Business and Labour as Central Activities of the Intelligence of Need
This essay explores human collective intelligence as the creative force shaping our lives. By collective I mean that intelligence lies in its interaction, in relationship. Intelligence is beyond the individual or the collective. I focus on one of its two levels: the intelligence of need, which centres on fulfilling humanity’s needs and interests and is crucial to economic processes. Business are central to the current way of living, hence, from its good working depends human wellbeing With the rapid growth of human populations and nature’s limited resources, we must cultivate a frugal intelligence of need that moves away from viewing economic growth as synonymous with prosperity. As Socrates said: “The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.” My goal is to show that the effective operation of the intelligence of need for everyone’s benefit requires it to work in harmony with a foundational yet often overlooked intelligence, which I call the intelligence of freedom, or liberating intelligence. The reforms of the intelligence of need, in particular of the economy, usually proposed are insufficient to ensure wellbeing for all. We need the awakening of the liberating intelligence, the intelligence of freedom, beauty and love, on which I will insist along this essay.
Introduction
Since the rise of liberal ideology in the West, emphasizing individualistic self-interest, the intelligence of need becoming individualistic has degraded into an intelligence of greed, where the economy is driven by markets to maximize profit for a small minority. Today, one percent of the population holds as much wealth as the rest of humanity combined. The effective operation of the intelligence of need for everyone’s benefit requires it to work in harmony with a foundational yet often overlooked intelligence, which I call the intelligence of freedom, or liberating intelligence. This Essay Article subtle intelligence largely invisible and underappreciated emerges when the intelligence of need is completely quiet, in moments of silent appreciation for beauty, as in nature, a flower, a sunset, or a starry night. It is also sensed in acts of unconditional love, the supreme energy of the collective intelligence that releases us from self-interest. Unlike the intelligence of need, this liberating intelligence arises not from willpower but often arrives without full awareness of its transformative potential, fostering a love-based relationship with reality the true source of happiness. To awake and be aware of it, involves observing our actions’ long-term impacts without judgment and creating environments filled with beauty and love.
In this essay, I propose a path to unite need, freedom, and love a path I argue is essential to unlocking human wisdom’s potential, especially within economic activities like business and labour.
Two Warnings
First, a note on the power and limitations of words. In this essay, I aim to communicate my reflections concisely, without citations, very difficult to me due to my severe macular degeneration. As such, the text may feel somewhat definitive, but my intent is not to declare absolute truths but rather to establish a connection with the reader, which requires from him the interest and research on the reflections presented here. What really matters is to develop the intelligence these words are referring to. Communication does not describe reality. For example, entities are not truly separate; they are useful abstractions we need to communicate and survive. However, interactions and relationships are what constitute reality, not separate entities.
The misconception that people and things are separate is a primary cause of division, domination, exploitation, violence, and suffering, a. Moreover, the belief that words can seize the truth often leads to conflict and even wars (e.g. the wars between religions). The purpose of dialogue is to share and create meaning, the heart of communication. Hence, the main role of communication is about sharing meaning, rather than describing reality. When that shared meaning fails, communication seeks new meaning through dialogue and research, paving the way for agreement and cooperation.
Communication constructs an abstract world of subjects and objects, dividing reality into manageable units, the linguistic models of reality essential for human learning and survival. The error is to take this distinctions as separations. Additionally, when discussing foundational realities like beauty, words do not aim to share meaning an impossible task but rather to awaken our awareness of the foundational reality already within us. For example, when I say that reality is free, I am not trying to define it but to inspire a possible discovery by the reader. In general, foundation are met directly, not through words, ideas, concepts or knowledge, but through freedom, the hallmark of reality, the selfless liberating intelligence.
Second, a warning about humanity’s survival. As explained in Chapter 1, we must recognize the profound illness within today’s dominant cultures. We live in an individualistic, predatory environment focused on personal gain, where we compete for jobs, income, and housing. This lifestyle underpins our economic system, which calls for transformation or better a mutation. The Earth can no longer support the destructive force of unchecked economic growth.
Technical solutions are inadequate from a foundational perspective.
