# Do Philosophers ever take Evolution into account?

**URL:** <https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913>\
**Category:** Philosophy\
**Created:** [May 7, 2021, 12:08pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913 "2021-05-07T12:08:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 12

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**Author:** ![citizenschallengev4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/citizenschallengev4/32/28718_2.png) [@citizenschallengev4](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/citizenschallengev4)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2022, 5:32pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/222 "2022-11-07T17:32:44Z")

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> [@write4u](#):
>
> It is life that is fine tuned to the Earth’s local conditions.

What does that actually tell you about life? How can you build on that? Or what can you extract out of that?

On the other hand, take a statement that comes out of actual fundamental observations:

> “We cannot understand an organism without also understanding its environment.”

Recognizes the significances of the barrier life forms create around themselves.  
Recognizes that an organism’s development and evolution is absolutely depend on the environment it’s embedded within. The two are part of the same dynamic inter-connected physically reality.

Or to put it another way:

> **[Enactivism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enactivism)** and ecological psychology converge on the relevance of the environment in understanding perception and action.  
> On both views, **perceiving organisms are not merely passive receivers of environmental stimuli, but rather form a dynamic relationship with their environments** in such a way that shapes how they interact with the world.

Or **[here](http://ace.acadiau.ca/~dreid/enactivism/)**.

> [@write4u](#):
>
> > [@citizenschallengev4](#):
> >
> > Being impressed by that number is simply a gauge of how superficially one understands the full scope of Earth’s pageant of evolution.
> 
> That just depends on your ability to imagine.

Or lack thereof.  
Who is any of us to talk?  
Who was Descartes to talk?  
Lot of reaching for perfection and absolutes. A superb mind, discipled and organized and steadfast.  
But when it comes down to actual science of understanding this physical world - what did he have to offer?  
Not his fault, had he lived in a later age, his mind would have had facts to work with, rather than trapped in the jail of his own philosophizing and logic-ing.

He’s remembered for his thinking ability and the conceit that: I THINK THEREFORE I AM - which is really a whole bunch of baloney as most recognized, even as they embrace the conceit.

We are evolved biological observation instruments - we think as an evolutionary consequence of existing in a physical world.  
That world will exist long after we are gone.

That’s why I keep arguing with reason and references and attempt to layout my position as rationally as I can. It’s also why I take the time to review your and other contrary arguments.

I’ve never claimed to be unbiased, that doesn’t mean I’m closed to new information.

But if that information simply doesn’t compute with the accumulated knowledge I possess,  
such as supposing our consciousness mind and our homeostasis systems don’t communicate with each other, well, what can I say. It doesn’t compute.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![citizenschallengev4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/citizenschallengev4/32/28718_2.png) [@citizenschallengev4](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/citizenschallengev4)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2022, 5:54pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/223 "2022-11-07T17:54:33Z")

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> [@citizenschallengev4](#):
>
> I’ve never claimed to be unbiased, that doesn’t mean I’m closed to new information.

What [I have claimed](https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.com/search?q=Earth+Centrism) is that at an early age I was given [a free pass, that apparently left me immune to religious indoctrination](https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.com/2021/04/an-element-earths-pageant-of-evolution.html).  
I have also claimed that much of today’s philosophizing is haunted and saturated with the hangover of religious indoctrination. Read Descartes repetitive references to God, and perfection and certainty - before rebuking me on this.

> **The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Discourse on Method, by René Descartes**
> 
> [**https://www.gutenberg.org/files/59/59-h/59-h.htm**](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/59/59-h/59-h.htm)  
> “God” is found 30 times
> 
> “Soul” is found 18 times
> 
> “Perfection” is found 24 times
> 
> “Metaphysic” is found 11 times
> 
> “True” is found 34 times
> 
> “Truth” is found 67 times

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![write4u](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/write4u/32/23410_2.png) [@write4u](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/write4u)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2022, 9:28pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/224 "2022-11-07T21:28:33Z")

</div>

> [@citizenschallengev4](#):
>
> “We cannot understand an organism without also understanding its environment.”

We don’t need to understand the environment at all as long as we have the required survival mechanisms.

