THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SELF Oak Ridge Forum on Religion and Science Thursday, March 24, 2005

1. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SELF Oak Ridge Forum on Religion and Science Thursday, March 24, 2005 Neil Greenberg Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Tennessee

2. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SELF Oak Ridge Forum on Religion and Science Thursday, March 24, 2005 Neil Greenberg Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Tennessee

3. Who the Hell Do You Think You Are!? • Are you nothing more than a squirming mass of memories enveloped by an ego boundary? • At some level, we seem to know that what we call matter, as the physicist David Bohm once observed, is just a ripple on the ocean of reality.

4. “The Natural History of the Self" • But alongside our insignificance, we have the sentiment that we are large–that we “contain multitudes,” as the poet Walt Whitman so famously said. • Part of the resolution of this seeming paradox is that humans are part of one another. To be “a part of the main,” as the poet John Donne put it, is among the hallmarks of the “mystical experience.”

5. “The Natural History of the Self" • But mystical experiences are transformative! • “Sorry, I’m not myself. I just had a mystical experience” • MYSTICAL EXPERIENCESare not only Ineffable, but Noetic, Transient, and Passive • they may be facilitated by preliminary voluntary operations, like meditation, but once it begins it seems out of one’s control as if he or she were grasped and held by a superior power William James 1918

6. “There are moments, and it is only a matter of five or six seconds, when you feel the presence of the eternal harmony ... a terrible thing is the frightful clearness with which it manifests itself, and the rapture with which it fills you. Dostoyevski

7. WHAT are our NEEDS? Why do we need to know our selves? • Health? Safety? Belonging? Prestige? Self-Actualization? (Maslow) • For many of us, once other needs are met (or rendered irrelevant), to become “one with the truth you seek” is a key need. Attaining truth can be a peak experience, and one that can, in part, be facilitated or enhanced by an understanding of the proximate (physiological) and ultimate (evolutionary) aspects of its “natural history.”

8. At this point, to more fully understand the relationship between humanity and nature, we can invoke the powerfully integrative perspective of DEEP ETHOLOGY

9. DEEP ETHOLOGY • Description • Development • Ecology • Evolution • Physiology

10. SELF & CONSCIOUSNESS "Before the connection of thought and brain can be explained, it must be stated in elementary form; and there are great difficulties about stating it. . . . Many would find relief at this point in celebrating the mystery of the unknowable and the "awe" which we should feel. . . . It may be constitutional infirmity, but I can take no comfort in such devices for making a luxury of intellectual defeat. . . . Better live on the ragged edge, better gnaw the file forever!" (William James 1950:177-199)

11. DEEP ETHOLOGY • Description • We need to have consensus about the phenomenon • Describing preceding and correlated phenomena nibbles at causation, but • Post hoc ergo propter hoc • “if you can’t explain something, describe the hell out of it”

12. CAN the “SELF” be DESCRIBED? • there are multiple attributes of SELF –including competing attributes any one of which can dominate. • These ordinarily converge in varying proportion on what we recognize as who we are. • As in other aspects of behavior, each of these has a distinctive development, context, evolutionary history and mechanism of expression.

14. Distributed but integrated systems for motivation, affect, and cognition, mediate behavioral patterns from reflex to reflection Homeostatic functions and archaic reflexes of motivation are energized by the systems of affect and modulated by more recent systems employing cognition The ensemble represents the self as well as the outside world.

15. SO WHAT IS THE “SELF” • A graded integration of nested cognitive abilities that yield a more-or-less unified sense of who we are. • In James’ view, the self consists of • The material Self • The social Self • The spiritual Self

16. SO WHAT IS THE “SELF” • “internal self” – call it “centripetal,” in which one’s deepest core values are borne, nurtured, reside, and provide an overarching “personality” • “external self” – call it “centrifugal,” in which the boundaries of one’s competencies are defined and extend out to influence those around us. This is “extrasomatory” self, those external expressions of inner meaning that are initially manifest as we test, explore, and exercise our competencies • . . . as in “reafference”(feedback that fine-tunes our intended actions) • . . . supremely manifest as “art.”

