Since the time of Socrates, there has existed a sentiment among certain people that the pursuit of philosophy (including the philosophy of science) is a critical part of a worthwhile existence – summed up in Socrates quote, “The unexamined life is not worth living”. This view has its basis in human’s greater ability to understand our world compared to our other-species cousins – now that we’ve discovered a path to move from simply existing in our world to actually understanding it, it is our obligation to commit our lives to furthering the latter path. This sentiment has only magnified with recent innovations, as it has become clear that at some point (emphasis on the level of uncertainty) we’ll uncover the mechanisms that allow our brains to make sense of the world, and will then find a way to manipulate our world in such a way as to create “artifacts” (I use “artifacts” in the most general sense possible here) which will carry out these same reasoning processes in even more comprehensive ways. I have felt this drive – this sentiment that the only sensible thing to spend a life on is the pursuit of this further understanding and eventual creation of higher intelligence. This line of thinking offers a means of jumping “outside the system” – we’ve been created in a physics based world, which eventually gave rise to an evolutionary system, which more recently has created a more memetic system (in Dawkins’ sense) – and we can now leverage memes to loop back and understand the physics of our world, the evolutionary system, and even the memetic system which has made these insights possible. Quite the “strange loop”. With all the power of this method of thinking, it seems Socrates must have been right about his assessment of the worthy ways of life – however, at the subjective level of “I”, this evaluation seems to break down. We do care greatly about, and spend significant mental energy on, more evolutionary aims – such as supporting our loved ones, obtaining status within the community, securing a comfortable life, etc. Why do we find it so hard to distance ourselves from evolutionary cares, even when we fully subscribe to the primary importance of philosophical pursuits? Is this a blessing, or a curse? Let’s explore further.
Our inability to fully shift our priorities is due to the fact that our brains and thought processes are still intricately tied up with our evolutionary systems. It may feel as though we have full control of our thoughts, but in reality our minds jump around as various ideas connect with each other – there’s no homunculus driver directing the flow (you can feel this yourself – close your eyes, and try to think about nothing. Give it a minute or two, and see what thoughts start to swirl around in your mind – you’ll find your mind jumping to thoughts about things relevant in your life, without “you” guiding it there. Throughout our daily lives, our minds jump around to all sorts of topics and make all sorts of connections between ideas – this process is “you”, but there’s no separate “you” driving). As our minds jump, they unavoidably maintain connection with the evolutionary drives / processes – even if the relative weighting of these drives are lowered through experience. We can’t escape the hold our heritage has on our minds, any more than we can escape our need to sleep or eat. It seems minds won’t be able to escape these barriers until humans learn to create artificial minds, which will be unencumbered by the evolutionary baggage that was necessary to keep our genes safe through current day. With that being said, it seems we’re tied, at least in part, to this unexamined manner of living (with unexamined here representing the physical and evolutionary aspects of organization). Is it possible to see these constraints in a positive light?
Although there’s obvious pressure to hunt for a positive spin (as we’re unable to change the situation of our origin and current existence), upon closer look, it does seem there is a real, tangible manner of thinking about this topic that reconciles the examined life with the unexamined. Once we become comfortable with Dennett’s view of “I” – an “I” that is the matter that makes it up, and the processes that make it go, and the brain waves that specify its body’s interaction with the world – we realize that our evolutionary drives may be constraints with regards to thinking and reasoning, but are key enablers of us. This view only makes sense with a holistic view of ourselves – we are more than our minds; we are the sum of all the processes that make us up, and more. So the next time you feel stressed about your inability to live a fully examined life, remember that you’re just being you.
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