Animals don’t understand nature, but all living organisms are physically and behaviorally attuned to nature.

You are reading more into it than it needs .  
You are citing billions of years of evolution is if that happened in a day.  
The fact is that evolution isn’t complicated at all.  
It is a very simple mathematical equation that over time creates complex patterns.  
Just look at the evolutionary curve of a simple fractal code.  
This is what happens with the evolution of regularly repeating patterns

[![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/centerforinquiry/original/2X/d/d2d9496e9f6efef8e31253800a9f29ce38e6ff95.jpeg "Chaos Game | Fractals emerging from chaos | Computer simulation |") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGlGvSXkRGI)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![citizenschallengev4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/citizenschallengev4/32/28718_2.png) [@citizenschallengev4](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/citizenschallengev4)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2022, 4:08am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/225 "2022-11-09T04:08:35Z")

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> [@write4u](#):
>
> > [@citizenschallengev4](#):
> >
> > “We cannot understand an organism without also understanding its environment.”
> 
> We don’t need to understand the environment at all as long as we have the required survival mechanisms.

Why are you doing this apples and walnuts thing.  
Ifn’t one wanted to understand an organism, one would then need to understand the environment it was built for (exists within)!

If we “wanted to understand the environment, or not” is an entirely different matter.

> [@write4u](#):
>
> You are reading more into it than it needs .

Says the guy that suggests I watch that Hameroff video.

Incidentally Write, what thread did you embed that video into, I can’t find where it’s posted?  
Though I’ve watched that video, and done a bit of fact checking.  
But that’s for another time.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![write4u](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/write4u/32/23410_2.png) [@write4u](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/write4u)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2022, 5:45am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/226 "2022-11-09T05:45:07Z")

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> [@write4u](#):
>
> > [@citizenschallengev4](#):
> >
> > “We cannot understand an organism without also understanding its environment.”
> 
> We don’t need to understand the environment at all as long as we have the required survival mechanisms.

You are absolutely right. I read that in haste and gave you a knee jerk response.  
Of course it requires knowledge of the environment to understand an organism and why it has specific adaptive qualities to that environment.

I was thinking that the organism does not need to “understand” its environment to have the evolved required survival mechanisms, but that was a bad interpretation of your question. My apologies.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![write4u](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/write4u/32/23410_2.png) [@write4u](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/write4u)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2022, 6:24pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/227 "2022-11-09T18:24:48Z")

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> [@citizenschallengev4](#):
>
> Incidentally Write, what thread did you embed that video into, I can’t find where it’s posted?

Here it is again.  
Mind that I am not so much into the spiritual aspects, even as a universal quantum concept, where the quantum event generates a “bing”, an instance of unconscious cognition, somewhat like homeostasis (balancing mechanisms in connected organic biochemical complexities).

So I just concentrate on the science of anesthesia, at which Dr. Hameroff is a practising expert.

Pay attention to the illustration of brain function @ 8:45  
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xx0SsffdMBw?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&start=2

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lausten](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/lausten/32/23705_2.png) [@lausten](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/lausten)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2022, 3:16pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/228 "2022-11-11T15:16:06Z")

</div>

Do Philosophers ever take Evolution into account?

Yes. If you are talking about modern philosophers, that know modern science and are theorizing based on it. If not, they are pseudo-philosophers. Science is the marriage of the traditional mythological type thinking, asking why, coming up with an answer, AND, logical, empirical, testing of those thoughts, putting them into language that can be understood across disciplines.

Evolution includes the last 10,000 years when science rose and fell around the world. The natural human tendency is to mess with things, make tools, advance crafts, fight about them, and be at the mercy of the environment. Science is counter-intuitive. It took time to develop the values of groups of people over divine rule. It required some of the things we don’t like, like military skills and capitalism.

We’re still working on it. It’s why people say things like “it’s common sense” or “it’s obvious” when they hear something from a rich person who controls a lot of resources. Here are a series of two articles that brought it all together for me.

