“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” - Charles Darwin
I
have been re-reading Brian Greene’s The
Fabric of the Cosmos (2004) this winter.
Greene is a wonderfully vivid and literate writer who explains the
mysterious revelations of contemporary physics with aplomb. At various points, Greene makes observations
about physics and life that cause me to reflect philosophically upon the whole
project of science and its impact upon our life and existence in Earth &
Cosmos. He reminds the reader on a
number of occasions how our commonsense, intuitive understanding of everyday
life – while it works more or less well on the mundane level – fails to grasp
reality at its deepest levels. He says in
the opening pages, for instance, that—
“The overarching lesson that emerged from scientific inquiry over the last century is that human experience is often a misleading guide to the true nature of reality. Lying just beneath the surface of the everyday is a world we’d hardly recognize.” (5)
"[T]he insights of modern physics have persuaded me that assessing life through the lens of everyday experience is like gazing at a Van Gogh through an empty Coke bottle.” (5)
I was reminded reading this of many
things, including Darwin’s remark, cited above, that the survival of a species
is linked to its ability to change; i.e., for Darwin, primarily, to adjust to
changing environments. But, I thought, this
applies not just to physical survival, but also to psychological and spiritual ‘survival’
as well; if affects and influences our flourishment (Gk: ευδαιμονεια). We are a
species that has the potential to deepen our self-understanding through
experience, exploration and – as in science – discovery, experimentation and
theoretical adventuring into the deep nature of Nature – and thereby attain to touchstones
of well-being. If we are going to live
and not merely survive, we need to grow, change, adapt and wisen with regard to
what is known about ourselves, our world and the Cosmos itself, via science as
well as via experience, art and philosophical reflection.
Our ability to change and adjust to
new experiences and adapt to new understandings via the knowledge accrued along
life’s path is part of the warp and heft of spirituality; a praxis which leads
to flourishment, wellbeing and ultimately wisdom—spirituality lends to the
improvement of life and our ability to dwell authentically in Earth & Cosmos.
As we path our way, we are faced not
only with changing environments but also changing ideas and deeper, more accurate
understandings regarding our biological and physical natures, not to mention
our existential selves. Changing
environments and changing understandings of ourselves and our world are often
linked, as in the current climate crisis; e.g., will we be able to respond
wisely; will be we able to change, in a timely and efficient manner – to avert
potential disaster? I would argue that being
human in the fullest sense implies changing as we adapt to the deepening of our
understanding of Nature and ourselves; a hermeneutics that has been propelled more
and more by science over the last few centuries, and which is enhanced, extended
and reflected in the best storytelling, art, music and visual media our species
produces. Evolution, ecology, cosmology
– these are all ultimately linked as descriptions of – and facts about – reality.
I am often impressed by how Nature,
science and wisdom are linked and interface synergistically with one
another. The word ‘Nature’ is commonly
used to mean our ‘non-human’ environment and is set in dialectic with
‘culture.’ But I prefer to use the word
in a more archaic sense. Our word
"Nature" comes from the Latin natura,
which was used to translate the Greek work phusis
(φυσις) – from which our word
"physics" comes. [Now there was a nice little circle!] This implied
‘identification’ between "Nature" and the "queen of the
sciences" – i.e., physics – however, has always struck me as both right
and wrong.
When
I think of "Naturalism" – the study of Nature; I always think in
terms of an experiential, aesthetic and philosophical enterprise.
Naturalism as a praxis involves reflective meditations grounded in experience
augmented by disciplined empirical observation and scientific study of the
"world;" the cosmos (another powerful Greek term)—in which we find
ourselves.
As
such "physics" in the modern sense is a somewhat too-narrow rendering
of the Greek word phusis, which
Aristotle used to mean something like "the nature of everything that
'exists.'" It was the study of ‘material’ nature, as opposed to meta-phusis; what might be termed the
'abstract,' or 'ideational' dimension of our reality. So our word
"Nature" is, perhaps, a better translation of phusis than is the more narrow term "physics." Nature
can be accessed, described and studied from a variety of standpoints,
scientific, philosophic and artistic. Yet
what always strikes me is how phusis
– translated as "physics" – most readily connects our study of Nature
directly into what we now understand by the word "science," for
Aristotle's book, The Physics, was an
early ‘scientific’ attempt at understanding Nature. [That another little circle,
wasn’t it?]
