Abhijit Naskar's Blog - Posts Tagged "rationalism"

The name is Sapiens – Homo Sapiens. That’s what we are called in the scientific circle – in the intellectual circle. Homo Sapiens – the name given by humans to the humans – a name, that by the look of it, exudes a hint of wisdom, because the term sapiens means wise. So here’s the question – are we wise? Are you wise? Is humanity wise? And how do you know that you are being wise at a certain? What kind of behavior would be true measure for wisdom? Perhaps I am asking the wrong questions here.

It is easier to tell when you are not being wise, than to tell what the measures for wisdom are. For example, a fundamentalist who argues about his religious supremacy with a fellow religious person from a different religion, based on simply his own scripture, is as dumb in terms of wisdom, as a scientist who arrogantly boasts about the supremacy of reasoning over all kinds of sentiments and beliefs, both good and bad.

I am a scientist, and an educator of science and reasoning, yet, I do not advocate for the supremacy of reasoning. I advocate for conscience – and conscience is part reasoning and part compassion. To quote from my treatise on parenting, entitled “Human Making is our Mission” :

“Modern society is modern because of its mental cocktail of reasoning and compassion. Turn the compassion network in the brain off, and it will be a society of heartless robots. On the other hand, turn the reasoning network off, and it will be a society of dumb sentimental apes.”

So, being wise means, not talking about what you think is true, whether you are a scientist, a plumber, a trucker, or any kind of professional. A layperson can be a hundred times wiser than a young doctorate at times, because wisdom has less to do with information, and more to do with the ability to see through the information and look at the big picture. A layperson is more likely to be wrong about factual things than a scientist, but a scientist on the other hand, also runs the risk of becoming cognitively more blind than a layperson to the significance of human sentiments in human existence driven by his radically rational mind. Hence, wisdom is not an exclusive possession of the intellectual parts of the society. Being articulate is not the same as being wise. Truth devoid of conscience, is worthless in human existence.

A smart person speaks out the truth. A wise person doesn’t care about speaking it out, as much as he or she cares about utilizing that truth in the society, in a way that brings most progress – in a way that brings most human development. And that’s what wisdom is about. Wisdom is not simply about progress – it is about collective humane progress.

Now the question is – do the definition and characteristics of wisdom itself keep changing through time! Like all other cognitive processes, the mental process of wisdom goes through change as well. And this change is relentless. For example, more than a century ago, a wise man would be the one who would give his wife at home taking care of the household chores and children, the same amount of respect as he’d give himself. But, the norm of that time was that men were superior to women. So at that time even thinking about a housewife to have the same amount of basic dignity as the husband who was the guardian of the family, was a sign of wisdom. But today, we have crossed that boundary of wisdom, and taken wisdom a few steps ahead, by constructing or at least attempting to construct a society of gender equality, where women are equal of men in all aspects of not just private life but also social life.

Likewise, a century ago another wise movement was afoot – the movement of religious toleration, hugely carried out by the Parliament of World Religions. But in this case as well, toleration was the wisdom of the past. Acceptance is the wisdom of today. Nevertheless, “acceptance does not mean accepting those who disregard humans on the basis of race, religion and sexual orientation” (quote from Either Civilized or Phobic: A Treatise on Homosexuality).

So the point is, wisdom evolves, but one core principle in it does not. It is the principle of becoming better, by demolishing the shortcomings of today and building the benefits of tomorrow. And that’s what makes us a wise species. And as long as we are ready to recognize the shortcomings in ourselves, in our culture, in our traditions and in our ancestral heritages, we shall keep on deserving the title of “Sapiens” or “A Wise Species”.




Further Reading

Either Civilized or Phobic: A Treatise on Homosexuality

Human Making is Our Mission: A Treatise on Parenting

You know what humanity is best at! It is best at distorting stuff - distorting thoughts, ideas, and more specifically words. Among these distorted words lie terms like religion, philosophy, science, faith, and others. But the one term that we are interested in, in this piece, is the term "humanism". Humanism is next in the line of distorted words, right after the word "religion". To be very articulate in brief - the terms "humanism" and "religion" are essentially one and the same thing, yet a whole so-called human lifetime is not enough for most humans to actually fathom this simple mortal revelation. Most humans neurotically perceive religion to be the system of following doctrines and humanism to be a pompous philosophy of the intellectuals.

In reality, religion is not a system of following doctrines at all. If anything, it is about not following any doctrine and finding out things for yourself. And, humanism is no more a philosophy than love is. Love is not a philosophy, neither is humanism. In fact, if we go underneath the layers of words and labels, we would see that love is essentially plain, ordinary, everyday humanism - it is as simple as that - there is nothing more for me to tell you about humanism. I don't really intend to tell you anything about humanism in this piece. Rather, let's find out together, what humanism is not.

For starters, it's not a pompous philosophy or an ideology for a bunch of people to discuss over a cup of coffee. As I have said in "Principia Humanitas":

“Humanism is not a pompous philosophy to be talked and debated about by a handful of intellectuals - it is the purest form of moral compass, which defines the civilized heart of thinking humanity.”