What is needed is a transformation or cultural mutation from the arrogant, greedy, and violent intelligence of Homo sapiens to the healthy, mature intelligence of Homo quaerens, the humble and frugal seeker of human happiness. This transformation should not be limited to a few wise leaders but should extend to all of humanity.
Organizations and societies where individuals can nurture and enjoy healthy, creative intelligence throughout life are what I call “creative democracies.” As seen in Chapter 1, most people in advanced cultures may initially resist this idea due to being educated as “programmed intelligences,” following established patterns of behaviour, easily subjugated to dominant powers. Those in control of industrial systems recognize that creative democracies would challenge their authority. Few people realize that their consumption, comfort, and security depend on a capitalist system that secures an unfair share of the world’s limited resources.
Thesis of this Essay
The thesis of this essay is that a shift from Homo sapiens to Homo quaerens, from a toxic intelligence of greed to a frugal and healthy intelligence of need, is essential for human survival. This transformation should begin with the economy, guided by a collective human intelligence that centres on care. My perspective comes from a desire for wise intelligence rather than expertise in economics, business, or labour, as these fields provide essential opportunities to foster free, creative, and loving human intelligence that can enable a life of joy within creative democracies. I insist. Notice I am not suggesting how should be the new world, a new ideology, a model of the economy or business solving our problems. This traditional way of thinking to face problems creates division and conflicts between the different approaches. Instead, I propose to go to the origins of human life, and understanding the foundational role a free, creative and loving human intelligence, and why it has gone wrong in current societies. From there, each society will flourish by driving the development of a healthy creative intelligence by all its members, creating thus new ways of living happy and peaceful, the properly human way of living. In particular, the creation of new economies and business result of giving full attention to the healthy development of business collective intelligence.
In this regard, I argue that humanity has barely discovered its deep identity and often overlooks the creative powers of human intelligence, mistakenly believing they are reserved for a select few. Many people have yet to experience a truly happy life, and our societies are not designed to foster this discovery . Now is the time to unlock human wisdom’s potential to become fully aware of our true nature and role as humanity
Going to the Origins
Understanding the complexity of the world (such as a galaxy, Earth, human communities, organisations like businesses, or ecosystems like forests) has greatly benefited from systems theory. In this perspective, a system is an interconnected set of elements organised in a way that achieves a specific purpose. However, to confront the serious challenges and threats facing humanity I believe it is essential to return to the origins of all that exists, particularly life and human life. Not the temporal origins such as the scientific big bang, but the timeless creative origin, the absolute, accessed immediately by the liberating intelligence.
The foundation of all existence, which I term the foundational triad, consists of the creative freedom of reality, with love as its energy, universal intelligence as its agent, and the universe as its body. I view life and human life as creations of this ineffable triad, symbolising absolute reality a reality not relative to human needs or interests but the ultimate truth that words can only gesture toward. It is crucial not to confuse this subtle ultimate reality of the universe with the models produced by science, as these models are constantly evolving.
Our well-being depends on the harmony among all forms of life. Nothing exists outside this universal intelligence driven by unconditional love. Especially important is the harmony between Earth’s intelligence, life’s intelligence and humanity’s intelligence, for which we bear responsibility. We are accountable for the current disharmony between the flawed human intelligence and the intelligence of life, which is under severe predation from the intelligence of greed, primarily represented by profit-driven business practices.
It is also worth noting that intelligence resides in interactions rather than as a possession of separate entities in the universe; in fact, these entities are constituted by their interactions, which I call intra-actions.
Recognising these foundations as both ineffable and the most concrete reality we can deeply sense in all things, especially in our lives, is essential. Therefore, these foundations, our roots, arc the tangible reality from which human life grows. In this sense, it is notable that the word concrete derives from the Latin concrescere, meaning “to grow together,” reflecting how we, too, grow together from our foundations in the creative freedom of reality. In other words, the whole the universal web of interactions, its intelligence, and creative freedom the most concrete actuality.
Conversely, individuals are mistakenly viewed as independent, concrete entities when they are, in fact, abstractions that narrow down reality. Our dualistic language, which serves communication, creates distinctions, assigning everything an opposite. We tend to view these distinctions as highly independent and concrete, often identifying with them and, therefore, experiencing their individual inadequacies, fragility, vulnerability, and mortality in isolation.
