Reason, Egoism, Capitalism—spreading
underground
On becoming
a deep thinker
| You bet your buns they matter! The
"human nature" that is blamed for every kind of evil and silliness—and
that is occasionally praised for the triumphs of art, science and technology—is
shaped by deep thinkers.
It is not chance—it is philosophy—that fills one age with warriors, emperors and slaves; another age with humble hermits, chivalrous knights and superstitious serfs; another with poets, playwrights and pirates; yet another with proudly independent farmers, businessmen, tinkerers and inventors. The quality of a age's deep thinkers is a strong clue to the misery or happiness of the next age. Within about a century their deep thoughts will spread to virtually every mind, where they will clarify or distort every conclusion, and shift every value-judgment toward the better or the worse. Philosophy drives the course of history, very often in directions which would have astonished a philosophy's first adherents. E.g., skepticism has long been thought of as a stick with which to beat religion. So most men would be baffled to learn that David Hume's 18th century skepticism led to a 20th century eruption of Eastern mysticism in the West. Yet the evidence, the line of descent, is clear: Hume to Kant, to Hegel, to Schopenhauer, to a bunch of lesser lights, to 1960s hippiedom. History is the laboratory notebook recording man's philosophical experiments. Just as, in the special sciences, one experiment can be worth a library full of theorizing, so it is in philosophy. If you want to know the results of releasing a mix of mysticism, supernaturalism and pessimism into later antiquity (as Augustine of Hippo did in the 5th Century), just flip ahead to the section headed "Dark Ages," and read all about it. If you want to know the results of releasing Aristotelian this-worldliness into a High Medieval culture, just flip ahead from Thomas Aquinas to the section headed "Renaissance," and read all about it. |
| It takes honesty right down to your toe-tips!
Becoming a deep thinker requires innumerable judgment calls. A neatly laid
out syllogism that proves a true and important conclusion from unshakeable
premises with impeccable logic is the deep thinker's goal, but that's
not where you start! You start by reviewing the evidence: sifting,
weighing, estimating, judging the credibility of witnesses and authorities,
grasping for clues and hints. This precedes the tidy arguments which
package what you learn in a form that you can build on, and that others
can learn from you. And your only guide in making these judgment calls
is your own honesty. If you chisel a bit while reviewing the evidence,
chances are you'll never be caught—but you'll be unlikely to learn anything
new, and your resulting theory will be a weird parody of truth.
It also takes an enormous amount of reading, and quite a long time. |
| How deep do you want to go? Assuming
no more than the usual number of blunders and false starts, 2 to 5 years
should give you enough grasp of the best philosophy of the age to be able
to apply it reliably to the issues it was intended to deal with. 10 to
15 years should give you an expert's grasp of it, able to extend it to
some new areas. Learning a philosophy is rather like learning a programming
language: the first one is by far the toughest.
Knowledge builds on knowledge: the more you know, the faster you can learn. This implies that your knowledge can grow exponentially, even if we haven't figured out how to measure knowledge exactly. This explains why a top philosopher like Aristotle almost seems to be more than human. But he's not; he just compounded his gains for decades on end. So can you! Twenty years is about the apprenticeship required for a maker. After 20 years, you should be able to strike out on your own—to start filling in areas that your teachers left blank, and to start to discover and correct errors they may have made. I'm not making this up: look at the examples of history's premier deep thinkers. Aristotle spent about 20 years in Plato's Academy. Ayn Rand published The Fountainhead at about age 37. In the physical sciences and mathematics, top notch original work is often done by those in their twenties: philosophy is a tougher nut to crack. Long before you're able to do original work, you'll be breezing effortlessly past traps and conundrums that the unphilosophical struggle with for a liftime! |
| Absolutely not! The best-kept open
secret in the world is that very few of the best philosophers were academics.
Bacon was a statesman. Locke was a physician. Ayn Rand was a novelist.
Even Aristotle doesn't fully qualify as an academic. He started his
own school in competition with Plato's academy; in modern terms he
was more of an educational entrepreneur than an academic.
The healthy historical pattern is that philosophies are created by independent scholars outside academe, gain a popular following, and eventually become objects of academic study. Eras in which philosophy is monopolized by academics are eras in which independent scholarship is persecuted, ignored or despised as a career. This ensures that few independent scholars will appear to challenge academic orthodoxies, which therefore continue to pile new error upon old error for century after stagnant century. In such eras, most philosophies are poisonous trash. Progress is largely the creation of independent scholars. Independent scholarship is like prospecting, treasure-hunting or inventing: it could conceivably make you rich, but you can't expect to earn a living by it. If you seek to be an independent scholar, you will need a "day job" or a fortune—in order to live during a long and financially unrewarding apprenticeship, and as provision against the risk that you will never make a nickel from your studies. A fortune—enough capital to provide a living income—is better than a day job, as it frees a maximum of leisure for your work. Unless you were blessed with thrifty parents, don't quit your day job until you've saved a fortune. You can save a fortune in a reasonable time. An investment left to compound will double in a certain length of time, its doubling time. For example, an investment that earns 6% will double in 12 years, and 6% (real, net of everything) seems a reasonable estimate of what you can expect to earn. It turns out that if you live on half your income and invest the other half, then in one doubling time you will have enough capital to provide you an income in perpetuity equal to what you were living on, i.e., you will have a fortune to provide you a living. If you think that half of what you earn at your day job is too skimpy a living, keep your day job for another doubling time, and let your fortune double: your independent income will double with it. Easier said than done? Certainly, but it is possible, to you, and within about a decade or two. It's your choice! |
| Philosophy is a progressive science,
like physics or mathematics. It is not recognized as a progressive science
because its progress has been imperceptibly slow. Its progress has been
slow mostly because there were just too few deep thinkers to advance it.
Philosophy remains in the state in which Sir Francis Bacon found experimental science: it is almost deserted because the best of men don't want to get involved with the nutbars and charlatans who infest it. A man of 400 years ago would be astonished by the sheer numbers of scientists productively working today. It was Bacon who put them to work by observing that knowledge is power, and that nature is our ultimate source of knowledge. Philosophy is the most powerful knowledge, and reality is our ultimate source of philosophy. We need all the deep thinkers we can get! |
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