The Radical Philosophy Of Allan Kurzberg: Exchanging Thoughts With A Being From Another Planet, Part 1.

As some of the succeeding postulates become quite involved, I decided to include this fanciful dialogue to help the reader gain a clearer understanding of Kurzberg’s views. In this dialogue, Kurzberg visualizes a being from another planet in which reason is the dominant force that motivates the being’s actions.

Tybol:  Let me say that it’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Kurzberg.  I’ve enjoyed wandering around the earth and studying its history.

Allan:  Please call me Allan.   Do you have names on your planet?  And, if so, what is your name?

Tybol:  Our sounds are not quite equivalent to yours, but if you call me Tybol, that will be a close approximation. Certain sounds predominate as they do in your languages.  However,  our language is quite precise, has one grammatical structure, and is devoid of the ambiguities and the figurative connotations that are part of your language system.

Allan:  Then, everyone on your planet speaks the same language?

Tybol:  Correct.  I know that on your planet you have quite a myriad of languages, so it is not surprising that communication is often difficult.  But, even if one selected one language, you would still have difficulty communicating, because of the imprecision of terms and the dependence of gesture.

Allan:  Then gesture is not a part of your language?

Tybol:  No.  The sounds that we make are understood by all without the need of gesture.

Allan:  With your emphasis on reason, do you consider yourself an advanced civilization?

Tybol:  We don’t use terms like advanced or backward, inferior or superior, for those are judgmental words that insult those whom we would designate as backward or inferior.  As you have written, judgments of comparison create an “Other” and an atmosphere of distance.  From such judgments anger and mistrust follow.  That situation is what our inner reason tells us to avoid.

Allan:  But isn’t it impossible to have a society that doesn’t use comparisons?

Tybol:  No.  Let me tell you something about life on our planet, Allan.  We view ourselves as a whole which every member of the planet is a piece of.   Each member has something wonderful to contribute to the life of our planet.  We use terms such as “discovery” and “exploration” in connection with our fellow beings.  We try to meet and learn from as many beings as we can, because this is what makes our lives so exciting and surprising.  We would never use terms that induce isolation or discontent, since we would be harming ourselves and depriving us of the joy of getting to know other beings.

Allan:  So you trust your fellow creatures?

Tybol:  Absolutely.  There is no reason not to.

Allan:  That type of thinking would be unthinkable on our planet.  As you probably know, our history is full of mayhem and destruction of our fellow humans.  Doesn’t anyone on your planet ever get the urge to harm or injure someone?

Tybol:  Why should we wish to harm or destroy that which we most admire and cherish?  It doesn’t make any sense.  Further, it would be a sheer act of masochism to do what you suggest, because we would be limiting our own growth.  I cannot understand why you allow such rampant destruction of human life on your planet, which might be depriving you of future medical researchers, astronomers, artists and individuals with great insight into the problems humanity faces.  And, it seems incredible to us that you would follow leaders who are clearly mentally unbalanced and carry out their nefarious orders.  Why do you do this?

Allan:  I really have no definite answer to your question, Tybol.  It is a puzzle to many of us as well.  That certain forms of mental illness are linked in many people’s minds to power and strength, cannot be denied.  Why there is such a strong attraction, yes, and fear to mentally unbalanced individuals, is something we don’t really understand.


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

The Radical Philosophy Of Allan Kurzberg And His Fundamental Postulates, Part 2.

What follows are Allan’s  thoughts on the implications of the First Postulate:  “…  Since mathematical reasoning is the highest form of reasoning that we humans have developed, and since, according to P1, we distort the truth more than any other species, we have the main reason for a universal study of mathematics:  to undo false reasoning through careful mathematical reasoning.  Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the more mathematical reasoning is applied to every facet of our lives, especially to our personal, the less contradictions will occur in our lives.  The reader might wonder why.  The answer lies in the kind of language that mathematics represents:  It is an objective language that seeks to prove statements through a series of conditional statements using precise definitions or previously proved theorems.  Mathematics does have synonyms and does use symbols that have different contextual meanings, but never foregoes consistency and brevity whenever possible.  In addition, mathematics involves a kind of generalizing that often leads to universals.  Most importantly, no mathematical system allows for contradiction, which is definitely not the case with other human-contrived systems such as political or social…  In my Theory of Us, I try to locate universals which will subsume all possible human interactive behaviors…  Thus, I feel that the primary reason for studying mathematics is the universal need to apply mathematical reasoning to disprove false statements, whatever field they arise from.  Such a universal need should be the first thing listed in any preface about mathematics.  Perhaps, some of the resistance many feel and fear about mathematics is due to the intrinsic awareness that mathematics is hostile and unmerciful towards human falsehoods and negative states of mind that so often engulf us.  I will call such overwhelming negative states OE-(negative overwhelming energy), which I will expand on later.  One thing I will say is that to attain world peace we must learn to detect, define and minimize OE-.  Our very survival may depend on our ability to do so…  People might say that not every one is capable of mathematics and on a certain level this is true.  Humans may vary enormously in their capacity for abstract reasoning and not everyone can prove limit theorems so essential for understanding calculus.  However, if we state simply that calculus enables us to delve into the infinite, helping us to study instantaneous motion, quantum mechanics, and the theory of relativity, the reader would at least gain some understanding of the enormous scope mathematics has.  I would add the above facts to our mathematical preface in a purely descriptive way so that many would understand the implication of mathematical reasoning.  I would also include some of the magic of the Cartesian graph, which enables us to view the behavior of simple and complex equations in our preface.  However, no such preface has ever been written…  Mathematics is a series of carefully defined and proven steps that lead to further growth in its carefully built structure.    Postulates and theorems have led to many branches of mathematics, which it would be ludicrous to ignore in any preface that purports to describe the purpose of mathematical thought.  But it is just as ludicrous not to describe mathematics as being reason’s most essential tool for dislodging falsehood, deception and misrepresentation…”

In the next post, Allan Kurzberg reveals his 2nd Postulate and what he calls the Corollary of Human Existence.