In this essay, I will concentrate on human intelligence, a remarkable expression of universal intelligence. Human intelligence is the interactive agent continually creating human life in the most efficient and simplest possible way. For example, human intelligence speaks and writes with minimum energy compared to the huge energy that artificial intelligence requires. When healthy and mature, human intelligence interacts spontaneously in the present, where reality unfolds, thus shaping the human future simply and in harmony with the rest of the interactive intelligences.
Simplicity and quality of life both essential today arc hallmarks of intelligence. When intelligence is free, it fosters the right interactions, avoiding conflict. Therefore, human intelligence transcends mere knowledge and thought, which are characteristic of the intelligence of need, ç inwardly and outwardly divisive often leading to conflict.
There is no simpler or more effective way than intelligence to face human challenges, the continuous change, and the complexity of our world, with much more unknown than known. A mature human intelligence can be fully aware, participate creatively, and take responsibility for its role in the universe, nurturing love and care for Earth and humanity. Love is the supreme energy of a deeply free, creative, and healthy intelligence, and it is the path to human fulfilment.
What Constitutes Us as Humans
Human intelligence is an exceptional form of life’s intelligence, which, in turn, is the most remarkable creation of universal intelligence the agent of reality’s creative freedom. Generally, animal intelligence is genetically programmed through long evolutionary processes to adapt and survive within a specific environment. For survival, animals rely on this genetic programming and need little learning. By contrast, human genetic programming alone is insufficient for survival. Humans depend on a free, learning, and creative collective intelligence. Needs act as stimuli for humans to exercise this intelligence, shaping different cultures essential for survival. Human intelligence develops within communities, as individuals learn from each other to satisfy shared needs and interests, a topic briefly discussed in the next section. In short, humans need to live in strong symbiosis with each other, forming communities and networks. This symbiosis emerged from early humans’ sensitivity to recognize and share common needs and interests to ensure security, thus developing a moral framework centred on shared needs. In other words, humans have the capacity and necessity to learn from one another for survival. Unlike other animals, humans are lifelong learners and educators. This human symbiosis is accompanied by one of the most remarkable creations of human intelligence: semiotic communication. Humans communicate through arbitrary symbols, unique to each language, such as articulated sounds that form sentences rich with meaning and musicality. This innovation broke the animal chain of stimulus-response. Between stimulus and response, humans introduce words filled with meaning, which unlocks vast realms of imagination and self- awareness. This awareness includes the great freedom to create words and the realization that words are not things themselves; reality is inherently free.
However, instead of living in reality’s freedom, beauty and unconditional love, humanity has been enslaved by the intelligence of need, which separated from the liberating intelligence has become the intelligence of greed.
Language, combined with human freedom and imagination, opened the door to creative inquiry the ability to ask questions that lead to research, problem-solving, and the creation of cultures. This on-going process has driven human knowledge and techniques, especially since the rise of modern science and exponentially over the past seventy years. However, as knowledge has become valued primarily as a possession, our focus has shifted to its accumulation, often neglecting the cultivation of the intelligence of need that originally creates knowledge.
In our constantly changing world, we must prioritize the healthy development of human intelligence, the dynamic and interactive agent of human life. Only the creative freedom of human intelligence can address the unknown, guiding us to make the right decisions in every moment and avoid conflict.
This appropriate action does not rely on accumulated knowledge but on the freedom of intelligence itself. Only the flourishing of intelligence within society can confront both our changing needs and the threats facing us today, including inequality, nuclear war, pollution, climate change, and the unsustainable consequences of continuous economic growth.
A central premise of this essay is that humanity’s future depends on fostering a loving and creative intelligence, starting within the economic world.
These five creative powers interest in reality, semiotic communication, symbiotic collaboration, inquiry, and freedom constitute the core of human intelligence showing its collective character. Closely interdependent, they make human intelligence the most powerful interactive intelligence known, essential for human well-being. When separated, these powers degrade, leading to division, domination, and inequality, and breeding toil, fear, and fear violence forces that undermine a healthy intelligence. Due to their necessary interdependence, I refer to them as the “creative hand,” the hand that shapes human cultures. Among these, freedom is the most distinctive power, understood as liberation from any force of domination, enabling us to feel unity with humans and nature and to love them unconditionally. This freedom involves both liberation from the ego’s desires, fears, expectations, resentments, and hatred, as well as freedom from plutocracy and imperialism dominant forms of exploitation that hinder the social flourishing of creative intelligence and unconditional love.
