Happy new year all, just popped in to see how things are... but its a slippery slope and Torridon's thread on the illusion of self got me thinking. He's known to do that from time to time.
here's a quote from the first page:
cognitive science demonstrates that the conscious self is a retrospective construction of mind. All we need to do is decide whether to be true to the evidence, or lead lives of denial.
I think we'd all agree that as humans we need to feel there is a sense of meaning to our lives. I would assume it is part of the complex evolved sense of self and helps to furnish our armoury when it comes to survival.
To what extent though is self delusion necessary for us to be able to construct a sense of meaning? is it ever possible to adhere only to the rational facts of our biology and psychology?
I somehow doubt it. It seems obvious to me that we are all deluded about something. Otherwise we would all be nihilists. We have no choice but to believe in the 'self' (even religious practices that deny it do so in recognition of the fact that it 'exists' in the first place) and from there the delusion branches out to encompass any number of notions that might be useful to us for various reasons. The justifications for those are what gets discussed here every day... its the detail. But the broad picture is one of necessary, unavoidable delusion.
I'm a rationalist, and a scientist, but also a pragmatist and I suppose I'm looking at the scientific evidence and asking 'so what?'
