The future of neuroscience is promising: it seems that, with a few more decades of intense research, after exhausting the possibilities of laboratory tests with animals, it will discover that, as soon as man learns to deal with the most rudimentary impulses of his psyche, he ceases to behave faithfully according to a pattern. Here, then, will come the revolutionary discovery: he is also an autonomous being and has an individual identity. This is truly remarkable. However, it is good to consider that, on this day, there will be a need for philosophers, and then it will be discovered, once again, that those whom humanity has already produced are sufficient.
Category: Notes
Neuroscientists, Studying Lobsters…
Neuroscientists, studying lobsters, have concluded that unsuccessful humans tend to be physically and psychologically more reactive to events that arouse emotions, especially negative ones, due to their low serotonin levels. In contrast, successful humans will have the opposite disposition: they will be less reactive, less alert, distinguishing themselves as calm and confident individuals. Ah, how beautiful simplifications are! Is it really true that, except in extreme cases, the unsuccessful man becomes reactive and psychologically fragile, while the successful man becomes a kind of psychological fortress, serene and at peace? Or is it that, more often than not, when psychological adolescence is overcome, failure teaches humility and success tends to inflate self-esteem, which imprisons, disturbs, paralyzes, and ultimately causes such severe heartbreak that the humble man can only conceive of it with great effort? Which of them fears failure more? Which one is more concerned with what he might lose? … This is the biggest problem in science. The mature man, who is not just a pile of molecules, if he looks back on the past, will surely say, “Thank God I failed.”
Suffering Is the Quintessential Human Experience
However much we want to avoid it, suffering is the quintessential human experience, universalizing the words of Buddha to Jesus Christ, the music of Beethoven, and the poems of Camões. One cannot be human without it; to feel is to suffer. Ultimately, reflection ends up demonstrating its value. And something good springs from it, as the great and impeccable Louis Lavelle once said. Thanks to suffering, we are understandable and we can understand.
More Than Once, These Notes Have…
More than once, these Notes have expressed lamentations in the face of injustice. And it is sad to see that, apparently, they will never cease. Modernity has made it much easier to hate. It has made targets more visible, more accessible, and, above all, it has benefited the grouping of hordes, whose actions are both systematic and diffuse, easily destroying a reputation. Hence, we repeatedly see the example of that good man who devoted his entire life to study and, at the end of his life, when the years had given him maturity of speech, had his life destroyed in response to his sincere exposition. May at least the words and example of Jesus serve as consolation.