In going back to our origins, we encounter true human freedom high level of participation by human intelligence in reality’s creative freedom and loving interactions. Life’s intelligence also partakes in this creative freedom, though it relies on very long evolutionary processes. Unlike other forms of life, humans’ share in creative freedom grants foundational access to an absolute reality, one that exists in dependently of our needs a loving, universal reality, the ultimate meeting point of humanity. This silent access to reality is what I call liberating intelligence, or intelligence of freedom, inseparable from the intelligence of need, which responds to our survival requirements. These are two levels of the singular intelligence that defines us as human. When these two levels are cultivated in harmony particularly in the economic realm intelligence becomes humanity’s wisdom. This wisdom is a continuous co-creation of human life, guiding us toward a full identification with the unknowable but liveable absolute: a timeless, loving, and joyful existence
Culture and Nature
Cultures are the dynamic ways that humans have devised to survive in an environment that they have not created themselves, and which we refer to as nature. For the purposes of this text I understand culture to include a society’s entire way of life: how needs and interests are satisfied, how the powers of intelligence are exercised, and habits acquired by people who are members of that society. In each culture, people learn how to satisfy their body-mind needs. Cultures embrace the ways through which we make sense of the world. Even our survival instincts and reproduction patterns are influenced by culture. Standard habits, inclinations, and activities of humans in one culture may seem quite exotic in another. Without too much exaggeration we could say that each culture makes its members like an almost different species. This is noted without negating human unity in the pluralism of cultures – a unity that is most needed nowadays to face the serious threats to human survival such as nuclear war and climate change.
It is usual to hear that humans are a cultural species. Cultures are creations of the intelligence of need in order to satisfy our needs and interests. Usually, culture focuses so much on such needs, that it tends to leave in a second place the other ways through which it provides an access to reality. In particular, the access to reality provided to us by our liberating intelligence, which actually distinguishes us as humans. Even religions too frequently have prioritized the right workings of the intelligence of need, over the cultivation of liberating intelligence – our immediate and silent access to the absolute. For example, the notions of heaven and hell after death were mainly aimed to ensure the good operation of the intelligence of need. This was very effective in preindustrial societies. In current advanced cultures, however, only liberating intelligence can ensure that the intelligence of need operates wisely. As explained below, this is why I consider insufficient to characterize humans just as a cultural species. What really characterises humans is this foundational liberating intelligence, the wordless and thoughtless access to reality non relative to needs and interests.
Furthermore, there is a certain ambiguity when discussing the many ways to understand culture, nature and their relation. Cultures have created a wide knowledge about nature in order to satisfy human needs and interests. This knowledge constitutes a model of nature. It constitutes a first access to nature, the one relative to our needs and interests. However, we tend to consider erroneously this access to nature based on knowledge as a description of nature, to the point of even confusing it with nature itself, when in fact this map is a human creation, which continuously changes and as such is also part of human culture, of which we are responsible.
This knowledge about nature can be used to care for it, or otherwise, moved by greediness, to over exploit it, as we have already done. For example, the main aim of many corporations is to maximize profit overexploiting nature and frequently humans. And the elites that are able to do it are rewarded with scandalous salaries – for instance, the CEOs who now earn over a hundred times the pay of an average worker. The culture we are creating is using this knowledge to divide, dominate and exploit violently nature beyond its possibilities to sustain our needs, putting in peril human survival.
As a result of this violence of advanced cultures on the Earth we witness the emergence of movements to care for nature. Some of them propose to create an ecological civilization, inspired in the working of the intelligence of life and its ecosystems. In the field of economy there are attempts to replicate nature’s intelligence in order to be sustainable. Surely human cultures belong to the wider intelligence of life and should be integrated and in harmony with all ecological systems. We have much to learn from nature to which we belong. However, we should never forget that human cultures are much more complex than most ecological systems with which we live together. This is due to the distinctive character of human intelligence, which has an extraordinary participation in the creative freedom of reality with its creative advantages (and corresponding risks of going wrong).
