What Does Mankind Really Know?: An easy read encyclopaedia of human wisdom

By Dr. Peter Coffin

When the thoughts of wise individuals across the ages, cultures and disciplines are put together, what a mess! Many are conflicting or contradictory. How do you make sense of it all? The author will summarise all aspects of human knowledge through Philosophy, Science, Humanities, Art and Religion. The objective is not to prov

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dr. Peter Coffin M.A. D.Phil. (Oxon)
• Release date: Jul 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781802270488

Book preview

SECTION ONE

Introduction to Zac’s study on mankind

1.1. What is it all about?

Since mankind’s first appearance on planet Earth, approximately 200,000 years ago, so many men and women have tried to understand the purpose of their existence. This question can be asked in so many different ways but basically, each human individual feels a strong need for answers to such fundamental questions as what is it all about?, what is mankind?, what is existence?, what is life?, what is truth? or why are we here?. It would have been phrased in so many different human languages. It is probable that every human that has ever existed will have, at some time in their lifetime, given consideration to why they are what they are; it is believed to be an elemental human trait to be self-aware and inquisitive.

Over the millennia, multitudes of wise men and women have pondered these fundamental questions and then, since the invention of writing, felt their ideas sufficiently important to commit their opinion as a written document to facilitate wide sharing of their answers with fellow humans. All these multitudes of ideas and theories will have been thoughtfully deliberated by each individual from their particular experience, and then each individual would have carefully phrased their writings to explain their thinking. It is a reasonable assumption that each individual is expressing what they themselves truly believe from their perspective. Each opinion needs to be given serious consideration as possible knowledge on these fundamental questions of life.

However, when all these multitudes of honest expressions of opinion from highly gifted men and women are all put together, what a mess! Some express comparable opinions but most are conflicting with each other; many are complete opposites. When all these answers within human wisdom are put together, they create massive contradictions in the human mind. To answer these fundamental questions of life, one needs to consider all perspectives, but how do you make sense of it all? In the modern busy world, all humans are swamped by the vast magnitude of knowledge confronting them; a human lifetime is too short even to understand one area of speciality and there are always so many pressures on time. In earlier ages, several wise men and women (e.g., Aristotle) had found time to stand back and make sense of the totality of all knowledge then available to them. The rationale of this book What does Mankind Really Know? is to again stand back and take a top-down look at the totality of all modern human knowledge. However, all this human wisdom is from an internal perspective; each attempt has been made by a member of the human race on his/her own species. Mankind is an incredibly complex animal species with a sophisticated and highly intelligent brain but finds it impossible to view itself with absolute objectivity. To do this as impartially as possible, the analysis will be presented by Zac the Zenoid (i.e., not a human) to give a perspective on human wisdom looking from the outside in.

This book is based on a document, the complete proceedings in English of an important Zenoid conference, which had mysteriously appeared through the human internet. Zac, a highly gifted Zenoid, had studied mankind for many moons, remotely, by using the internet. Initially, Zac had hoped to find several books on human Sophology, i.e., the integration of human wisdom. However, such books do not exist, for reasons Zac would discuss. Zac had, therefore, to study human wisdom across many academic areas. In order to get comprehensive coverage, Zac had specifically focused on the areas of Philosophy, Science, Humanology (amalgam of Social Sciences and the Humanities), the Arts and Religion.

Zac had to adopt various approaches depending on the subject area. For Philosophy, he focused more on the History of Philosophy, assessing the main ideas of important philosophers across the ages and different cultures. Zac got the opinion that Philosophy had somewhat lost its way, as he discussed under Modern Philosophy. Science was a different kettle of fish. Science has mushroomed into a gigantic edifice that was very much the reason for mankind’s mastery of the planet. Scientific knowledge was developed through observation, reason, theoretical calculation and consensus among the majority of scientists; for Zac to obtain an understanding of the current picture, it was not necessary to study the History of Science (although an interesting story in itself). Modern Science is also a subject too vast for Zac to address in total so he focused on mankind’s current understanding of matter, the Universe and Life. Zac wanted to ascertain the Philosophy of Science and the meaning of scientific knowledge.

Zac’s findings on Humanology proved inconclusive. Mankind has developed a good understanding of most Humanology subjects but is only scratching the surface in such areas as Sociology and Psychology. Mankind has various ideas on how its own brain/mind operates but does not really know, despite one being present in every human individual. Nor is mankind fully aware of the power of human-human social interaction (most individuals experience myriads of such interactions daily). These interactions also impact on mental thought processes within each individual’s brain/mind, for example, each individual’s belief systems.

Zac found the Arts very perplexing for a Zenoid. Nevertheless, it is very important for mankind. Zac surmised that each example of the Arts was based on a hidden cultural code; the Arts were an important means of educating members of a society on the human condition but only when there was emotional resonance between creator and audience. Religion was even more perplexing for a Zenoid, particularly since, for many humans, it is a taboo subject. An individual’s Religion will impact on that individual’s sophological view of him/herself and the world. There are so many Religions mankind can choose. Although many modern intellectuals consider Religion man-made, Zac realised that each individual’s faith was very much a personal decision.

The objective of this book is not so much to find definitive answers behind the fundamental questions of life (probably a fool’s errand), but to provide modern humans with a means from their own personal perspective to make some sense of it all.

Let the story unfold…

1.2. The Arrival

"At last, there in the far distance, I could make out the faint wisp of light that heralded the first of my guests arriving. It was difficult to discern its shape at first against the backdrop of stars, even though the stars are spread thinly in this part of the Milky Way Galaxy. However, as the wisp approached, it slowly took the typical form of a Zenoid travelling amongst the stars. I was pretty sure from the direction it approached that it was an old acquaintance of mine, Einst. Einst and I had studied together many moons ago, as young Zenoids, under the great Yolon. I hurried down to the reception area to check again that everything was in order, as Einst would need to recuperate after his long journey. He had come from the Andromeda Galaxy, where he was studying major developments of an advanced race spread across several solar systems there.