[Rome vs. China: What Made the Difference? • Richard Carrier](https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/19104)

[The Origins of Greek Philosophy » Internet Infidels](https://infidels.org/library/modern/the-origins-of-greek-philosophy/)

Note to Write4: The second article includes the importance of the development of an alphabet with vowels. It allowed people to learn language quicker, and have a language that crossed disciplines. Before that, there was only specialized knowledge that only a few could gain.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![write4u](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/write4u/32/23410_2.png) [@write4u](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/write4u)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2022, 6:05pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/229 "2022-11-11T18:05:46Z")

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> [@lausten](#):
>
> Note to Write4: The second article includes the importance of the development of an alphabet with vowels. It allowed people to learn language quicker, and have a language that crossed disciplines. Before that, there was only specialized knowledge that only a few could gain.

Yes, once we could express abstractly how things worked that’s when “knowledge” increased exponentially.

But as Bonnie Bassler posited, it was the bacteria that first used bio-chemical words for “quorum sensing” (collective decision-making) and being some of the oldest living things, marked the beginning of communication in living organisms.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lausten](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/lausten/32/23705_2.png) [@lausten](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/lausten)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2022, 6:38pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/230 "2022-11-11T18:38:46Z")

</div>

Yes, I think it was Firmucutes who said, “we shall sense the quorom and move forward to a new dawn”

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![write4u](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/write4u/32/23410_2.png) [@write4u](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/write4u)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2022, 7:25pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/231 "2022-11-11T19:25:03Z")

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> [@lausten](#):
>
> Yes, I think it was Firmucutes who said, “we shall sense the quorum and move forward to a new dawn”

Come to think of it, democracies are founded on the principle of quorum sensing.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![citizenschallengev4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/citizenschallengev4/32/28718_2.png) [@citizenschallengev4](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/citizenschallengev4)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 2:34pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/232 "2022-11-16T14:34:19Z")

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> [@lausten](#):
>
> Do Philosophers ever take Evolution into account?  
> Yes. If you are talking about modern philosophers, that know modern science and are theorizing based on it.

But then you offer up an interesting article, but still, it’s all about the adventures of the human mindscape, the “struggle” between philosophizing and sober science among differ people. Another on the Greek dark ages and origins of their philosophical outlook.

Not a word about evolutionary stage setting, or about human’s animal nature.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lausten](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/lausten/32/23705_2.png) [@lausten](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/lausten)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 3:09pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/233 "2022-11-16T15:09:00Z")

</div>

Where is the line between human mindscape and our evolving bodies, which includes the mind. We evolved to be able to use language. Either there is no distinction, or you are moving goalposts.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![citizenschallengev4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/citizenschallengev4/32/28718_2.png) [@citizenschallengev4](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/citizenschallengev4)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 3:18pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/234 "2022-11-16T15:18:50Z")

</div>

> [@lausten](#):
>
> Where is the line between human mindscape and our evolving bodies, which includes the mind.

> One of the deepest and most lasting legacies of [Descartes’](https://iep.utm.edu/descarte/#SH7b) philosophy is his thesis that mind and body are really distinct—a thesis now called “mind-body dualism.” He reaches this conclusion by arguing that the nature of the mind (that is, a thinking, non-extended thing) is completely different from that of the body (that is, an extended, non-thinking thing), and therefore it is possible for one to exist without the other. [Descartes, Rene: Mind-Body Distinction | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy](https://iep.utm.edu/rene-descartes-mind-body-distinction-dualism/)

> **[Cognition | Definition, Psychology, Examples, & Facts](https://www.britannica.com/topic/cognition-thought-process)**
>
> Cognition, the states and processes involved in knowing.

etc.

> [@lausten](#):
>
> We evolved to be able to use language. Either there is no distinction, or you are moving goalposts.

Okay, we evolved to be able to use language, your point is?

Don’t understand what you are trying to say, or ask, here.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lausten](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/lausten/32/23705_2.png) [@lausten](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/lausten)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 3:41pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/235 "2022-11-16T15:41:52Z")

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> [@citizenschallengev4](#):
>
> etc

Just as quick response for now…

Why are you presenting the dualist narrative? We agree it’s wrong.

