Franz J. T. Lee

Reason and Wisdom

A brief  Autobiography

Part I:
Juvenile Insipience

Part II: The Age of Reason: Love At Every Sight !

Part III: Scientific Earthquakes and Philosophic Tornados


Pandemonium Electronic Publications, Mérida, Venezuela, 1999

Copyright 1999, Franz J. T. Lee, All Rights Reserved


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SCIENCE  AND  PHILOSOPHY


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CHAPTER  TWENTY-ONE

 

          REASON   AND   WISDOM



Final Part


Various  Levels  a n d  Degrees  of 
Consciousness   a n d

Self-Consciousness , of  Intelleca n d   Reason

Logically, depending on our different patrian processes of naturalization
  a n d  socialization, but also on our different space  a n d  time
parameters,  hic et nunc our levels  a n d  degrees of  Consciousness
  a n d  Self Consciousness are distinct; i.e., they are not identical; we are
not  a n d  we do not exist as a solid, consolidated "mass", as a mass of
people, as the "masses".

However, this is not a reason to identify oneself as an individual vis-á-vis society,
and miraculously to hail oneself as a  very special "human being", in relation to the billions of "Wretched of the Earth". Consciousness, Self Consciousness and Identity are made of much "sterner stuff".

Hence, to cognize  a n d  to recognize the world in which we live cannot
be achieved on an officially specified  level of "education" or "alphabetization", or at a definite "mature" age, or in a "favourable" social environment;  the above depends on the human capacity and sanity of still being able to act  a n d  to think by a n d  for oneself, in spite of all the imposed ideological, indoctrinatory and manipulatory measures, whether "rightist" or "leftist", "fascist" or "communist". Talking about "freedom of speech", still to be able to act, to think, to intellectualize and to reason, still to be able to be a n d  to exist as an historic being, forms the sine qua non for scientific cognition  a n d  philosophic recognition.

The Damocles Sword of Reason

Consequently, the intellectual and rational qualification to understand and
to criticize the previous critical lectures is very demanding and challenging,
because, at first, "at heart and by mind", we must study their epistemology,
logic and method; only thereafter comes the caustic Critique of Reason.

We are not existentialists, not nihilists, no pipe dreamers and no "Heavenly Gate" sect;  bravely we are storming the "democratic" Bastille, the global
"Reign of Terror", the eternal Havens of Capital and the Heavens of
Capitalism; not to annihilate them (this is not our historic task !), but to surpass, to transcend, to excel them. We should not forget that the ideals
of the contemporary bourgeoisie, as expressed by itself, are : Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity ; lately, it added Democracy, Justice, Welfare State, World Peace and Globalization to this sonorous list of heavenly bliss..
Surely, these objectives are not inscribed in our Historic Tricolore!

WE  SHALL OVERCOME!!!

We need not liquidate Globalization; just as it was born, inexorably so it will perish; at least, this the Prussian State philosopher, Hegel, had taught us; and this bitter lesson of existence is also valid for the Global State, for the capitalist "Weltgeist"; out of sheer historic necessity it will vanish into absolute oblivion all by itself, generated by its own "progressive" and democratic moribund relations. Perhaps the only thing for us to do is to offer it the "Last Sacrament" and to wish it a happy geometric progression towards "peaceful" self destruction. Over the last three millennia, no "God", no individual, no masses, no force on Earth had ever halted the forward march of the "accumulation of capital", so, let us sing :  "The Saints Are Marching On "!  Also : "We Shall Overcome"!

At least, even from patrian "history" we can learn something, although, now
and then, "history repeats itself". No prayer had halted Slavery, no
peasants and serfs had broken the backbone of Feudalism,  also until now,
no proletarians gave Capitalism its death-blow. Furthermore, it was not Mandela
or the ANC who had overthrown Apartheid, it was Globalization itself which necessitated a new form of exploitation, oppression and discrimination in South Africa. Similarly, it was Globalization which had decided to break down its own "Wall of Berlin". Who still has brains to think, let them reason the rest all by themselves!

Also, we are not pacifists, not "traitors to the revolution", atheists,
socialists, communists or terrorists;  even their "dictatorship of the
proletariat", "class struggle", "world revolution", "dialectics",
"revolutionary party" and "revolutionary masses" have to
bow below the emancipatory Damocles Sword of Reason. We are simply cosmic
 a n d  we exist ontically, AND we transcend historically. There is
no more fuzz around us, and we make no fuss about ourselves. What follows
now must be comprehended in this serious and stringent "spirit".

