instructive work help us examine that question.
Our failing nation's upper-end journalists like to discuss wardrobe, body language, "shtupping" and hair. Our elite logicians are asleep in the woods and lack the skills to help us.
How "rational" are we in the end? Last week, we considered the bromide which is now widely described as "Aristotle's error:"
Tuesday, February 5: Rational animals on the prowl! The Times frisks Roger's Stone's clothes.Are we humans defined by our rational ways? Starting tomorrow, right here at this site, Professor Harari's dissent!
Wednesday, February 6: Rational animals just wanna have fun! Waldman gets it right.
Thursday, February 7: Blind to a blindingly obvious point! The rational critter in action.
Friday, February 8: Badly in need of a whole new gestalt! Our own tribe's non-rational actors.
Ramachandran describes Aristotle's error as a mistaken explanation for a visual after image. HuffPost chronicles six things Aristotle got wrong, beginning with eels.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Aristotle made only one error, so referring to his error in the singular is misleading. We can perhaps call this Somerby's error.
12,000,000 people bought Harari’s book, fueling his popularity on the lecture circuit. His fees must be impressive. Perhaps those fans have been led by a “fiction” to plop down hard-earned cash that goes to Mr Harari’s bank account in the belief that he is some sort of guru who holds the key to mankind’s current problems, and who writes a highly speculative account of the history of Homo sapiens.
ReplyDeleteSomerby is apparently one of them, although he never quite tells us what the upshot of Harari’s book really is. Total nihilism and despair? Gloomy predictions of future dystopias? A way out of the crisis?
The message appeals to Somerby, just as he finds it appealing to discover mental illness in Gödel that he uses to make his point about the irrationality of man.
Using reason to explore serious questions isn't incompatible with gossip and storytelling (narrative). I don't understand why Somerby juxtaposes the two. Neither Harari nor Aristotle said they were mutually exclusive. Why cannot humans do both? They serve different purposes, both valid and valuable to humanity.
ReplyDelete"Are we humans defined by our rational ways?"
ReplyDeleteI thought we were defined by our DNA. Somerby really ought review the way philosophers and everyday people thought about reason during the Enlightenment. They thought that reason was given to man by the creator in order to know God and understand His world. They thought that men had reason but women and animals did not, hence only men could be priests and pastors. Because women lacked reason, they were not fit to own property, make their own decisions, and because they were closer to their instincts, they were susceptible to lust and the temptations of the devil, and thus had to be "protected" constantly. Upper class women, that is. Lower class working women were fair game if they had not fathers, brothers or husbands to protect them from upper class men with reason. Because men had reason, they also had free will and will power was the answer to every problem, so punishment was harsh, even for things like debt. Women and animals were not held responsible for their actions, but they were often punished anyway. Does that seem rational to you? Maybe it was to cause them to fear God and shun the devil's temptations?
Because men didn't understand how to apply reason properly, they didn't know that you can reach wrong conclusions using correct logic, if you start with the wrong axioms. So kangaroo trials reached ridiculous conclusions that were unchallenged by common sense because "logic" had been applied. Similarly, wrong science was done because they hadn't yet adopted empiricism to test their conclusions against real-world results. But it was all very rational. The Church itself applied reason to justify its dogma, often very convoluted and implausible arguments to justify questionable church actions. So rationality was misused to support self-serving ends. You can say this is not really reason but it seemed reasonable at the time. That's the point.
Maybe this is history instead of philosophy. Or maybe this just supports Somerby's claim that man in not the rational animal. But things got better... doesn't Somerby care about the progress in rationality that has been made? Women are now allowed to vote and go outdoors without a male relative...in some cultures.
Is man [sic] really the rational animal? So Aristotle, our first great logician, is widely said to have said.
ReplyDeleteNo, it’s not widely said that Aristotle claimed any such thing, mostly because Aristotle said nothing of the sort.
Here’s what Aristotle actually said (in his Politics, Book I:
… ὅτι ὁ ἄνθρωπος φύσει πολιτικὸν ζῷον
[it is evident] that a man is by nature a political animal
(Emphasis mine.)