I was pleased that Einst was the first of my guests to arrive. He was the Zenoid I knew best among the many eminent sophologists that Yolon had requested to attend the conference (N.B. a Zenoid sophologist studies wisdom). He was sure to support me over the next few days. This was a great comfort as there were controversial issues within my presentations setting out the results of my studies on the human race on Earth and its progress along the paths of wisdom and knowledge. When Einst arrived, he was as pleased to see me as I was him and we immediately shared memories of our time spent together as students. His energy had been completely drained by the journey, so I left him to recharge.

I went back to the conference arena and, for the umpteenth time, rechecked that all my settings for the presentation equipment were spot on and that the seating cushions were tuned to maximum comfort for each guest. I wanted each to participate fully in what I knew would be long presentations and discussions. Yes, I was by then very nervous. This was a high-level conference on my first project studying a newly discovered race.

I recalled how proud I had been when Yolon had first assigned me to work on what he had described as his pet project. This was the culmination of my university education under Yolon. Yolon was not only a highly respected sophologist but also a member of the Zenoid Inter-Galactic High Council which guides all Zenoid activities across the Universe. However, I soon felt thrown in at the deep end with this project. I had been allocated just enough equipment to set myself up on one of the moons in the Sirius solar system, close enough to study mankind but far enough away to avoid any chance of detection by them. At 8.6 light-years distant from Earth, I could gain all the information I needed completely remotely using Zenoid devices linked to human communication satellites orbiting their planet. Mainly from internet sources, I built up a comprehensive picture of mankind and human wisdom. I had been told to study mankind and, in particular, how they had built up a knowledge base, starting from the time they first emerged on the planet and up to the present day. Yolon hinted that the project had a deeper purpose key to the development of Zenoid Sophology. Nevertheless, I was basically left to my own devices to set up the study and get on with it.

I had immersed myself in the study as I found it easy to tap into mankind’s databases. The species proved very diverse with a myriad of different character types but throughout the ages, there was invariably to be found a number of scholars with a thirst for knowledge and truth. Their work provided me with a wealth of material for my research – but I am getting beyond myself; my results will be in my presentation.

Then recently, having thought myself forgotten, I received a message that not only was Yolon himself visiting me to discuss my results first hand but that he had set up, at the same time, a major conference on the knowledge and beliefs of the human race with many of the key Zenoid thinkers requested to attend in person. We Zenoids, being free of bodily constraints, possess multiple long-distance communication capabilities; hence I knew that the in person request meant that Yolon had aspirations that this conference would achieve great things. Clearly, the humans had a deeper significance to Yolon’s mind than appeared at first glance.

I had been thrown into a flurry of activity. Not only did I have to set up a conference facility to house such eminent guests but I also had to decide how best to present all my findings. Yolon’s hidden agenda, which I could only guess at, would need to be properly fed by my presentations and the discussion that would ensue with such sharp intellects in the audience.

Luckily I had been able to borrow equipment from nearby Zenoid settlements but it was only through cobbling various gadgets together that I had managed to assemble a passable conference arena. It had been a rush against time and various connections had shown intermittent faults at first, hence my desire to recheck everything again after making sure Einst’s needs had been catered for.

Having checked as best I could, I went back to my vantage point to search the skies for further arrivals. My mind wandered back to how isolated and lonely I had felt when I first came to the Sirius system to study humans. It was a very long way from the centre of the Cosmos. I found I had little in common with neighbouring Zenoid settlements so I concentrated on my studies. However, the isolation sharpened my mind and I soon found an empathy with mankind and the great progress the race had made over such a short period of time since it first emerged as a nascent species. What was it that so intrigued Yolon in mankind?

Suddenly, I jolted back to my original task. There were two further wisps coming towards me along parallel paths, now quite close. I suspected that this would be Wae and Dill. These were two senior Zenoids with a wealth of experience and knowledge between them. I knew they were on a joint project studying a wide range of species as to how each species drew the dividing lines between knowledge and beliefs. Although both were referred to in Zenoid terminology as sophologists, i.e., learned in all thought disciplines, Wae specialised in belief systems and Dill in factual knowledge. These were two special guests and I hurried to the reception area, all the time running through in my mind the etiquette of how to greet respected Zenoid elders. However, they soon put me at ease. They were chatting away with each other as they landed. They greeted me as an equal and paid compliments to the care I had gone to in preparing a reception area. They both said they were looking forward to the presentations but needed time to recuperate from the journey. I quickly showed them to the recuperation pods next to Einst and wished them sweet dreams.

I glanced up into the sky and I knew that the big man himself was approaching. Yolon’s approach was unmistakable; his wisp form appeared to shimmer and pulsate with power, even though it was still some distance away. He was moving fast and soon I was greeting my mentor. He asked if all the necessary preparations had been made and checked the conference arena prior to going to his recuperation pod. He asked who had arrived and was pleased that Wae and Dill were already here. He warned me to treat Cep and Ioch with appropriate etiquette when they arrived, as they were not as easy-going as Wae and Dill.

This proved good advice. Cep was next to arrive and bristled with formality. His specialism was artistic knowledge but was renowned for his sharpness in many disciplines. Cep was on a par with Yolon in the Zenoid world, both being members of the Zenoid Inter-Galactic High Council. He was reputed to have researched several complex projects in his early education and retained detailed knowledge across many diverse subjects. However, his high intellectual ability had gone to his head and I was glad I had practised formal Zenoid greetings in preparation for this event. Begrudgingly, Cep acknowledged my greeting and accepted the invitation to recharge. I felt belittled but at least I had not upset such an important guest.

