At the Boundaries of Man's Power
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Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4387472 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rene Thom (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1979 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 11 |
| Publication date | 1979-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | SubStance (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0049-2426 • E-ISSN: 1527-2095 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3684209 |
| OpenAlex | W2324901267 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
To understand the world, to act on the world, such are undoubtedly the goals of Science. At first glance, one might think that these two goals are inextricably bound. For in order to act, isn't it first necessary to have a good grasp of the situation? And inversely, isn't action indispensable in order to achieve a good understanding of phenomena? Such would undoubtedly be the case if St. Thomas' renowned adaequatio rei et intellectus always reigned in our universe. But the universe in its immensity and the human mind in its frailty are far from always offering us such a perfect fit. There are many examples of perfectly understood situations in which there is no possible course of action. For example, there is the man on the roof of a flooding house who watches the water rise to inundate him. Inversely, there are situations where one can act efficaciously without understanding why. As a proof of this, one could cite, almost without exaggeration, the entire history of medication. For example, the clinical properties of aspirin have been known and exploited for a long time, but a theoretical explanation on the molecular level has been only recently proposed. All such circumstances in which there is flagrant inadequation between our possible courses of action on the one hand, and our capacity for analysis on the other, are sources of man's unhappy consciousness, for man attains happy consciousness, his full and total realization of personality, only in reasoned action whose goal and efficacy are clearly apparent. The question of man's power touches, then, on ethics. Epictetus understood this at the beginning of his Enchiridion where he invites us to make the distinction in our affairs between
Action (physics) · Aesthetics · Consciousness · Economics · Epistemology · Exaggeration · GRASP · Order (exchange) · Power (physics) · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Computer Science · Education and Critical Thinking Development · Neuroscience, Education and Cognitive Function · Philosophy · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,44 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2017 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |