A Refutation of Primitivism
Posted by rbroberg 8 years, 1 month ago to Philosophy
Anarcho-Primitivism is anti-Objectivist to the fullest extent and anti-life to the extent that human beings are rational. The quandary is that if irrationality is making a comeback, even compounding upon itself as irrationality for the sake of irrationality, then who is to stop this from occurring? Which is to ask: To what extent is my selfishness bound up in lifting up people's minds for their betterment and therefore my own? Let me address these one by one.
Anarcho-Primitivism is the philosophic identification with pre-historic social systems. Hunter gatherer societies are the preference in this school of thought. But it was not a "primitive" man who expressed anarcho-primitivism and devised its tenets. He was instead a literate man. The view that the alteration of the natural world is negative stems from a kind of combination of Parmenides' belief that change is impossible and of Heraclitus' belief that opposites have a common base. The latter can be seen in both Marx and Nietzsche. The importation of these pre-Socratic views is a vivid illustration of how the intellectual world has willingly contributed to and sought out its own demise.
Objectivism teaches that the pinnacle of ancient thought was Aristotle and it is true that his philosophical achievements established the foundation for Rand's successive philosophic system. The enshrinement of reason is no mistake, it is absolutely necessary to expose the various Platonic and pre-Socratic mistakes attributable to modern philosophers. "To expose" and not to assuage because to assuage or placate is to compromise on principles in this context. The task of the intellectual confronted with the specter of these errors, which in this era should rightly be ascribed to their doers as deliberate, is indeed to expose and remove (cut out) irrationality from the appearance of rationality, i.e. to sever the rotten roots rationalism (i.e. rational idealism).
Regarding the last question, the motivation and goal-directed action determine the specific goals of a rational person. With the realization that Objective thought leads to philosophical, intellectual, and scientific growth, our selfish interest out to be a better world. The argument against this is "I cannot benefit beyond my lifespan". He who has perished cannot experience the wonders and miracles of future enlightenment, so to speak. Yet this view of selfishness is completely solipsistic. Do not make the mistake of Bernie Madoff. The view that immediate material reward for work is the proper definition of selfishness is NOT ACCURATE. Howard Roark worked years to perfect his craft and eventually destroyed it in order to claim it. He worked for the sake of his craft and his love of it in the same way that John Galt thought for the sake of life and his love of it. The bridge on the John Galt Line would have lasted well into the next century.
The argument against selfishness is that impermanence reduces life to meaningless robotics of reproduction of death. Since all men are mortal, then selfishness demands there is no reason to care for the world beyond one's own existence. Therefore, altruism - living for the sake of others - is the only recourse because some invisible chain linking the lives of those who sacrificed themselves to others lives on in our place. This is the god of the altruists. Yet it is clear that if each person sacrifices himself to the next, then each of the members of the human race has done so in a circle of self-sacrifice benefitting no entity but the invisible chain or god or whatever else. But this impersonal god then lives on the human sacrifice, which must be a mistake since God is supposed to be merciful and just. It is impossible to conceive of a merciful and just God that also requires every man to sacrifice himself to the interest of others while denying himself the benefit of receiving the good, even from himself!
Im summation, rationalism required supernaturalism in order to maintain the premise that consciousness precedes existence. Modernism required collectivism in order to maintain the premise that altruism trumps selfishness. Thus altruism and primacy of consciousness are corollaries. Both require the defaulting on or stealing of the concept of objective reality. This is ample argument to disprove Marx and therefore also Heraclitus. Parmenides and Heraclitus has opposite views on change and yet each of these views are smuggled into Anarcho-Primitivism. In this way, Anarcho-Primitivism, like most forms of mysticism, is without a coherent, reducible, hierarchical systematization of concepts and must therefore lead to contradictory results. Contradictions cannot exist and reality does exist, therefore, contradictory results are false. It is not a contradiction to work for a better world after we die, so long as it is in one's own rational interest.
Anarcho-Primitivism is the philosophic identification with pre-historic social systems. Hunter gatherer societies are the preference in this school of thought. But it was not a "primitive" man who expressed anarcho-primitivism and devised its tenets. He was instead a literate man. The view that the alteration of the natural world is negative stems from a kind of combination of Parmenides' belief that change is impossible and of Heraclitus' belief that opposites have a common base. The latter can be seen in both Marx and Nietzsche. The importation of these pre-Socratic views is a vivid illustration of how the intellectual world has willingly contributed to and sought out its own demise.