17. DEEP ETHOLOGY • Development • Progressive change within an individual • Epigenesis – genes affect and are affected by the environment

18. The “scientist in the crib” we were all “scientists in the crib”— developing and testing hypotheses about the nature of our environments and how best to control them, how best to relate to one another. Like scientists, rejecting hypotheses that are false It is a necessary stage of our cognitive development. It is the phenomenon of mind that ultimately makes learning possible . . . and it is the beating heart of the scientific method.

19. DEEP ETHOLOGY • Ecology • Context: geology, climate • Context: conspecifics, predators, prey • Presents challenges (“selection pressures”) to individuals or groups with which they must cope to maximize their “fitness”

20. DEEP ETHOLOGY • Evolution • “Ultimate Causation” (“why?”) • Transmission of information between the generations • Progressive change

21. DEEP ETHOLOGY • Evolution • “Bricolage” (the panda’s thumb”) • “pleiotropy” (collateral effects, epiphenomena) • “adaptive” traits meet needs

22. Bricolage: using what’s available: minute phenomena can be dramatically transformed; e.g., from thermoregulatory reflex to social display • feathers raised by pilomotor muscles • an ancient autonomic theromregulatory mechanism • ordinarily hidden • displayed when aroused

23. The Lizard’s Flag • Erected by the hyoid apparatus • an ancient mechanism activated by stress • ordinarily hidden • displayed when aroused

24. MEETING NEEDS Maslow’s need hierarchy Physiology (homeostasis, health) Safety (security, order, protection) Belonging ( sociability, acceptance, love) Esteem (status, prestige, acknowledgment) Self-Actualization (personal fulfillment)

25. MEETING NEEDS ALL our biological adaptations have been preserved by natural selection because of their ability to help us meet our needs more effectively and efficiently. THIS includes BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS Not the least of which is the creation of narratives about causes and consequences. Spiritual experiences are unusual states of consciousness interpreted to support narratives about unseen forces that appear to guide us.

26. MEETING NEEDS “Be all you can be . . .” (US Army recruiting slogan) For most creatures, self-actualization is manifest as fitness "The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for. . . .” (Oscar Wilde, from The Picture of Dorian Gray)

27. MEETING NEEDS Meeting NEEDS is the basic business of life. When real (or perceived) needs are not met, stress is created. Organisms have ancient and powerful mechanisms for relieving stress Needs exist in a hierarchy of urgencies. When the most urgent need is met, all the organism’s energy is focused on the next need.

28. DEEP ETHOLOGY • Physiology • “Proximate causation” (“how”) • Maintenance of homeostasis the “dynamic balance of multiple systems • Negative & Positive feedback loops • Input (e.g., sensation); integration (e.g., cognition, perception, memory); output (motor coordination, endocrine activation)

29. “The mind consists of countless layers of overlapping, interconnected nets, each sharing millions of knots called neurons, and deployed to catch and control whatever experiences will advance our fitness -- our relative success in the meeting of needs to survive and thrive. No single net can catch much of anything of great use, each catches fragments at best.” –Art & Organism

30. What is the urgent need that is shared by those who would “know their selves” We need to know the TRUTH We are powerfully motivated to develop the highest possible confidence in the reality of our beliefs . . . and their “internal” and “external” validity “TRUTH” is an amalgam of reality-testing (correspondence) and story-telling (coherence). These two separate functions of brain and mind converge to give us confidence that empowers our actions in the world.

