From Ape to Man & Beyond

[Philosophy Now]

Henrik Schoeneberg contends that our next step is to learn to accept ourselves.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/132/From_Ape_to_Man_and_Beyond

[Nick_A]

Nice article but IMO it is a day late and a dollar short. What Henrik Schoeneberg suggests is simply not wanted. In fact the suggestion that humanity lives in imagination and self deception preventing the experience of what we are and the potential for human being is ridiculed no end. Try discussing the meanings of Plato's cave and see how far you'll get. We need the shock of a near death experience to replace what should be a normal part of living.

Nietzsche and Heidegger seem to share something in their thinking with those who have had a close encounter with death. They have reached an understanding that there is a better way of approaching life. Let’s be inspired by their thoughts, whether it be through studies, vividly imagining one’s own death or by other means. It is indeed paramount that we begin to develop a more life-conscious intelligence, so as to be better equipped to deal with the dangers of modern life: threats posed to our environment by our exploitation of natural resources; to our wellbeing by animosity and division between people; and of course the ever-menacing threat of weapons of mass destruction. Maybe we can survive such threats in much the same way that our ancestors previously survived the perils of nature, by raising their own level of intelligence and developing the sophisticated ability of self-conscious thought. The difference is that the lessons of life-consciousness can be taught, whereas self-consciousness evolved biologically. In this way life-consciousness can undergo cultural evolution.

Now the problem:

In "Sketch of Contemporary Social Life" (1934), Simone Weil develops the theme of collectivism as the trajectory of modern culture.

Never has the individual been so completely delivered up to a blind collectivity, and never have men been so less capable, not only of subordinating their actions to their thoughts, but even of thinking.

Cultural evolution is now appreciated as the sacrifice of the ability to think for the sake of serving the acquired values of the mechanized grand collective. Fortunately the individual can evolve in ways impossible for the grand collective. If not for the potential of this minority, our species may be doomed.