Objectivism teaches that the pinnacle of ancient thought was Aristotle and it is true that his philosophical achievements established the foundation for Rand's successive philosophic system. The enshrinement of reason is no mistake, it is absolutely necessary to expose the various Platonic and pre-Socratic mistakes attributable to modern philosophers. "To expose" and not to assuage because to assuage or placate is to compromise on principles in this context. The task of the intellectual confronted with the specter of these errors, which in this era should rightly be ascribed to their doers as deliberate, is indeed to expose and remove (cut out) irrationality from the appearance of rationality, i.e. to sever the rotten roots rationalism (i.e. rational idealism).
Regarding the last question, the motivation and goal-directed action determine the specific goals of a rational person. With the realization that Objective thought leads to philosophical, intellectual, and scientific growth, our selfish interest out to be a better world. The argument against this is "I cannot benefit beyond my lifespan". He who has perished cannot experience the wonders and miracles of future enlightenment, so to speak. Yet this view of selfishness is completely solipsistic. Do not make the mistake of Bernie Madoff. The view that immediate material reward for work is the proper definition of selfishness is NOT ACCURATE. Howard Roark worked years to perfect his craft and eventually destroyed it in order to claim it. He worked for the sake of his craft and his love of it in the same way that John Galt thought for the sake of life and his love of it. The bridge on the John Galt Line would have lasted well into the next century.
The argument against selfishness is that impermanence reduces life to meaningless robotics of reproduction of death. Since all men are mortal, then selfishness demands there is no reason to care for the world beyond one's own existence. Therefore, altruism - living for the sake of others - is the only recourse because some invisible chain linking the lives of those who sacrificed themselves to others lives on in our place. This is the god of the altruists. Yet it is clear that if each person sacrifices himself to the next, then each of the members of the human race has done so in a circle of self-sacrifice benefitting no entity but the invisible chain or god or whatever else. But this impersonal god then lives on the human sacrifice, which must be a mistake since God is supposed to be merciful and just. It is impossible to conceive of a merciful and just God that also requires every man to sacrifice himself to the interest of others while denying himself the benefit of receiving the good, even from himself!
Im summation, rationalism required supernaturalism in order to maintain the premise that consciousness precedes existence. Modernism required collectivism in order to maintain the premise that altruism trumps selfishness. Thus altruism and primacy of consciousness are corollaries. Both require the defaulting on or stealing of the concept of objective reality. This is ample argument to disprove Marx and therefore also Heraclitus. Parmenides and Heraclitus has opposite views on change and yet each of these views are smuggled into Anarcho-Primitivism. In this way, Anarcho-Primitivism, like most forms of mysticism, is without a coherent, reducible, hierarchical systematization of concepts and must therefore lead to contradictory results. Contradictions cannot exist and reality does exist, therefore, contradictory results are false. It is not a contradiction to work for a better world after we die, so long as it is in one's own rational interest.
I am still having trouble with your sentences, what does "does not except Wikipedia" mean?
For scholarship after you have found it on Wikipedia try the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. You will be advancing into the world of scholarship when you go to the references at the end of both and actually see where the facts and debates are in time and structure. Try writing and submitting a paper to a journal for some feedback.
Successive of Aristotle.
I do not understand how answering the question "what language did hunter gatherers speak" is relevant.
The pre-Socratics did on occasion struggle with mystical supernaturalism pervading their views. Pythagoreanism incorporated ascetic ideals, emphasizing purgation and metempsychosis. I supposed philosopher cat, in her professionalism, does not except Wikipedia as a source of "scholarship"?
PS - one of my daughters has the middle name Selene. Did you select it from Greek or some other source?
See my review here http://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/20...
"Moreover, even when the disasterous flooding of the 12th century created Holland's Zuiderzee, refugees swelled the population of Amsterdam, perhaps tripling it; but rather than starvation, want, and poverty, the city enjoyed prosperity and vibrant trade and commerce."
And here:
http://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/20...
"We are literally a bourgeois (burgher) society, a nation of cities. That is also the underlying thesis in Jane Jacobs’s The Economy of Cities."
In the Valley, when asked what she would say to all those prior heroes were she to meet them in some afterlife paradise, Dagny said, "Thanks." What else can you say? And that is what I say when I meet a notable. Here (and elsewhere in O-land), even when I disagree, I start off by thanking other people for their work.
