Physicist Stephen Hawking lived a long and interesting life. Despite the harsh diagnosis that he received after graduation from the university, he devoted his life to research and popularization of science. What did he think about humanity and why should his words be heeded?
“The flaw in humanity that I would most like to correct is aggression,” said physicist Stephen Hawking in 2015. “It may have given us a survival advantage during the time of the cavemen, to get more food, explore new lands or find breeding partners, but today it is becoming one of the main threats to our civilization.
A major nuclear war could be the end of civilization, and perhaps the entire human race. The quality that I would like to increase in people is empathy, the ability to empathize. It allows us to live together in an atmosphere of harmony, mutual understanding and love.”
Psychologists, religious figures, writers and artists talk about the threat posed by aggression today
But when the words come from the lips of a person who has lived for the last 50 years with a feeling of imminent death, they take on a special meaning. Hawking knew about survival perhaps more than anyone else.
He could die before reaching the age of thirty: he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at the age of 21, and doctors gave him two years to live. He may have died in 1985 when he became seriously ill with pneumonia. He could die many more times after that.
But, against all odds, Hawking lived to be 76 years old. Why – he himself can not understand. “I definitely benefited from the fact that I have my job and good care,” he said in an interview.
Hawking’s life path has become living proof that the mind can overcome even physical limitations.
And yet he opposed aggression not with reason, but with empathy. Perhaps he did this because it was the care of others that helped him survive.
First of all, we are talking about his first wife Jane. She remained close to the physicist, even when she knew that the disease could soon end their marriage. Their relationship is dedicated to the 2014 film “Stephen Hawking’s Universe”. Eddie Redmayne won an Oscar for his portrayal of Hawking.
Hawking’s fate is an excellent illustration of his words. It gives us faith that human survival, like the survival of all mankind, is not about the struggle between the strong and the weak, but about the ability to empathize, cooperate and love.