Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Thinking with your Heart? Feeling with your Brain?

       In the old days before Facebook and twitter it used to be said that if you were not a communist in your youth you do not have a heart and if you are still a communist as an adult, you do not have a brain.  There was a kernel of truth in this expression. A modern/practical/operational version of the embedded truth would be as follows:  Use your artistic, humanitarian sensibility to identify social problems and issues needing public attention but use your analytical capabilities and scientific methodology to find solutions.  In other words, society should pay heed to artists, humanists, philosophers in identifying problems, but listen to analysts, scientists and subject experts to solve problems.  Ignoring this approach is a recipe for perpetuating problems not for solving them.
    Real life in which real human beings are involved, is however, never as clear as the Aphorisms. Analysts and experts may not be trained in scientific method as they should be and go by personal experiences and emotionally determined memories to identify solutions.  Philosophers and humanists may be ruled by ideology and the sayings/writings of "long defunct" 'experts.'  Nevertheless, even though real life can be very confusing, it is useful to have some simple intutive truths to guide us in making judgements.

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