Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 29, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
One of the sickening flaws of Homo sapiens is selfishness. It is as if humans are so possessed of selfishness that they are unfit to be classified as higher animals. A dog would love you without any selfishness. If you tell your dog to fetch your shoes and he/she did that yet you eat your food right in front of him/her and didn’t offer not even a drop, that dog will tomorrow serve you faithfully.
When I began to read philosophy books I thought that because humans are possessed of reason, the world will always be a better place because of reason. It was the Roman philosopher, Cicero, who argued that reason is what distinguishes us from lower animals.
This is how Cicero puts it; “Reason which alone raises us above the level of the beast and enables us to draw inferences, to prove and disprove, to discuss and solve problems and to come to conclusions, is certainly common to all of us, and, though it varies in what it learns, in its capacity to learn it is invariable.”
That passage from Cicero had undue influence on me. For me, it was the single most important characteristic that made the title of higher animals a justified one when describing Homo sapiens. Later on, in my studies, I came to be flippant about reason, especially after reading Arthur Koestler. Koestler devastated the existence of reason in Homo sapiens. More than two thousand years before Koestler was born, the Roman general, Marc Anthony, at the funeral service for Julius Caesar, said of his countrymen, “Oh judgement! Thou art fled to brutish breasts and men have lost their reason”.
Men lost their reason long before Anthony spoke those words. It is doubtful they will ever get it back. The great 18th Russian writer, Dostoyevsky has an interesting observation. It goes like this; “People speak sometimes of the bestial cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts; no animal could ever be as cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.” Cicero died more than two thousand years ago, but he must be turning in his Roman grave to know that men have lost their reason and have fled to brutish beasts because as he told us in the passage above, it was reason that raises us above the level of the beast.
If Homo sapiens did not lose their capacity to reason so long ago, human society would have been perfect. There would have been no place for selfishness. But selfishness has long replaced reason. People are obsessed with their own mental and social elevation and have no capacity to reason about the way other humans feel. I laughed when I read about the complaint of Mr. Royston King to the City Council. King was aggrieved that a councilor met his daughter and enquired about his trip to Mexico.
King said it was an abuse of his and his family’s privacy. Indeed it is. The person was out of place to approach King’s daughter. But King has to know that his action as Town Clerk has hurt the daughters of countless people that his hammer fell upon. Many vendors are single mothers and they had to go home and tell their daughters that income would not be coming any longer because the Town Clerk has evicted them.
King told the owner of Lance’s Photo Studio at Stabroek Market Square he had to move his 30-year-old business because the Golden Jubilee floats have to move off from the square. Surely, the owner has daughters who depend on their father’s income. Maybe only King has the capacity to feel hurt and pain.
Then there is this lady who supports the PPP. She picks on all the little faults of the Coalition Government. She claims the Government has struck her father’s store off the list of cloth stores at which the Ministry of Education’s school vouchers are tenable. I know her father. Nice gentleman who doesn’t dabble in any kind of politics. If it is true, then the Government is wrong and must reverse its decision.
But this lady who is now crying wolf needs to acquire the capacity to reason. If and when she does, she must be made to understand, like Royston King must be made to understand that “he/she that feels it knows it.”
Homo sapiens must reclaim their capacity to reason so they can understand that they must not hurt people. But do they care about their faults? They are too selfish to do so.
Comments are closed.
Jagdeo giving Exxon 102 cent to collect 2 cent.
Apr 25, 2024
By Rawle Toney Kaieteur Sports – The French Diplomatic Office in Guyana, in collaboration with the Guyana Olympic Association and UNICEF, hosted an exhibition on Tuesday evening at the...Kaieteur News – Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, persists in offering... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Waterfalls Magazine – On April 10, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]
Archimedes
was born in Syracuse, Greece in 287 BC and died 212 BC after being
killed by a Roman soldier who did not know who Archimedes was. He was
the son of an astronomer: Phidias of whom we know nothing about.
Archimedes received his formal education in Alexandria, Egypt which at
the time was considered to be the ‘intellectual center’ of the world……….
Yo ! prof.Freddie ,, since “reason” is the theme of ur musings today ,, i thought i’d share with u and ur readers this from this ancient…….. “rekniht” !! he said…….
“Reasoning”……. is the art of calculating “consequences”…… !!!
indeed humans are capable of “reason” !! what has eluded u in ur thesis here on “reasoning by homo sapiens” ,, is ,, from the beginning of time ,, man’s ability to reason ,, has been dictated by his “emotions”……. the decisive factor that creates ,, his…………….. AGENDA !!!!!