Aristotlean Social Science

Everyone knows the first thing that we learned in science class...Aristotle, the Greek Scientist , taught that the earth was the center of the universe. Subsequent generations proved Aristotle to not quite have it right. What was his problem? Did he not follow the scientific method? or maybe because he did follow the scientific method, he arrived at this conclusion. I believe that he and many of the intelligentsia of his time suffered from the problem of "presentism". Presentism is basically a type of pride, pride being the downfall of all societies and civilizations, that creeps into the society when people become basically, full-of-themselves. Presentism is more insidious; it is the tendency to judge history through present-day morality. It is the prism through which the past is seen as barbarian.

For instance, slavery is an abominable practice and anyone that would entertain the idea of using slaves would suffer the wrath of political correctness. But, not too long ago in the world's history, slavery was accepted by some. I would never condone it, or even allow it to be promoted, but can we really judge prior generations as evil, for their practice of slavery? Similarly, during WWII because of the Japanese aggression, many thought that Americans of Japanese descent should be separated out from the general population. Thus, many were taken from their homes and businesses and put into internment camps, supposedly for their own safety. Many of these people went willingly and some even went out of their way to prove their loyalty to America. Present-day historians have condemned this act and even sought monetary compensation to the descendants of the victims. Do we really understand what it was like? Maybe, but saying that what was done was immoral, is not fully understanding what all the contributing factors were, that led to the internment solution. The juxtaposition of present-day morality to morality at the time of WWII will never be equal and never be fair. Fast-forward to 9/11/2001, the day that extremists attacked New York City. Many innocent lives were lost and there was much clamor and much hysteria about who the enemy might be. Cooler heads prevailed, but from the killing fields of the Taliban and other hotbeds of fundamentalism, many enemy combatants were collected and sent to a modern-day internment camp. This time many were quick to avoid the mistakes of the past, to a fault, as they were, either for political or possibly moral reasons, easily given to forsake things like profiling, listening stations, interrogation, and heaven-forbid, psych-ops, to obtain information from the declared enemy.

Well, you get the point. I wonder sometimes about how future generations will judge our time and the social mileposts that we establish. Will they try to understand our weaknesses? Will they judge us for our hedonistic "sexual revolution", or the drug culture that has led to a society of contrand and illegitimacy. Primarily, I hope that they don't make the same mistakes but seek to live to a higher law from a higher source....but as always this is....just an observation.