The Radical Philosophy Of Allan Kurzberg And His Fundamental Postulates, Part 3.

In this post, P2 is discussed along with its consequences:

By means of the Corollary of Human Existence, which follows from P2, Kurzberg proposes another theory of evolution:  “…  I call my 2nd Postulate:  Reason developed late in human existence.  Thus, humans were affected by strong emotions and irrational tendencies long before reason appeared.  The corollary from this postulate is, I believe, a most important corollary, because through it we can gain a true understanding of humanity.  All human events be they historical, personal, or otherwise should be revealed through the corollary.  I term this corollary:  Corollary of Human Existence.   What it means is that those forces that shaped humans before reason arose are like large emotional magnets that pull us in different directions.  I call these emotional magnets OE- and OE+.  They stand for overwhelming negative emotion and overwhelming positive emotion.  By overwhelming, I mean that they are strong enough to overcome our sense of reason.  Of course, we possess E- and E+, negative and positive emotions, respectively, but these are not strong enough to overcome reason and do not cause major problems.  We enjoy them as simply negative or positive sensations.  Hence, I will concentrate on OE- and OE+, for they are the central forces that govern human behavior.  The Corollary of Human Existence:  Human behavior is fundamentally irrational and is governed by OE- and OE+.  Thus, when we read that man is a rational being, we are forced to admit the falseness of such a statement.  The statement should read that man is an irrational being that is capable of rational thought.  This raises interesting questions about evolution and humanity’s true place in the universe.  For, when we conceive of the countless planetary bodies that are scattered throughout the universe and apply the principle of probability, which works so well in quantum mechanics, we are compelled to concede that there may be beings in which reason developed earlier than us.  If so, then reason would become the powerful magnet that keeps OE- and OE+ in check, or keeps E+ and E- from becoming OE+ and OE-.  If such a civilization exists, how would it differ from our own?  Could we learn valuable information from such a civilization and prevent annihilating our species through reckless, irrational behavior patterns?  These questions continued to occupy my thinking, so I composed an interview between myself and another being, “Exchanging Thoughts with a Being from Another Planet.”  I also realized that there might be civilizations in which reason came into being at a later stage than ours.  In this case, OE- and OE+ would have even more more power over them than they do over us.  If we let small ir denote a completely irrational civilization, then we are somewhere between it and a completely rational civilization.  By rational, however, I do not mean devoid of emotion.  I do mean that such a civilization would be spared many of the problems we face due to a lack of reason.

If we are to survive, we must undergo some evolution away from menacing destructive behavior towards more rational behavior.  It seems we are just beginning to “know ourselves” and that must be our great adventure.  A catalog of parts of OE- seems overwhelming, but there is one aspect of OE- that dwarfs all others and that will be the subject of my 3rd Postulate. 

A barred spiral galaxy that contains who knows how many stars with planetary bodies circling them. “How instructive is a star.  It can tell us from afar just how small each other are.”–Piet Hein from Grooks