Philosophical Questions: Avoidable

[ysabetwordsmith]

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

What causes the most harm in the world, but is completely avoidable?


Gosh, that's a hard one. Personal vices leap readily to mind, like adultery and alcohol. But then there are things like climate change, which is created by humans, who could choose to stop pushing in that direction but won't.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

Human greed hits the top spot there, IMO. Which covers a lot of the ills of the world, including climate change.

I'm not a stoic, but I do believe that learning self-discipline from an early age would be a good way to counter that. Too many so-called 'adult' people with all the self-control of spoiled hangry toddler and the social consciousness of an incontinent over-bred poodle on a bowling green.

Ignorance

[dialecticdreamer]

Ignorance is inevitable, but it is also minimizable. If a culture refuses to give half their population any education beyond third or fourth grade (from age 6-7 to the onset of menses for the individual), that's an awful lot of ignorance compared to a very small amount of education.

If a culture insists on teaching a male-centric history, science, and political theater, that harms EVERYONE living in the culture. (Quick, name a female mathematician. Or a female Nobel laureate. How about a female Congressional representative?) Yes, I am implying that my own culture is promulgating this particular type of ignorance. And that I am trying to fight it, individually.

In terms of inevitability, yeah, we don't know enough to map out what we don't know, as a species. But the way that we approach that ignorance MATTERS.

That's where I think that humans have the most potential for change.

I try to hope so, at least.

[vaa]

e=mc2