The Savant Society Philosophy

	The Savant Society Philosophy: an essay on our perspective

The Savant Society is an intellectual fellowship of people who have one thing in common: The thirst for knowledge . . . . . consequently, the motto of the Savant Society is Knowledge for the Sake of Knowledge. We focus on the desire to learn and the willingness to remain teachable.

We pattern the Society after the many eras in history that knowledge emerged and seemed to be born or reborn. The first era can arguably be during prehistoric times when the Cro-Magnon emblazoned wonderful pictorials of wildlife on cave walls, primarily in southwestern France. Sculptural art such as the "Lady of Brassempouy" and the "Venus of Willendorf" truly show higher, creative thought at play 25,000 years ago.

The second era of intellectual thought is represented by the Sumerian civilization (3500-3001 BC). During this period, cuneiform writing was developed and the wheel was commonly used in Sumeria.

The third era, which overlaps some of the Sumerian civilization, is the Ancient Egyptian - the beginning of the Pharaoh Dynasties. Exploration of Africa and the beginning of systematic astronomical observations were in full bloom. Around 1500 BC, the Egyptians discovered ways to measure the flow of water, advanced methods of shipbuilding, and developed higher mathematics to assist in building structures.

The fourth era is during the time of the ancient Greeks, when Thales (ca. 634 B.C. - ca. 546 B.C.) raised questions about the universe, and approached it in a non-mythopoetic manner. He founded a new method of thought: reasoning! Reasoning blossomed and moved through great philosophers like Plato and Aristotle.

The fifth era is the Renaissance, a period of humanistic revival of classical art, architecture, literature, and learning that originated in Italy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and later spread throughout Europe. This was the rebirth of knowledge, literally the rediscovery of what the Greeks found more than a thousand years earlier, as well as a fraction of the treasure of knowledge that was stored in the Library of Alexandria.

The sixth era is the Enlightenment, a philosophical movement of the eighteenth century that emphasized the use of reason (Thales reborn!) to scrutinize previously accepted doctrines and traditions and that brought about many humanitarian reforms. This European intellectual movement focused on ideas of God, reason, nature, and man that were synthesized into a worldview that gained wide assent and that instigated revolutionary developments in art, philosophy, and politics. Central to Enlightenment thought were the use and the celebration of logical thinking, the power by which man understands the universe and improves his own condition. The goals of rational men were considered to be knowledge, freedom, and happiness.

These three goals are also the focal points of the Savant Society; knowledge for the sake of knowledge, freedom (which is translated as freedom of thought), and the paradigm that Aristotle discovered: Eudemonia - the highest good in life, happiness.

Members of the Savant Society will engage in the intellectual disciplines casually, they are not to be looked at as tasks. They are to be leisurely enjoyed; think about the subjects and absorb them slowly. Remember, learn for the sake of learning; that is the major goal.

Throughout our studies, we have discovered the Ideal Savant. He is one of the major inspirations of the Society and is considered a mentor. This man's name is Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826). He was a product of the Enlightenment, and it seems appropriate that he serves as a model for the Savant Society.

If one studied Jefferson's life, it would be found that he was a fascinating person. His personal and intellectual pursuits and interests are worth noting. He was an extraordinary learned man, and the range of his knowledge and inquiry is scarcely credible in the modern age of specialization. He knew Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, and Anglo-Saxon and concerned himself with such questions as the difference between the ancient and modern pronunciations of Greek. At the age of seventy-one, he tackled Plato's Republic in the original and found its author greatly overrated. He attempted an analysis of the New Testament in order to discover what Jesus really said and distinguish from what he was reported to have said. He enjoyed the study of mathematics and found its precision and certitude a welcome relief from the untidiness of politics and government. He was an ardent student of the natural sciences, carried on an extensive correspondence with such men as Joseph Priestly, and sometimes cotributed time and money to the progress in these fields. The discovery of fossil remains in various parts of the country fascinated him, and he tried to collect and classify as many as he could. He was much interested in the experiments with balloons and submarines then being made, and, while he was abroad, he sent back to his friends at home various mechanical and scientific gadgets produced in Europe, including a polygraph and phosphorous matches. His travel notes record impressions ranging from nearly ecstatic admiration of architectural monuments to sober economic analysis of the reasons for the differences in prosperity between regions producing white and red wine.

He was an enthusiastic practitioner of scientific farming, conducted numerous experiments at Monticello, was always on the lookout for some new plant or seed that might contribute to the prosperity of the United States (he went as far as to risk arrest to smuggle a desirable strain of rice out of Piedmont in Italy), kept meticulous meteorological records, and, as a keen linguist, instigated the first systematic collection of American Indian dialect. His interest in architecture was intense and enduring, and his influence on the Neoclassical style in the United States was great.

In April 1962, President John F. Kennedy played host to an assembly of Nobel Prize winners. He opened the proceeding by saying: "This is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has been gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined here alone." Thomas Jefferson considered his greatest accomplishment to be the founding of the University of Virginia. Jefferson recognized the importance of an education, and did everything in his power to promote it.

The Savant Society has an obligation to promote a classical liberal education and illustrate how important it is. The future generations are missing out on the wonders and dynamics of a liberal education, they do not understand in order to be part of a functional society, they must have a general, workable knowledge to assess and analyze problems they will be facing in the future. The survivability of the generations to come depend, at least in part, on this general, workable knowledge. Let's take advantage of what is already known and build on it, instead of starting from scratch and repeating all the mistakes previously suffered.

- Lord Orman

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