Medium contributor Jakub Ferencik caught my attention a couple of years ago. He seems to be on a path of being a political influencer. So I bought his book “Beyond Reason.” Here is my review.
My first observation is Jakub’s many citations from famous and not-so-famous philosophers, plus academics in other fields. Not only has Jakub read a lot, he seems to remember where he got all his thoughts from. I too used to read a lot when I was younger. But I couldn’t tell you, in a specific way, where I got many of my insights about an alternative democracy.
Jakub occasionally gets a little too deep in philosopher talk for this reader. While I was reading through these parts, I put my deep-thinking cap away, not really trying to understand much. “Not much sense in burning mental energy for this,” I thought. So I just waited until the intensity to lower, then I got back into a reading and thinking mode. Fortunately, the harder sections were fairly short.
Early in his book, Jakub addresses his purpose:
The point of this book is to fundamentally question our objectivity. So, assuming that these things do not apply for us misses the general thesis for which I will argue for.
I’ll just say that he sticks to this topic very well.
Jakub bandies around how we create our sense of right and wrong. Some of us rely on seasoned reasoning to find “the truth.” But this can fail us. So we then rely on our intuition. But that also fails us. So there is no truth to finding the truth.
Jakub provides many examples to make his main point that shows us that we have no guarantee that we have captured the truth, even when we are certain we have it. We should be skeptical of our own truths.
Jakub gives us the failings of popular and not-so-popular philosophers. He mentions how they too resort into personal attacks when they fail to agree with their colleagues. And too often, these philosophers are not living the lives they were espousing others to live. When these people fail the truth, then can we not also fail?
Later, Jakub produced this memorable sentence:
Collective wisdom is the true asset of humanity.
My question is how do we find that collective wisdom? Actually, I have an answer for that, but it does not belong in this review.
At the end of this book, Jakub concludes:
We should be skeptical of the intellectual’s ability to reason; our discussions are fine, but they are never enough. We must act on our convictions. And we must admit that we are likely to be wrong in most areas of life.
My feeling is that this excerpt is not yet complete. I can see several flaws. But I also see some important bits of wisdom:
1. The smarter people in our society often fail in finding the truth. We should not be in awe of them.
2. Those who “do” are more important than those who “say.” We can learn more from the doers than the sayers.
3. None of us holds the truth, even when we are certain.
This conclusion is profound, but we need to go further.
I recommend this book. Jakub will take readers on a path of acquiring more humility, a virtue we all need more of.
Then we will learn how to find the truth.
Published on Medium 2023
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