Mike Resnick - Birthright

“It's too bad I gave up blushing when I was still a young girl,” said Belore wryly, “or you would quite turn my head, Professor.” There was a general chuckling among the learned men, and Belore continued: “When I was asked to come here, I was only too happy to accept your invitation. After all, the planet Aristotle is a pretty fascinating concept, and I had never been here before. “And I must say that, physically, Aristotle has even surpassed my expectations. I suppose the thought of a university world, a planet the size of old Earth being turned into a garden of academia, has to be seen to be appreciated. Your libraries alone would be the envy of any system in the galaxy, and the architects of your buildings have undoubtedly secured themselves that special corner of heaven reserved for artistic geniuses. Furthermore, from what I've been told of your entrance requirements, there isn't a dullard on the whole planet, if you exclude such so-called dignitaries as myself. Aristotle draws only the cream of the Commonwealth's young intellectuals, and it obviously treats them as befits their potential. “So much for the physical aspects. As for the curricula, certainly there is no more thorough or varied course of studies available anywhere. The students, or at least those few I've spoken with, seem relatively well-balanced and incredibly quick-witted. The faculty, it goes without saying, is the finest that could be assembled.

“Having said this much, I will now go one step further. I cannot, of course, speak for other fields of study, but in my own specialty, philosophy, I think you unquestionably have the most able minds the race of Man has yet been able to produce.”

“Then you approve of what we're doing here?” said Brannot smugly. “On the contrary,” said Belore with a smile. “I find it stifling and irrelevant.” “What!” The four men were on their feet at once, more in surprise than outrage. “I have never seen such potential for good so flagrantly wasted,” said Belore. “It seems almost inconceivable that a race of sentient beings capable of creating such a world as Aristotle could so blatantly misuse and misdirect it.”

“Professor Theriole,” said Brannot, struggling to regain his composure, “would you care to explain yourself?”

“I'll try,” said Belore, “though I doubt that it will do much good. If you were to agree with me, then this

situation would never have arisen in the first place.” “Why not try us and see?” suggested Hillyar. “I intend to,” said Belore. “Let me begin by asking a couple of questions, if I may.” “Proceed,” said Brannot haughtily.

“Professor Brannot, what is the position of the Philosophy Department on the works of St. Thomas Aquinas?'’

“A brilliant primitive philosopher,” said Brannot. “Unmatched in his day, but definitely discredited.” “Discredited?” said Belore. “You mean his religious views and arguments?” “Yes.”

“Including the First Cause argument?”

“Certainly. It can be disproved with the set of all negative integers, the set of all proper fractions, the—” “I quite agree,” interrupted Belore. “What of Plato?” “We study him, of course. As Man's first great philosopher—” “He wasn't the first, but let it pass,” said Belore quietly. “Anyway, we do study him. But again, the man has been disproved, in practice as well as in theory, many times over. Why, the Bonite Colony of a couple of centuries ago was set up according to his Republic, and lasted only a handful of years.”

“Too many philosopher-kings and not enough streetcleaners, as I recall it,” said Belore. “How about the works of Braxtok of Canphor VII?'’

“He wasn't even a Man!” said Brannot.

“Does that make his view of the universe any less valid?” asked Belore. “Not at all,” said Hillyar hastily. “And, in fact, we do have a number of courses in alien philosophies.” “Oh?” asked Belore. “How many?”

“I haven't got the figures before me,” said Hillyar, “but there are quite a few.” “I had the figures before me a few hours ago,” said Belore. “I found seventeen. Seventeen out of more than six hundred.”

“I don't know what you're driving at,” said Brannot. “Simply this,” said Belore. “I've been going over the various doctoral theses that have been presented to

this board, and I find them very disquieting.”

“I thought you said you found the students to be singularly brilliant,” said Hillyar. “I do,” said Belore. “The same cannot be said for their theses.” “I found them exceptionally well-reasoned,” said Brannot. “So did I,” agreed Belore. “Those I bothered to read.” “Then I fail to see your objection.”

“I thought you might,” said Belore. “I looked at some fifteen doctoral dissertations. Seven of them concerned the ethics of our conduct toward alien races. Three more examined Man's relationship to his technology. The other five dealt, to some degree, with justifying some of the political, military, and economic excesses of the Monarchy.”

“You mean the Commonwealth,” said Hillyar gently. “I know what I mean,'’ said Belore. “And, similarly, I know what I don't like about those papers. Gentlemen, whether purposely or not, the subject of philosophy seems in grave danger of being turned into a branch of the political sciences.” “Nonsense,” scoffed Brannot. “How can an intellectual of your stature draw such a conclusion based on a handful of treatises?”

“If this particular handful differs appreciably in content from last year's, or the year before that, I'll change my opinion,” said Belore. “But I suspect that it doesn't. And that is what disturbs me. That, and your attitudes.

“For instance, I mentioned Aquinas, and you spouted off a mathematical rebuttal to an esoteric theory beside which the whole of mathematics dwindles into insignificance. Is there a relationship between cause and effect in the universe? If so, is there a first and original cause of all Creation? Don't bother me with negative integers, or some astronomical theory of contracting and expanding universes. I want to know: Is there or is there not some intellect or life force which, purposefully or otherwise, set the entire process in motion? Aquinas proposed this argument, rightly or wrongly, from a combination of intellect, faith, and empiricism, and you answer it with mathematics and astronomy. I say to you that your answers don't amount to a hill of beans.

“Plato proposed a Utopian Republic, with its own set of idealized ethical imperatives. And because one small group of disillusioned radicals failed to put it into practice, you consider Plato to be archaic and discredited. Rather I should say that a philosophy department that negates the works of Plato because of what happened to the Bonite Colony has discredited itself without doing the last bit of damage to Plato. “As for Braxtok, he—or, rather, it—came up with perhaps the most complex ethical argument ever devised for the assumption of divinity. Admittedly it wasn't a divinity that would appeal to any Man, but that hardly makes the argument any the less valid. “What I'm getting at is this: It seems to me that philosophy has forgotten not only its roots but also its purpose. No one is asking questions about the nature of Man, or his place in the universe, or the existence or need for a deity. Just because Descartes concluded that no one could doubt his own

existence doesn't make it true—or false, for that matter. Why is no one asking these vital questions,

examining these vital arguments, any longer? “Gentlemen, you are not turning out philosophers. Far from it. What you are doing is creating the most brilliant crop of pragmatists in our history. But pragmatism is not the only branch of philosophy, and political and social doctrines are not the only—or even the legitimate—purposes of philosophy. “Your young men and women—and you yourselves—want to know how something works, or why it works, or if it works, or what the effect of its working will be. All other considerations—such as is it right or wrong, good or evil, consistent or inconsistent with the nature of Man—are either ignored or restructured to fit into the basic pragmatic concept under consideration. “And that, gentlemen, is why I will not add my name or influence to your petition to get one more non-philosopher added to this staff of non-philosophers. I weep for the Critique of Pure Reason in this day of Pure Practicality.”