And
why did Aristotle study Nature? – Why did he investigate phusis; the "natural world," the nature of
everything that exists? Because he was
seeking Wisdom. He was a philosopher; a philos-sophos; a "lover of wisdom."
When
I am immersed in Nature through scientific study – as much as when I am simply out
in the woods, experiencing and observing, thinking (in both rational and poetic
ways) and dreaming – my intent is always to be involved in the pursuit of Wisdom
(Gk. Σοφια; “Sophia”) – that kind of
knowledge which helps us to live life to the fullest; the kind of knowing that
facilitates "the good life." And why do I make this
connection? Probably because of the fact that we are manifestations
of Nature ourselves; that we are natural beings—animals of a specific lineage
on a specific branch of the Bush of Life. Thus, to understand the wider
realm of Nature is to better understand ourselves. Nature, Science and
Wisdom are connected.
Charles
Darwin has so transformed our understanding of Nature and thus ourselves
that a chiasmus has opened up between what came before and what has come since
in terms of our knowledge of the Earth & Cosmos. By putting evolution
on a sound theoretical footing, Charles Darwin opened the way to a deeper
knowing of ourselves; a richer, more interesting, even more gratifying and
aesthetic grasp of who and what we are as the particular species of animal that
we are; which we call, rightly or not (only time will tell) homo sapiens. Darwin grafted us
onto the vine of life; he closed the gap between us and the rest of Nature
so neatly that anyone who now understands his theory cannot see themselves
in the same way their ancestors did just two centuries. We have – because
of Charles Darwin's insight and devotion to the question "where did life
come from and how did it arise?" – a fuller grasp on 'human nature' than
anyone before his time could have imagined.
To
approach the Henges of Wisdom, we must cross into the realm where this knowledge
grounds our experience and self-understanding.
We must traverse the Darwinian watershed and enter more fully into the
understanding of life.
This
experiential 'watershed' – created by the rise of evolutionary theory in the
late 19th century – portends an existential deepening of our communion
with Wisdom. Science contributes to wisdom, for it shows us more and more
clearly the actual 'nature' of the universe in which we find ourselves and out
of which we have emerged; one of millions of emergences; a fruition of the
'directionality' of cosmic expansion and the playing out of the laws of physics
through time. And I ponder two quotes_
“Time is nature’s way of keeping everything – all change, that is – from happening all at once.” - John Wheeler
“The existence of time relies on the absence of a particular symmetry: things in the universe must change from moment to moment for us even to define a notion of moment to moment that bears any resemblance to our intuitive conception.” (226)
-
Brian
Greene
The Fabric of the
Cosmos
(2004)
Charles
Darwin contributed to the human quest for the 'good life' by giving us the key
(natural selection) to the process of evolution. Scientists and philosophers
have been working out the implications of this key ever since. The last century
and a half since the publication of On
the Origin of Species (1859) has seen a revolution in our self-understanding
as human beings, brought to new thresholds by the discovery of DNA in the
1950's and then the mapping of the human genome in the first years of the 21st
century.
While
the revolution will no doubt continue – for there is much more to discover and
learn – we are at a point now where there is sufficient insight into human
nature via evolution and genetics, that
meditating on evolution and on how it transforms our understanding of Nature
and ourselves can bear much fruit and lead to evanescent runes of earthen wisdom.
As we move forward it would greatly benefit us to meditate on evolution, as
well as on physics and cosmology, and ask ourselves, "Who are we?"
and "What is our potential as a species and as individuals?" We
might ask, "Given our nature as human animals, having evolved over
millions of years, what is our ethical place in the world – in Earth &
Cosmos – where we find ourselves and awaken to our own becoming?”
Adopting
an evolutionary self-understanding requires a sea-change in our beliefs and in
the basic notions we hold to about who and what we are. I have used this triad:
We are human animals;
We manifest on one twig
of the Bush of Life;
We are an effervescence of
Nature.
as a focus in
daily meditation and found it a powerful rune in conjunction with my study of
biological evolution and the history of the cosmos. As self-understanding deepens, the rune becomes
ever clearer to me: what it means to be an animal, to be evolved from
biological ancestors, and to be a manifestation of Nature (phusis).
Earthen
meditation has taught me that only with an evolutionary understanding of
ourselves can we fully comprehend how we stand in relation to the rest of
Nature and thus find a footing for ethics and aesthetics; that is, 'right
action' and 'right enjoyment' of the world and of life itself. This way
lies flourishment and the Henges of Wisdom.
