I’m done with you

ARE SOME HUMAN BEINGS BETTER THAN OTHERS? (II)

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:WHATACROCK (08/11, 12:24PM)

I’m not sure what being “passive-aggressive” has to do with anything so I’m certainly not “accusing” you of being passive-aggressive. However, I think it’s just false to claim that no one is better than anyone else. Look at Einstein – I concede that he is better than me in physics. Look at Michaelangelo – I concede that he is better than me at sculpting and painting, an so on. So it seems to me that it is just the case that some people are better than others, whether globally or depending on the area under consideration.

But let’s look at the question of education. You reject the claim that those who are more educated are better human beings than those who are not better educated. (We saw that the claim that since all human beings, at least those on LTWWB/L, are seeking a connection with other human beings, it is therefore irrelevant in determining whether some human beings are better than others. All human beings, at least on LTWWB/L, share this trait.) The obvious next step is determining WHY you claim being better educated is similarly irrelevant for some being better than others. What reasons can you bring to support your claim?

It seems to me that the question might be approached from either or both of two angles: (1) What do you understand by “education?” Do you conceive it in narrow utilitarian terms or do you conceive it in broader, less pragmatic terms? What does the phrase “more educated” mean? (2) What do you understand to be the defining characteristic of a human being? One would suppose that physical attributes and psychological dispositions, since variations in both are common to everyone, would be severally or jointly irrelevant in determining that “defining characteristic of a human being.” I look forward to your reply with anticipation if not trepidation.

BTW, anyone who is so inclined might want to join in the conversation.

A pleasure as always.

Cheerio!

ARE SOME HUMAN BEINGS BETTER THAN OTHERS (III)

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: WHATACROCK (08/10, 8:19PM)

“The fact that we are all here as ‘people’ not in a ‘professional’ sense should not give anyone the right to judge anyone else on this Board.”

Good morning Crock. I read your reply with interest but you seem to have made the same mistake as when you previously “accused” others (me?) of charging you with being “passive aggressive.” Indeed, we are here as “people” and not as “professionals” but that should not stop us from reflecting on the theoretical question as to (1) the relationship, if any, between “more education” and being a “better human being” and (2) the defining global characteristic, if any, in terms of which being such a “better human being” might be assessed. In other words, I think you have made the cut between being “people” on the one hand and being “professional” too rigid. So, once again, I’m not “judging” anyone at all but only thinking in general terms. Let’s start with “education.”

I reject the usual confounding of education with training or, for that matter, with any empirically measurable quantity. I see education more in its transformative sense, that after one has become educated, whether formally or through one’s own efforts (the “autodidact”) one is no longer the same person one was before becoming educated. But how is one no longer the same person? How has one become transformed?

One is no longer the same person in two ways: (1) In a substantive sense, one has a foundation of new knowledge that one previously lacked. In other words, one has a new knowledge base but, and this is important, it is not just a load of information or a collection of facts but rather a foundation of new knowledge which is the product of sustained and focused reflection. The fact that it is the product of sustained and focused reflection leads directly to the second way in which education might be seen as transformative. (2) In a procedural rather than a simply substantive sense, one is transformed in the sense that one no longer has the mind that one had before becoming educated. One has cultivated the habit of critical reflection itself, a habit which has become second nature. One’s perspective has changed. One has become transformed. Of the two I believe that it is the second which weighs more heavily in any account of becoming “more educated.” But what is entailed in this process of transformation through critical reflection? This leads us the the second question, that relating to that one global defining characteristic in terms of which being a “better human being” might be determined.

I believe that that one global defining characteristic might be called “culture.” But what is to be understood by culture? I just glanced at the Concise Oxford Dictionary and was pleased to note that, in the sense being used here, culture is identical to “intellectual development.”
Such intellectual development is not restricted to any particular subject or area but that subject or area must possess an intellectual dimension which permits the development of “mind” for that, after all is said and done is, in my view, that one globally defining characteristic in terms of which some human beings might be assessed as being better than others. It is the possession of that “mind” – it is not a unitary concept but allows of a great range of degrees of attainment – by virtue of which some human beings might be determined to be “better than others.”

Of course, you might disagree with all of this and so I look forward to your critical analysis of my views. But don’t forget, I’m not judging you or anyone else. My views, such as they are, are purely theoretical. But, yes, I do believe that some human beings are better (in the manner given above) than others.

A pleasure as always.

Cheerio!