Lots of people see the problem and are trying to figure it out.

[https://www.consciousentities.com/2018/09/whats-wrong-with-dualism/](https://www.consciousentities.com/2018/09/whats-wrong-with-dualism/)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![citizenschallengev4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/citizenschallengev4/32/28718_2.png) [@citizenschallengev4](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/citizenschallengev4)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 3:49pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/236 "2022-11-16T15:49:08Z")

</div>

Hmmm, the narrative is wrong, OK but does that make the observation wrong?

Are you disputing the fact of the qualitative material difference between,  
physical matter, brain/body -  
and the thoughts that emanate from that body?

I look forward to your reading list.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lausten](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/lausten/32/23705_2.png) [@lausten](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/lausten)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 5:15pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/237 "2022-11-16T17:15:38Z")

</div>

> [@citizenschallengev4](#):
>
> Are you disputing the fact of the qualitative material difference between,  
> physical matter, brain/body -  
> and the thoughts that emanate from that body?

What facts do you have about the material of thoughts? Who has solved that problem? Where is there a thought in a jar somewhere? What is the entire process of thoughts “emanating”? Thoughts are something different than sensations and the physics of perception, but that doesn’t tell us what thoughts are.

Here’s something I dug up from the archives, back in 2016, before it became imperative to try to figure out how to talk to people who think I’m bent on destroying their way of life.

> **[028 - Where does morality come from? with Dan Fincke](https://www.spreaker.com/episode/028-where-does-morality-come-from-with-dan-fincke--7907646)**
>
> This week I speak with popular blogger and philosopher, Daniel Fincke. Daniel received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Fordham University in 2010 and currently tea

At 31 minutes Ryan asks where we get morality from. Dan takes 12 minutes, and covers the evolution of humans and the intrinsic desires that motivate us to build a society. He notes it is based on scholarship, but just quickly gives one reference.

My notes:  
Evolution doesn’t dictate how we use the skills inherited.  
1 Selective pressures vs what we actually have, how did we get them.  
2 We thrive best when we are cooperating. We also had some in-group protection, like hate was a strategy, but that’s “how we got here”, not proscriptive of how we should live  
The science of Decision Theory. Started with Hobbs, Kant. Rosseau, developed the values, before the math  
Why prefer life? Why not be a free rider? 1) Power is good, but it’s more than domination, we developed those powers because we are them, 2) To do that, I need the functioning society and other people, we thrive through empowering each other, it takes less power to destroy things than build things, 3) No need for a divine “ought”, we have practical reasons for decision making.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![citizenschallengev4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/citizenschallengev4/32/28718_2.png) [@citizenschallengev4](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/citizenschallengev4)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 1:44am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/238 "2022-11-17T01:44:54Z")

</div>

> [@lausten](#):
>
> What facts do you have about the material of thoughts? Who has solved that problem?

That’s the whole point of deeply pondering and appreciating the Physical Reality ~ Mindscape Divide - it isn’t “material” - though it’s produced by the material body interacting with the material world

> [@lausten](#):
>
> Who has solved that problem?

Heck if you want to be that way, no problems in science have really be “solved” solved. Always be more to learn.

> [@lausten](#):
>
> Where is there a thought in a jar somewhere?

There’s the rub isn’t it? Our thoughts are not like anything in our material world.

> [@lausten](#):
>
> What is the entire process of thoughts “emanating”?

Study up on Antonio Damasio and [Mark Solms](https://chicagoanalysis.org/faculty/mark-solms/) and the [Alan Institute](https://alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/brain-science/), or the [Connectome Project](https://www.humanconnectome.org), they are learning an incredible amount about how our senses receive and process information - what is the null hypothesis that the flow stops there? It makes no sense. That those impulses then blossom into thoughts that bound back through the system, that seem pretty coherent.

Oh and it’s those experts who are the one’s who have framed the new paradigm, that consciousness is basically the inside reflection of our body/mind dealing with itself and the world it find itself in.

Besides what else makes any coherent sense, that consciousness is somehow beamed down to us from on high, or via Hoffman Conscious Agents, like anything could keep track of all the conscious interaction unfolding at any given moment.

