Greetings to All Ye Fellow Readers.
This post deals with a philosophical idea which came to me a couple of weeks ago; as this blog is the mediator of my philosophy, I make it my duty to propagate the idea. Well. here goes...
There are many subjects at school which are deemed by many and most to be utterly useless. History, Latin, some branches of mathematics, creative writing, and, of course, philosophy, are all included in this long list. Many would have us drop these subjects, ban them from school, and forget them. According to them, the point of school is to teach us how to attain jobs, and how to survive in society.
It would appear that animals are just as practical as these fine thinkers; it would never cross a cat's mind to study its ancestors' history, and a whale would never take up poetry. Cats may play with balls of yarn and iPads, but this is to trigger hunting instincts, which will be useful later on in life. A whale may sing melodiously and a spider may spin works of art, but this is for nutrition or reproduction only. What I would conclude from this is that an animal is not capable interested by something which does not help it to survive.
If this is the case, it is because evolution sees no point whatsoever in something that does not help the animal to survive, and so does not make the cat capable of studying history of its own free will. Try teaching your cat about the Feline Revolution of 1832, and see what happens.
And yet... following this train of thought, humans should never have even thought of studying history. It would seem that humans are unique among animals, in the sense that we are the only ones upon which evolution has committed a mistake- we have the capability of enjoying history.
Science probably has a good explanation for this- maybe it is just a byproduct of bigger brains, for example- but this does not change anything to the fact that what makes us different from animals is this miraculous faculty which was never, scientifically speaking, meant to happen.
So here we are- an animal's main aim is to survive, and to pass on its genes. A human does not live only to survive, but because there are things to live for, things which are only useful because they entertain him. Thus, I can state that the useless things in life are what give life meaning, and those who are only interested by something that helps them to survive are those who do not understand or enjoy life.
Bear in mind that this post is simplistic- the love of uselessness is not the only difference between us and animals, nor is it the sole meaning of life.
This post deals with a philosophical idea which came to me a couple of weeks ago; as this blog is the mediator of my philosophy, I make it my duty to propagate the idea. Well. here goes...
There are many subjects at school which are deemed by many and most to be utterly useless. History, Latin, some branches of mathematics, creative writing, and, of course, philosophy, are all included in this long list. Many would have us drop these subjects, ban them from school, and forget them. According to them, the point of school is to teach us how to attain jobs, and how to survive in society.
It would appear that animals are just as practical as these fine thinkers; it would never cross a cat's mind to study its ancestors' history, and a whale would never take up poetry. Cats may play with balls of yarn and iPads, but this is to trigger hunting instincts, which will be useful later on in life. A whale may sing melodiously and a spider may spin works of art, but this is for nutrition or reproduction only. What I would conclude from this is that an animal is not capable interested by something which does not help it to survive.
If this is the case, it is because evolution sees no point whatsoever in something that does not help the animal to survive, and so does not make the cat capable of studying history of its own free will. Try teaching your cat about the Feline Revolution of 1832, and see what happens.
And yet... following this train of thought, humans should never have even thought of studying history. It would seem that humans are unique among animals, in the sense that we are the only ones upon which evolution has committed a mistake- we have the capability of enjoying history.
Science probably has a good explanation for this- maybe it is just a byproduct of bigger brains, for example- but this does not change anything to the fact that what makes us different from animals is this miraculous faculty which was never, scientifically speaking, meant to happen.
So here we are- an animal's main aim is to survive, and to pass on its genes. A human does not live only to survive, but because there are things to live for, things which are only useful because they entertain him. Thus, I can state that the useless things in life are what give life meaning, and those who are only interested by something that helps them to survive are those who do not understand or enjoy life.
Bear in mind that this post is simplistic- the love of uselessness is not the only difference between us and animals, nor is it the sole meaning of life.
Respects,
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| JAFHR |
I don't know, learning philosophy could help to attract females. Hehe...
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, I think you should consider dolphins' intelligence.
Fine then... If you must, don't say useless stuff makes us human, say it makes us superior (or at least unique) to other animals, and 'us' includes dolphins- though there is no scientific backing up to the idea of dolphins being that advanced.
ReplyDeletePlease, PLEASE learn to speak English! Indoctrination is getting someone to blindly believe something without reason.I give arguments- I cannot be indoctrinating anyone. You, on the other hand, do not mention why I am wrong or what is STUPID about this post- which you probably didn't read anyway, or you'd know that the word 'pointless' is now obsolete. It seems to me far more likely that you were indoctrinated by your parents into believing that philosophy is stupid, because, from what I hear of your arguments, you don't even know what it is. I dare you to give me your definition of philosophy without looking it up- to see how founded your arguments are, and to see how far you've been brainwashed.
ReplyDeleteI can foresee PWN's response to this argument: Isn't my policy towards the word 'brainwashing' to never accuse someone, or I could easily be accused? Does this sudden, virulent argument portray a dark change for the worse in my character and policies? To this I reply that JHWW should have been as cautious as I usually am- not only am I now free to voice what I think of his indoctrinated attitude, but he failed to give a reasoned argument, pretty much paving the way for an Indoctrination Attack. I now feel that I am beyond his reach in terms of Brainwashing Accusations.
ReplyDelete