31. TRUTH in the BRAIN TRUTH is a BELIEF in which you have HIGH CONFIDENCE CONFIDENCE derives from specific neural functions associated with AFFECT (sensuous, emotional, empirical, experiential, “real”) and REASON (linear, narrative, coherent, “ideal”) We can speak of two critical PROBLEMS and our two coordinated COPING MECHANISMS

32. SELF & CONSCIOUSNESS THE BRAIN "multitasks" --lots of things go on simultaneously --and often compete with each other for control of behavior. Surely you have had almost debilitating episodes of being unable to "make up your mind?" There always seems to be multiple explanations for phenomena -- which shall you select? why that one? --Art & Organism

33. TRUTH in the BRAIN “TRUTH” is a quality of a belief we hold in our heads -- It has met certain tests: • CORRESPONDENCE: our experience of the world matches the reality of the world: “reality testing” (Novelty evokes stress – it is anxiogenic – it evokes the stress response) • COHERENCE: our experience fits in with all our other experiences: “story-telling” (Familiarity mitigates stress – it is anxiolytic – it relieves stress)

34. A Mind at Rest . . . There are two modes of knowing, through argument and experience. Argument brings conclusions and compels us to concede them, but does not cause certainty nor remove the doubts in order that the mind may remain at rest in truth, unless this is provided by experience --Roger Bacon, 1268 . .

35. COHERENCE The pieces come together: “A congenital synthesizer, I held onto the dream of a unifying theory” (p312) ". . . the years writing these two syntheses [The Insect Societies and Sociobiology] were among the happiest of my life" (p323) -- EO Wilson in Naturalist (1994)

36. We NEED explanations Coherence helps us feel better: “A world that can be explained even with bad reasons is a familiar world. But on the other hand, in a universe divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger. . . .” Albert Camus

37. TRUTH in the BRAIN LEFT HEMISPHERE Coherence: creates a “stable and internally consistent belief system” (Ramachandran 1998) Probabilistic reasoning (Osherson et al 1998) Abstract object recognition (Marsolek 1999) RIGHT HEMISPHERE Correspondence: tests reality and if damaged, confabulation runs rampant (Ramachandran 1998) Deductive reasoning (Osherson et al 1998) Specific object recognition (Marsolek 1999) Kant: "The senses cannot think, the understanding cannot see.”

38. What is the urgent need that is shared by those who would “know their selves” SCIENCE and ARTare the human endeavors that “seek truth” • Foster our self-knowledge • Explore beneath mere appearances • Exercise and integrate our skills at intuition(based on experience and sensory information of which we may not be consciously aware)and reason(organized coherent matrices of probable causes and effects)

39. "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.“ --Albert Einstein

40. Γνωθηι σεαυτονGNOTHI se AUTON To be an effective, competitive organism, we would be wise to follow the advice of the Oracle at Delphi: “Gnothi se auton” (Know thyself) Is this the primal function of art? Of science? the ancient ruins of the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. is spread out over the southern slopes of Mount Parnassos, beneath the Phaidriad rocks.

41. What are my LIMITS? KNOWING who you “are” is an artifact of cerebral mechanisms for helping you maximizing your fitness! Being “ALL YOU CAN BE” Emotions and cognition, ART and SCIENCE, intuition and rationality, senses and reason, are ways our minds tell us who we are and exercise and extend our boundaries and potential “Vitruvian Man” by Leonardo – reflects his conviction that all things can be measured

42. "The senses cannot think. The understanding cannot see." Immanual Kant Critique of Pure Reason

43. The Natural History of the Self The LIMITS of KNOWLEDGE • the world is known only in fragments . . . a sense of continuity depends upon neural mechanisms. • We have an “instinctive” conviction in an intellectually accessible mechanistic order in nature. (AN Whitehead 1967)

44. We see the world not as it is, But as we are . . . (Talmud)

45. What we know of nature is necessarily limited “Reality is out there . . . truth is in here” Our umwelt – world of senses – is limited to what our sense organs can detect – and we have evolved to detect only that which is essential to survival – to the meeting of our needs. One such need is for the connections that create stories – an understanding of the causes and consequences of phenomena A “predictable” world is much less stressful

46. The organism imposes limits • Science seeks (and often succeeds) in transcending them: We have prosthetic eyes and ears . . . • BUT we live in our unique Umwelt – our sensory and perceptual world -- for example: • Vision: 390-780nm • Hearing 20-20K Hz “Vitruvian Man” by Leonardo – reflects his conviction that all things can be measured

48. We see the world not as it is, But as we are . . .

49. We see the world not as it is, But as we are . . .

50. We see the world not as it is, But as we are . . .