Human threats are better faced addressing them from the perspective of intelligence than that of knowledge. From this perspective, cultures, the social way of satisfying needs and interests in a given natural environment or nature, are creations of the intelligence of need. Therefore, understanding the intelligence of need and its foundation on liberating intelligence is the best way to understand cultures. In my view, intelligence is the interactive agent of all existences, of the universal web of interactions.
In particular, as humans we depend of three forms of intelligence: first, the Earth’s intelligence, the agent of all interactions within the Earth and with the rest of the universe. An intelligence that has created life on Earth and so its life intelligence. Hence, the intelligence of life and Earth intelligence are closely interdependent, both constituting what we can call nature, what is not created by human intelligence. This last is an outstanding form of life intelligence, closely interdependent with the other two. Then, the relation culture-nature is the relation of the three mentioned forms of intelligence: of Earth, of life and of humans.
Unlike the other forms, human intelligence has two levels of interaction, as previously introduced. Firstly, the relative to our needs or intelligence of need whose role is to satisfy our needs and interests. Secondly, the liberating intelligence, the intelligence of the absolute, of the creative freedom of reality, allowing and immediate loving relation with all that is real. This makes human intelligence very powerful but also prone to go wrong due to the degradation of its freedom to mere free will focused on obtaining pleasures and accumulating possessions - a misunderstanding of happiness.
Today, the main aim of humanity should be to research on how to heal the current ill human intelligence, and (closely related to this) to research further on the mutual loving care between the three forms of the universal intelligence (Earth’s, life’s and human) – our main way to ensure that Earth can be the “paradise” it is meant to be. These are mere words pointing to the reality in which humanity should live.
To summarise, unlike the genetically programmed intelligence of life, we have a free creative intelligence - with a wordless, thoughtless, timeless and so subtle access to the absolute, the non-relative to us, to its creative freedom, truth, beauty, unconditional love and the unity they bring between humans and with nature. These are the foundations of a wise intelligence. When these creative powers are ignored and not cultivated, (i.e. freedom from all submission reduced to mere freewill) our intelligence degrades, becoming the current divisive or individualistic, dominant, greedy and violent intelligence, which threatens our survival. That is, human intelligence has become ill, threatening humanity with death. This danger of becoming ill is a feature of human intelligence not of nature’s intelligence. Avoiding it requires to taking care of the distinctive level of human intelligence, the liberating intelligence, the intelligence of the absolute. Then, although there is much to learn from our knowledge about nature or the intelligence of life, it is not enough to take it as reference for human life organization, what is called a life affirming civilization or ecological civilization. This application for good of the ecological knowledge we have about nature, so easy to postpone as is happening, is not enough to heal our ill intelligence. Moreover, it should be clear that the huge amount of knowledge we have accumulated, cannot bring the necessary sense of unity of humanity. Humanity’s meeting point can only be the absolute, the non- relative to human needs and interests.
I insist, what we really need to face the current violence between humans and against nature, is a civilization cultivating its creative freedom, truth, beauty, unity and unconditional love, taking all of them as the foundation of all human cultures. This is going to the source of humanity’s wellbeing and joy, the loving communion between humans and with nature, and the simplest we can do, and renew it continuously, at every moment.
From Repeating the Past to Creating the Future
With the European Renaissance began the possibility of a profound transformation in human cultures. It marked a shift in human interest a fundamental creative power of intelligence. I represent this interest with the index finger, a symbol of pointing toward new realities. During the Renaissance, this interest shifted from focusing on the past to looking toward the future, creating rather than simply repeating. In preindustrial cultures, interest was focused on the past, as repetition offered stability and minimized the risks associated with change. These societies relied on a repetitive intelligence of need, avoiding the interdependence of creativity with liberating intelligence. Human creativity was confined largely to art and sporadic advancements in technique, while intelligence of need faced the constant pressure of survival. For these societies, repeating the past was the known, secure way to ensure continuity.
Unlike the dynamic and ever-evolving societies of today, preindustrial societies were static. Fear of deviating from tradition prevailed, as change risked individual security, community roles, and stability. Communication merely transmitted established culture rather than fostering innovation. Symbiotic structures were hierarchical and authoritarian, with research sporadic, and submission rather than freedom was highly valued.
