Wednesday, August 17, 2011
How should the fact that there is no free will change how we perceive the world? Well, if you really believe it, there is no point in getting angry or frustrated with someone, hating “evil people” for their actions, etc. We are who we are, and that’s just how it is. It is nobody’s “fault” in a moral sense (though certainly the actions of other individuals have a great deal of effect on a person’s present state). Of course, we will continue to get angry and frustrated, continue to consider some people and actions “evil” or at least “selfish,” etc. This is simply the human condition, and we can’t help it (emotional reactions are what spur us to keep others in line with a social system that benefits all). But perhaps a deeper understanding will moderate our reactions somewhat.
Does this mean that it is to our advantage to be evil and selfish? (By conventional standards, of course) The answer is yes–sort of. To the extent that we can be evil and selfish, it may be to our advantage (in terms of increasing our happiness) to do so. Not always (sometimes being evil and selfish can cause problems, especially problems involving the judgments of others) but often enough. There’s the rub, though: despite knowing objectively that there is no higher reason not to be evil and selfish, we still can’t help feeling bad about being so, at least some of the time. Morality is built into us, not just on a deep cultural level, but on a basic biological level that has resulted from evolution favoring those of us who could work together. In other words, objectively morality is meaningless, but subjectively, it fills our lives and is impossible to escape from. In this sense, morality is real–it’s very real, it’s as real as real can be, since it immediately affects the bedrock of our well being and inflects every interpretation we make of the world. Since it is inescapable, our best move, from a rational standpoint, is to go with it. We should try to be virtuous people, by our own lights, and let ourselves enjoy feeling good about ourselves when we live up to our expectations. We can, in fact, get a lot out of our morality from a happiness standpoint–it gives us goals to strive for that add a sense of meaning and purpose to our lives (illusory though this sense may be) and gives us clean pleasure when we act as we think we should. Having a moral code and following it gives a person self-esteem of a quality that they cannot get from other sources, thanks to the way our biological/cultural being is constructed. Moral values are restrictive strictures that biology and society restrain us with, but they can be a positive boon as well–perhaps the most positive parts of our lives.
By bringing the bedrock nature of our values into question, the truth [physical materialism –ed.] leads us away from happiness, this time the happiness of being certain of our goals and of the “right” way to behave. We can no longer pat ourselves on the back quite so hard for our good deeds, since we know they are only “good” by our own standards. This does not mean we cannot still live moral lives and benefit emotionally and, yes, even spiritually from it (spiritually in an interior, personal sense of course). It simply means that doing so won’t be as easy, because part of our minds know that our moral values are manufactured–fake. But of course, a large part of our minds doesn’t know that, at the same time. Knowing the truth can change us, but it can’t transform us into entirely different people.
Black Hole Radiation 