9 of 10

Write now Article Tools

Page 2 of 4

ever greater portions of reality. The more a man acts on reality to accomplish his nature's objective requirements, the more he flourishes; there is no limit to the degree to which he can thrive.

The Enlightenment intellectuals understood that ideas must be applied to alter reality in accord with individuals' objective, rational interests. This is why Locke served as head of the English Board of Trade and worked to ease commercial restrictions on the American colonies; this is why Voltaire actively championed religious toleration in the courts of France and made himself a fortune from his writings and estate at Fermey; this is why Diderot published a massive Encyclopedia that dramatically altered the thought paradigms of the 18th century; this is why Turgot served as Louis XVI's finance minister and tried to implement laissez-faire policies in practice; this is why Benjamin Franklin founded libraries and conducted scientific experiments; this is why the American Founding Fathers were ready to stake their "lives, fortunes, and sacred honor" on building a nation founded on the principle of individual rights. For the Enlightenment thinkers, there was no dichotomy between truth and action, between mind and body. They recognized the absurdity of just sitting around and contemplating existence without any application; Voltaire mocked precisely that mindset in the characters of Pangloss and Martin in Candide.

The majority of today's intellectuals, however, seem perfectly content in exhaustively fathoming the first component of truthknowledge of themselvesmarginally fathoming the second componentknowledge of external realityand fathoming the third componentknowledge of how to use external reality to serve themselvesnot at all. They look down in contempt on all those "practical people" who actually do things in the real world, despite not having as elaborate a justification for doing them as the intellectuals would like.

In conversing with friends who, like myself, take an immense interest in mathematics, I have often heard disdainful remarks about applied mathematics as the "lowest branch of mathematics." Yet it is the applied mathematicians who balance the books of businesses, who build our bridges and skyscrapers, whose work was needed to create the houses in which the intellectuals live and the cars which they drive. If the theoretical mathematicians with prevailing attitudes turned their mental energy outward into realityinstead of being contemptuous of real-world

• << previous page
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Truth: Ideas require application?
We want to hear your view. Write now!