The Scientific perspective
Philosophers and thinkers tried to contemplate about the concept of self and our awareness and association with self. Scientists took this search ahead with the help of scientific methodology. Scientific methodology is nothing but a verifiable study of objective reality. The two branches of biology, namely evolutionary biology and neuroscience tried to explore our understanding of the self. As we compare humans with other animals we find out that other animals too must be aware of their existence. But Humans are different in a way that humans also have awareness of awareness. Our species has been named as ‘homo sapien sapien’ on the basis of the same criteria. However, the puzzle is not entirely solved yet. Neuroscience is trying to pursue the question what exactly is awareness or consciousness. Can we call the collection of feelings, sensations and thoughts as awareness? Since it is the self that experiences feelings, sensations and thoughts it is important to discuss awareness while discussing self. Evolutionary history of humans tells us certain important points about self. Evolutionary perspective tells us that humans are social beings. Living in groups helped them to deal with the brutal forces of nature.
However, our sociality is not comparable with the sociality of ultra-social organisms like ants. You must have seen an ant hill. A single ant looks like a separate animal. However, it is a part of a super colony. Every ant has a given function. Only the queen is capable of laying eggs. It is because of this behaviour ants are called as eu-social animals. Ant hill is called as super organism. Humans are gregarious but they are not eu-social or a super organism. Let’s gather more informati We do believe that every human has his own aspirations and also the potential to fulfill those desires in the given framework of time, space and conducive/non-condusive environment. Each individual has a right to reproduce. (this is a general statement, made from species point of view.) It is important to know the association between individual and society while trying to understand the concept of self in humans. In the machine era, because of the complexity of technology, humans have to come together artificially (that is more in number than their natural, biological group size).
This gives rise to unending conflict and compromise. Let’s study this further in the Chapter on Science, Technology and Philosophy. In the tradition of philosophy, we will find many such terms and concepts as mind, soul, spirit etc. Today, science tells us that all these names ultimately denote only one organ and that is brain. Brain is the basis of awareness. Brain undergoes many changes from childhood to adulthood. Different enzymes and hormones affect its functioning. Thanks to neuroscience, we now know how all of this is ultimately connected with human behaviour. Is the consciousness and intelligence one and the same thing or are they different? This is the next important point in the discussion of self. When we refer to awareness,
we are basically talking about feelings, emotions and thoughts. Intelligence can be of different types as intelligence in pattern recognition, carrying out mathematical processes, intelligence in tool making, tool handling etc. The most important aspect of being intelligent is to be able to change. Humans domesticated other plants and animals by using his intelligence as a powerful tool. 20th century saw the rise of modern day computers and they kept on evolving. Today, as far as intelligence in data handling and data processing is concerned computers prove to be far too faster and superior than humans. On this background, as we witness the decoupling of awareness and intelligence, there is a great fear what will computers do with humans on the basis of sheer intelligence. Our ideas of self may undergo sea changes in coming era. We will discuss some of the issues related to this in the last Chapter.
ಕಾಮೆಂಟ್ಗಳಿಲ್ಲ:
ಕಾಮೆಂಟ್ ಪೋಸ್ಟ್ ಮಾಡಿ