turpin@cs.utexas.edu (Russell Turpin) (11/30/90)
----- I have no idea where follow-ups (if any) are appropriately directed. You decide. ----- In article <1990Nov29.174040.9382@watserv1.waterloo.edu> alternat@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Ann Hodgins) writes: > I think there is a point to knowing what are instinctive, inherited > predispositions are - personal unity and integration. If we know > ourselves and are honest with ourselves we have a better chance > of enjoying life. Doing what comes naturally feels good and acting > in sync with our natures is fulfilling. The opposite of this - trying > to do what does not come naturally, leads to self-deception, internal > conflict and a joyless life cut off from the roots of pleasure deep > in our instinctive selves. "Know yourself." Certainly good advice. But are you suggesting that this question subsumes all problems of what to do and how to behave? If, to take an example from another thread, it is natural in primates for males to dominate females, does this mean that we should not try to do things differently in *human* culture? Within the philosophical tradition -- I know, mostly dead white men, but that's what I've read -- it has been almost universally accepted that there might be natural urges that culture should suppress for the better fulfillment of other natural urges that are judged higher or more important. (That this suppresses "personal unity" presumes that natural urges are always compatible. This is a very dubious presumption. There is no evolutionary reason to think that the happiest and most integrated primates are best at propagating the species!) The idea that all morality should be a matter of doing what is most natural is a recurring and radical theme, and unfortunately, one whose history is opaque to most of its proponents. It is indeed best to know ourselves, but there might be areas where that knowledge is held irrelevant to the goals for which we strive, because we have already decided there are things more important than whatever comes naturally in that one area. In such areas, knowing ourselves might help us develop better means, even if not select goals. Russell