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Churches of Universal Law: The Genius Narrative


According to Kant the concept of genius has only validity in the artistic realm, not in the scientific. We can reach the immaculate intellectual heights of Saint Einstein of Princeton [he uses the example of another father of the Church of Geniuses (Saint Newton), although it works for our purposes] by simply reasoning orderly and hard enough, but we could never reach the heights of the artistic geniuses, for they are nature’s voice transmitting a transcendental message.

Today we have extended the adjective not only to scientists, but also to race horses, as Robert Musil noticed in his wonderful book. Life is intelligence (adaptation and overcoming  of problems) as much in the bacteria as in our more complex symbolic creations. The narrative of the genius is no more that the modern myth to justify priestly beliefs of social stratification, old schemes in new disguises.

In order to maintain the ideal of arête (excellence) (we are symbolic creatures and need a continuous process of symbolic superation), we do not need the Church of Geniuses, or any other concept of the mythical plane of the universal law. In fact, the superstitious idea of the genius justifies all sorts of moral abuses, like those we see in the markets of art or those performed as well by the scientific experts from its omnipotent institutions. What we call human knowledge and human stupidity, the genius and the moron, go hand in hand, there is no need to sanctify any of them, and we usually do it with both.

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