Humanism simply means to be human. Now you may wonder, what does "to be human" even mean! Does it mean you need to wear a specific sophisticated label that makes you appear as a smart and over-glorified intellectual! Does it mean, you need to talk sense all the time! Does it mean, you stop believing in anything that does not fit your ship-shape limited logical perception! Does it mean, that you have to be the smartest person in the group and make more sense somehow than all others around you! Does it mean, you have to be a so-called non-believer or atheist, and have to defend that atheism, at all costs, like the religious fundamentalists do with their own beliefs and delusions, above all humane fundamentals!

Let me go straight ahead and say it - No. You don't need to do any of it - as in, none of it - you don't even have to call yourself a so-called humanist - because most of the so-called humanists are not actually advocating actual qualities of being human, rather they are advocating radical rationalism - radical logicality. One recent incident comes to my mind in this context - it is their support for corporations that forbid their muslim employees to wear a hijab at work-place. Full-body burqa with niqab that covers the whole face of a woman, may surely be a sign of uncivilized cultural barbarianism, because it basically exudes a clear implication of segregation against all humans, but not a simple hijab, which is basically a scarf that one wears around the head. So, advocacy of banning basic cultural elements, is not a sign of progress or being human. This kind of radical attitude may not look as immediately dangerous as radical fundamentalism does, but, it is nevertheless, as harmful as that. In fact, radical rationalism is nothing but atheistic fundamentalism or logical fundamentalism. As I have said in "Principia Humanitas":

"Fundamentalism of any kind, be it religious, atheistic, political or educational, is the greatest threat to human excellence – it is a threat to progress – it is a threat to greatness."

The whole business of fundamentalism, which is basically an extreme sense of either romanticism or logicality, is unavoidably destructive and needs a bit of scolding from the real humans - by real humans I don't mean intellectually superior humans, for intellect has very little to do with this real human thing - it has to do with acceptance of weakness and rejection of hatred and extremism. This extremism as we see more and more today, does not always rise from the obvious so-called religious sides. It can rise from any side - and it will keep on rising, as long as sides appear to be more important to humans, than human life itself.

We have this remarkable thing called "life", yet somehow, quite disgracefully, it has become less glorious and significant, in front of the fake glory of labels and ideologies. This is what advancement without conscience does to a species. We have advanced externally, before we actually truly evolved internally. Biological evolution is a fact, and that very biological evolution led to our so-called psychological evolution - I am saying so-called not because it is false. We have evolved psychologically indeed and through this evolution we have gained extraordinary psychological capacities, that basically are not possessed by any other species on earth, yet those capacities are not utilized at their fullest and most productive potential. It's like having money and yet wasting it on unhealthy non-sense like alcohol and expensive cigars, while your neighbor is starving in front of your eyes.

Correct application of the mental faculties cannot be taught to a whole species - it automatically starts when the species gets an actual grip over its true necessities. Earth is necessity, not Mars. Food and water are necessities, not alcohol and cigarettes. To be human is necessity, not being a believer or non-believer. Now comes the real question - what are you?

Recommended Reading
Principia Humanitas

I am but a human who's got no name,
Simply alive in the land of liberty,
I am but a human who talks no lame,
Simply communicates with utter serenity,
I am but a human who despises harming,
No matter what some books command,
I am but a human who loves not blaming,
No matter how much my peers demand,
I am but a human who lives not in history,
Simply breathes in the now and here,
I am but a human who's curious in mystery,
And loves to investigate forged with questionnaire,
I am but a human teeming with awareness beyond all race and clans,
I am but a human whose religion is liberty and god the humans.

People often assume that science is only about empirical research - that it's merely about facts and figures, which happens to be nowhere near the truth. Facts are the fundamental building blocks of science, but bringing those facts together to have an insight of a certain phenomenon requires a rational, conscientious and creative mind. It's only through rigorous analysis and observation, as well as, creative contemplation, of the empirical evidence, i.e. facts, discovered through decades of research, that we can understand a certain phenomenon. Science cannot exist without empirical evidence, but evidence alone can't take science ahead and upwards, for that, we need some rather naïve and conscientious minds who can pierce through the evidence in order to have a practical insight of the big picture of a certain phenomenon. In short, there's more to science than facts and figures. Think of facts and figures as bricks and cement, and science or scientific understanding as a building. Without the vision of the architect, it's impossible to construct the building no matter how much bricks and cement you have.

To learn from yesterday is growth,
To be stuck in yesterday is decay.
To look for a better future is vision,
To be stuck there only causes dismay.
Glance at the past, aim for the future,
But keep your feet grounded in present.
Learn from history, envision the destiny,
‘N dive in today with your sweat valiant.
Memory is meant to give you ground,
Not to impede in your prosperity.
Vision is to embolden your footsteps,
Not to disconnect you from reality.
Some make history their prison, some future.
Bid goodbye to those inmates, ‘n be a timemaster.