The essential question is if we have agency why do we not best live our lives?
The Regard Model is the one thing that explains all things. The questions of the human race all have their answer in the Regard Model. We evolved in a world where all wealth comes from human nature and man was amethodical, as the many will always defeat the few or the one membership in a group is the path to success. As evolution functions at the level of self interest the only motive for joining and serving a group is belief that this group will be successful and you will gain a share of that success which makes joining and serving your best choice. And so all individuals seek membership in a group and the only motive for doing so involves belief in that group’s future success. This belief in future success can be broadly termed the regard the group is held in. And so regard becomes the currency of success as a circular logic dictates that groups are successful because they are thought to be successful.
Successfully making use of the value of the group involves agency. One has to be free to join and leave and support and betray the group in order to best serve one’s self interest. This agency allows man to rise above his instincts. Animals live in groups by instinct and mechanically follow certain rules of association. Man has the agency to engage in politics, a necessary precondition. If loyalty to the group was forced for some they would be at the service of the disloyal and their genes would disappear. All loyalty has to be voluntary to serve self interest and this voluntary loyalty requires agency. And so man is the only animal capable of counter instinctive cultural progress.
This progress takes two forms, the moral and the practical. The Fundamental Moral Choice is between self interest and universal moral concern. Particular moral concern is merely a scheme for the pursuit of self interest. The only motive for only having care for some people and not all is that this will promote one’s self interest. If one’s motive for having care is to be moral then one will care about all people. Any argument in favor of caring about one other person will even more strongly argue in favor of caring about two other people, it keeps going like this until you care about all people. Any argument in favor of only caring about 99 people instead of 100 will be based on self interest and even more strongly argue in favor of only caring about the 98 people closest to you and this continues until you only care about yourself. All arguments for choosing the number of people to care about on morals leads to universal moral concern. All arguments for choosing the number of people to care about on self interest leads to unrestricted self interest and only caring about oneself. All forms of particular moral concern are temporary schemes for the pursuit of self interest and will be abandoned when they no longer serve self interest.
The Fundamental Act of Human Intelligence is to use regard to choose between methods not people. As we evolved in a world where all wealth comes from nature and man is amethodical we evolved to use regard to measure a group’s likelihood of succeeding. Because we have agency we can choose to rise above this and use regard to choose between methods. Choosing the best method is the Fundamental Act of Human Intelligence. Choosing the best method is the fundamental reason some succeed more than others. Choosing the best method never maximizes one’s own regard. To use regard to choose the best method is to choose something other than maximizing one’s own or one’s group’s regard. This choice will only be made when regard for oneself or one’s group is either de-emphasized or completely made irrelevant. To the extent regard is de-emphasized in this manner we grow in the ability to choose the best method and become successful.
The Regard Model answers all the questions of human affairs as the only questions are why, if we have agency, we fail to best live our lives. There are no questions in human affairs which are not of this type. Denying agency is the simplest way of explaining failure to best live our lives. But we instinctively know we have this agency and this leads to the philosophical and practical questions of why we fail to best live our lives. All our curiosity about ourselves serves the purpose of answering this question. This question is completely answered by understanding the Regard Model.
QUESTIONS
Prehistory. The question of prehistory is why it even exists. This is the fundamental question of how we can have agency and yet not best live our lives. If we have always had agency why did we not have the wheel for longer than we have had it? Since we have made progress and our nature is unchanging we have always had the ability to make progress and yet during pre history did not. This is the essential question of if we have agency why do we not best live our lives. The answer is found in the Regard Model, we evolved in a world where all wealth comes from nature and man is amethodical. We have the agency to rise above these instincts in counter instinctive progress, but the general trend is against this progress. Individual progress would in the past die with the individual. Counter instinctive progress only became counter instinctive cultural progress when sewing was invented and man moved north of where Homo Erectus had ever lived. In the grasslands newly shorn of the megafauna man was able to advance as a group through animal husbandry. A physical environment favoring the advanced enough to counter the trend of human instinct was needed for personal advancement to become group advancement through culture.
