Show Notes: The James Gang
Zee’s dad inadvertently started him on the path to documenting Severed Conscience by taking a few courses in the 1960s …
“Whenever my nephew Joey is in town he really fills the house”
— Prof Harold Walsh
We naturally assumed he meant Joe Walsh
While Professor Walsh taught philosophy at Michigan State University, and Zee’s dad took several course from him in 1960s.
From his obituary you can tell he was quite a guy.
Fortunate, indeed, was I to have met Professor Harold Walsh (“Hal,” much later on) at a stunning public lecture he gave on the military industrial complex at Michigan State University in the autumn of 1966.
He spoke that day with searing authority of the financial profiteering of war (perhaps echoing President Eisenhower) . Dr. Walsh also spoke about the complexities of winning peace, completely captivating a mixed audience of about 150 students.
This, during the raging Viet Nam War of which he was critical yet also constructive in his moderate tone — asking us “to just follow the money.” He was no pacifist. In fact, he had been a very young WW II intelligence officer — undermining the Nazis in Germany and elsewhere —something I only learned of years later.
I took four courses from him, including Philosophy of Law, Aristotle, Social and Political Philosophy. He never talked down to his students. He brought us up to the next level and beyond. He made us believe in ourselves even when we had failings or fears thereof.
Harold Trueman Walsh – Forever Missed
20 years later Zee took classes from Prof Walsh at MSU. When Zee asked Professor Walsh for advice, the answer was always say “There’s what I should tell, but I am going to tell you what you need hear.” I got that because he thought I was going to ask for a higher grade I said I have other interests I need advice on. He thought that was hilarious, and was a good counsel.
But Prof Walsh demanded you work hard – he would leave papers out at the department desk, and his comments were on the first page for everyone to see as they went to pick up there own paper. One kid had an F and the comment was “This tells me you didn’t bother to read – I may work to get you expelled.” Prof Walsh was famous for calling people out in class, but those antics were what made him a great teacher.
At the time of this writing, Zee just discovered that both he and Prof Walsh were born in Evanston Illinois.
Prof Walsh Taught Philosophy from the Enlightenment – Locke and Hume
John Locke
David Hume
Locke, Hume and other figures own much of their thinking to Descartes, but also Francis Bacon, who’s Scientific Method and strict adhere to observation sparked a revolution in the sciences.
We’ve talked about that here:
Locke and Hume were central to forming the school of thought called Empiricism. Empiricism is a theory of knowledge which asserts that knowledge can only (primarily) come from sensory experience. This meant that all knowledge and wisdom came from observation first. For Locke, the individual was of the utmost importance, as the Creator granted him the ability to use his reason to derive knowledge and wisdom from what he observed. We are born as a clean slate. For Hume, there was a very different outcome. Hume maintained there was no proof for God, that only what you could observe and verify is valid source of knowledge, all is unknowable because it is cannot be proved.
Critics of The Enlightenment Say Empiricism Disconnected us From God
Empiricism gives rise to Materialism; that is, all the exists in the World is the material, the tangible. According to Nietzsche, Christians seek the truth with Empiricism, and in the end they fall into Nihilism once they accepts Hume’s ideas.
But They Forget That Natural Law Also Comes from the Enlightenment
Without Natural Law where The Creator gave each of us qualities that were unique and our self evident, inalienable rights, we would not have had Jefferson and the birth of our nation.
We feel that Natural Law and Conscious Control where you engage in the real work, where you start with observations and use your reason is the answer to Severed Conscience. Severed Conscience is the opposite, you can’t even use your mind to observe. Artificial Intelligence, essentially a tool that has no ability to reason, shuts down your thinking.
Transhumanism – An Ugly Cousin to Artificial Intelligence
Because everything is merely material, the elite think they can copy your mind digitally. In other words, digital recordings are the equivalent of your conscience. But they will also tell you that your soul doesn’t exist, that you are just a random assemblage of matter, and by chance, we have evolved to speak. There is no real consciousnesses, but they can copy your conscience and therefore you will live forever.
transhumanism, philosophical and scientific movement that advocates the use of current and emerging technologies—such as genetic engineering, cryonics, artificial intelligence (AI), and nanotechnology—to augment human capabilities and improve the human condition. Transhumanists envision a future in which the responsible application of such technologies enables humans to slow, reverse, or eliminate the aging process, to achieve corresponding increases in human life spans, and to enhance human cognitive and sensory capacities. The movement proposes that humans with augmented capabilities will evolve into an enhanced species that transcends humanity—the “posthuman.”
https://www.britannica.com/topic/transhumanism
Sounds impressive until you see how absurd it is.
They Gave Her A New Hair Style
As we truly know, we have tangible, incredible histories at our disposal that we need to seek out. Doing so returns us to what Natural Law meant for us, and it turns away the nonsense of Severed Conscience and Transhumanism.