It isn't entirely clear what the gentleman meant by the statement which gets translated that way.
It is entirely clear what Aristotle meant by the statement he actually made, and which is translated in that way because scholars know what Aristotle’s Greek means. You can look these words up in any Greek-English lexicon: anthropos, man; politikon, political. And if that isn’t enough, Aristotle goes to great length to describe what he means: human beings are more political than “gregarious animals” (ἀγελαίου ζῴου) like bees because humans possess the faculty of speech by which they can communicate the rules for building a just society.
But as his famous statement is commonly taken, is his statement true?
It’s not his statement, so it’s not famously his statement and it’s not commonly taken to be his statement.
If TDH wants to defend the banality that people don’t act reasonably, then he should do so without pretending that he’s waging a valiant struggle against famous opponents.
I want to share a testimony of how Dr odoma herbal mixture cream saved me from shame and disgrace, my penis was a big problem to me as the size was really so embarrassing ,and i was also having weak erection problem i had so many relationship called off because of my situation, i have used so many product which i found online but none could offer me the help i searched for Which was very painful and then i saw some few testimonies about this herbal specialist called Dr odoma and decided to email him on so I gave his herbal product a try. i emailed him and he got back to me and we discussed, he gave me some comforting words and encouraged me also ans then gave me his herbal pills and cream for Penis Enlargement Within 1 week of it, i began to feel the enlargement of my penis, " and now it just 2 weeks of using his products my penis is about 10 inches longer and am so happy contact Dr odoma via (drodomasolutionhome20@gmail.com) Via whatapp +2348100649947
ReplyDeleteI Want To Appreciate Dr.OYAGU for hs great deeds, I Was Diagnosed With type 2 Herpes Virus Last year,And Was Looking For Solution To Be Cured Luckily I Saw Testimonies On How Dr.OYAGU Cure Herpes Virus I Decided To Contact Dr.OYAGU I Contacted Him He Prepared A Herbal Medicine Portion And Sent It To Me,I Started The Herbal Medicine For My Health.He Gave Me Step By Step Instructions On How To Apply It, When I Applied It As Instructed, I Was Cured Of This Deadly Herpes Within 2 weeks, I Am Now Herpes Negative.My Brother And Sister I No That There Are So Many People That Have There Same Herpes Virus Please contact Dr OYAGU To Help You Too,And Help Me To Thank Dr.OYAGU For Cure Me, I’m Cured By Dr. OYAGU Herbal Medicine,His Contact Email:oyaguherbalhome@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteOr Cell Whatsapp Number +2348101755322 thank you
HELLO EVERYONE.. FEW MUNINETS TO REDY THIS INFOR ON HERPES CURE 2018..
ReplyDelete2017 MY MOTHER WAS DIAGNOSED OF HERPES/ KNOWN AS GENITAL WARTS ,I SPENT A LOT OF MONEY ON HER MEDICATION TILL A POINT I EVEN LOST HOPE,BECAUSE MY MOTHER WAS GRADUALLY DYING AND LOST HER MEMORY TOO, I WAS SO DESPERATE TO GET MY MOTHER BACK TO NORMAL, ONE DAY MY UNCLE WHO LIVES IN LONDON UNITED KINGDOM TOLD ME ABOUT DR OLIHA ,WHO HELPED HIM GET RID OF HERPES /GENITAL WART WITH HERBAL MEDICINE AND HIS HERBAL SOAP ,I WAS SO SHOCKED WHEN HE TOLD ME ABOUT THIS ,ALTHOUGH I NEVER BELIEVE IN HERB BUT, I KEEP TO BELIEVE BECAUSE MY UNCLE CAN'T TELL ME LIES WHEN IT COMES TO HEALTH CONDITION I CONTACTED DR OLIHA VIA HIS EMAIL; OLIHA.MIRACLEMEDICINE@GMAIL.COM , YOU CAN TALK TO HIM VIA CALL OR WHATSAPP MESSENGER ON +2349038382931 , HE REPLIED AND ASK ME TO SEND MY HOME ADDRESS AND MY MOTHER'S DETAIL AND THEN I PURCHASED THE HERBAL MEDICINE,SENT ME THE HERBAL MEDICINE THROUGH COURIER SERVICE, WHEN I RECEIVED THIS HERBAL MEDICINE USED IT FOR 2 WEEKS, AND 4 DAYS OF USAGE THE WARTS FELL OFF, MY MOTHER I NOW TOTALLY CURED AND MY MOTHER IS LIVING FREE AND HAPPY AGAIN. YOU CAN TALK TO DR VIA HIS MOBILE NUMBER OR WHATS APP HIM ON +2349038382931.ALL THANKS TO DOCTOR DR OLIHA