Cep was quickly followed by Ren, an expert on cultural interactions between races and peoples. He proved friendly but then came Ioch. His ego needed more massaging than even Cep. I was feeling on such a low having bowed and scraped to Ioch that I missed Ponti’s arrival. Ponti’s support would be key; he was a communications expert and would be asked to comment on several radical approaches I would be taking in my presentation. Fortunately, Ponti was the easiest of all my guests to get on with and sorted himself out, almost as a member of the family.

The conference guests arrived thick and fast after that. I greeted everyone as they landed, although at times there were many arrivals close to one another. Each guest appreciated my offer of a recuperation pod. Clearly, every Zenoid had found their long journey here exhausting. At last, every guest but one had arrived but there was no sign of the final delegate. For a long time, I was forced to keep scanning the skies, hoping he would arrive soon.

There is always one who leaves everything to the last minute. I was just wondering if there had been an accident and whom I should contact, when the last guest, Tan, screamed in at full speed. He was full of apologies and worried that he would not be ready in time for the start of the presentation. I calmed him down. The last recuperation pod was a speedy job for just such a situation and, in any case, the first part of the conference was a get to know you session, an idea I had borrowed from my subject species. Reassured, he settled into the pod and I left for a final check on the arrangements."

1.3. Zac gets the Zenoid conference going

Murphy’s Law struck again! The vital link in the translator that had been playing up failed again. Rather than resting now that my guests had arrived and mentally preparing myself for the ordeal ahead, I ended up frantically repairing the presentation system. If I could not get the link back up and working, the whole approach I had daringly taken would collapse like a pack of cards around my head. At last, it seemed to work after bending a few misaligned connectors – fingers crossed.

Only just in time; the first of my guests would just now be finishing their recharging. As I rushed back to the reception area, Yolon was coming to. We had a few moments before the others began to surface so I left markers that each guest should join us at the conference arena when they were refreshed, and escorted Yolon there for a run-through of the arrangements for the next few days.

Yolon seemed relaxed that I would take the lead throughout the proceedings. All through the study, he had taken a hands-off approach to my work. This started the debate in my head that I had had countless times before, particularly at low moments. Yolon’s detached attitude could be that he wanted my work to be seen as completely independent and not tainted by his own views. He had always appeared to have great faith in me. However, there was always the nagging doubt that I was being lined up for a fall, though for what reason? It was too late now anyway. I got Yolon to agree to say a few words at the get to know you session as the other guests started to drift in.

I had arranged for refreshments to be prepared at this time so the delegates tended to mingle around in small groups as they sampled the offerings. This seemed to go well. The conversation seemed to be on mutual acquaintances, on the quality of the refreshments (I had spent a lot of money on these) or on problems encountered during the journey here. My stomach was churning over with butterflies and I dared not touch the refreshments I had paid so much for. At last, the moment came for me to attract everyone’s attention and to usher each guest to the allocated seat cushions.

It was my task to get the ball rolling. I welcomed everybody to the rock that had been my home for the duration of the study and thanked them for travelling over such large distances to be present. I then asked Yolon to say a few words. His introduction was crisp and to the point. We Zenoids had always taken a strong interest in the races found throughout the Cosmos. Just recently, in this isolated part of the Milky Way Galaxy, we had come across Earth and the human race. This race was at an intriguing stage of development so he had asked one of his most promising students to study them and that he himself was waiting with keen anticipation to hear the results of the study. Talk about keeping his powder dry – there was no clue as to Yolon’s hidden agenda.

Then I asked each guest to introduce themselves and talk about their recent studies. As I listened, it dawned on me that Yolon had taken great care in selecting the attendees. I had known each one by reputation beforehand, but as I listened to each talk, I felt another piece in the jigsaw fall into place. Wae went first, followed by Dill. They spoke jointly about their recent studies on the interaction between, on the one hand, factual knowledge and perceived certainty and, on the other, belief systems and the reliability of beliefs. It was going to be intriguing to reference their studies on so many different races with my observations on humans.

Next to speak was Cep. Despite his haughty manner, I warmed to him. He had spent considerable time studying species that remained self-contained within the planet they originated on. He spoke in glowing terms about the extreme creativity they channelled into diverse and exciting art forms. Ioch followed with what I saw as the other side of the coin. I remained very wary of Ioch, as he clearly did not take prisoners. However, his studies on how we Zenoids control our mental processes despite no truly physical form was obviously of great interest to Yolon, who asked several illuminating questions of Ioch.

The other introductions went by all too quickly for me as then I realised I was just about to plunge into the deep end as the time for my own presentation drew near. I remember being pleased that Einst had obviously progressed well since our student days as he was now well-versed in the barriers that races had to overcome in achieving interstellar travel. Ren, Tan and my new friend Ponti gave good account of themselves and then the podium was back to me. It was certainly now too late to turn back and I can remember thinking to myself the human expression, Zac, here goes nothing!

There was a gasp from the audience as I pressed the button that started up the machinery that enabled one of my big gambles for the conference. A large projector screen rose behind the podium I was sitting at. Simultaneously, a mechanical eye popped up in front of each cushion seat. I had connected each eye to the communication sensors built into each seat via a sophisticated translator unit. Large words began to appear on the screen using a back projector. The text I had pre-prepared went as follows:

Please do not be alarmed. These words are in one of the languages of the humans of Earth, one they call 21st-century English. The eye in front of each of you is reading these written words by focusing the light waves of their image onto a photosensitive detector. The signal from this is passing through a translator unit that converts the meaning of these written words as close as possible into Zenoid. Hence, the input you are receiving from the cushion’s communication pad is the meaning of the words programmed into the projector computer.

This is not a stunt. The objective of Zac’s study was to research the knowledge the human race has acquired about itself, about its surroundings and about the meaning of its existence. It is important to describe this in the language that the humans themselves would use, rather than use normal Zenoid multi-phase communications. Whilst using Zenoid might be more convenient, using the human’s own language will give a more direct measure of their thought and capture nuances that might otherwise be missed.