History. The question of history is what it is and where is it going. That history is more than a record of past events has always been known, there is no reason to record events if each record is of equal value and the mere recording is the only purpose. The motive behind study of history is to know where we are coming from and where we are going, the arc of human progress. If there is no progress there is no reason for the study of history. The question of history is the essential question, if we have agency why do we not best live our lives? The answer is agency is real and human instincts run counter to progress and must be overcome through the Fundamental Moral Choice and the Fundamental Act of Human Intelligence. These are the sole basis for counter instinctive cultural progress. The answer to where we are coming from is we are coming from instinctive behavior explained by the Regard Model. We are going to a world where regard is understood to be irrelevant and the Fundamental Moral Choice and the Fundamental Act of Human Intelligence are understood by all.
Economics. The main question of economics is how to manage the business environment. If we have both agency and self interest then markets will clear and there will be no market downturns and economic progress will be constant. But in addition to agency we have human instincts which run counter to our best interests and so business decisions are made wasting productive capacity and markets do no clear and market downturns result.
Politics. For over two hundred years most political disputes have revolved around the question of why some cultural groups are more successful than others. These often violent disputes are derived from the essential question of if we have agency why do we not best live. Modern political disputes inevitably state that poorer group’s agency is being denied or thwarted by the conspiring of the more successful groups. The answer is that success comes from the Fundamental Act of Human Intelligence and some cultures have embraced this more than others. Once the Regard Model is understood and the causes of uneven success are understood all modern political disputes will be ended.
Morals. The golden rule is the only true basis for morality. This rule requires agency as it holds all responsible for their actions. Modern politics disputes are based on the observation the success is unequal. From this is made the claim that agency is denied or thwarted and thus the basis for responsibility is denied. The solution is understanding why uneven success occurs thus eliminating any politically motivated denial of responsibility. Once responsibility as a result of agency is seen as universal all obstacles to the golden rule will be gone and the moral question solved.
Religion. The basic question in religion is to what extent do we have agency, to what extent do our current beliefs create a future reality. Salvation by faith vs salvation by works. The motive for believing in salvation by faith is the human instinct to believe that regard is the currency of success. To primitive man success was derived by the expectation of success in a circular manner. This instinct is the cause of salvation by faith.
Philosophy. The main concerns of philosophy are if truth exists and how can we know it. The answer is truth exists and we can know it simply. The obstacles to this are the instincts which make us believe regard is the currency of success in a circular logic These instincts make us believe future reality can be created by current belief in a circular manner thus eliminating any reality unchanged by its description. Yet all reality exists unchanged by its description, this itself is the definition of reality. We doubt in the existence of a reality unchanged by its description due human instincts convincing us that regard is the currency of success according to a circular logic.
Psychology. The question of psychology is the question of sanity which itself is the question of if we have agency why do we not best live. The answer is mankind alone posses the capacity for insanity, which is to use our instincts for group behavior at the individual level. Our instincts teach us that regard is the currency of success in a circular fashion causing our descriptions of reality to change reality. These instincts were meant for the group. When one thinks as an individual according to the group instincts inherited from evolution one lacks sanity. The solution is to understand reality is always unchanged by description, we are pulled away from this by instincts convincing us regard is the currency of success.
The essential question is always if we have agency why do we not best live. Intellectually this manifests itself in the Learner’s Paradox, how can the truth be recognized as true if it was not previously known and if it was previously known why must it be learned? The answer is the truth is suppressed by the instinct to view regard as the currency of success and thus reality changed by our descriptions of reality. Once the individual rises above natural living and understands regard is irrelevant and reality is unchanged by description he will lose the motive to intentionally not know the truth that was always within.
The essential question is always if we have agency why do we not best live. This leads to the question of how do we do. How do we act, how do we do the things in our lives. The question arises as a needed answer to why we do not best live. The common wrong answer is to completely or partially deny agency and thus the search for the answer to the question of how do we do. We do all things directly and by choice. This is obscured by the instinctive pull towards believing regard is the currency of success in a circular logic. Once regard is seen as irrelevant the answer to how we do is simply seen as choosing to do.