Although these cultures sought to understand life through inquiry, nature withheld many answers. Threatening phenomena like lightning, thunderstorms, earthquakes, drought, and death remained mysteries. Not being able to face the fact, they moved to something else, an erroneous reaction too frequent in humanity’s behaviour To confront the inexplicable, the fear it provoked and gain a sense of security, people represented reality as an absolute mystery, forming interpretations of dominant supernatural powers. Submitting to these powers and their representatives on Earth such as priests and kings, became a means of finding protection. As a result, most people rarely fully developed its creative intelligence to enhance life, relying instead on supernatural beliefs in preindustrial times and, from modernity onward, on the dominant power of the state. Summarizing, humanity’s fear and the need to feel secure was the main impediment to discover human participation in the creative freedom of reality, the true power and security. In a word, the fear and submission to dominant powers, the enemies of freedom, prevented the presence of the selfless liberating intelligence, which puts us in contact with the absolute ( a word pointing to the unknowable but liveable), a must for the good working of the intelligence of need. Hence, from the very beginning of humanity its creativity has taken a wrong turn: division, conflict, domination, violence and the corresponding suffering have been present between us.
These societies based their beliefs on their environment and survival needs. They engaged in practical activities, such as hunting, agriculture, or herding, deeply connected to the natural world significantly different from today’s abstract, technology-based lives. This disconnection from tangible reality has sometimes led to semantic and existential crises such as the confusion between abstract and concrete.
Mythologies established a shared framework of meaning, not necessarily factual but effective in maintaining social cohesion. Myths shaped reality in ways that aligned with survival needs, configuring, delimiting, and objectifying it. Mythologies dictated thoughts, emotions, and actions necessary for survival. Symbols, narratives, and rituals claimed origins in sacred ancestors or deities who controlled natural and cultural phenomena, embodying supreme power over the universe and enforcing an authoritarian hierarchy.
Briefly examining preindustrial myths reveals significant cultural differences. In From Programmed to Creative Intelligence, I devote a chapter to these myths. Hunters viewed ultimate reality through the lens of ancestor spirits, where life emerged from death; herders saw it as a battle between good and evil; and early agriculturalists, in their hierarchical societies, worshipped almighty gods, upholding submission as a supreme virtue. These myths imposed programmed patterns on intelligence. Cultural shifts brought mythological changes. When societies transitioned from hunting to farming, their myths, symbols, and rituals evolved accordingly. The Bible’s story of Abel, the herder, killed by Cain, the farmer, symbolises such transitions. These cultural mutations, though rare, signal the presence of liberating intelligence in humans, demonstrating the capacity for change even amid conflict and upheaval.
Today, instead of finding security through collective development of creative intelligence the essence of human rights we still place security in submission to dominant powers. This deeply ingrained response also influences politics and economics, resulting in plutocracy, imperialism, and environmental exploitation. Modern society continues to function as a system of domination, despite proclamations of human rights and Earth’s charter. With the advent of advanced information technologies, humanity faces new risks of digital dictatorships. The core issue is the absence of conditions that would enable the population to awake and care the liberating intelligence.
The Renaissance’s discovery of creative intelligence was limited to an elite minority, leading to scientific and industrial revolutions and a new competitive economy. For the first time in history, factory labour emerged, with most of the population programmed through education to acquire knowledge and skills for productivity, rather than for creative engagement.
Liberal ideology shifted individual interest to the centre of social and economic organisation, promoting selfish interests. When interest is misdirected, all creative powers of intelligence become skewed communication becomes insincere, symbiosis becomes controlling, research serves profit, and freedom devolves into self-serving will. Businesses emerged within this individualistic framework, promoting needs that tether individuals to perpetual production rather than liberating them from want and enhancing quality of life the true mission of business.
The Renaissance’s opportunity for deep cultural change remains unrealised. Lifelong education fostering self- awareness could enable humanity to realise itself as an embodiment of universal intelligence in full harmony with it, as responsible members of Earth and life. Instead of directing liberating intelligence toward the fulfilment of need-driven pleasures and comforts, we must reorient it to support the pursuit of human happiness through unconditional love and liberating intelligence, with the intelligence of need serving it. Summarizing, without love, there is no right action by the intelligence of need. When there is love whatever the intelligence of need does is right action.
