A few weeks ago we went to dinner with some neighbors from our building. We are becoming a very close bunch. And of the men, I would even deign to call a couple, my good friends. They are all much younger than I am and, because of this fact, and as a matter of record, I obviously have more knowledge and wisdom than they do. One of my friends, during a discourse at dinner, and while he was slurping a martini as though it was a two cents plain, said he yearns for knowledge and wisdom...actually knowledge and wisdom are the same...well like two sides of a coin. I could see, like Dr. Faustus, that he craves to learn whatever there is to learn. That mindset is the very beginning of "scholarship." Well, if you want to learn, where do you start? That's a good question, and the only one. The wellspring of knowledge must begin with the genius of philosophy, and philosophy includes five fields of discourse: Aesthetics, Ethics, Logic, Politics and Metaphysics. Now there you have a lot of territory to cover. If your first love is art, then you begin with Aesthetics. If you desire to learn why men behave the way they do and what role religion plays in our lives, then you read what the philosophers have to say about Ethics. When I say "read", I don't think you will get very far in understanding without "study". These fields of discourse demand study. If you don't like to read and study, then just go about your daily regimen and forget about knowledge and wisdom. Sit by the pool and talk about the weather and restaurants. As Robert Frost says, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I took the one less travelled by...and that has made all the difference." If your goal is to acquire knowledge, then you have to take the road less travelled by. Logic is the study of ideal methods of thought and research: deduction and induction, hypothesis and experiment. Politics is the study of ideal social organization and government such as monarchy, aristocracy, theocracy, democracy, socialism, oligarchy, and etc.
Several hundreds of years BC, Greece and Sparta fought off Xerxes and the Persians. Following that war, Sparta brought all her troops home, demobilized them and suffered economic disaster as a natural occurrence of that process. McCain and Obama, take heed. Now at that time Athens was a "democracy" but there wasn't a whole lot of democracy to be had. She had a population of about 400,000 of whom 250,000 were slaves with no rights at all. That leaves 150,000 Greeks to wallow in "freedom" such as there was.
The General Assembly was the supreme power, but not too many citizens were sufficiently interested in joining that body. The Supreme Court consisted of over 1000 members chosen in alphabetical order from the census roll which made bribery a lost hobby of political wannabes. So, how democratic was that? Answer: very democratic...but Athens' detractors said it was a stupid form of government.
And so what about America? Do we have a "democracy" for our government? Answer: I think not. I believe we have an Oligarchy or an Aristocracy. Only a few in Washington wield power, and only the wealthy can afford to run for office. Plato was an advocate of and by"aristocracy" Plato meant not only the rich should govern, but also only men with brilliant minds. That is not typical of our government. So at this point one might rightfully ask what is the purpose of gaining knowledge and wisdom? Answer: to learn the Truth. And to learn the truth, the scholar must not neglect metaphysics, the study of the relationship between mind and matter.
I shall not continue with everything I have to say for fear of losing most of my audience. So for the few who remain, run as fast as you can to the book store or library and read "The Story of Philosophy" by Will Durant from whom I sometimes borrow some nuggets of wisdom and knowledge--and that's the truth.
4 comments:
As a former employee of The Xerox Corporation, I take offense at your ststement that Greece and Sparta fought off Xeroxes and the Persians.
Xerox had nothing to do with that war. You might look up Savin or Canon or even IBM, the true guilty parties.
I suggest you return to Xerox and clone yourself so that two of you can write comments to the Red Baron that he can answer in the same spirit. It's too bad that your cents-abilities are so easily rattled. Try some aerobics. Get off the computer and run up and down your stairs.
Just when I was getting into it!...
-BLR-
If Xeroxes were not involved, then how can you explain the fact that the Persians COPIED many of the battle tactics of the Assyrians? You are probably thinking of the Canonites, who come from a much earlier time period. It's a common mistake made by those who haven't scanned history properly.
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