There is a new study about babies and morality and knowing good from not good. Ah indeed. Yes, babies have been shown to have values even in the preverbal stage, but these have no basis in knowledge according to the empirical standard. So do dogs, and monkeys. They tested the behavior of monkeys to unequal pay. Can you guess how they reacted?
Not happy. Indeed. Going so far as to throw the food item back at the experimenter, try and rattle the cage, and thrust their hand back out in a demand for the preferred food. They didn’t just eat what they got. They understood it was unfair. They feel that everything can be traced to a biological mechanism. I offer that they will never substantiate that. In another experiment, they set it up so that a lab rat could get food every time it pressed a lever, and then later made the lever press action deliver a mild electric shock to rats in a nearby cage. When this was discovered the rat stopped pressing the lever. They even induced hunger and the rat would not press the lever. Sounds more honest than most of our politicians, no? “You dirty rat” would be a compliment.
I think that we can preserve elements of empiricism, keep the useful precepts and work beyond it, “behind”, and in front of it as well. Behind being finding and understanding solid concepts from tradition, history and culture, and in front meaning going ahead while remaining armed with the seeds of human experience as we have managed to glean so far. They say you reap what you sow. What have we been reaping?
Keep the benefits of the tradition, but move on with them in the background, still there for reference. Yes. So far, what has sprung from our current “knowledge”?
We never seem to be able to grow in step. It’s always to one extreme and another. I see it this way. Humanity has been hopping and without direction. It’s like they say; “Oh we use rock. Everyone uses rock. Rock is the truth and always will be.” And then next hop; “No, now we use bone. Rock is so yesterday. Poor foolish rock users. We are so much better now that we use bone.” But we live in a world of knowledge. I can pick up the bone, the rock and the stick and use each according to the way of the world as a whole.
Aloha. It’s a word of knowledge. Everything is knowledge. We get confused when we refuse to understand this and try to take bits of knowledge out of context like holding a fish in our hands in the air and demanding, “What’s wrong fish? Why can’t you breath fish? Don’t you know everything breaths oxygen?” which is not literally true either. So have I gone too far?
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~