How to encourage education, and an atmosphere of respecting knowledge and critical thinking for a multi-racial warrior nation?

Question

Once up on a time, in a world not our own, there was a piece of land inhabited by seven races of animal-people (like cat-people/dog-people, bird-people, and mermaids/mermans and such). Being animal-people, humans discriminate against them and tried to conquer their land from time to time. So for these seven races of animal people gradually becomes clans of warriors and promote bravery and sacrifice as a virtue. The understanding of how craftsmanship and agriculture can affect a war are known to them, so farmers, miners, and craftsmen are respected, but not as much as a warrior. Businessman often have to deal with demon beasts and bandits, and are great intelligence gartherers, so they are respected as well. The leadership of each of the seven races are, not surprisingly, are required to be great warriors. The only people not getting any respect are the scholars. People who research agricultural/metalurgy science are mostly already ironsmith or farmer already and receive due respect. But astronomy, economic, and natural philosophy researchers are treated like outcasts and have to live alone to avoid presecution.

These seven races are not really in friendly terms with each other, they fight from time to time and would only stop their battle if a human invasion is known.

So here comes our main character--MC. MC comes from the modern world and isekaied into this world. Seeing the humans are in the verge of industrial revolution, MC seeks to help the seven races. After uniting them into a single nation--think of a much more cohesive Austria-Hungary Empire, MC seeks to tech up these people. However, just using MC's own magic to create modern weapon and give it to them is not an ideal solution. Education is much needed for this nation so they can develop better technology themselves and understand themselves and the world better. But how to convince these muscle-for-brains that education and critical thinking is needed?

Answer 1

Hmm. If I was an artist-like society, I would try convincing them the importance of science by showing them soundwave art; the beauty of different celestial objects; or the poetic tragedy of life. Something like that xd

So maybe something similar for this warrior society? Painting and turning the otherwise uninterest studies of science, philosophy and economy as predator,warrior-like concepts. And maybe start shunning any resistance as cowardness of the unknown?

Sorry for the mediocre answer, but I hope it helps you, assuming your story is a bit more heartlighted. I could see something like that happening the other around in our world tbh :p

Answer 2

Force invention into overdrive and hope for the best

I'm not going to delve into the isekai element because I've become pretty disgusted with the genre, it started alright at first but now it's just over-saturated with poorly written, self-insert power-fantasy.

As far as your problem of putting education before brute force goes, there's really no definitive way of doing so due to the simple fact that violence is the ultimate authority from which all other authorities are derived. Yes that's a Starship troopers reference and the book seriously delved into this matter (which I highly suggest reading just for the sake of exploring that subject). The movie only made it a passing joke, but when you think about it all the rules of society are ultimately crutched on the concept of violence. Roosevelt perfectly summarized this concept with his "walk softly and carry a big stick" mentality, clearly showing that no matter how ideologically or technologically advanced you might be compared to your opponent, he can always beat you into submission with overwhelming, sheer force if he decides to pursue that course of action.

If you want to promote education, the best possible way to do it is to put all of your efforts into invention in hopes of pushing it into overdrive, that way there's a chance that the concept and mentality of exploring new knowledge for the sake of discovering new advantages takes root. Without a doubt the best example of this were the two world wars, during which the invention of new technologies often turned the tides of battle, acting as an effective force multiplier which the losing side simply could not keep up with.

When it comes to logistics, that's really a no brainer, working SMARTER is always far better that working HARDER in the long run. Again, the best example again comes from both the world wars as the losing sides failed to keep up by not being able to match the enemy in that department. Most notable was the difference in tanks in the latter half of the second world war, as the Reich focused its efforts into creating effective tanks that excelled in a single dedicated role, the Allies relied on a concept of building balanced tanks which could fulfil a multitude of roles with ever-improving technology. The aviation also underwent a similar change, at first the Stuka's were the undisputed rulers of the European skies but as time went on and mainly better engines were developed, they fell behind and faded away.

Speaking in the application outside of warfare, perhaps the most notable invention to change the development of the human race was refrigeration. At first the main focus behind preserving large quantities of food lied in storing them in cold places, such as caves or large dugouts or simply streams or riverbeds, but as we learned to artificially create these environments the world population slowly increased. Then the early 20th century came along and as the refrigerator was invented and became a common item in every household the world population instantly shifted into overdrive.

Invention of drugs to help fighting illnesses improved our lifespan, the invention of better birthing methodology and better care lowered the infant mortality rate, invention of better clothing allowed us to survive in increasingly hostile environments, invention of better mining technology allowed us to reach further than we were able before and draw resources from spots we couldn't even speculate to reach. If you need inspiration why you should nurture invention you should simply take all of the things we take for granted today and analyze them in-depth, find out how they came to be and what was life like before they came around.

Answer 3

Technology promotes better warfare

In history we can see that winning sides favour two things most of all. Numbers and technology.

If you can convince a warrior clan that their strength and skill are better if they are educated they can start respecting it. It can mold the warrios in warfare as well as out. Psychology can make them march in unison and fight fully motivated and as a single unit. Knowledge of fields and forests can can help with setting up and breaking down the encampment orderly and quickly in a strategic place, as well as helping with foraging and moving fast. But also inventions themselves make a difference. Stirrups and horseback riding help with speed and power. Bows can get longer range and accuracy. Brass vs iron makes huge difference in a fight. Especially for the underdog a good strategy can make a huge difference. Even for catapults you need to have a good understanding of force.

Good education can make your warriors better before, during and after battle, or even when having no fighting to do. As it can augment the soldiers they should jump on the opportunity when they realise the benefits. To do this, you can start with direct warfare applications, then expand further and further into other directly or indirectly supporting sciences.

Answer 4

Breed for scholarliness. Cull the aggressive ones through war with humans.

Humans have this in their power. Maybe they are already doing it with the beast people, accidentally. Your visitor foments wars between humans and beast people. The humans always eventually win because they are humans. Aggressive and warlike beast people bring only devastation to their people. Those who survive are humiliated and are not allowed to breed. They might even be castrated.

Scientific and scholarly minded individuals on the other hand can benefit from peaceable association with humans. Over generations, these individuals (who are also usually survivors of conflict) have more and more influence on their societies and leave more descendants.

I stole this idea from Larry Niven and the Man-Kzin wars! Aggression was bred out of the beast people (the Kzinti) by the use of war with humans to cull the most aggressive members of their race.

https://larryniven.fandom.com/wiki/Kzin

A total of five additional Man-Kzin wars take place by the time Beowulf Schaeffer commented "The Kzinti aren't really a threat. They'll always attack before they're ready".[6] With decreasingly impressive logistical and technological advantages, each war results in the confiscation or liberation of one or more colony planets by the humans...

The Kzin reverses were deliberately engineered by the Pierson's Puppeteers, who lured the Outsiders to We Made It in the first place. The Puppeteers had hoped that the culling of a quarter to a third of the more aggressive members of the Kzinti with every war would result in a more peaceful race, or at least one that was capable of coexisting with other species without trying to kill and eat them at every turn.[8] This shift in Kzin attitudes succeeded spectacularly, although the Kzinti themselves do not think very highly of the changes, nor of the price they paid to achieve them.

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The trick is to have this turn out differently than Niven did. Maybe most of the beast people are culled to nonaggressiveness like the Kzin, or are largely wiped out. But under this evolutionary pressure, one race of beast people changes in an unexpected way...