Kando's Dogma - Part Two

by Tom Kando

 About a year ago, I posted a piece called. Kando’s Dogma. I now add some further beliefs which I hold to be true:

1. All people are created equal (Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson). There are no inherent differences in intellectual aptitude between the races and between the genders. The science of psychology has not discovered any. Differences in wealth are the result, to a small extent, of aptitude and effort, but much more the result of social class, family wealth and above all: luck.

2. There is no (anthropomorphic) deity, no super-brain which decided at some point in the past to create a world. The universe is a physical reality in which life and mental processes develop. In other words, the universe becomes aware of itself. It is a psycho-physical reality.

3. The nature and processes of the universe are best discovered and understood through science.

4. Science distinguishes between truth and error, and through it, knowledge increases. Humans progress by increasing their knowledge. The total amount of knowledge is infinite.

5. In addition to science, there is philosophy and there is religion (Auguste Comte’s three stages). Philosophy discusses metaphysical questions. These are questions beyond those pertaining to the physical world. Positivist science cannot answer them. Answers to such questions cannot be proved or disproved empirically.

6. Religion is a palliative human activity. Belief in God may make you feel better. As Voltaire (who did believe in God) said, “if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”

7. At the same time, organized religion has been one of the chief causes of massive killing throughout history. The other two major motives for war and mass murder have been economic exploitation and tribalism/nationalism, that is, ingroup-outgroup hostility, hatred for the “other.” One could argue that religious wars (Catholics vs. Protestants; Shiites vs. Sunnis, etc.) are a subset of tribalism.

8. There are no UFOs consisting of visitors from outer space. While it is almost certain that extra-terrestrial life and intelligence exist, they cannot reach us, because they are too far away. As far as we know, there is no other life and intelligence within the solar system.

9. Humans are distinct from (other) animals in that they have selves, moral judgment, free will, and they communicate through symbols (i.e. language). Other animals (for example chimpanzees and other primates) have shown the ability to acquire, use and share rudimentary language, as well as develop self-awareness. However, the quantitative difference between them and humans is so large as to be qualitative.

10. Some forms of artificial intelligence (AI) already vastly exceed human intelligence (every old pre-computer-era mechanical calculator’s computational speed and skill were already far above those of humans). But this does not mean that machines will soon be superior to humans in creativity, improvisation, aesthetic and moral judgment, and decision making.

11. Humans do not live in an objective reality, but in an (inter)-subjectively defined reality. That is, what I experience as an individual is my DEFINITION of the situation (W. I Thomas’s words). My feelings - pain or happiness - are determined by my own thoughts about the situation, not by the objective situation itself. And whatever the objective reality may be, it may not be knowable (Kant’s “thing-in-itself”).

12. Groups develop collective definitions, which we call cultures. This suggests that norms, values, customs and habits may be relative rather than absolute, particularly those dealing with morality and esthetics.

13. At the same time, natural processes are not relative or subject to interpretation: The distinction between physical health and disease is factual and absolute, as is that between life and death. Current climate change and global warming are scientific truths, as are the facts that humans are their cause, and that the earth is a sphere and not flat.


© Tom Kando 2018;All Rights Reserved
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