Thus, there are limits to compassion just as there are limits to free choice. In fact, there are four other emotion complements that makeup our feelings as a result of our subconscious archetypes: pleasure and anxiety, joy and misery, serenity and anger, and pride and shame. Pleasure of other people and the world drives much of what we do but we must also have a certain amount of anxiety about other people and the world as well. While the emotion joy can be very pleasant, there is no pleasure of a time of joy without some complementary time of misery as well, misery being the complement of joy.
Serenity is a very desirable feeling of peace within and among other people, but anger is also a very necessary complement that limits other people's undesirable free choices. Pride is how people show acceptable behavior while shame is how people show unacceptable behavior and both pride and shame are therefore necessary for socialization.
An emotion spectrum shows how a singular feeling point emerges and it is by this singular feeling that we choose a desirable future. Our subconscious archetypes form the basis of feeling from emotion and feeling is what drives free choice. Indeed, feeling is at the root of all meaning and purpose and feeling is how we choose desirable futures.
creative nonconformist or conformist
conscientious or feckless
assertive or accepting
agreeable or contrary
sensitive, anxious or callous free choice
Steven Pinker has said that the enlightenment has brought reason, science, and morality and therefore enlightenment has also brought the global prosperity and peace as a result of individual free choice and capitalism. Reason and science are both products of a small number of very curious and conscientious people with high IQ. Reason and science are successful because they allow people to predict an outcome given some knowledge of its precursors.
Morality, though, is a product of a small number of very sensitive and very conscientious people with high IQ along with a much larger number of agreeable people as followers or adherents. The overall goal of morality is to reduce suffering and misery for everyone and therefore increase the likelihood of survival by cooperation. Morality comes from the grand narratives of civilization that imbue people with subconscious archetypes that provide purpose and meaning.
There are therefore limits for reason and science in defining morality, which ultimately derives from emotion and feeling about right and wrong as opposed to reason and science. While reason and science can also reduce suffering and misery, without the purpose and meaning of our subconscious moral archetypes, reason and science alone are not enough to sustain free choice.
There is then a very dangerous notion that reason and science alone can define morality and therefore sustain free choice without the grand narratives that actually are what have built our subconscious archetypes. In particular, there is a feeling that religion and mysticism have no place in the outcomes of our post modern enlightenment. Even though the grand narratives of literature, art, music, and religion have all also contributed to building the subconscious archetypes of our precursors, some feel that religion and mysticism have no roles in building the outcomes of subconscious archetypes for our progeny.
Morality, though, is a product of a small number of very sensitive and very conscientious people with high IQ along with a much larger number of agreeable people as followers or adherents. The overall goal of morality is to reduce suffering and misery for everyone and therefore increase the likelihood of survival by cooperation. Morality comes from the grand narratives of civilization that imbue people with subconscious archetypes that provide purpose and meaning.
There are therefore limits for reason and science in defining morality, which ultimately derives from emotion and feeling about right and wrong as opposed to reason and science. While reason and science can also reduce suffering and misery, without the purpose and meaning of our subconscious moral archetypes, reason and science alone are not enough to sustain free choice.
There is then a very dangerous notion that reason and science alone can define morality and therefore sustain free choice without the grand narratives that actually are what have built our subconscious archetypes. In particular, there is a feeling that religion and mysticism have no place in the outcomes of our post modern enlightenment. Even though the grand narratives of literature, art, music, and religion have all also contributed to building the subconscious archetypes of our precursors, some feel that religion and mysticism have no roles in building the outcomes of subconscious archetypes for our progeny.
No comments:
Post a Comment