Environment

 

What do we need in order to build an ethical, philosophical, and brotherly society? We need to nourish the right environments. Specifically, we need to fulfill four conditions: 1) Health, 2) Security, 3) Justice, 4) Education.

1. Health. The instinct of any animal or plant is to obtain nutrients in order to survive. The first humans simply wanted to gather food. Before private property, before cities or villages, people needed to cover the most basic need: nourishment — to be healthy, to have energy for working, fighting, defending, and learning. Without health, nothing else is possible.

2. Security. Once people satisfy their basic well-being, they can look for a place to rest and to trade. This is the origin of villages, which in turn need protection — both from internal conflict and from external threats. Without these two forms of security, the next conditions cannot exist.

3. Justice. People need to cover their material needs in order to live comfortably. But a society also needs rules to live together and resolve conflicts peacefully. Without justice, there is no stable structure — and without structure, society cannot grow.

4. Education. When the minimum conditions of the previous three are met, a society can turn its attention to education. That allows it to search for knowledge, and through knowledge, to search for wisdom — a natural next step. That wisdom leads people toward ethics and moral life, and gives them a purpose: to love, to serve, and to seek truth. Then, and only then, will humankind live in an era of true brotherhood.