Intelligence as Primordial
Intelligence, as a primordial creative agent, is indefinable. It can only be characterised by its five constitutive creative powers (interest in reality, semiotic communication, subsidiary symbiosis, inquiry, and freedom) and its three dimensions functional, axiological or ethical, and liberating. Intelligence is not a human possession but a creative force shaping us continuously through intra-actions. Unlike hardware and software, intelligence and the human body are inseparable; caring for intelligence is caring for human life.
Intelligence is the reality that permeates day-to-day life and the interactions that surround us. Intelligence is collective rather than merely individual, fully realised through the union of individuals working toward common goals. Intelligence reveals itself through practice, as words alone cannot capture its impact. “By their deeds, ye shall know them” speaks to this truth; reminding us that intelligence is validated by actions. Therefore, we should focus on nurturing our creative intelligence through action, not merely by accumulating knowledge or thoughts. Unlike accumulated knowledge belonging to the past, intelligence allows the immediate understanding and action in the present, somehow always new.
A mature intelligence enables us to gain truly sustainable and beneficial outcomes, particularly in education and labour. Seeing things as they are is proper to loving intelligence. The quality of intelligence not GDP is the true measure of societal health and creativity. To cultivate intelligence, observe daily actions attentively, non-judgementally, and learn from them. This practice reveals one’s role in collective human intelligence.
Until now, humanity has been more focused on acquiring knowledge, which often leads to arrogance and is put in service of dominance, rather than creating loving ways of living through creative intelligence. For instance, techno- sciences focus more on understanding the brain than on understanding and cultivating the embodied intelligence, which observation is immediately at hand and so the easier way to heal and improve the brain.
A healthy intelligence avoids conflict, fostering human well-being. In business, it will put an end to business as battlefield. In contrast, knowledge alone does not guarantee right action, especially when driven by selfish motives, as seen in today’s societies. Despite unprecedented access to knowledge, humanity faces its greatest threats to survival.
Business and labour also prioritise knowledge over intelligence, resulting in widespread greed. Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly applied in business, yet without adequate human oversight, it risks misuse. AI may effectively handle accumulated information, but only human creative intelligence can adapt to the unknown. Business and labour should rely on collective intelligence among stakeholders, fostered through education and experience. Managers, in particular, must cultivate free, creative intelligence to navigate change, rather than merely acquiring past-based information that may be irrelevant to new challenges. By embracing creative freedom, they may overcome the impulse to maximise shareholder profits and earn disproportionate salaries. I cannot delve into the accumulated functional knowledge of business and labour here but propose a foundation based on intelligence’s creative hand. Business and labour should operate through the intelligence of need, in harmonic interdependence with liberating intelligence. This balance would constitute the core wisdom of both fields.
Business and Labour
The intelligence of need has two interdependent dimensions. Firstly, there is functional intelligence, or the intelligence of the head, represented by the techno-sciences. This abstract, instrumental form of intelligence focuses on understanding how the world works, predicting phenomena through experimentation, and controlling or manipulating outcomes. The second dimension, axiological intelligence, is central to human life; it is the intelligence of the heart a sentient, responsible, and holistic intelligence rooted in the experience of being alive. Axiological intelligence unites all senses and encompasses the creation of value systems and artistic expression. The intelligence of ethics and beauty. It drives us to seek what is meaningful and good, particularly when it comes to common interest, purpose, and well-being, achieved largely through dialogue and cooperation.
To develop a new, wise approach to business and labour, it is essential to understand that their driving force is intelligence, which emerges from the intra-actions between humans and their environment. Individual intelligence develops within society and, when healthy, serves society’s needs. Thus, businesses, as organisations, should cultivate collective intelligence (the constitutive creative powers, or CCP), which is far stronger than any individual intelligence, including that of top managers.
The success of functional intelligence in enhancing human well-being, particularly through economic growth, has made it hegemonic, overshadowing other forms of intelligence. This dominance has led to an imbalance: the more we know about the “how” (through functional intelligence), the less we question the “what” and “why “the concerns of axiological intelligence. Hence, we have created an instrumental information society erroneously accepting as intelligent mechanistic processes such as algorithms. Current business are relying more on information than on its collective intelligence. Unaware that information belongs to the past and so is incapable to face the new, which is the domain of intelligence. su deals mainly with the past, intelligence with the present, which for an alert intelligence is always new, full of new opportunities.