Thanks, I’ll check out that link.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lausten](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/lausten/32/23705_2.png) [@lausten](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/lausten)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 1:55am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/239 "2022-11-17T01:55:32Z")

</div>

> [@citizenschallengev4](#):
>
> That’s the whole point of deeply pondering and appreciating the Physical Reality ~ Mindscape Divide - it isn’t “material”

I only asked because you said it was. I’m trying to nail down what you’re talking about. You want to ponder, but aren’t interested in anyone else’s ponderings.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lausten](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/lausten/32/23705_2.png) [@lausten](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/lausten)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 3:11am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/240 "2022-11-17T03:11:17Z")

</div>

I don’t get what I’m supposed to learn from connectome. There are gallery images and talk about the project, but i don’t have the tools to interpret the data

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![citizenschallengev4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/citizenschallengev4/32/28718_2.png) [@citizenschallengev4](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/citizenschallengev4)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 1:41am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/do-philosophers-ever-take-evolution-into-account/7913/241 "2022-11-18T01:41:00Z")

</div>

> Here’s something I dug up from the archives, back in 2016, before it became imperative to try to figure out how to talk to people who think I’m bent on destroying their way of life.
> 
> ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/centerforinquiry/original/2X/3/3cedbb641e54230f9ea29d46b12bc37b72ffee96.png)[Spreaker](https://www.spreaker.com/user/lifeaftergod/028-where-does-morality-come-from-with-d)
> 
> ### [028 - Where does morality come from? with Dan Fincke](https://www.spreaker.com/user/lifeaftergod/028-where-does-morality-come-from-with-d)
> 
> This week I speak with popular blogger and philosopher, Daniel Fincke. Daniel received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Fordham University in 2010 and currently teaches classes online to anyone who is int
> 
> At 31 minutes Ryan asks where we get morality from. Dan takes 12 minutes, and covers the evolution of humans and the intrinsic desires that motivate us to build a society. He notes it is based on scholarship, but just quickly gives one reference.
> 
> > [@lausten](#):
> >
> > Here’s something I dug up from the archives, back in 2016, before it became imperative to try to figure out how to talk to people who think I’m bent on destroying their way of life.
> > 
> > [028 - Where does morality come from? with Dan Fincke](https://www.spreaker.com/user/lifeaftergod/028-where-does-morality-come-from-with-d)
> > 
> > At 31 minutes Ryan asks where we get morality from. Dan takes 12 minutes, and covers the evolution of humans and the intrinsic desires that motivate us to build a society. He notes it is based on scholarship, but just quickly gives one reference.

At about 34 minutes he dismisses the importance of understand where we came and how we developed - for understanding what we have and what we’re going to do with that.

He does point out we are a species that does best when cooperating.

34:50 he doubles down on the dismissal of understanding evolutionary origins

He claims, none of that knowledge tells us how to live.

35:00, no arguing what he says about us existing in a world that can only thrive cooperatively.

37:00 How do we know we should want to flourish  
1)

What about someone could still be a free rider

~ We should see power as the ultimate good.  
~ But that we should expand out understanding of power.

~ Why develop our talents, because we are our talents

Self interest is in maximizing one’s skills.

40:00 Why then cooperate with the social contract?  
For me to succeed I need a thriving society, it’s what empowers me, I have a self-interest in see that it functions as well as it can.

…

He’s an interesting guy, enjoyed listening to him and can appreciate where he’s coming from and it’s okay for what it is,  
Still it sure isn’t any where near, my longed for, an example of philosophy incorporating a serious deep understanding of Evolution into their understanding of our self first, and then onto our morals and so on.

* * *

He doesn’t mention the fundamental fact that consciousness, (and also living for that matter), is all about interactions. And that lack gets reflected in his attitude. Ego-centric and he brings it to a crescendo at the end of his 12 minutes.

He doesn’t acknowledge that each of us is an evolved biological sensing, thinking organism, born out of the mammalian milieu.

He doesn’t acknowledge that God is a product of our own individual and collective imaginations/thoughts/mindscape.

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