Question: I find your thought and postings fascinating.
I am an (old) student of philosophy.
Have you come across the book " The Selfish Gene ?" If so, could you please post your thought on it here ?
Answer: DNA's primary function is survival. Any deviation from this function is forced, adapted orartificially induced and therefore not permanent. Being selfish, as opposed to being unselfish, is cardinal to the principal of survival, and therefore automatically part and parcel of all living beings - as we know them, in our world.
Humans, however, unlike other beings, have moved beyond genetics, as is proved by the fact that they are in the process of destroying themselves -- not because of being 'unselfish,' but because of being conscious of their existence, and therefore creating the instinct of curiosity and enlarging it way beyond the instinct of survival. I'd like to expand on this crucial point later on. . .
Monday, March 06, 2006
A question, and my reply, from a comment on my previous post:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Ramesh :
I am puzzled by your despondency of the human condition.
Sure enough, we could be on the fast track to oblivion due to our curiosity or being intelligent (I use the word loosely) creatures.
However, the dinousaurs fit your description of creatures that lived in harmony with nature/ ignorant of the self etc, but that did not help them any to survive the blast or whatever that took them away.
I think the true winner of this game is "life"/"life-force" or the Gene that progress on irrespective of who the carrier is : be it an algae/Dinosaur/chimp or a human.
That we are shells that have an elaborate mechanism/behaviors to ensure that we procreate and allow the gene to carry on is our contribution to life.
This mere act in of itself is also pointless, but hey why not allow the fun to continue ?
- Kumar
Indeed, whether or not you or I decree, the 'fun' -- or whatever is going on in human experience -- will continue. The 'fun' is part of the stew.
Please don't be puzzled by my despondency. My despondency has not arisen from the human condition. It has come about because I have obliterated my subconscious. It is the subconscious which supports, through benign deceit and duplicity, man's belief in his importance to the cosmos, and therefore validates his existence.
I lost this luxury and comfort, but that alone cannot cause the fatal despondency that afflicts me. The problem is in seeking an absolute and finding that even an absolute, when found, will not be an absolute because it can dwell only in intelligent, conscious minds, which are themselves transient. On one hand, therefore, living without the benefit of the cushions and comfortable adjustments that the subconscious provides and sustains; and on the other, being punished by being condemned to isolation because my ideas, while they are harmless at an academic level, challenge the very roots of the herd mentality, which has to reject me at any cost. Simply, it is that I understand the universe, and therefore, at micro levels, life on earth; in return, I am not only not understood, but viciously misunderstood. I can forgive; I cannot be forgiven. This is stupendous isolation.
Post a Comment