At this moment, there was a commotion coming from Ioch’s direction. I blanked the screen and switched the console to general conversation mode.

Ioch shouted out: This is absurd. Have I come halfway across the Cosmos only to have my time wasted by looking at barbaric and primitive squiggles? Yolon, even you should have more sense than this – put a stop to this nonsense and let us get down to serious discussions.

Yolon had been as surprised as everyone by the sudden switch to English words but acted soothingly to Ioch’s challenge. "Calm down, old friend. Zac was given a free hand in his study of these intriguing humans because his creative style was most likely to get to the bottom of how these people think and how their thoughts have developed over time. Yes, this switch to written English, as Zac calls it, also makes me feel uncomfortable. However, Zac says he has good reason for choosing this language. We often discuss how important it is, in understanding the Sophology of a species, to consider the ambiguities and subtleties of meaning inherent within its language. Ioch, I request your patience to let Zac continue with this unusual approach. I will, however, place conditions:

• each presentation must be short so we, the audience, can maintain concentration despite the weird experience of reading;

• discussion after each presentation will be in Zenoid so that we can relate everything we are told back to our own experience;

• that Ponti thoroughly checks Zac’s translators at the next break to ensure the equipment is giving us the true meaning.

Right, if no one else has any comments at this time, I will ask Zac to switch back on his infernal gadget."

Phew, that was a close call! I immediately switched back on the presentation and translator equipment.

Thank you for agreeing to be patient with this unusual approach. You will soon get used to this versatile, if primitive, means of communication. The introductory presentation will give an outline of the species mankind. Zac will be very careful throughout his presentations to describe each facet of human wisdom without any reference to Zenoid Sophology. This is important so that every delegate assesses human knowledge as it actually exists rather than relate it to their own sophisticated understanding of the Cosmos.

1.4. Outline of mankind

Introduction to the human race: Currently, 7.8 billion human beings inhabit the planet Earth; they are the dominant species on the planet and have, over the past 50 years, made the first steps to explore their Solar System. Zac had established that by far the most probable explanation of their origin came from detailed and extensive evidence generated through human Science. This evidence demonstrates that the planet Earth was formed, along with the rest of their Solar System, roughly 5,000 million years ago. Life in the form of single-celled species appeared on Earth approximately 3,000 million years ago. Over very protracted periods of time, these early species evolved as new life forms adapted to their local environments. Complex, multi-celled species evolved approximately 1,000 million years ago. A myriad of species has come and gone through a constant but gradual succession of evolution and extinctions. Approximately 5 million years ago, hominid species evolved on the continent of Africa. This particular family of species continued to evolve, resulting 200,000 years ago in the appearance of homo sapiens (mankind), again in Africa. Since that time, humans have multiplied, spread across most corners of the planet (particularly on land), adapted to most regional environments, learned to manipulate those environments for survival and comfort, and come to be the only hominid species and the dominant species on the planet.

The key factor in mankind’s dominance on Earth is that every individual human being has a very powerful brain housed within his/her head. Most other animal species also possess brains, but the one in humans is capable of immeasurably more thinking power than that in any other species on Earth. Over the years, humans have learned to use their brains to act collectively, tame their environment and construct complex new environments for the benefit of their societies. Each human brain is synonymous with the human mind in ways that mankind currently can only hypothesise. Each human brain/mind is incredibly complex, as Zac would later explain. It carries out multitudes of functions, both consciously and subconsciously, and is capable of complex logic, abstract theories and high creativity. However, it is an integral part of each human body and is the result of mankind’s evolution from earlier life forms. It is the human mind, both individually and collectively, that is the driver for human wisdom.

Mankind is a complex concept. Mankind is made up of individual humans who operate as discrete and separate identities but also, at the same time, mankind is essentially a composite whole. It is the summation of every single human individual that has ever existed and the collective of all humans currently living on the planet. These different ways of looking at mankind are inseparable; mankind is these different concepts at the same time. The typical life-span for an individual human is between 30 and 100 years so the actual people living is constantly changing as humans are born, live through their lives and die. All aspects of individual human existence are very much determined by the human society in which that human lives but each human society is solely composed of individual humans. This quandary is an issue that Zac would address further in several of his presentations.

Mankind is defined by human Science as a single species of life. Fundamentally, that means that any one human female can in theory procreate and produce a new human baby with any one human male whatever their respective backgrounds. Also, back over innumerable generations, human Science indicates that all humans are related. All humans currently living in the world could (if the information were available) trace their ancestry back to the very first family of humans who evolved approximately 200,000 years ago. In addition, fundamental to all life on Earth, including human life, is the gene DNA. Detailed scientific analysis of countless human DNA specimens indicates mankind is homogeneous and all humans should be regarded as all members of the one human race.

Whilst this homogeneity defines mankind as a single species, fundamental differences between individual humans are also an essential feature of mankind. Each human is associated with a single and specific variant of human DNA. Each individual variant of DNA is unique and that confers (through human Biochemistry) each human individual to possess unique physiology and unique psychological make-up. In addition, mini-evolutionary forces have continued to operate on mankind over the course of its 200,000 years of existence. Over many years, as isolated groups evolved to better survive their immediate environments (e.g., heat, cold, high altitude), particular physical characteristics evolved for that group (e.g., face shape or skin colour). These physical differences can significantly impact human behaviour and create human constructs such as race and creed (N.B. the same applies to tradition and culture).

The human race is composed of both male and female variants. Both variants play a central role in the procreation of the species, so one would not survive without the other. There are both physiological and psychological differences between the two genders. There are marginally more female variants than male variants and also some humans that do not fit completely into either category. This whole issue is highly contentious for mankind, such as claimed superiority of either sex or how to deal with the middle ground. However, both variants are essential constituents of the concept of mankind and the interaction between the two sexes is a fundamental component of all human societies. From a Zenoid perspective, it is immaterial which variant is superior but critical to note that the physiological and psychological interaction between the two genders is a key determinant of human society and human behaviour.

