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WHAT'S  THE  MATTER  WITH  'BRIGHTS' ?

          On my 80th birthday, I remitted, to future generations, 62 years of true philosophy, centred on evolution, profiting by a lot of circumstances, mostly dramatic. (Therefore, my philosophy need an introduction, "My Unbelievable Crossing of the 20th Century").
But I start paying debts to Dawkins and Dennett for their contribution to my philosophy.
           Dawkins I met in the British Council of Algiers in 1977, while making a real demo of M.I.S. in a Branch of SONATRACH. I adopted his "Selfish Gene" that was the death of Freudy. Before 1914,  he solved everything with "sex, sex, sex", the singsong robbed from Charcot. He expelled his two "betters", Jung and Spielrein. But a nephew of his was killed in Verdun at the beginning of the war, and he could think leisurely for 4 years about the importance of death as his two sons could be killed any day. Therefore, he centred exclusively, stupidly, on death. Dawkins answered "both at the same time !"
            The idea of a gene-carrier is practically described by Schopenhauer, (he lived between fear and attraction of woman). But scientifically establishing that we are torn away between sex and death shows Freud as the great retard for psychology. Janet was a far better choice.

            Dennett, I profited quite differently . Having borrowed the "periods" of Auguste Comte, I needed to prove that Darwin had changed the notion of time and space, (and motion...), as well as Newton or Poincaré-Einstein. I found this unbelievable text: :
"If I were to give an award for the single best idea anyone has ever had, I'd give it to Darwin, ahead of Newton and Einstein and everyone else. In a single stroke, the idea of evolution by natural selection unifies the realm of life, meaning, and purpose with the realm of space and time, cause and effect, mechanism and physical law", Daniel C. Dennett, "DARWIN'S DANGEROUS IDEA", Simpson & Schuster, 1995, page 21.
         (But I interpret Libet's effect in a totally different way from his view).
        I have another link with Dennett. One day, a lady psy told me I was an "asperger" for my knack for details. First, I think I've proved I'm far better in synthesis. But "Is the solar system, a detail of the cosmos or a synthesis of planets ?". Therefore, I starting reading and "INTERNETing" about autism, and found that I had most characteristics listed by DSM, (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), in a "sublimated way". I could not discover this by myself as a psy-prof had classified me as "the most abstract-minded guy he ever met...", (he didn't know Newton!). So ,at the age of 60 years, I learnt people could remember a face as I remembered the Marseillaise. With our characteristic "strong-will", I intended to "remedy".
       What's this for Dennett ? In a group of parents with autistic children, a lady told me Dennett was his son's godfather. A great help to explain my rigid way of reasoning. I take any statement, for instance, "Every thing begins with the Big Bang..." and develop: "Therefore every thing comes from the atom, the whole world is a pagoda of analogies..." (I vomited Aristotle and cartésiânisme at first sight). 
          The center of my philosophy is analogy. Consequence ? I must "show", not just teach, in any branch. To select a philosopher, I must discover what he has already discovered, (in fact lots of examples in history), and my "philosophers" are "analogists", True Greeks, Vinci, Wittgenstein, Poincaré... 
         I adopted Popper for his idea "to use a new technique, we must create a theory of its use..." Exactly what I had already done in 1965, for computing, (famous M.I.S.) and this "demo" got me, (without begging nor exam, by High School Circuit, 1971), the appointment of Expert to the International Office of Labor.  DATAMATION was interested.
          Another of my tricks ? "Adding". Popper said: "Solving a great problem prepares us to solve a greater problem". True, but let's go further : "...prepares us to see an unknown, dangerous problem". Lots of examples. Now, I choose the case of evolution, central for "Brights". Why no other scientific progress is ever attacked by "creationists" ?, (astronomy for instance). Because "darwinism doesn't predict". Funny !