The Nineties : Earthquakes  a n d  Tornados

In the hard way, we learned:

1.  That all is not history that Great Gods, Great Ideas, Great Men and
    Great Races do.

2.  That, among other things, Formal Logic, Dialectics, Scientific Method,
    Empiricism and Pragmatism are not the Alpha and Omega of Historic
    Existence, of Intellect  a n d  Reason. Also, that all great patrian thinkers,
    with rigour, do not seriously question the Kantian intellectual categories,
    Space  and Time, in spite of the remarkable "discoveries" made by
    the Relativity Theory of Einstein or the Quantum Theory of Planck or even
    the   "Uncertainty Principle". Without much ado, as absolute truths, their
    descriptions of processes, of movement or motion are based on space-time
    relations, also their logical arguments and methodological approaches.
    Nearly everything is measured in terms of seconds or  millimetres, in
    zig-zag fashion,
    whether it concerns an atomic clock or a distance of several light years.
    Ideology, Manipulation and Indoctrination flourish in this
    spatial-temporal formal-logical cage. It is high "time" to "discover" the
    "third" element: Space, Time, ....; Rest, Motion, ... ? Or is Science or
     Philosophy just a dualistic two-by-two adventure? Is everything  just
     "good" or "bad"?

3.  That We have to act  a n d  think  AND  excel all by and for ourselves,
     here and now;  if we don't, then others will have to act, to think and to
     transcend for us; in the latter case, we end up being happy with our
     earthly and heavenly lot, with our destiny.

4.  That, in the first place, the brain, i.e., that Intellect  a n d  Reason "sees",
    has a "vision", formulates a "theory" about totality, about reality; in
    other words, only with eye-sight we cannot consciously "see";
    furthermore, that what we cannot fathom, comprehend or recognize, we
    cannot see;  it does not enter in the magnetic spectrum of our "window"
    of sense perception. The "natives" could not see the European
    colonizers and for the reason mentioned above the "whites" were
    "invisible" and "invincible".  Also, the question remains: How on earth
    will we ever be able to conscientize, mobilize and revolutionize the
    billions of masses when Capitalism has done such a fine job, when "Big
    Brother" already in "1984" had captured the whole imagination of the
    absolute majority of workers and labourers. They just "see" Big Brother,
    they speak and "think" Newspeak!

   Exactly this  Invisible  a n d  Invulnerable  AND  Invincible Principle, at last,
   We See, We recognize it as Intellect  a n d  Reason  AND  Wisdom.

5.  That Language or Words, that Speaking, Hearing, Saying and Writing
    are not identical with Thinking  a n d  Reasoning. We do not think in
    Words, Language does not think for Us. Words or Language are just
    very inefficient Vehicles or Tools of Acting, Thinking and Reasoning.
    The above, Plato had already indicated in Kratylos. The more effective
    cognositive "tools" are yet still to be "discovered" and to be developed.

6.  That all across "History" Nature or Mother Nature was massacred, in
    the name of  the "survival" of the species homo sapiens sapiens , that
    she must  be dominated and domesticated. Homo, Man, elevated himself
    arrogantly to the status of the "Crown of Creation", of the "Highest
    Blossom of Nature". The above is the "red thread" throughout the
    whole patriarchal superstructure, whether it concerns  religion,
    philosophy, education, law or arts. Man, Society, Spirit, Weltgeist,
    "Reason" had to replace Nature, has to devour her. In all respects,
    everywhere Man had applied and ferociously is still applying the
    watchword of Caesar:
                              veni, vidi, vici !  I came, I saw, I conquered !

7.  That consequently, Labour is the expression of the Relation between
    Nature and Man, between Nature and Society. Nobody noticed
    that Labour itself is the fundamental expression of Human Alienation,
    and that Labour  a n d  Capital, i.e., that Capital , the patrian productive
    process is the umbilical cord of "History", of the Patria. What occurs
    in the basis of the Patria, Marx had explained in "Capital", what
    happens in the superstructure of "History",  Hegel had illustrated in
    "The Phenomenology of Mind". None of them, and, for that matter,
    nobody else, scientifically  a n d  philosophically could see that
    Capital is just an advanced form of Labour, and that Labour per se
    is the maximum expression of Alienation in rerum natura, and not as
    Marxists claim that  Labour in Capitalism is "alienated", and therefore it
    should be "disalienated", should be emancipated. In the eyes of our erudite
    scholars, the above is a heresy, is a case for the burning stake.

Finally, let us terminate the scientific earthquakes   and   philosophic
tornados; it is a time to rejoice :

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct
the other way. ...."(Charles Dickens)

Well, Happy Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy New Century, Happy New Millennium !

                                                                 HAPPY  BIRTHDAY ! ! !


END



 

CHAPTER  TWENTY-TWO