Summarising ‘The Truth’
The idea that there is an objective truth, was invented by Plato. Strong defence of The Truth diminishes the thinker’s ability to escape from his viewpoint to find a much better or more likely truth. This cognitive condition, or meme, is called PTV, Plato Truth Virus.
Aristotle imbedded PTV in his syllogism. This was picked up by Thomist doctrine and became the basis of logic. Western education has made a god out of logic and the ‘search for certainty’.
The Western education system was set up by the medieval Church and spread throughout Europe and exported to other parts of the world with missionary zeal. Even today, children are sent to school, their young brains programmed with the logic operating system, and then they’re given the impression that all they have to do in life is “to get the right answer” or “tell the truth”.
Only Microsoft’s global export of Bill Gates’ DOS has ever rivalled the Vatican’s global export of Thomas Aquinas’ PTV.
PTV is ubiquitous. Manifestations can be annoying like in Space Gluttons and Bores or fatal like in Bullies and Righteous and Sightless thinkers. Over 26 million humans may have been destroyed last century directly due to PTV.
Unfair Conclusion?
It is only with the unfair advantage of hindsight that one is able to look back on the evolution of our thinking habits and consider the consequences that they may have produced.
Did Plato ever realise what might happen as a consequence of the ideas that emerged from those Bacchanalian dinner parties he attended on those hot Athenian summer nights?
Did Saint Thomas Aquinas ever anticipate how rigorously later popes would prosecute his ideas and make them the core doctrine of the greatest education enterprise in history?
To be fair, I don’t see how they could. Plato and Thomas were not villains. I imagine they were just doing what interested them most at the time and hoping for a modest amount of success.
Could Bill Gates ever have known he would become the richest business man in the world when he first developed DOS? In his book he says he once remarked to Paul Allen that a million dollars was a huge amount of money, and he could never imagine having more than that.
Hmmm 😉
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IMPORTANT NOTE: THE DFQs
The biggest challenge for me, as a trainer, is to figure out how to get trainees to understand the direct connection between the number of DFQs they do and their personal increase in these skills.
Have a think and see if you can give me just one idea (based on your own experience of doing this training so far) on how I can help future trainees to increase their number of DFQs and therefore increase the level of their training benefits. Thank you.
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DFQ #059:
Give an example of how your life been influenced by the ideas of Plato and Aquinas?