Humanity’s limits resulting from inadequate philosophy education
“We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one” — Confucius.
Humans mostly are limited in three dimensions: sex, mystique, and power. A single person can always find himself or herself being corrupted by these three dimensions at the same time. When they realize that, they start to be aware of what Plato said about the cave, or what Max Weber tried to theorize about the iron cage.
Up till now, philosophically mature of an average person is really low, in comparison with the growth of mass education, not need to compare with the speed of technology. High schoolers can aware some ancient-to-15th century thoughts. College attendants can understand 16th century thinkers. University graduates can cogitate some 17th century writers. Master degree holders might contemplate some18th century scholars. Doctoral people can ruminate some 19th century intellects. We can see even a PhD in philosophy also cannot become a philosopher who thinks.
My best guess is that only about 2% of human beings can overcome this “cage” in 2050. In the whole history of mankind, only a small group of monarch leaders can realize these limitations and use them as their tools to build, defend, and organize their own systems of societies.
Just consider the 3 interacting dimensions x, y, and z, like a cloak that covers a human’s reality of being in the world.
(x) Sex pulses from orgasm lust. Sex factors include all the nuance of modes of arousal, seduction, physical excitation, imaginative stimulation, and coition.
(y) Mystique pulses from existential lust. Mysterious factors include fears of death, of after death, and of anything unknown, consumptive greediness.
(z) Power pulses from oppressive lust. Money, fame, arm force, hierarchy social order are some factors signaling power.
Today, ethical talks and thoughts tried to figure out these limitations but usually fail to address the core and reasons of unethical acts, because the approach is structuralism and with many layers of history, belief, and tradition, structuralist mindset reached their own limitation of complication and conflicts.
Some efforts to eliminate these limitation tend to become dualism, aka to think or not to think, that is just a game for some arguments and dogmas of inability. All the factors of these dimensions exist with many positive effectiveness.
Only when mass education can equip well with tools to have generation overcome these 3 philosophical dimensions of limitation, human can achieve their fullest possible status of being.
This lesson is for my children, who are growing up in the 21st century.
