The subject of this entry is still premature; however, I could not resist diving in and seeing what happens. Forgive me if my diction is sporadic and my ideas are not fully sequential for I am still churning with what exactly my idea is. It is an idea that I have been building towards for some time now , as can be seen in the Yan Hui entry of February. In my discussion of Yan Hui I open one of the latter paragraphs by stating "The wise are those who develop knowledge to feel autonomy/ indivudal power."
First of all I do not like the usage of the word wise here, for "wise" in the american context has strongly positive and moral connotation; while what was meant her was to respect the translations I was reading at the time of the Chinese text, The Analects. In The Analects what is meant by "wise" here I would perhaps translate more accurately into the english word "clever." Cleverness referring to possessing the knowledge and capacity of a wise man/sage but implementing it for the wrong reasons or in the wrong way.
Here I have divided action into three components: Knowledge, Motivation, and Methods. This is by no means a novel construction. I am embarrassed to say that at this point in time I have not read any scholarly work on this trichotomy; however, I am sure that some must exist, and will begin to look for it. Though I have no real academic evidence to support this theory, I do not think it is entirely necessary. It would be nice to be able to have more eloquent words than my own to persuade the reader of the validity of my theory, but I believe that its validity can also be supported by common knowledge. There is a popular saying in movies and TV shows,I think Machiavellian in origin, "Do the ends justify the means." Well the Machiavellian thing would be to say The ends DO justify the means, but because I disagree with this position I will address this catchphrase as a question rather than a statement .
"Do the ends justify the means"
First off, let me begin by saying that this quote is a discussion of Moral Action. The author, whoever they maybe, is postulating the question "Is the "right thing" justifiable by any actions no matter how inhumane and deplorable." Is there a need for moral (humane) methods, or does the righteousness of the end goal allow for (and maybe in some circumstances demand) immoral (inhumane) methods in the name of its completion? The author is suggesting that moral actions contains two components: the ends; and the means.
The ends here refers to the overarching goal behind an action. If a King takes his country to war, or a man decides to steal a loaf of bread, the ends are the results of theses actions, or at least the perceived results. It is because of the "ends" that the King and the man make their decisions to act, and thus the ends are motivations for action. The saying "Do the means justify the ends" implies a morality to the ends. The question is not "are the ends justified" it is assumed within this scenario that the actor (person taking the actions) is motivated by just ends. I just wanted to address that this is a dangerous assumption to make. Before questioning the means, it is imperative to seriously reflect on the question "are the ends justified" is my motivation moral (humane).
* Note- I realize that what is moral is a very ambiguous term that I have yet to flesh out in words, which is why I continue to accompany it with the word humane. I promise to clearly define morality within the week, please bare with me for now and do not let this ambiguity distract you from the focus of this essay, the components of action.
Moving on, it is on the subject of the means where my theory diverges from the author's statement. The author has taken action and defined it as bilateral, relating to two components (ends and means). However, what I am suggesting is that to accurately evaluate potential or taken actions the idea of means is too ambiguous. Instead, I suggest to divide the category of "means" into two separate categories: Knowledge and Methods. Knowledge is a type of tool, one that humans use to symbolically convey information about reality for the purpose of altering reality. Human knowledge can roughly be organized into two types. Knowledge can be statistically inferred from one's own experiences, such is the case when after performing some task for years the process of trial and error hones one's ability to know how to most effectively and efficiently perform; and knowledge can be socially conveyed between humans through various mediums of language. The former is why individual humans are so powerful. It allows humans the potential to rapidly progress in any task by simply devoting more time to it. Now there are environmental limitations to this. For example, one of the largest and most invaluable chunks of time a person has to devote is their younger years, which are for the most part determined by their caregivers. Britney spears devoted much of her younger years to singing but that decision was not autonomous, it was made by here parents. Environmental (largely cultural) influence the amount of time a person has (their life expectancy) and the autonomy they have over their use of that time (Economic and Social limitations). That said, every free person to some extent has time that is completely of their own accord regardless of how much time that actually is. And because of this, every person is individually powerful in that they need only commit that time to a certain task to grow.
The individual capacity for statistical knowledge is what makes a person powerful, but it is the existence of social knowledge, collective knowledge, history, that makes the human species so formidable. In addition to the cultural limitations of a person's time, there also exists the very real limitations of the human biology , or in other words a overall life expectancy. A person must die, therefore there is only so much knowledge they can accrue on a given subject. However, with the invention of social knowledge, meaning knowledge transmitted between humans through mediums of language, the individual person is able to tap into centuries, even millennia of accumulated statistical knowledge.
If I wanted to learn to make a sword (i.e a tool to cut things), given 5 years I could figure out an adequate methodology. Given 40 years I could polish that methodology. And since it is highly unlikely this journey would begin before I was at least in my teens, and because a large chunk of time must be devoted to personal survival (food, socialization, shelter, work, etc) lets say that 45 pure years is the most I have to devote to the sword. I do not doubt that I could create a sword, but it would be average at best; whereas if in stead I were to put aside my egoism an acknowledge the literal sea of knowledge that humans have throughout history built on this subject, I could create a sword that far surpassed the experience of a single lifetime. And this is what we as humans effectively do. We make things that are potent and precise beyond what we should be able to, because we are able to tap into the genius of humanity as a whole.
biological factors, but not nearly to the extent that is assumed. need only commit their time to a task and they will undoubtably progress at it. Furthermore, the diversity of the human condition also makes for the diversity of the human experience. Human life is so subjectively shaped that each and every person contains within them an irreplaceable and invaluable body of data to shed light on the human condition. The later however is what makes humanity as as a species truly powerful.
When I talk about the knowledge a person posses I am talking about both these parts. I am talking about the actual amount of experience they have performing some feat, as well as the experiences they draw on from the collective consciousness of humanity's social knowledge, that define the quality of their actions. Methods on the other hand, refers to the way a person distributes the benefits of their actions within a social system.
Sorry I am going to have to stop here. That last sentence was what I needed to solidify, I hope all this has not been too discombobulated I will continue at a later time. For now I am really hungry and I want to go back in my head to think about the ramifications of what I am trying to say.
Bye Bye
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