On that note... What we call the "Socratic" method, they called the Milesian Way after Aspasia of Miletos, who brought it to Athens and taught it to the guys at symposia.
See "Bringing Philosophy to Athens" on my blog here http://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/20...
It was said, "P-hilo-so-p-hia."
P-s-u-X-eh, not pseeXee.
My daughter's name is Selene. Modern Greeks call her as if in English "Se-lee-nee" which is not how the ancients pronounced it.
See my comments to philosophercat below (https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...)
I look to The Pronunciation and Reading of Ancient Greek: A Practical Guide by Stephen G. Daitz and The Living Voice of Greek and Latin by the same author.
Blarman is wrong about upsilon sounding like our English long-e (ee). It does now. It did not then. U and O were closer back then. And the P and S were separate sounds, enunciated separately.
Aphrodite was not "afro-die-tee" but A-p-h-ro-di-te. Psyche was not "pseeXe" but P-s-u-X-e.
I agree also that the Greeks were inventing new understandings for which they needed new words. Old words took on subtle shifts, such as ours have and do. "Silly" originally meant "soully" i.e., head in the clouds.
See my comments below to you and blarman.
I understand the problems with English. Our vocabulary is more sophisticated by 2500 years. It is a fact: we have more concepts. I do grant that classical Greece was a time of changes when new words were invented.
See my other comments to you and philosophercat below.
"He believes the soul (psuche) is what animates the body."
That was precisely what I was arguing as well. You seemed to intimate that it was not a "spiritual" force, however, which runs very contrary to my personal experience with the Greeks' own use of the word and their culture. The rest comes down to who one finds to represent a greater authority: a scholar in an ivory tower or the people themselves. And we don't have to agree on that.
Let me politely disagree with your sense that the two words are the same. In "Essays on Aristotle's De Anima" there are several entire essays on the importance of how Aristotle used the two words pointing out the difference in ancient Greek and in the context in which the words are used. clearly shows the difference. He believes the soul (psuche) is what animates the body. Not what the brain does. When death occurs the body decays and it cannot be reversed. . Chris Shield translated it and wrote a long commentary also see Lennox and Gothelff on Aristotle's biology. Psyche and Psuche have different referents in reality.
Wish I spoke Greek.
I also have a project on Greek sailing and trading as the reason for language formation.
Best.
"Its not psyche which can be translated as psychology."
I'll politely disagree based on personal and cultural knowledge (and my Greek dictionary). To the Greeks, they are one and the same word and meaning. It is the English who have put their own spin on the matter and tried to render the study of the soul to a soulless art. There is a wholly different word: nou which is used to specifically refer to the cognitive mind.
"He concluded ... Its biological not mental."
Again, I'll disagree (see comment above). What Socrates, Plato and Aristotle - Aristotle being the third generation - all pondered was the force behind the material. And contrary to what modern philosophers like to call it, it was spiritual to them - just not in a Christian religious sort as the word is commonly used now. Biology is the study of the living or living things from a technical standpoint while psychology is much more ephemeral and philosophical (psychological being the appropriate word as philosophy is broken down to be the study of the interaction between people - filos being the word for a friend). The question they pondered over and over again is what caused the true death of an individual? Was there more to it than a simply biological interaction? I would also note that none of the three were atheists according to how we use that word today. Socrates found logical problems with the Greek Pantheon and could only rationalize a single god. For his heresy he was condemned to drink hemlock. Plato argued against the Greek Pantheon in Republic in favor of a singular deity. The Epicureans are really the last of any surviving Greek philosophy but they started to go sideways IMHO. That's kind of where traditional Greek philosophy trails off and is replaced by Constantine's Christianity.
"Two days for religious holidays, Greek Orthodox?"
Yup. It would vary from week to week, of course, but I'd average things out to two in five. Easter was the whole week, but every day of the year was some Saint's day with its associated catechism (though catechism is more a Roman Catholic notion).
ALso Arisstotle studied the constitutions of Greek Polis even though we only have the text of Athens. But the Greeks created city government without the words to compare and contrast the various ideas.
Norway is also a country which has a religious infusion through its culture and politics. Imagine trying to change a Parliament, a King, and GOD. That's why there is pessimism about change. Thanks for the comments. Two days for religious holidays, Greek Orthodox?
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