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Feringer Notes - CIRCULATION OF THOUGHT - 1954 58 of 65
1589,was supported by non-experts.
This reflects an important principle, that one does not improve and grow if one participates only
in an activity for which one expects to get something directly.
You can't get anything here, (in the classroom), if you do not surrender your own prejudice and
your own will here.And that is the only right you acquire by sitting in a course.You can become
better men, but you can't get anything out of it. (p.7)
4.All of this presents the justification for private capitol and private enterprise, and private
property.These are the only sources of new life, of protecting new ideas. "You can be protected
by the powers that have been,.."
Anselm and Abelard were protected by abbots as we said above, Paracelsus was protected by rich
and powerful friends, Saint Simon survives through his students, andJesus through his disciples.
5.To speak truthfully one must be free. These sponsors or protectors created an atmosphere of
freedom for those theymentored.
Progress (in new thinking) is also based upon the competition between accepted authorities - a
free debate.It was this free debate that allowed the Catholic church of the Middle Ages to become
free from its contradictions, which were so destructive at that time. Abelard, in creating such a
forum, was radical in the extreme. The division of labor in our government between judiciary,
legislatures, and administration is the basis of all democracies, as Edmond Burke asserted in his
comments on the French Revolution in 1789.
6.Another gift of these protectors was to provide leisure for genius to think.In other words, a gift
of time.
7.Still another element of risk of creativity is that in one time new ideas may be idolized, and in
another punished. Newton and Descartes, were recognized for their genius, while Paracelsus,
Abelard, and Anselm were punished for theirs.
8.Four stages of evolution of new thought follow each other by a generation or more. First, the
new idea (Copernicus and Paracelsus). Second, a new method or formal language for description
(Newton and Descartes); Third, the experts accept the idea, (the Royal Society of Science was
formed before Newton's death in 1727 and served in judgment); Fourth, the idea is commonly
accepted in the community, (perhaps even taught in the schools!!).
9.ERH points our that 150 yrs after Saint Simon, social scientists have not heard of his new
method for that field. They still apply the method of natural science to explain social events.
10.Anselm asked the questions: "How do I constantly renew my notion of God? And how can I
continuously pursue new definitions?"His answer was the incarnation of thinking, but he had no
method for carrying this out, and he speculated that the answers were always beyond reason and