"Moral and intellectual"

'Does phrenology afford a satisfactory explanation of the moral and intellectual faculties of man?'

This was the question in response to which Andrew Combe was going to address at the Royal Medical Society on 21st November, 1823. (But due to illness he had his paper read by the president of the society on behalf of him.)

Andrew Combe was the younger brother of George Combe, the eminent philosopher and phrenologist of nineteenth century Britain, and became President of the Edinburgh Phrenological Society in 1827. 

He was the person who inspired E. W. Lane to pursue hygiene as the subject of his entire life. 

What would be the relation, if there is, between hygiene and phrenology?

Maybe the answer lies in the question above, especially the key words, 'moral and intellectual'. 

Victorian society was especially enthusiastic about the two virtues, namely morality and intelligence. 

In my view, these two values were the most essential element that could define the 'zeitgeist' of the era. 

Hygiene was neither merely cleanliness nor regimens for health. 

It was about ways of life. 

How to live.. was the fundamental question placed behind the concept of hygiene. 

Phrenology was also similar to hygiene in terms of the fundamental question that it raised to Victorian society. 

It was neither just about the reading of skull curvatures, nor about the characteristics of one's inherited brain . 

Lane's medical theories reflected such social trends of Victorian Britain, especially the ones that were prevalent in Edinburgh, where he studied law (MA, 1844) and medicine (MD, 1853). 

... 

Then how is this story relevant to the present South Korean society? 

It seems to me that the superficial reason of its current declining economy lies in the prevailing hostility against the market and its economic system, the so called 'capitalism'.* 

This detestation is followed by the hatred, or fostered by the misunderstanding, of its related political ideology, Lockean liberalism, and the social ideology, individualism. 

Such an atmosphere in society is being reflected by the unchecked rapid inclination towards socialism and nationalism.  

I no longer feel necessary to explain my opinions about why, in order to increase investment, which is crucial for creating jobs, governmental intervention (largely harmful to the market mechanism) should be limited to providing stable legal systems and effective social infrastructures. In fact, this subject may be controversial. 

However, I think there is a more fundamental reason than that. 

One question that has haunted me is why so many people hate and distrust the market and regard it as making humans corrupt or greedy. Actually, while studying here, I found that such a tendency of thinking is universally seen among students in university regardless of their nationalities. 

It was not coincidental to find that their understanding of the human and society was fundamentally at the level of old fairy tales. 

They did not seem to realise that it is rather the market and capitalism that make humans (who are inherently greedy and selfish) aware of their true nature and make them try to become more moral and intellectual to compete other humans. 

In the short term, humans may learn that cheating is an easy way to win the competition in the market, but soon, as human history shows, humans learned that they needed to be nicer, kinder, more co-operative and ultimately better persons to win the competition in the market in the long term. 

In British history, such high social interests in morality and intelligence of the Victorian period might not have arisen if there had not been its preceding Georgian era, in which commercialism could rise up to its peak amidst the political climate represented by laissez-faire.

A large part of unhappiness in human society, I think, stems from their failure in understanding themselves. 

I think the key to approach the problem can be found in the two words, 'moral' and 'intellectual'. 

I feel like writing about this issue in depth after my thesis work finishes, in line with my consistent concern with the topic, individualism and collectivism. 

   

* Capitalism is the pejorative term created by socialists in the nineteenth century like the 'individualism', another pejorative term made by conservatives during the same century.

A couple of seagulls on the top of the Royal Scottish Academy

A seagull on the head of a statue in front of the National Museum of Scotland