The Dark Arts of Genius

By Robert Jameson

'The Dark Arts of Genius' is a short book that serves as an introduction to how advanced, independent thinking skills can be nurtured and developed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Jameson
• Release date: May 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386192718

Book preview

1. Introduction

Hello. Let me introduce myself: I'm Robert Jameson - and I'm interested in how we can make the world a better place by unlocking people's potential for intelligent thinking.

In this short book, I'm going to be presenting some ideas about what I think are the key skills and capabilities at the heart of genius. More importantly, I'm going to be suggesting ways in which these skills and capabilities can be developed.

I've called this book, 'The Dark Arts of Genius,' because it deals with what, for many people, is the unmentionable, unacceptable, inappropriate and downright offensive subject of how some people are so much more intelligent than others. If you don't want to take the risk of being offended, then this book is not for you.

In the next chapter, I'm going to be hitting you with the big one - the big secret of genius - a monumental, potentially life-changing revelation. But stay with me - don't skip ahead - because I think I need to start by being clear on a few important introductory points.

Firstly, I want to say a few words about philosophy - because, whilst I regard this as a philosophical book, it differs considerably from what you might normally expect in other philosophical offerings.

For one thing, I'm not going to be mentioning the great philosophers or referencing philosophical concepts in any sort of formal, academic fashion.

I want to encourage people to be philosophers - but what I don't mean by that is that they should study the lives and ideas of famous philosophers.  

It seems to me that, all too often, people who are supposed to be studying to be philosophers, end up becoming walking reference guides to the lives and ideas of famous philosophers of the past, having neglected the development of their own potential to philosophise about issues for themselves.

It's not that studying the great philosophers is a bad idea as such. It's very important that some people do engage in such studies - but I think we should be careful not to confuse such historical studies with actual philosophy.

Being knowledgeable about other people's ideas does not make you a philosopher. Indeed, the temptation to instinctively reference that knowledge can easily hamper, rather than enhance, a person's ability to think intelligently about an issue for themselves.

Now, some people, even some senior academics, might ask: 'But isn't it a waste of time to philosophise about something, only to come up with an idea that was already thought of by a famous philosopher hundreds or thousands of years ago?'

Well, no - obviously not - because besides the importance of the idea, the process of coming up with ideas for yourself is an extremely important one. It's brain training. It's vital practice - practice of the skills that can enable new and original ideas to be developed. This still applies, regardless of how many times the idea has been thought of before.

No, philosophy, for me, is about the art and practice of thinking. A philosopher is a dedicated practitioner of the art of thinking - not a repository of knowledge, but someone who has applied themselves to developing

Reviews for The Dark Arts of Genius

[Your God · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Honestly it made valid points, but somethings just eh...just the tip of the iceberg gays and being homophobic is dumb. How can you have a fear of gays...also a nation as mentioned in the book- A "naTi0n" one nation under God. If do God hates the sin so called sin lol why in df would the nation allow it if their God hates the sin? See shit like that you gotta really hit "straight forward " as mentioned in the book. This Godless nation needs help this world's morality is little to shit. This book is going to make you realize the issue is people in power and not your common people. Maybe the common people sometimes.