Philosophus Autodidactus
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
A philosophical investigation in how our environment shapes us and how we transcend.
Probably the most important work of Islamic philosophy.
Ibn Tufail is very famous in my country we have several schools, universities, hospitals in his name
While we already know (based on history) that most of the time "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." it is also true that people such as Ramanujan could see beyond using a basic set of learnt tools. There are few exceptional people that have exceptional intuition for some topics.
For me two of the main points it analyzes are:
1. Can a person without language and without God’s Words transferred to him, reason and still find Him? Answer, of course, is yes.
2. Comparison between surface level understanding of the God’s Word vs. its “real,” hidden meaning. The two people Hayy meets symbolizes the two: Salaman, the first (representing the Sunni followers of Shariah) and Absal, the second (the Sufi, follower of the Tasawwuf). Hayy himself represents the Philosopher, I.e. pure reason.
This dichotomy goes right to the heart of Islamic thought. Hayy, first tries to teach his understanding to the inhabitants of the island rules by Salaman but then sees the futility of it and leaves with Absal.
Too bad the English Wikipedia page gives such a limited summary of the plot.
Ibn Tufail based this novel on a story that was translated from Greek to Arabic by Hunayn Ibn Ishaq (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunayn_ibn_Ishaq).
> Reaching the absolute information is individual and simply any human being is able to achieve that.
Is that a reasonable conclusion? I'm curious how this jives with the 'on the shoulders of giants' concept that we've built a lot of our modern knowledge on.
To understand a mathematical proof I follow the reasoning but the internal model I build looks different from what is presented.
I'm content with reaching the relative information about the bits of the universe that I find most interesting, and hope to add a few good and novel ones during the remainder of my lifetime.
Two areas where a community helps are (a) finding the known ways blazed* and (b) avoiding becoming a crank.
For the former it makes sense that one prefers to make good time. For the latter, finding a new way to get to new fields that may or may not be fertile may or may not be worth doing; finding a new way to get to existing fields that either (a) shaves trip time for those travelling light, or (b) is more easily passable for those travelling with a bunch of baggage, is definitely worth doing.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_blazing
EDIT:
Tiger got to hunt; bird got to fly; man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?' Tiger got to sleep; bird got to land; man got to tell himself he understand.
Anyone who's studied math or statistics for more than two minutes could answer that.
Could also equally be that Leonardo did what he did because he was a great individual.
>So what are we supposed to take away from the initial comment?
Probably something that I can add to. That gives me an idea . . .
I'm not sure which. It's very hard to say, especially since none of us are LeonardoDaVinciologists.
At one time you also have to figure that learning from nature was the most predominant way for eons too. The animal world is where behavior of some other thriving species can be observed somewhat clearly, and there are so many behaviors that can be mimicked in some way. Even a cave man could do it. Don't see how they could avoid it.
The most stark thing that many have handled as subtle, is the physical possibility to live no differently than animals, and following that example for eons build a culture that thrives as well as many of the species that have been in existence long before humans. Survival of the fittest in a dog-eat-dog world and all that.
But the human mind is so much different in so many ways compared to all other species, while having incredible physical similarity to some other species.
At the other end of the spectrum, observers having a different point of view may want to spend eons trying to avoid living like animals as much as possible. Resulting in a very stark difference in activities, conducted in completely different terms than animals do, or could even be capable of. That's the idea of humanity to begin with. Survival of the fittest in a non-dog-teach-non-dog world, something like that.
There's lots of choices there.
>There's multitudes of great individuals that are just unknown to history
This is what so many people forget.
When those multitudes get together or arise through population growth, not everything is lost to history, even if there is no documentation.
Sometimes they create great societies, and depending on how fortunate they can be protecting their creation from those who are not so great, a few of those cultural centers still exist today.
Not every one has been sacked, and not sacked completely at that.
And then there's the diaspora effect where displaced greatness disperses stealthily (akin to spores) under threat, or when a diluting force adopts a measure of found greatness.
As civilization goes, it looks like right now is just one of those times when those who can learn humanity from nature are vastly outnumbered by those who fail to do so.
on that note, while attempting to figure out the origin story of food dye at rural australian b&s parties yesterday, I ran across: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01681...
"Ewes prefer subordinate rather than dominant rams as sexual partners" (alas, not "who do ewe choose?")
If the rams control mating*, obviously the physically dominant rams butt the subordinate ones out, and mate preferentially.
According to this study, by tying the rams to opposite corners and hence letting the ewes choose between them, the physically subordinate males got not just relatively, but absolutely, more action.
Is the ovine equivalent of a "soy boy" a "ma'am ram"? Do the ewes prefer them because they get serenaded with sweet nothings?
Elect me, my sweet embraceable ewe
Elect me, you irreplaceable ewe
A. "You awake?"
Perhaps a nugget of wisdom about when animal-inspired approaches overwhelm the non-animal, some humanism is lost in the world at large, and that can be far & wide, but can also drill deep and affect the relations between mates. Animals in nature can set an even worse example for humans in this regard.
>rural australian b&s parties
I've really got to get out more. Sounds like the kind of place where you can come across all kinds of unexpected things.
> Animals in nature can set an even worse example for humans in this regard.
Or worse yet, domesticated animals (of which I claim we also count).
Want to run human societies according to pig practice? Get fascism. (TIL the weak piglets only die because we've bred domesticated pigs to have too big a litter [12-14]; wild sows have litters [4-6] they can feed)
(Want to run human societies according to sheep practice? Do we get manufactured consent or theocracy or ?)
Want to run human societies according to horse/cattle practice? Get feudalism.
Want to run human societies according to horse/cattle practice, in the regime where a little food waste is cheaper than a vet call? Get socialism.
See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40020982
(the use of the word "freemartin" in Brave New World tipped me off to the fact that in part Huxley used other domesticated species as a model)
That, since your kids aren't likely to become the next Leonardo da Vinci, they shouldn't play outside? That playing in the woods as a child isn't a substitute for a world-class education later in life?
Did they teach you that at the university?
Because I'm pretty sure nobody else here is equating playing in the woods as a kid with becoming a famous artist and engineer later in life.