(Answer at the end).
PURPOSE
By Charles Kocian
Last week, while more countries condemned Benjamin Netanyahu Gaza’ massacre and a truce of four days have begun, libertarian economist Javier Milei becomes president of Argentina and right-wing Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom won 37 out of 150 seats in Netherlands, Elon Musk SpaceX blows up a second Starship rocket test in its decision for a multi-planet humanity. A single week for four different men which different actions have absolute different consequences for themselves and humanity. Their present actions are making future history. They will be good or bad examples of human beings for future generations. The same happened in the Renaissance with the Inquisition, Galileo Galilei, Leonardo da Vinci and Cristopher Columbus.
Cristopher Columbus discovering the American Continent.
In The Renaissance, while the persistence of Cristopher Columbus initiated the continental global humanity, Leonardo da Vinci was becoming the icon of the Renaissance’ man, the holistic man who wants to understand and practice all sciences and arts, the indomitable spirit who wants to conquer all knowledge, the free mind who wants to become the best version of himself. Other hero of The Renaissance was Galileo Galilei who didn’t betrayed its telescope data although the Inquisition comdemned his sensory visual perceptions for life.
Galileo and the Pope.
And what are the names of similar men in acient Athens? The bad person is Anytus and the good ones are Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. We all know that in ancient Athens Socrates was accussed by Meletus, but what we don’t know is it was accused also by Anytus. Anytus helped Athens in the overthrowing of the Thirty Tyrants, but he didn’t like Socrates’s criticism of Athenian institutions, (and its disdain of democracy). Accordingly to Plato, he once said: “Socrates, I think that you are too ready to speak evil of men: and, if you will take my advice, I would recommend you to be careful.” But Anytus had a personal gripe with Socrates, because he believed he had an intimate relationship with its son. Socrates, as many men of acient Athens, was bisexual and use to sleep with some of its younger students, something that Anytus disapproved. As we all know, this story ended with Socrates death.
Socrates death.
Socrates had Plato as one of its students. Later, Plato founded the school of Athens and Aristotle was one of his students. After some years Aristotle founded the Lyceum because he came to its own conclusions disagreeing with its master. For instance, Plato had the conviction knowledge was inherent, but Aristotle discovered knowledge was gained gradually from sensory peceptions. A crucial epistemological difference. Plato, believed in the primacy of ideas over brains; Aristotle, in the primacy of brains over ideas. Perhaps the main Asristotle’s contribution was for science when he wrote Organon, where he describes what logic is. He defines man as a rational-animal and, indoubitally, logic is the standard of the scientific method.
School of Athens (Plato and Aristotle at the center)
CONCLUSION
Today we have Netanyahu, Milei, Wilders and Musk; in the Renaissance we have The Inquisition, Galileo, Leonardo and Columbus; and in ancient Athens we have Anytus, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Was to love their neighbours the life moral purpose of each of these men? Did they have any life-moral-purpose at all? Why the altruistic dogma of loving our neighbours should be a moral imperative? Is altruism the same as natural empathy? No.
Mona Lisa.
If you think about it, man should exclude initiating force or deceit against other men, but its moral purpose in life should be to perfect its reason choosing a life productive work, as Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci and Musk did. They all wanted to become the best version of themselves. They all pursued eudaimonia, which is an end in itself, given, natural and absolute, and for any man who is born equal under the sun. What about loving our neighbours? It depends on the neighbours, because you can’t love without discrimination. Love is great but comes after your values, because love derives from sharing the same values. You can’t love murderers like The Inquisition or Netanyahu unless you share their values.
Now the answer to question 79.
QUESTION N° 79
Is the moral purpose of life to love our neighbour?
a) Yes.
b) No.
The answer is: b) N0. Man’s moral purpose of life, although excludes to initiate force or deceit against others, is to perfect its reason, (which is its soul). It is a given, natural and absolute purpose that has no previous cause. This means to discover the champion-version of ourselves and from there pursue our own happiness. In other words, it means to become what we ought and should to become as rational animals, that is, to get eudaimonia. All this is an end in itself, and it means to practice a rational objective morality that includes to choose a productive feat, use critical thinking and logic integrity. Love is great but comes after, because is just the manifestation of shared values.
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