What Carl G. Schowengerdt may not have, appropriately so, in literary bedside manner, he more than makes up for in terms of conceptual coherence and full, ideological three hundred-and-sixty degrees. His new book, matter-of-factly titled Human Ethics, isn’t just an unblinking eye at the deviation our society has taken from social codas in our best interests, it’s about successfully reinstating solutions pivotal to our democracy, and exploring the schematas making up the evolution of human behavior – heading into the digitized age.
There’s a certain timelessness, however, to the concepts Schowengerdt introduces. There’s a sense of not so much evolution for evolution’s sake, but evolution as a part of expansion. Rather than excess differentiation, we continue to expand our search for meaning as a society whilst still being driven from, and being motivated by, core originating concepts. For example, theology. “I believe that a force beyond our comprehension created this universe, which is also beyond our comprehension, 14.5 billion years ago,” writes Schowengerdt, “…(but) I believe it is a tragic error to assume that this force, which began this universe, has any personal relationship to us.
As best we can determine, everything in this universe runs on the laws of chance and probability. For some reason we do not understand, these laws of probability have given us some very concrete laws of physics…I believe that we should all give thanks every day, in abject gratitude, to this creative impersonal force which gave us our lives, even though we are greatly aware that our creator does not care.
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.es/Human-Ethics-English-Carl-Schowengerdt-ebook/dp/B0D8G29TMS
Life, to each of us, is precious. It is even more precious because we are not pawns directed by some deity, and have only a limited time of existence to enjoy that life, and a limited time to make our commnities better for those who follow us.”
Naturally Schowengerdt is able to expand from this into the book’s core topic of ethics. In some ways, approaching ethics from the standpoint Schowengerdt does makes its precepts, and its net benefits, that much more precious. In part this is because, as he brilliantly articulates, ethics and one’s morals are not necessarily synonymous.
“I believe that morals and convictions as to right and wrong vary from individual to individual, family to family, group to group, neighborhood to neighborhood, city to city, region to region, state to state, nation to nation, and generation to generation. I believe that morals also vary from religion to religion, race to race, culture to culture, and economic status,” Schowengerdt writes. “I believe, therefore, that ethics should be that overriding set of values which applies to all our wildly varying morals. I believe that ethics should be that human value system which most
completely promotes the success of all forms of life, each in its place…I believe that, at this stage of our evolution as a species, the genomic expressions of empathy and cooperation are those most important expressions of behavior we need to develop, in order to survive and prosper on this planet.”
By making these arguments and philosophical implications so matter-of-fact and devoid of excess right brain, Schowengerdt is able to make an unusual concoction of ideological elements fuse together with near-perfect precision. The result is a thoughtful and genuinely thought-provoking read…
Cyrus Rhodes
