EVOLUTION OF MIND (E O M - 1)

Why Do We Care About Human Evolution Today?

(Ref. article at: https://www.bigquestionsonline.com/content/why-do-we-care-about-human-evolution-today)

Wherever our origins ultimately lie, there is no rational doubt that we Homo sapience are proximately the product of an eventful evolutionary past.

Our ancient history is richly documented by a fossil record that is remarkably abundant for one single family of primates, and that is certainly a lot better than most paleoanthropologists are prepared to concede . Fossil records are by their nature incomplete, and in a science in which every answer leads to compelling new questions, it is important to flesh them out as much as possible.

Still, what we already know allows us to construct a fairly convincing outline sketch of human prehistory, and of the natural context in which it played out. What’s more, as members of an intensely curious species that instinctively wants to know the “why” of everything, most of us are naturally interested in knowing more about this drama of human becoming. But in trying to learn as much as possible about our evolutionary background, are we merely satisfying an innate genealogical inquisitiveness? Or can we take this enterprise beyond the satisfaction of superficial curiosity, to discover more profound implications about ourselves and our essential natures?

One would argue that we can, and indeed that only by knowing the nature of the process that produced us can we begin to understand the rather bizarre and contradictory ways in which humans sometimes behave.

Why Evolution Matters

This is because the exact manner of our evolution cuts straight to the heart of who we are.

Our remarkable ability to create new realities in our minds wonderfully enables us to perceive things that lie beyond the material and the scientifically accessible. This ability is essentially limitless;

Although we are individually formed and bound by social influences of many kinds, there are no clear intrinsic restrictions on how we express our cognitive capacities. On the plus side, this lack of constraint provides the basis for our free will. But being unconstrained has its dangers.

And these furnish the principal reason why we should indeed care, deeply, about accurately understanding the nature of the process that produced us. For knowing how non-directionally we evolved not only helps us comprehend why our behaviors are so frequently conflicted, contradictory, and unhelpful, it also forces us to realize the extent to which we are individually responsible for them.

To know more about “us” we need to know our 'minds' and the journey of our mind starting from the advent of evolution. Swami Vijnananand (S. V.) has elaborated in details the vital role of 'Mind' in the desire to come to existence and evolve from single cell to many cells creatures and finally to the current stage of human being. We shall see this in the BLOGS to follow.

Vijay R. Joshi.