DYNAMIC-SCIENTIFIC PHILOSOPHY


Plato's Trio (Second Part)

THE TRUE

Reading Plato's writings serves an intelectual purpose, and is essential for a professional, academic philosopher. However, there is nothing of value in those writings that has not become part of Western World's thought. Plato didn't enjoy the benefit of present day science; consequently, his ideas had to suffer from the limitations of basic information.
Mentioning 'Plato's Trio': The GOOD, The TRUTH, and The BEAUTY, the intention is to stress the importance of Plato's Ideas, Forms, or Universals as referring to the essence of those three concepts, so significant to Mankind. My musings on the subject are the spin-off of the D-SP, and have no direct relation with Plato's own. Indeed, he had no concept of Evolution, at least not as nowadays understood. See:LET'S CHAT ON NATURE.

I've already published a mini-essay on the GOOD: BEHAVE!
The subject of the present mini-essay is The TRUE. Later on, I'll delve on The BEAUTY.

There are three basic conceptual types of TRUTHS, pertaining to the three areas of human interest, as defined by the DS-P: The first type, the Scientific one, has been already defined by the D-SP. See: AXIOMS .

The Theologic truths, called DOGMAS, have and will occupy religiously inclined minds forever, since no answers can be found to non-positivistic, abstruse, non-alethic questions.

The remaining TRUTH to be defined is the Philosophic one. This is the most relevant truth, for it touches on Man himself. When philosophers of the past dealt with philosophy, they were mostly searching for the philosophic truth. Existentialism is a class apart, being perhaps the school most approaching moral questions, which cannot be disassociated from Theology.

To delve on the PHILOSOPHIC TRUTH, D-SP resorts to scientific discoveries, following the evolutionary path to understanding.
Science has not found any evidence to contend that Man's life is more 'valid' than the life of any other animal or plant. Science speaks only of evolutionary facts. I have posited that science found that evolution determined that BADNESS is the motor that propels the individual's advancement, while GOODNESS is what evolution found as determinant for the creation and development of groups.
If so, for human beings to consider the TRUE, three thought platforms have to be utilized: The first states that from the basic evolutionary point of view, each single organism is unique. But only humans can realize this fact, and only they can think dispassionately about this truth. Therefore, the FIRST HUMAN TRUTH is:

YOU ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT HUMAN BEING THAT HAS BEEN AND WILL EVER BE CREATED.

Notice that no moral or societal criteria underly this absolutely evolutionary TRUTH.

Second, there are no scientific grounds to prove that any organism is 'valuable.' It is human beings who decide what has or lacks a quality defined as VALUE. Thus, from a strictly evolutionary point of view, no living organism has an intrinsic value: it is just one result of physical laws acting since the BIG BANG to develop --without any prescribed purpose-- what we call 'Nature.'
Therefore, the SECOND HUMAN TRUTH is:

YOUR VALUE IS NIL.

However, as thinking organisms, we can reach the conclusion that as long as we have been born and have reached the age of reason, we are able to learn and understand the following:
Evolution has dictated that we discover that 'badness' and 'goodness' are not just moral definitions, but facts in any organism's birth, growth, and development. As human beings, we are able to learn and understand these realities. Our actions are constrained by these two "facts of life." We strive to educate ourselves for our improvement, because this is a dictate of evolutionary development. Education serves us to compete more effectibly. Thus, we feel the 'need' of improving ourselves. But we can make a conscious, voluntary effort to do better than the minimum, unless our brain lacks some anatomical or biological components required for the feeling of such a need, or for realizing the possibility of effecting that extra effort. Thus, for 'normal' people, the THIRD HUMAN TRUTH is:

STRIVE TO ADD VALUE TO YOUR LIFE.

Gurus serve to guide people that cannot depend on themselves in the evolutionary quest of adding value to their lives. Many schools of philosophy have been developed for this same guiding purpose. The D-SP has no such purpose. Detachedly, it endeavors to present truths that cannot be otherwise understood. It does not judge, nor does it offer counsel or consolation.

Indeed, following that guiding light, it behooves the D-SP to examine further the 'third human truth,' as purported to be dictated by the evolutionary need of acting for the benefit of the group. Humankind developed and defined different kinds of groups. There is the family circle, the clan, the race, the motherland, the religious denomination, the cult, the guild, the political party, and more.
Depending on the education received and the experiences and contingencies of life, each individual evolves his/her definition of 'groups.' The inborn need to do GOOD, is accordingly channeled, and --unwittingly-- 'MEANING' (VALUE) is added to each individual's existence.

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