Additionally, during the 200,000 years of existence of mankind, individual humans have invariably formed groups of humans, termed societies, socially combining to exploit their immediate environment. At first, these groups were small but as human History unfolded, these became much larger and eventually enormous. The structures of these societies were, and remain, very complex. As explained later by Zac, the nature of these societies has a major influence on the beliefs of individual humans. Also, as individual humans have migrated, inter-married and integrated (or not), the make-up of these societies underwent further complication. The culture, traditions and make-up of such groups and societies is a further determinant of human behaviour.

These individual variations are fundamental to what mankind is and how it behaves. It makes every aspect of study involving human behaviour impossibly complex, as Zac would discuss later. Over the course of recent human History, there has been considerable mixing of peoples from different backgrounds with continual migrations and integrations. The differences between individual humans are critical to understanding mankind, but it is at the same time essential to consider mankind as a single human entity; something mankind itself invariably fails to do.

All humans on Earth are organised within highly complex human societies. Zac found that studies on how these societies are structured and the dynamics of interactions both within societies and between societies are fundamental to understanding mankind. Mankind has developed approaches for these issues but Zac found the key characteristics here as complex and difficult to grapple with as basic issues, such as (a) the true nature of the human brain/mind, (b) the true nature of the physical world around humans and (c) the determinants of human behaviour (i.e., Psychology), both individually and in groups. Zac stressed that mankind is a complex and difficult subject to describe and understand.

Thank you, Zenoids, for your patience so far. At this point, Zac will pause the presentation for questions and, after a short break, reconvene to set out the purpose and structure of Zac’s study on the Sophology of mankind.

Immediately, Yolon took charge of the question-and-answer session – Are there any questions of Zac at this very early stage?

There was a period of silence, and I thought good grief, they were not listening. I noticed Ioch muttering but he did not attempt to take the floor. Then Wae indicated to Yolon that he had a question.

I am bursting with many questions to ask you, but I sense that Yolon only wants questions of clarification at this time. I will, therefore, restrict myself to one question. I have heard reference to the religious beliefs of the humans but I did not pick out how you were going to treat these religious beliefs within the overall subject of mankind’s quest for knowledge. Are you going to leave Religion as a separate subject or include religious beliefs as part of mankind’s knowledge base?

What a good question, I thought. Fortunately, this was one I was prepared for. I replied:

"Religion is a highly emotive subject among humans. Over the years, a great many human Religions have emerged and to this day, many Religions remain with many ardent followers. These followers adhere very strongly to the tenets of their individual Religion, frequently believing with certainty that theirs is the only true faith and all others are mistaken. In addition, some humans are just as firm in their belief in Atheism, while others are agnostic or hold several Religions at the same time.

It proved essential in my studies to cover Religion within the overall scope of mankind’s knowledge base, specifically in Section 7. Many of the key thinkers I will talk about had a strong interaction with Religion, either as firm believers or for other reasons. A number of these thinkers had, as the objective of their deliberations, to prove that their God existed or to frame their particular Religion within sound wisdom. This will become clearer as my presentations progress, but I trust for the present my answer suffices?"

Wae responded to the affirmative. There were other questions of clarification but soon Yolon wound up this first session. After a short break, which for me proved hectic checking everything was working perfectly and rehearsing my next presentation, delegates started to drift back into the conference arena. All too soon it was time for my next talk.

SECTION TWO

The purpose and structure of Zac’s study on mankind

2.1. The purpose of Zac’s sociological study on mankind

Yolon had asked Zac to study mankind to establish mankind’s knowledge, belief and understanding of themselves, their environment and their technology. This was to establish what they themselves understood to be the truth, how they had tamed their environment and how they became what they are. Yolon had acknowledged this was a wide brief but essential to establish mankind’s Sophology in a format that could be understood by other Zenoid sophologists and used by them for analysis and comparison purposes.

Zac had set about this task remotely, utilising the human internet for research, thereby ensuring full compliance with the Zenoid protocol of non-interference with alien species. Zac’s first task was to study human wisdom both at that time and, as best as he could, back through human history to the first emergence of mankind as a species on planet Earth.

2.2. Analysis of human wisdom

Human wisdom is an enormous and multi-faceted concept. Essentially, it is all human understanding, knowledge and beliefs about everything - their world, themselves and their ideas, from the base level up. Zac, therefore, needed to consider from scratch how it came about. Each element would conceptually be derived from individual humans wanting to do something better for any conceivable motive. The individual human mind is powerful and creative. Once that individual puts his/her mind to it, invariably ways would be found to improve some aspect of human life or the local environment. This will likely have been the case for early hominid species but was certainly true when mankind appeared on the scene approximately 200,000 years ago. Importantly, the human mind soon learned the benefits of sharing this wisdom with others. This process would benefit considerably when common verbal language evolved within groups. Mankind is very much a social animal and the human mind identified early on the advantages of cooperation with others. The wisdom so obtained became shared within groups and societies and passed from generation to generation.

The human mind is also driven by a strong desire to understand why human ideas work. Even early on, humans developed theories as to why things behave as they do and the possible causes why human actions could prove beneficial or, conversely, did not work. These theories did not have to be correct, simply to provide a workable and mainly successful model for continued development of the basic idea and improvements. Again, these theories were communicated within groups and societies and between generations. The communication of this wisdom has been considerably enhanced with the development of writing, the on-going refinement of literature and, more recently, the development of computer technology. Currently, through countless generations of humans using these and allied processes, mankind has amassed a vast and immeasurable store of human wisdom.

