THE HEART OF MAN seeks authors who write on controversial topics but desire a private life without constant public scrutiny. THE HEART OF MAN generally supports works bearing a rational philosophy, where “objective reality” is accessible through “reason.”
The name, “THE HEART OF MAN,” originates from the social-phycologist commentator and author Erich Fromm. He, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, and a few others were prophetic in their prognostications about a world governed by authority rather than reason.
Since the time of the enlightenment, reason has come under attack. On one occasion, the English philosopher L. T. Hobhouse lamented, “Philosophy itself, once the appointed advocate of reason, shares in this irrational tendency. We shall end by defining Man as the irrational animal, and the modern philosopher as his prophet.”
The positivist philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein skillfully expelled reason from the church of philosophy. Reason was not only unworthy of a place at the philosophical pew but laid thicker the “learned dust” of the middle ages. It reinforced old errors and introduced new ones and led philosophers into pointless contemplations. And the light of reason had no place in the dark diatribes of the modern existentialist.
But remnants of reason remain. Many physicists, mathematicians, psychologists, sociologists, lawyers, and writers stubbornly cling to the idea of “objective truth,” refusing conversion to the religion of pure subjectivity and alienation.
Postmodernism is an anti-reason philosophical movement, questioning even the role of science in modern society. The logical positivists were disciples of science, arguing that scientists were the “true philosophers.” Existentialists generally avoided discussing science. However, postmodernism harbors no such inhibitions. Its mission? To expose the real motivation behind scientific enquiry, whereby “objective truth” is stripped of its credibility.
Science is the philosophy of evidence. Scientists gather data and form hypotheses based on the information in the data. Hypotheses turn into theories, scrutinized by observation and experiment. Scientists believe that their theories say something about the nature of the world. Scientific musings might be wrong, but its proclamations spring from evidence. Upon this point, however, postmodernism asserts that a belief in “objective truth” is misguided. No objective truth exists in the world. Such claims mask the authentic purpose of the scientific enterprise.
According to postmodernism, practicing scientists are simply fortifying their position in the social stratification of society. Its sole purpose is to cement group superiority in the hierarchy of human relationships. Accordingly, what gives life meaning is power, not objectivity. Although “truth” is an entirely subjective “my truth,” an individual gains power by convincing others to adopt “my truth” as their truth. Values, based on admiration, loyalty, ratings, possessions, attention, acceptance by others, promote disdain for those who find fault with “my truth.” The “crowd” defines the individual. Postmodernism insists that all, or nearly all, aspects of human psychology are socially determined. The “self” is externally defined. There is no innate “me.” My relationships define “me.” And my relationships determine my beliefs. There is no inherent “Human Nature,” no biological sex, no men, no women, just an undefinable “it-ness” determined by social interaction.
In a sense, postmodernism has become the philosophy of narcissism, a tendency toward self-centeredness arising from the inability to distinguish the “self” from external objects. I am what “my tribe” makes “me.” I am not responsible for “me” since there is no “me” to be accountable to.
The current term for tribalism is “identity politics.” Becoming a member of a similarly thinking group fortifies the rights of the group. The larger the group, the more power it has. What makes life meaningful is power, not reason. The existential world was one of futility, but it was not diabolical. The postmodern world is “Hell on Earth.”
THE HEART OF MAN sees its worth as a resistance to tribal narcissism, promoting the reestablishment of reason as the guiding light of Mankind, and seeks thoughtful authors whose quest is the same, both in fiction and nonfiction.