This post is about my reading of E.F.Schumacher’s “A Guide for the perplexed”. I first spoke about this book in this post here. Back then i thought it was a difficult read… But i have taken this one course this term and my reading speed has improved exponentially .. so much so that i am able to finish difficult books with ease when the lecture is going on :P . Anyway .. over to the book.
The book talks about many things like the importance of religion, the limitations of conventional science, the folly of faith vs reason debates so on so forth. I will try and jot down some lines that appealed to me the most.
He starts the book by talking about different levels of being.. what is it that differentiates Man, Animal, Plant and Mineral. He says physics and chemistry more often than not deal with the lowest level of being i.e, tat of matter. And he brings about the limitations of such an approach by saying:
“To say that life is nothing but a property of certain peculiar combination of atoms is like saying that Shakeshpeare’s Hamlet is nothing but a property of a peculiar combination of letters“
He then goes on to talk about Science being used for Manipulation first of nature then of people. He traces this from the thoughts of Descartes and Francies Bacon. He says this concentration of scientific interest on manipulation alone has three dangers.
In the absence of sustained study of such “unscientific” questions as “What is the meaning and purpose of man’s existence?” “What is good and what is evil?” and “what are man’s absolute rights and duties” , a civilisation will necessarily and inescapably sink ever more deeper into anguish, despair and lack of freedom.
Faith, instead of being taken as a guide leading the intellect to an understanding of the higher levels, is seen as opposing adn rejecting the intellect and therefore is itself rejected. Thus all roads to recovery are barred.
The higher powers of man, no longer being brought into play to produce the knowledge of wisdom, atrophy and even disappear altogether
Agree on all three dangers! Especially the second one. I myself am a victim to that. I have always failed to understand the place of “faith” in modern day life. It is only my post-mba confusions and questions about life and the readings thereof that made me read a lot and understand the issue better.
The book then talks about four fields of knowledge. It is a wonderful philosophical journey as it makes you think a lot. The four fields of knowledge put simply are about :
(1) What is going on inside me? (2) What is going on inside others? (3) What do i look like in the eyes of others (4) What do i observe in the world around me?
Very very interesting chapters these. Though initially i felt that they are difficult to comprehend. Upon re-reading i feel that they cant be put in any simpler terms than this.He talks about how all the four fields of knowledge are important and how each one of them adds to the completeness of knowledge.In the later parts of the discussion on these fields of knowledge he also brings in the contrast of a conventional proof based scientific approach by talking about the difference between “What we can know” and “What actually exists”.
The best part of the book for me personally starts from page 124-150. It starts with a very critical analysis of Darwin’s theory of evolution. On this he says,
“It is one of the great paradoxes of our age that people claiming the proud title of “scientist” dare to offer such undisciplined and reckless speculations as contributions to scientific knowledge- and that they get away with it”
I had read some criticisms of Darwin’s approach before, but this one in this book is very convincing. I remember i first read about Darwin in school in a hindi textbook and from then on my world view did change ;) . My world view both inner and outer did seem to have changed in the past one year and this book definitely has played its role in that process. So Darwin-Schumacher 1-1 ! :)
He makes some pretty strong statements here in these pages. I can only form an opinion after reading some of the books that schumacher suggested in these chapters.
Evolutionism is not science; it is science fiction, even a kind of hoax. It is a hoax that has succeeded all too well and has imprisoned modern man in what looks like an irreconciliable conflict between “science” and “religion”. It has destroyed all faiths that pull mankind up and has substited a faith that pulls mankind down
Umm.. it is easy to dismiss such statements as extreme theological discourse.. but schumacher’s arguments are not just blind criticisms. Like i said i am convinced that what he says is not mere namesake criticisms. I will need to read more to understand it better. So a small study on evolutionism is next in queue then perhaps :) Infact schumacher goes to the extent of saying that this alone can cause the collapse of the modern western civilisation which today is the modern world civilisation. Like we all know all civilisations to date have died unlike a few which learnt to adapt, so this may very well be the cause for the future downfall of the modern world.
“It is impossible for any civilisation to survive without a faith in meanings and values transcending the utilitarianism of comfort and survival- in other words, without a religious faith”
In the concluding parts of the books he says something which is fast becoming my line of thought as well on the various eco-friendly things we do in the world today. I think it is time we realised that all this is a part of undoing the damage and not really contributing to the solution.
“Everywhere in the modern world there are now experiments New life styles and voluntary simplicity; the arrogance of material scientism is in the decline, and it is sometimes tolerated even in polite society to mention God. Admittedly, some of this change of mind stems not initially from spiritual insight, but from materialistic fear aroused by the environmental crisis, the fuel crisis, the threat of a food crisis and the indications of a coming health crisis. In the face of these -and many other- threats, most people still try to believe in the “technological fix”. If we could develop fusion energy, they say, our fuel problems would be solved; if we would perfect the processes of turning oil into edible proteins, the world’s food problem would be solved; and the development of new drugs will surely avert any threat of a health crisis.. and so on.
All the same, the faith in modern man’s omnipotence is wearing thin. Even if all the “new” problems were solved by technological fixes, the state of futility, disorder and corruption would remain. It existed before the present crises became acute, and it will not go away by itself”
This is again brilliant! I think energy consumption and resource evaporation is just a part of the problem with our modern day world and by just shifting to renewable means etc we will not really wipe out the problem. We may only wipe out only a part of the problem that too with a lot of ifs and buts. The bigger problem is something else. Like he says elsewhere again,
“The modern experiment to live without religion has failed”
I think i will agree with this line. I myself am a victim to this in more than one ways ..so i can very much understand where the author is coming from. The best lines ofcourse are reserved to the last paragraph of the book.
“Can we rely on it that a “turning around” will be accomplished by enough people quickly enough to save the modern world? This question is often asked, but whatever answer is given to it will mislead. The answer “Yes” would lead to complacency; the answer “No” to despair. It is desirable to leave these perplexities behind us and get down to work”
A guide to the perplexed indeed! I would treasure this book in my collection forever and i don’t say that about every book i read! :)
