Utility II

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Believing the “truth,” that physical matter is all that exists, is not necessarily the most useful way we could think/believe. It may actually be more helpful to us to believe things that are objectively wrong. Helpful in the sense of making our lives more successful, that is, ultimately, in making us happier. The happiest people might actually be the most simpleminded, the ones that buy into the illusions the most–the ones that are certain about what they are doing and why they are doing it, know what they want out of life, know what it takes to be a successful or valuable person and consider themselves in that category–the confident ones.

So what is the purpose of embracing atheistic materialism? It can only be dissatisfaction with anything less than knowledge of reality without illusions–at least, what knowledge it is possible for us to gain. Even if that knowledge makes us unhappy in the end. There have always been people who were not content with the explanations they were given growing up, and which are constantly reinforced by the culture in which they exist.* Explanations about what is good, what is desirable, what is valuable, what is worth striving for.

I value the truth about reality a lot–perhaps more than most people. I also have a tendency to think people should be honest with themselves, even if it hurts. This is, of course, a value judgment that has no objective reality. My dislike of people fooling themselves, especially those who fool themselves into thinking they are better than they are, is the usual cultural/biological hybrid of thoughts and emotions that all such beliefs are. Nevertheless, it does provide a motivation to share these thoughts (along with other obvious motivations such as ego and self-aggrandizement, lack of self-esteem and need to prove myself, etc.)

That being said, fooling ourselves is one of the things we human beings are great at, and it’s one of the things that makes life livable, even on the most elemental level. We have to make assumptions, we have to simplify, we have to treat as givens things that are anything but, in order to take any action at all.

* a “culture” which, as an abstract concept, does not truly exist either.