When functional intelligence becomes isolated from axiological intelligence, it falls under the control of plutocratic and imperial powers, evidenced by its heavy investment in military industries. This dominance of functional intelligence has nearly erased the guiding role of axiological intelligence in human life. Values are more than knowledge, they are the ability to take the right action, guided by axiological and liberating intelligence, that truly matters for the collective good. This focus on instrumentalism has dulled our awareness of liberating intelligence and its role in the creativity of techno-sciences, underscoring the urgent need to fully awakening it.
We must urgently reframe business and labour within a framework of healthy, loving, and creative intelligence focused on the common good. In reality, however, business and labour have been dominated by the pursuit of wealth and instrumental knowledge or information inherent to functional intelligence, prioritising productivity and maximising profit for a select few. Human needs are thereby stripped of their human context, separated from values such as quality of life.
Economics becomes a mechanism of production, distribution, and consumption, where free-market dynamics (supply and demand) dictate allocation of goods and services, favouring plutocratic and imperial controls. In this model, resources like nature, labour, capital, entrepreneurship, and knowledge are mere inputs for profit-oriented outputs, with production methods designed solely to maximise profits instead of meeting human needs or prioritising worker well- being.
The profit motive drives the free-market system, turning business into a battleground, with capitalism’s structural growth imperative causing cyclical crises and rendering the economy unsustainable. Rather than addressing human needs and reducing excessive labour, this model creates artificial demands, binding us to constant consumption. Instead of sustaining life, the economy poses a threat to it. Government regulations, meant to provide checks, often fall short of redistributing wealth, constrained by plutocratic interests. Declarations of values and regulations are too easily manipulated, unable to substitute for the guidance of a loving axiological intelligence.
In summary, the economy operates according to supply and demand, prioritising profit for shareholders. This economic drive replaces axiological intelligence, enabling the exploitation of people and nature. Few truly enjoy their work, and nature’s resources are increasingly depleted. It should be clear that axiological intelligence (without dismissing but deprioritising profit calculation) is the appropriate guide to shape an economy that serves humanity, creating values in each context, not as knowledge but as right actions directed toward society’s well-being.
Regarding labour, in the preindustrial world, no specific word existed for work as a distinct activity. This concept emerged in the modern era (from the seventeenth century onward) with the rise of techno-sciences, as functional intelligence became dominant, invading all domains of thought and action. This shift, termed instrumentalism, separated commodities from the people who produced them. Labour thus became the design of a product, which is then manufactured and sold for economic gain, with all other work components subordinated to these three elements especially the last. Work became synonymous with productive activity generating goods and services within an economy. The industrial revolution introduced the factory system, where individuals were assigned specific tasks and coordinated with others, leading to alienated labour within the factory production model.
We arc taught to work for a boss and do what we’re told, with little say or interest in the purpose of our work. This system limits the growth of our intelligence and denies us the opportunity to take responsibility for organising and controlling work collectively. Work thus fails to become a source of joy or intellectual growth. The ‘free market’ has commodified everything, from products to people, gradually creating a global market. Consequently, people worldwide are drawn into this capitalist workplace within a culture obsessed with competition.
A healthy intelligence of need requires that functional intelligence across all activities, particularly business and labour, be guided by axiological intelligence, which depends on cultivating liberating intelligence. Establishing business and labour as models of harmony among these three dimensions of intelligence is a central aim for survival: to explore how to interact constructively with our material and social environment, how to set meaningful goals, and how to approach these goals efficiently and intelligently.
- Digital Hermeneutics Embodied in Brian Kim Stefans’ “The Dreamlife of Letters,” and Memory: Analog to Flash Interface in the Light of Ecofeminism
- Using C-Tables to Teach Class Logic
- The Ideology of Education’s Postponed Fantasies: Deepenings on a Pressing Problematic
- Phantasia and Perceptual Realism in Aristotle
- The Pleasures of Solitude
- Super Science