Facts and Objective Values

[Nick_A]

One of the biggest if not the biggest problem facing humanity is the speed with which technology is advancing in comparison to the loss of awareness of objective human values. We have facts but lack the human perspective in which they can be placed. Where intellectual intelligence has gained, emotional intelligence has atrophied.

Simone Weil was dying of TB as France was recovering from Hitler’s devastation but that didn’t stop her from writing “The need for Roots” as her contribution to suggestions on how to recover. The beginning is a profession of faith. It explains what should be the natural relationship between facts and objective values. It is worthwhile reading for all concerned with why the fallen human condition left unchecked will be devastating.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod/voices/weil.html

There is a reality outside the world, that is to say, outside space and time, outside man's mental universe, outside any sphere whatsoever that is accessible to human faculties.

Corresponding to this reality, at the centre of the human heart, is the longing for an absolute good, a longing which is always there and is never appeased by any object in this world.

She begins with a God concept which isn’t personal but rather it is universal. The dynamics of the “good” is a universal reality.

Another terrestrial manifestation of this reality lies in the absurd and insoluble contradictions which are always the terminus of human thought when it moves exclusively in this world.

Just as the reality of this world is the sole foundation of facts, so that other reality is the sole foundation of good.

That reality is the unique source of all the good that can exist in this world: that is to say, all beauty, all truth, all justice, all legitimacy, all order, and all human behaviour that is mindful of obligations.

Man is dual natured, He has a higher part which feels and is attracted to the good at the center of ones being but also a lower part which has become corrupted as Plato explains in the chariot analogy. As a result Man is a hypocrite living in contradiction at war with himself.

So the facts of the world revealed by our senses as part of our lower nature have advanced rather quickly. Knowledge of the good however has not grown since we are so involved with our lower nature. As a result man has become able to do more but doesn’t have the human perspective so as to know what to do for the objective benefit of our species.

Those minds whose attention and love are turned towards that reality are the sole intermediary through which good can descend from there and come among men…………………………………..

Here is the problem. The world doesn’t want it and struggle against those who mention the connection between fallen Man and higher consciousness which can provide the help necessary to unite the facts of the world with universal values.

So that is where we are. We are on a sinking ship on the verge of being crushed by what we know. In the rest of this essay Simone includes what a society based on uniting facts and values would include. If you are a student continually being bombarded with ideas suggesting that as we are we can fix the problem, if you look at history it is obvious that it cannot happen. What can be done by this hated minority willing to open to the Good? Are you willing to become one and acquire objective conscience? If Simone can raise these questions on her death bed the least I can do is ponder the potential for a human relationship between facts and objective values in contrast to what exists now as the fallen human condition.

[nothing]

If you are a student continually being bombarded with ideas suggesting that as we are we can fix the problem, if you look at history it is obvious that it cannot happen. What can be done by this hated minority willing to open to the Good? Are you willing to become one and acquire objective conscience?

The problem persists for not knowing what the problem is to begin with: no conscious knowledge of ignorance.

See the problem is with the words "good" and "belief".

Genesis 2:17
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Take any A/B rivalry.

A believes B is evil.
B believes A is evil.
______________________

And the problem-in-and-of-itself is belief-in-and-of-itself:

If one calls something evil, they imply themselves as good by comparison.
If one calls themselves good, they imply something else evil by comparison.

which collapses locally if/when a person believes
they must fight against whatever they believe evil to be.

Therefor belief-in-and-of-itself is a problem-in-and-of-itself
and allowing belief-based ideologies protections from scrutiny
is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions. The basic
belief-based assertions upon which such institutions stand
are absolutely false assertions, thus manufacture suffering/death
ad infinitum. Humanity needs to drop belief in favor of knowledge
as it serves to know any/all *not* to believe. This truth-by-way-of-negation
is capable of establishing an infallible 'state' that can not collapse to belief
for itself being established on the rejection of such a 'state' as belief.

Approx 90% of human suffering/death is rooted in belief-based ideology
such to religiously believe their own suffering is coming from everywhere else
*other than* the ideology itself, which manufactures suffering and death ad infinitum.

The problem persists for not knowing what the problem is to begin with: no conscious knowledge of ignorance. The belief-based ideologies of the world have no capacity to consider their own ideology to be ignorant, thus religiously scapegoat/blame others for their own ignorance.

[Nick_A]

Hello nothing. This is the first time I've ever said hello to nothing. There is a first time for everything.

The problem persists for not knowing what the problem is to begin with: no conscious knowledge of ignorance. The belief-based ideologies of the world have no capacity to consider their own ideology to be ignorant, thus religiously scapegoat/blame others for their own ignorance.

I agree that knowledge of ignorance is the beginning of wisdom. As Socrates said: "I know nothing." But here is my question to you. We can verify the facts of the world through science but do objective universal values exist we are ignorant of? If there are no objective values in the way Simone described then we are not ignorant but just normal. There is nothing objective to feel.

But if there are objective values that we are ignorant of and remain ignorant through our attachments to secular values, how can we evolve from subjective habits to experience the reality of objective values?