Today I'll present to you the answer to the question "Why am I here?" from a historical perspective. Behind me, you see a schematic representation of my ideas.
We begin with the factual observation that there is existence: a universe, matter, stars, planets, and living organisms. In our sensory experience, it is just there.
Molecules have organized themselves into living organisms. Again, don't ask how or why. We simply don't know. We may hold some theories, perhaps, but that's it.
What we observe is, that this phenomenon of life has the drive to preserve and continue life. It wants to survive. This applies to the single-celled organism up to the complicated organism, Homo Sapiens.
The driving forces that make this possible are fear and pleasure. And in this process of survival and procreation there pops up something that we call "the mind", the unique tool of homo sapiens.
This tool enables him to understand what benefits and what threatens his survival. The basis of this ability to understand is his capability to discriminate between good and evil, right and wrong.
In a simple way understood, right is what is good for oneself or what is good for all. We know that homo sapiens is both: a selfish creature,but also a social creature.
To survive, he has the possibility to choose one or both of these flavours. What offers the best chances? A Hobbesian war of all against all or a lifestyle in which everyone benefits.
Through history homo sapiens has had a lot of time to figure out what fits his nature best and we see a development process from primitive tribalism to what we enjoy now, democracy.
In this context, it isn't relevant to debate whether democracy is doing its job or not. For the moment let's imagine a possible world in which representation, participation, accountability, freedom, and the like prevail.
Let's put it on a timeline. Astronomers have determined that our universe is 13.7 billion years old. Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago and evidence suggests that life emerged prior to 3.7 billion years ago.
Science suggests that animal evolution may have begun about 750 million years ago. There is a long-running debate about whether modern humans evolved all over the world simultaneously from existing advanced hominines
or are descendants of a single small population in Africa, which then migrated all over the world less than 200,000 years ago and replaced previous hominine species.
There is also debate about whether anatomically modern humans had an intellectual, cultural, and technological "Great Leap Forward" under 40,000–50,000 years ago and, if so, whether this was due to neurological changes that are not visible in fossils.
If we project the timeline of life in the universe on one year (= 4 billion years) we must conclude that Homo Sapiens is existing for barely an hour on December 31 so far.
Even in this short time, we see that he has gradually improved his human condition. However, as we have learned in the previous lectures Homo Sapiens still suffers of a mental handycap called stupidity.
But in the light of the slow but steady progress he has made to improve his human condition, this trait may disappear in the evolutionary process
Thus, I have shown you what gives meaning to my life: understanding life, teaching, and love....
Thank you... the floor is yours...
Main Sources:
MacMillan The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd edition
TABLE OF CONTENT -----------------------------------------------------------------
1 - 100 Philosophers 9 May 2009 Start of
2 - 25+ Women Philosophers 10 May 2009 this blog
3 - 25 Adventures in Thinking 10 May 2009
4 - Modern Theories of Ethics 29 Oct 2009
5 - The Ideal State 24 Febr 2010 / 234
6 - The Mystery of the Brain 3 Sept 2010 / 266
7 - The Utopia of the Free Market 16 Febr 2012 / 383
8. - The Aftermath of Neo-liberalism 5 Sept 2012 / 413
9. - The Art Not to Be an Egoist 6 Nov 2012 / 426
10 - Non-Western Philosophy 29 May 2013 / 477
11 - Why Science is Right 2 Sept 2014 / 534
12 - A Philosopher looks at Atheism 1 Jan 2015 / 557
13 - EVIL, a philosophical investigation 17 Apr 2015 / 580
14 - Existentialism and Free Will 2 Sept 2015 / 586
15 - Spinoza 2 Sept 2016 / 615
16 - The Meaning of Life 13 Febr 2017 / 637
17 - In Search of my Self 6 Sept 2017 / 670
18 - The 20th Century Revisited 3 Apr 2018 / 706
19 - The Pessimist 11 Jan 2020 / 819
20 - The Optimist 9 Febr 2020 / 824
21 - Awakening from a Neoliberal Dream 8 Oct 2020 / 872
22 - A World Full of Patterns 1 Apr 2021 / 912
23 - The Concept of Freedom 8 Jan 2022 / 965
24 - Materialism 7 Sept 2022 / 1011
25 - Historical Materialism 5 Oct 2023 / 1088
26 - The Bonobo and the Atheist 9 Jan 2024 / 1102
27 - Artificial Intelligence 9 Feb 2024 / 1108
28 - Why Am I Here 6 Sept 2024 / 1139
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