Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia; Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.
Post 39.06/05/2018continued . . .
Enlightenment vs Occultism
Reason versus Intuition Throughout his new book, Enlightenment Now!, Steven Pinker contrasts the progressive power of human reason, as exempli-fied in Science, against the regressive forces of un-reason, typified by Religion, Romanticism, and Postmodernism. The latter exploit human fears, and other emotions, to corral & control the arrogance of human individualism & self-reliance in the face of a fatalistic destiny. One worldview puts the whim of capricious gods in control, another endures its brief life as a heroic tragedy/comedy doomed to failure, and the latter accuses 20th century Modernism of subordinating the free expression of intuitive Art to the rigid logical structures of rational Science. Admittedly, there may be some truth in all of those anti-science, anti-reason reactions. But on the whole, history simply records the never-ending mood swings of humanity's inner conflict between the heart and the head. After decades of religion, politics, and even academia waging war on agnostic, a-political, & pragmatic Science, Pinker is still optimistic that cool-headed Reason will prevail.
The current forms of that ancient contest between thinking & feeling are simply a continuation of the ancient Apollo versus Dionysus myth1. Which was reinvented in the Enlightenment era notion of the historical Dialectic. That cultural mechanism was presented by idealist philosopher Hegel as-if it was somehow directed toward some mysterious ultimate goal. Realist scientist Pinker spotted the same progressive signal within the random noise2 of what he called “incrementing” and “decrementing”. Even so, he denies that the appearance of progress is a sign of divine intention, and points to the erratic randomness to show that no one is in control. Yet, I think he missed a key point of Hegel's theory : history is directional and teleological only on the grand scale. The Dialectic predicts short-term unpredict-ability within long-term patterns of positive gains in human “flourishing”. Which is exactly what Pinker found in his research. Clearly, individual wills and “best laid plans” are not responsible for such progress. So some sort of collective intention, or holistic direction, is reflected in the upward curve of the human condition as illustrated in Pinker's charts & graphs. I think he would agree that, beyond the 5 year limit of planner's pro-jections, it's best to bet on progress. But toward what end?
Pinker thinks the collective goal of human will is more than mere surviving, but directed toward thriving. So that may be the purpose behind positive cultural evolution. But, as I pointed out before, evolution was progressing, in the sense of con-structing anti-entropy entities, long before humans emerged. So the original direction & intention must have been program-med into the DNA, initial laws & conditions, of the cosmic egg. In any case, human progress can be attributed to a combin-ation of emotional will-to-live, and rational imagination of something better than the status quo – a value judgment. But human values are expressed in both Religion, as morality, and Science as, technology. That leaves Philosophy in the middle to reconcile the differences in emphasis.
Post 39 continued . . . click Next
Come over to the dark side. But which is which?
1. Apollonian vs Dionysian Nietzsche is credited with popularizing this old theory that is intended to explain the see-saw balance between Reason & Emotion as drivers of human history. It postu-lates twin forces in the world that are constantly struggling for dominance. The erratic path of history was compared to Socrates’ give & take method of reasoning, and also to Hegel’s theory of a spiritual dialectic force that keeps history on track toward a distant destiny despite the day-to-day tug-of-war be-tween clashing worldviews. The Greek god Apollo was symbolic of the orderly & reasonable half of human nature. His nemesis, Dio-nysus, was artistic & intuitive. The result of their quarrels is the tragedy of humans always seeking peace & harmony, but finding disorder & discord. In this blog, the terms will typically refer to Reason & Intuition, and their physical correlates : the brain’s deliberating frontal lobes and the impulsive limbic system. Pinker favors the dominance of Realism & Science over Romanticism & Religion. As long as we have mammalian bodies though, our emotions & impulses will drive most of our behavior. But ideally, the direction of that drive will be guided by forward-looking reason. •https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollonian_and_Dionysian
2. Signal to Noise Progressive dialectic pattern can be found despite the zigs & zags of history’s opposing forces.
Enlightenment Now The Case For Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
NEXT
BACK
Forum