To analyse this vast and immeasurable store of human wisdom, Zac considered this broken down into an enormous number of events where an individual human or a group of humans used their skill and intellect to manipulate both their bodies and tools/materials to create a situation/structure/gadget that was beneficial to mankind. This immeasurable number of events could be anything from taming fire, creating a painting, designing a structure, assembling a structure, using a gadget, flying a rocket, etc. Basically, there are two elements to this achievement – (1) the practical skill of the human mind consciously or subconsciously controlling the human body and any tools attached to carry out the task and (2) the knowledge that doing the task will be successful and beneficial to both the individual/individuals and mankind.

By analysing a wide variety of such tasks, Zac was aware that for most tasks, most humans were capable, if trained properly, to carry out the human role. For some tasks, it required higher talent than was found in the general population; for example, creating high Art, playing sport to a high level, playing a musical instrument well, etc.; Zac also believed this extended to such tasks as making scientific breakthroughs. Zac found it very difficult to get a handle on this aspect. He later discovered that mankind only has a rudimentary understanding of how the human mind operates (although there is one mind in every human) and how the mind controls the human body, either consciously or subconsciously (e.g., human Psychology). Zac concluded there was little point in him studying this practical wisdom, simply noting it was there. He was later to find out that mankind’s best analysis of this aspect would naturally fall out of his approach.

Zac, therefore, concentrated on human knowledge underpinning this vast array of human tasks that results in the modern, highly technical world that humans have created for themselves. Zac found that a good approximation for this human knowledge is widely referred to as academic knowledge which is readily available across the human world. Zac, therefore, set about studying the vast amount of academic knowledge mankind had created for itself.

2.3. The development of human academic wisdom

In order to carry out his analysis of human wisdom, the nebulous entity that had made mankind what it is today and over its full history of 200,000 years, Zac subdivided the subject into the myriad of different tasks performed by human individuals or groups of individuals to transform from the primitive ape-like species when it first emerged to what humanity is today. Each task will require of humans both practical skill and theoretical knowledge. Zac had already discussed practical skill and now concentrated on theoretical knowledge.

Zac would give a summary of the early development of such knowledge with his analysis of understanding before major civilisations using a very broad scope for Philosophy (chapter 3A.2.). A classic example would be human utilisation of fire, spread over aeons and involving such understanding as (a) utilisation of natural fire (e.g., from lightning), (b) understanding material combustibility, (c) the benefits of fire (e.g., cooking, warmth, protection) and (d) starting fire from scratch using, say, flint and kindling. This process would involve much trial and error but gradually mankind tamed fire using observation, rationalisation and sharing of experiences.

Gradually, mankind amassed knowledge across many fronts. Knowledge was first passed from individual to individual and generation to generation verbally then, after the invention of writing, in written format; today, computerisation also makes a major contribution. Slowly but steadily this amassed knowledge grew to become a vast reservoir of human understanding of mankind and its capabilities, the world about humans and establishing a safe and comfortable environment for mankind. This vast reservoir of human understanding continued to develop through mankind within each era using it to take on the problems of the day. From time to time, depending on the circumstances, academic establishments were created to accelerate mankind’s understanding. After a number of false starts, universities emerged as centres of learning. Today, there is a vast network of universities and academic establishments across the world. Zac, therefore, needed to study the knowledge and information, which Zac referred to as academic knowledge, underpinning this vast network.

2.4. The structure of Zac’s study on academic knowledge

Zac had soon found that humans do not possess anything equivalent to Sophology, a Zenoid academic discipline that aims to provide a global picture for any race of wisdom, knowledge, understanding and beliefs on all existence, the universal environment and purpose of everything. Ancient thinkers, e.g., Aristotle, had developed ideas along such lines. Philosophy used to come close until squeezed between Science and Religion (quote from the recent philosopher Russell). However, over the last 500 years, mankind has created an explosion in knowledge, thereby making enormous strides forward in understanding and technology. This, for understandable reasons, has currently resulted in a very fragmented structure to mankind’s knowledge. Experts, even after a lifetime’s study, are forced to dedicate themselves to very narrow subject areas. Zac, therefore, found himself forced to work from the ground up, building a global picture of mankind’s Sophology by piecing together the best overall knowledge available from each individual key academic disciple.

Zac found he had major problems in identifying an appropriate structure around which to piece together this global picture. Encyclopaedias contain all the data but within a structure aimed at retrieval not subject content. Library cataloguing systems such as the Dewey Decimal Classification and the Library of Congress Classification were useful but not the complete answer. The way human Universities organise themselves and group academic disciplines together provided Zac with ideas on how to relate individual human academic disciples. Zac found that each university typically created slightly different hierarchical structures depending on the history of the university, interactions between academic departments and individual personalities. However, he managed to mould generalised concepts of these hierarchies together to start to build up Zac’s impression of mankind’s Sophology. Zac would use the structure below to present a global picture of humanity’s academic wisdom, knowledge, understanding and belief:

Zac introduced his five subdivisions of Human Sophology:

Philosophy means different things to both different eras and different cultures. Also, there is virtually no consensus on which fundamental philosophical tenets are true and which are false. Zac decided to present this area as mankind’s quest for philosophical knowledge. He planned to discuss all the major philosophical positions that have held centre stage throughout mankind’s existence and across major cultural groups. True, ideas have become more sophisticated from past to present, but these developments are best described as better bricks to build different buildings. Also, Zac would employ a very loose definition of Philosophy, mirroring the era and culture of the time. Early philosophy will encompass all of man’s intellectual and technical knowledge up to and beyond the classic Greek philosophers. However, moving forward to modern Western thinking, philosophy became narrower and narrower, basically ending up trying to find solutions to those questions that other academic disciplines could not begin to answer.

