Miscellaneous comments and hypotheses
Quote for today:
The opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds.Thomas Jefferson
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The Evolution of Reason
Posted on July 26th, 2009 No commentsMan, we have now reason to believe, has been evolved from infra-human ancestors, in whom pure reason scarcely existed, if at all, and whose mind, so far as it can have any function, would appear to have been an organ for adapting their movements to the impressions received from the environment, so as to escape the better from destruction… Our sensations are here to attract us, or to deter us, our memories to warn or encourage us, our feelings to impel, and our thoughts to restrain our behavior, so that on the whole we may prosper and our days be long in the land.
William James, “Talks to Teachers,” 1902
In other words, the human mind did not evolve because the ability to devise complex philosophical systems promoted our survival.
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