Afterthoughts

Wittgenstein was of the opinion that when he finished as professor of philosophy at Cambridge, that philosophy had done about all it could. The realisation that conscious sensations are produced in the brain in some as yet unknown way has opened a new chapter in philosophy. This chapter largely requires the combined development of psychology and philosophy and their continued interaction.

Although Piaget and Vygotsky agreed in principal, psychology has tended to develop along two different paths. Piaget and Vygotsky were both aware that the baby and child are active agents in their own development, while the Behaviourist school of psychologists emphasise how behaviour is conditioned and how this conditioning develops. The primatologists studying apes, such as chimpanzee colonies, realise that there is much evidence for the reality of the inner life. Frans de Waal’s book “The Age of Empathy” explains this well. People reflecting on their own lives must surely be aware of their inner lives and the emotions of everyday living. However, there is a dichotomy  in the way that we treat people, some believing that we must all be controlled and others believing that the fulfilment of the inner life is of great importance. In the 1960’s teachers were being told that they should be teaching pupils to handle a greater amount of leisure time. Clearly this has not happened and instead we see people being required to use time to increase productivity and efficiency.  This has produced a society where people are serving money, instead of money serving people. Jean-Jaques Rousseau ( 1712-1778), the French philosopher and writer, said “ Men were born free but everywhere they are in chains.” The situation today with people serving money is surely the modern equivalent. It is capitalism spiralling out of control. Education attempts to shape society as far as it can influence human nature. We live with a system where things have to be measured as does  progress.  Can the inner life really be understood in this way if the quality of life is to be properly treated?  Are we not putting into the minds of our children and young people the idea that life is about productivity and efficiency, the values of materialism?

One educator said that education at its best is done by religious organisations. This teaches us the importance of developing the inner mind, what we would generally recognise as the  spiritual development of the child. The police are talking about our broken society. Clearly the spiritual side of our education is being neglected. We have taken a wrong turn. Our universities are producing many people who are ideally qualified to run our materialistic society but not equipped to handle the inner well-being.

Computers have the capacity to enable us to enjoy our hobbies, such as photography, but are now being used primarily in the drive for efficiency and economy. Some technologists and scientists, anticipating the end of life on this planet, are intending to develop robots to send into space what remains of our civilisation. How far have we lost sight of our very human nature?

Consciousness is not given great consideration at this time. The value of the inner life is not given full recognition. One nurse observed that there is something in us that you would call a soul. The mystics were aware that the inner life is important and that we are part of something vastly greater than ourselves and all that we can understand. Indeed, they were aware of the mystery of life itself. This led them to explore the inner life and the spiritual dimension. As Teilhard put it, people who are looking out into space for the answer are looking through the wrong end of the telescope. Progress for us lies very much in developing our spiritual awareness and spiritual education.

Some people temperamentally seem to be more aware of the spiritual side of our nature, and some do become spiritual leaders. Over the years such people have accumulated a lot of experience and insight. We would do well to learn what they have discovered.

Human nature seems to persist in wanting its own way and rejecting the spiritual dimension of life. It seems that only when confronted by disaster or a force much greater than human capacity are people willing to recognise the spiritual dimension. As philosophers have recognised for some time, we are all limited, indeed we are only intelligent apes. Perhaps it is time to realise that the evidence of our senses may not be all there is, and that we should explore the spiritual dimension.