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LM: #347: The humanities are the science of being human
We wouldn’t want a plane engineer to forget the laws of physics. We wouldn’t want a doctor who rejects the fundamentals of biology.
But the scientific method which has gained us this knowledge seems to distract us, like a magician’s sleight-of-hand preventing us from seeing the rabbit under the table.
There have been times and places when the burning questions amongst the smartest people were not as much about what could be precisely measured and reduced to a formula – Ancient Greece, Renaissance Florence, Early India and China.
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The questions were instead about what is a life well-lived, what trade-offs should a society make, and how do you navigate consciousness and this existence of fortune, desire, suffering, and elation?
None of these questions have concrete answers, which is understandably frustrating in a world where we have a name for the protein that causes this or that heretofore mysterious malady.
But it’s strange that people sat around and asked these questions, figured out and recorded pretty-good answers that are freely available to us, and most of us just struggle through life only to, if we’re very lucky and live a long time, come to the same conclusions the hard way.
Aphorism: “Is the resolve to be so scientific about everything perhaps a kind of fear of, an escape from, pessimism? A subtle last resort against – truth?” —Friedrich Nietzsche
Cool: AI vs. Brad Pitt acting performance
Best,
David
P.S. The humanities seem more fox than hedgehog-coded.
P.P.S. How to Write a Book is currently a free audiobook on YouTube.
