Activity

Hairsplitting is fine. I wrote this in response to the endless hairsplitting that goes on about where we came from and how we survived and why we are “good”. Not surprising that it didn’t end the debate. I don’t think it descends to the level of deepity though. It’s not ambiguous and it’s not obviously false. To make the case that there is logic, i.e. science, that explains why we care about each other, you would need to use the latest advances in neuroscience, biology, evolution and pre-history. None of this was available until recently, and most of it is not widely understood. I’d be surprised to find evidence of a consensus.

But, rather than go down that academic road, think of it in terms of the arguments that are actually occurring. The ones in living rooms, not formal debates. According to some, if it’s true that life arose from chemical reactions and intelligence is merely a continuation of those reactions, then we can’t claim that any of it is rational. I’m essentially conceding that point. I can’t explain it in full, I can only rely on what others have discovered and trust they did their work correctly, which is very similar to relying on the chemical reactions to have gotten it all right. I could talk the philosophy of mind all day and the logic of evolving to fit the physical reality, but no one knows everything, so do I really know anything? A basic premise of science is that you can’t prove anything to 100% certainty, yet, it goes on to base new ideas on those less 100% certain ideas.

Instead, I look to what does exist and sum up all the cooperation and caring that had to happen to build things like the Apocrypha. I skip over the part where that civilization collapsed, because we know all civilizations collapse. We also know that something survives, that people still want to build a better world for their children so they try again despite the evidence of failure everywhere. So, we must care about each other on some level to want to do that.