While reading a post about Hunter S. Thompson on the awesome Brain Pickings website in the middle of finally getting around to reading Guns, Germs and Steel, I began to wonder about the often ignored history of our modern day quest for meaning.
One of the items Jared Diamond covers in his book has to do with comparing the conditions of hunter-gatherer societies to those with later centralized farming systems that allowed for some people to spend time doing things other than attending to their individual basic survival needs. It's hard for me to image individuals in those simpler societies spending much time on such philosophical questions having to do with life's meaning. If any of them were to be brought back and exposed to our modern society that allows for so many to take advantage of their survival needs being supplied by others, allowing for them to spend time thinking about philosophy, art, math, etc., would they see it as an advancement?
We don't normally think of philosophy coming as a result of our ancestors' taking up agriculture, but maybe we should in order to give us a more nuanced picture of our past, and how it compares to what we have become. We often use the development of agriculture as a major turning point in our history, but usually only for more tangible change--in technology, for example. Now that we have the ability and awareness of philosophical questions that may never be answered, are we better off? Has the mental anguish and physical violence attributed to philosophical (including religious) disputes been worth it?
One of the items Jared Diamond covers in his book has to do with comparing the conditions of hunter-gatherer societies to those with later centralized farming systems that allowed for some people to spend time doing things other than attending to their individual basic survival needs. It's hard for me to image individuals in those simpler societies spending much time on such philosophical questions having to do with life's meaning. If any of them were to be brought back and exposed to our modern society that allows for so many to take advantage of their survival needs being supplied by others, allowing for them to spend time thinking about philosophy, art, math, etc., would they see it as an advancement?
We don't normally think of philosophy coming as a result of our ancestors' taking up agriculture, but maybe we should in order to give us a more nuanced picture of our past, and how it compares to what we have become. We often use the development of agriculture as a major turning point in our history, but usually only for more tangible change--in technology, for example. Now that we have the ability and awareness of philosophical questions that may never be answered, are we better off? Has the mental anguish and physical violence attributed to philosophical (including religious) disputes been worth it?
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