Science proved a different kettle of fish. Science is the bedrock for virtually all of mankind’s impressive technological marvels. Here, Zac chose a very different approach to his discussions. True, there are very interesting stories and rivalries on how great thinkers developed key scientific theories. However, there is considerable consensus across the globe and across all advanced modern cultures on what the modern scientific picture of the world is. If anything, humans have built up a belief in the infallibility of human Science – for some, Science has almost become a Religion. Zac found it an acceptable compromise to present mankind’s Science as a unified description of mankind’s current understanding of the physical world and how it works. Nevertheless, caution is required – scientific success does not mean guaranteed truth.

Humanology was a simplifying term used by Zac to overcome different classifications by different groups. It basically encompasses what is currently termed by some Social Sciences with various disciplines from the more traditional Humanities classification. This area fundamentally deals with aspects of human interactions. Over the last 100 years, key thinkers had attempted to apply scientific rigour to these subjects. Whilst this helped ideas develop, there remains a strong, underlying human element. There is, by no means, consensus within Humanology; currently, in the key subject of Psychology, there are at least five main, contradictory schools of thought.

The Arts proved difficult for Zac to get to the bottom of. This broad area represents different things to different people, even within the same culture. However, mankind’s emotional and intellectual knowledge development is clearly and strongly reinforced through expression of ideas within the Art of each culture and era. Even an abstract medium such as Music plays an essential role, though one difficult to really understand.

Religion has strong elements of a taboo subject. Religious beliefs tend to be very personal and individual. Also, it is a very hot subject; individual Religions strongly discourage any criticism, however well-meaning, of their key beliefs and dogma. Nevertheless, Religion, in all its guises, is a central and key element to human understanding of mankind’s purpose. As such, it encompasses a broad range of faiths from specific major world Religions to broader individual human spiritual awareness.

The structure presented above by Zac with which to produce a sophological encyclopaedia of mankind’s academic knowledge is a pragmatic concept for Zac to use as a tool in carrying out his sophological analysis. It is not ideal. For example, one key question is the nature of the human mind and how it works. This is studied under three different subjects appearing within three of Zac’s headings – Philosophy of the Mind, Neuroscience and Psychology. Both the Arts and Religion should be part of Humanology but Zac considered them too important, hence separate treatment. Each subdivision is very dynamic and new subjects are frequently popping up within and between these subdivisions, for example, Oceanography and Space Exploration within Science, and Social Psychology within Humanology. Although different classifications could be used, Zac had to start somewhere.

From Zac’s analysis of each of the five subdivisions in turn, Zac would set out in Section 8 his interpretation of the Sophology of mankind. He became very aware that this analysis would be very dependent on the perspective of the analyst forced to assess very different views on each issue. Zac tried to be as balanced and fair as possible but felt he was taking a more scientific perspective as opposed to a spiritual perspective. However, each person making such a judgement is free to make their own assessment. Zac felt he had provided a well-balanced approach through harmony and compromise.

At that point, Zac paused the presentation apparatus to allow his Zenoid audience to ask any questions about his approach.

Yolon was the first to speak as I switched the console back to general conversation mode.

Thank you, Zac. I recognise your original brief within your introductory presentation. There are a number of unusual approaches in the way you propose to treat your research findings, but as I said earlier, you were selected for this project because of your creativity and I would have been disappointed if there were not a few surprises. I sense that as your presentations progress, we will get a clearer picture of the reasoning behind your approach and hence we will, for now, continue as you suggest. Beyond that, are there any initial questions for Zac?

There followed a lively discussion session. As requested by Yolon, the questions focused on my approach. Many revolved around my classification of academic knowledge. Whilst the audience agreed there would be many ways to subdivide human knowledge, they accepted my approach would provide as good a means as any to establish mankind’s Sophology. After a while, the questions began to dry up, so Yolon asked me to proceed.

After refreshments, I presented a number of examples of mankind’s culture to set the scene for my guests. I rigged up several cinema rooms for my archive of human films, including war, romance, comedy, horror and science fiction. I had several concert rooms for my tapes of both popular and classical Music, ranging from Chamber Music to the Beatles. Most popular was the conference arena itself where I screened through my equipment various human books, including the Bible, the Koran and various classical fictional books from a range of different human cultures.

Halfway through this session, I heard hoots of laughter from one of the cinemas. Several of my guests found the film ET highly amusing. Ponti had completed testing my equipment, as requested by Yolon. He made some minor alterations but basically gave it the thumbs up. I began to feel a sense that things were falling into place, but there was no room for complacency – the presentations had only just begun.

I arranged individual rooms for recuperation or their own personal studies for each delegate. After the culture session drew to a close, most guests took advantage of these. Many must have gone there to work on their own projects, as the interstellar communication equipment I had installed for my guests worked overtime. I took this opportunity to spend time with Einst, catching up with developments in his life.

All too quickly, we were all assembled back in the conference arena. Most delegates arrived on time and helped themselves to the refreshments I had replenished. I smiled when I noticed Tan rushed in last and out of breath; I made a note to give him an alarm clock. Here we go again, I said to myself.

SECTION THREE A

Mankind’s Quest for Philosophical Knowledge:

3A.1. What is Philosophy?

Zac had hoped that human Philosophy would provide him with many of the answers he sought. However, it proved highly complicated with many conflicting ideas, theories and answers. Philosophy has also changed in scope with the different societies across the ages.

Philosophy was a very broad subject for the Ancient Greeks. For example, Aristotle used an all-encompassing definition of Philosophy (literally in Greek, the love of wisdom). He adopted a top-down approach to the structure of human knowledge, categorising everything into three groups – Theoretical (e.g., Mathematics), Practical (e.g., Ethics) and Productive (e.g., Rhetoric). He identified eight Sciences – Physics (nature), Metaphysics (being), Biology (life), Psychology (soul), Ethics (individual), Politics (society), Arts and Logic. He believed in the unity of knowledge; each Science needs a different approach and methodology but they are all related.