            Nature has invented the ADN trick to create and progress, but we see only the negative side, the "autists". Sorry, the "hautists" are as numerous as the "low-tists" and are the proof of progress, while the "low-type" is cherished as a proof of "civisation-charity", (while 'high-type" are chased as a danger for people with "divine-rights-to-have-slaves". Only ones to survive, "geniuses" that fled into univarsities with a gift, Newton, Einstein, Wittgenstein... (Sorry for me, from my military service, 1947-48, in the University of Beiruth. I swapped to English culture and dined with Poidebard but I saw other profs as "sympathetic laborious". Today, I say we need "geniuses" in "human sciences", economy, moral, psychology; and even philosophy and religion, (the true type)... Nature produces them by thousands. And Civisation destroys them.
           Philosophy for me is the faculty residing in Popper's WORLD TWO, id est CREATIVITY; and historically the ALMA MATER of all knowledge. That's why I proposed "demos" in any branch, with use of computing. In 1956, when IBM started the "mass production of computers", I entered WORLD TRADE HIGH QUARTERS, ( with he idea to solve Turing's puzzle, "the possibility of thinking for the computer". The same year a group of sorbono-thinkers aggregated in a defence league, "cognotivism". I readily swap to "the silicium will never think but it obliges us to change our way to use our brain..." (as did writing, paper...)
           I don't understand BRIGHTS are not yet three millions if I see the rush of the "Platonic cattle" on "philosophers". I adored the "French Bashing", (the anti-sophistic part), but claiming I started "Phi-Bashing" by 1964. In 1995, I pu-push the Bottom of Chirak and ask him a Doctrine of Society. He just proved that our wonderful Ecole Nationale d'Administration prepares people unable to understanding our present world, (it was founded to compensate the Gaullian ignarity).
            The summum in déché(Fr)ance was reached when Speedy Gonzales, (our little Bushman), looking for his own Malraux, talking with a secondary school philo-historian, (a great monisophist, mass-produced in France), decreed that "gays" were born. Ridiculous doesn't kill in this country.
           People have needs. "Preachers" have answers for any occurrence. In France, we even have one preacher for one occurrence. "Presidentials" could pop up one thousand candidates. Election is a game, "sheep-counting" to negotiate a place at legisltatives. I've read there are one million "associations". Easy to be lost and strangled. More, many "atheist groups" are "Voltairian" agreeing for "a religion for cattle". Some known religion could count 90% of its members as "agnotisc".
           I call this "babylonisation". It remembers me June 40 when millions were on the roads, blocking the French army. Hitler had no problem: he sent his Mister Schmidt and his Panzers could run.
           The name of "BRIGHTS" is a problem. It remembers me "ILLUMINATED", a German free-mason group destroyed by "religious". Too similar to CHOSEN, ELECTED... In the past, some created "friends of Wisdom". Comte proposed "POSITIVIST". Personally, I see "atheism" and "theism" as mould and moulding. I'm as religiously neuter as the true Buddha. I laugh at being negatively defined by an opponent. But I think necessary to propose a definite definition of religion, philosophy, moral...
            55 years ago, I taught "Ancient History". I listed "mysteries to solve". Slavery appeared in a Tunnel, (Egypt), in a saucepan, (Persia), in islands and peninsulas. Not in plains, like Europe. Therefore, as a teacher in Togoland, after proving that all men have the same brain, I jumped on an opportunity to build a factory in a totally lost region, (my Trobriand period). My first care was to meet ex-slaves. 
          I proposed to start a list of "mysteries to be solved" like,                 
"Kant gave an awful blow to theism but why couldn't he solve the "Fundamentals of Moral and Religion"... (it would be the death of theism...)
"It would be fun to describe the offers of the "Sons of the Daughter of the Church", (the Philo-Froggie Spiritualists), to solve this problem...
            No merit for the idea. This kind of challenge was the start for celebrity of Rousseau, Schopenhauer... A mountain of work ? I always thought that a dozen little Vinci, (or Einstein), could do it. If we protect them.
            Cheers, 

Guy Lelarge,  "Philo-Manager",
Engineer data processing, (National Computing Center, 1970-1973),
expert  in the International Labour Office, (1971 till retirement) following a data-processing contribution, (1965), considered to be exceptional by specialists in Management. Intervention as a consultant in 175 companies, (50 to 80.000 employees), Philips, , SONATRACH, Ministries of Algeria, Venezuela, Mines of Zaire, etc...