How I Got My Ex Husband Back..Am so excited to share my testimony of a real spell caster who brought my husband back to me. My husband and I have been married for about 6 years now. We were happily married with two kids, a boy and a girl. 3 months ago, I started to notice some strange behavior from him and a few weeks later I found out that my husband is seeing someone else. He started coming home late from work, he hardly care about me or the kids anymore, Sometimes he goes out and doesn't even come back home for about 2-3 days. I did all I could to rectify this problem but all to no avail. I became very worried and needed help. As I was browsing through the internet one day, I came across a website that suggested that Dr Aluya can help solve marital problems, restore broken relationships and so on. So, I felt I should give him a try. I contacted him and and told him my problems and he told me what to do and i did it and he did a spell for me. 48 hours later, my husband came to me and apologized for the wrongs he did and promise never to do it again. Ever since then, everything has returned back to normal. I and my family are living together happily again.. All thanks to Dr Aluya Powerful Love Spell that really works. If you have any problem contact him and i guarantee you that he will help you. He will not disappoint you. Email him at: aluya.48hoursspelltemple@gmail.com. or whatsapp him on: +2348110493039
ReplyDeleteInvesting online has been a main source of income,that's why knowledge plays a very important role in humanity,you don't need to over work yourself for money.All you need is the right information,and you could build your own wealth from the comfort of your home!Binary trading is dependent on timely signals,assets or controlled strategies which when mastered increases chance of winning up to 90%-100% with trading. It’s possible to earn $10,000 to $20,000 trading weekly-monthly,just file a complaint with Robert,I had almost given up on everything about binary trading and ever getting my lost funds back,till i met with him,with his help now i have my lost funds back to my bank account and I can now trade successfully with his profitable strategies and software!! Email: Robertseaman939@gmail.com or Fb.me/investandmakemoney1 or whatsApp: +44 7466 770724
ReplyDeleteI has suffered for Human papillomavirus HPV) for 2years, I was given some tablets at the hospital but I refused to take it, They said I have to be on it for life so I don't want take a drugs everyday for life. No point in taking medicine everyday when u won't get cure from it and I was advice to seek for natural herbal cure, after some time I found dr onokun is the most trustful herbalist that have herbs to cure wicked symptom's,I emailed dr onokun, for 2weeks been his patient he cured my (HPV) with his herbal. I only used his natural herbs for two weeks it was 100% cure. I'm not (HPV) patient anymore. I'm happy about it i finally got cured out of this mess been in my body for 2years. I also recommend you if you're living with (HPV) or herpes symptoms i also want you to be free contact dr onokun with the email attach to my post. Dronokunherbalcure@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteI was diagnosed of herpes virus, I have tried all possible means to get cure but all my effort proved abortive, until a friend of mine introduced me to a herbal doctor called Dr Agaba, who prepare herbal medicine to cure all kind of diseases including herpes virus (Herpes), when i contacted this herbal doctor via email, he sent me herpes virus herbal medicine via courier service, when i received the herbal medicine he gave me step by step instructions on how to apply it, when i applied it as instructed i was totally cured from the virus within 3 weeks of usage. Contact this great herbal doctor today to get your cure.
ReplyDeleteVia Email: Dragabasolutionhome@gmail.com or WhatApp: +2349074536486