By contrast, classic Chinese and Indian civilisations in fact did not have Philosophy as a separate subject. What would now be classified as Philosophy was an integral element of religious theories and beliefs or guidance on how to live a good life. Philosophical concepts as found in Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism and Buddhism were intriguing for Zac in his studies on human wisdom. Therefore, he would address these by highlighting the main philosophical ideas without emphasising associated religious connotations; Religion would be discussed separately. Not ideal, but these concepts were too important to ignore.

As Western Philosophy developed over the last 500 years, large areas were separated as distinct subjects for focused study (e.g., Science, Sociology, and Psychology). This was for good reason but resulted in no overarching study over all academic subjects. A modern definition of the word would vary considerably between individual philosophers but, for many, Philosophy stands for the critical, systematic and rational study of such fundamental but usually intangible problems such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind and language. Modern Philosophy tends to focus on specific broad sub-sections, for example;

where Metaphysics is the fundamental nature of both existence and everything, Epistemology is the study of knowledge and its validity, Aesthetics is the nature and perception of beauty and Art, Ethics assesses all aspects of morals and justice, Philosophy of Mind considers the fundamental nature of the human mind and Logic is the study of reasoning and argument. Philosophical considerations are also applied to other major areas of mankind’s knowledge, such as the Philosophy of Science and Political Philosophy.

In order to give appropriate focus to Philosophy, Zac would discuss it over the next two Sections. In this Section, he will consider each philosopher chronologically throughout mankind’s history. The History of Philosophy remains widely studied as part of modern research into Philosophy. Each philosopher was expressing his/her own views from his/her perspective. In Section 3B, Zac would consider, in turn, each subsection of modern Philosophy (as shown above). This would give Zac a chance to consider where human Philosophy has got to today.

Since Zac’s intention in this Section was to trace mankind’s journey towards human wisdom, he started his discussion of Philosophy from the first appearance of mankind as a species.

3A.2. Philosophy in Pre-history and the Early Civilisations

Mankind’s primate, humanoid ancestors evolved in Africa approximately 5 million years ago. This was not out of nowhere; mankind’s ancestry must trace back through countless ancestor species back to the evolution of mammals about 250 million years ago. Zac pointed out that modern mankind has become so confident in its mastery of this planet that it ignores the fact that the whole existence of humanoid species only represents 0.1% of the lifetime of the Earth. Over a period of just 5 million years, hominid species transformed from a primitive ape-like species to an advanced human population capable of formulating comprehensive and sophisticated Philosophy, for example, the Classical Greek Civilisation. Exactly what happened when, how and why is very much open to conjecture since any remaining evidence is very scant and ambiguous. However, through such studies as Archaeology, a comprehensive picture can be built up that is likely to be fairly close to what actually happened. Certainly, approximately 1 million years ago, a hominid species had evolved to the extent that several of the later hominid species possessed brains of comparable size to modern humans and presumably, with comparable thinking power.

In order to understand and modify the local environment for survival and comfort, it is not simply the thinking power of the brain that counts but also the ability to conceptualise issues and access to related previous practical experience. It is very likely that these later hominid species benefitted from such innovations as language, fire, stone tools and communal hunting, even before homo sapiens first appeared on the scene. Each of these innovations must be considered quantum leaps forward at the time. Obviously, these later hominid species had learned to employ their brains and skills to good effect. These quantum leaps might appear obvious looking back, but at the time, they would have been anything but that. Each innovation must have required considerable mental dexterity (e.g., analysis of sensory input, categorisation, hypothesising probable causes and communication) spread across many individuals and considerable trial and error over protracted periods of time.

Mankind as homo sapiens appeared sometime between 200,000 and 130,000 years ago through gradual evolution and, in the process, inherited the broad base of knowledge from its humanoid ancestor species. The lifestyle that mankind would follow for over 100,000 years was as a hunter-gatherer but it gradually became more and more proficient at adapting to the immediate environment and maximising returns from any region. Mankind operated in co-operative groups and within these groups, certain individuals developed specialist skills. Homo sapiens began to dominate the immediate environment, spreading across Africa and between 100,000 – 70,000 years ago, moved into Asia, from there to spread across the globe as all other ancestor hominoid species eventually died out. It is estimated that the human population was 10,000 people 130,000 years ago and that by 10,000 BC, the population had risen to several million. Mankind had survived numerous threats and natural disasters during its first 100,000 years but thrived, developing advanced technology in hunting, husbandry, food storage, dwellings, clothing, trading, specialist tools and was capable of operating effectively in sizable groups. It is believed that by 30,000 years ago, Art and Religion began to play an important role in human society. It is not known when mankind started believing in super-human forces within a religious context, as the main surviving evidence, such as burial of the dead and cave art, is capable of various interpretations. Mankind has a strong desire for knowledge and control; psychologically, individuals will naturally develop explanations of good or bad events in the format of stories. These will be shared among members of the society and evolve, many incorporating super-human forces. As these stories are passed from person to person, weak elements of the story are lost and key elements strengthened. Such stories thereby gain credence through mass acceptance. Stories passed from generation to generation begin to stand the test of time – it must be true because it always has been so. Human hunter-gatherer societies must have developed rich myths and legends including creative stories about both the physical and spiritual world, although the actual stories are lost in the mists of time. Within each hunter-gatherer society, philosophical concepts had begun to emerge.

From 10,000 BC onwards, two major innovations, agriculture and civilisation, would completely re-configure how mankind lived in certain favourable areas of the planet and, in the process, rapidly accelerated intellectual and technological development. Zac stressed he used the word civilisation to mean a structured society of many thousands of people co-operating under a shared economic, social and cultural identity; civilisation implies a radically different culture to previous hunter-gatherer societies, not a higher culture. Also, the two concepts of