States of mind in the twenty-fourth century- Star Trek Ferengi and philosophers

The issues related to what the mind is and its use have been discussed by various disciplines of philosophy for centuries, and it seems that it will continue to be discussed further. From Plato to Thomas Aquinas, from Descartes to Kant, two basic approaches can be distinguished in the subject of nature and the use of the mind, in which all the great names of philosophy produce ideas. The first approach is the use of the mind as a "tool" to achieve human goals, and the second approach is the idea that the mind is the "purpose" itself and cannot be used as a tool for anything else. In the world of philosophy, where there are many supporters for both approaches, it is possible to find support for the idea that this discussion is not very likely to end, from the Star Trek series, which is a popular culture product. The Star Trek series, which first met with the audience in 1966, went beyond being science fiction and many technological innovations that it envisioned at that time entered daily life not even a century later. Many popular scientific articles and books have been published on Star Trek and the level of science and technology it envisions. On the other hand, the "progress towards becoming a perfect human being", which it pointed out, was also examined from a philosophical and sociological point of view. It is unthinkable that the Star Trek scenario, which has such foresighted equipment, did not have a say on the "mind" and "its purpose of use". Indeed, from the scenarios that have touched on these issues many times, the part that forms the basis of this work is the alien Ferengi race, which has a constitution where every way is accepted for commercial success, and the Quark character representing them. The "Ferengi Rules of Earning", which shape the social, political, commercial, and even diplomatic life of the Ferengi race, presents humanity the projection for the instrumental use of reason in the XXIV. century. The aim of this study is to try to predict what direction the subject of "instrumentalization of the human mind", on which philosophers produce ideas and make predictions for the future, will take, by examining the fictional universe created in the Star Trek series in the XXIVth century. For this purpose, the background of the adventures between the races that accept reason as an end in itself and the races that are determined to instrumentalize the reason in this fictional universe created by Gene Roddenberry has been tried to be interpreted in the light of the views of philosophers.