31
own lists. There are atheist commandments, secular commandments, and
32
so on. The Socialist Sunday Schools, an organization that began in the
33
United Kingdom as an alternative to Christian Sunday schools, proposed
34
a list of socialist commandments. (“Remember that all good things of the
S35
N36
4 19
Big Picture - UK final proofs.indd 419
20/07/2016 10:02:56
T H E B IG PIC T U R E
01
earth are produced by labour. Whoever enjoys them without working for
02
them is stealing the bread of the workers.”)
03
A good poetic naturalist will resist the temptation to hand out com-
04
mandments. “Give someone a fish,” the saying goes, “and you feed them for
05
a day. Teach them to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime.” When it comes
06
to how to lead our lives, poetic naturalism has no fish to give us. It doesn’t
07
even really teach us how to fish. It’s more like poetic naturalism helps us
08
figure out that there are things called “fish,” and perhaps investigate the
09
various possible ways to go about catching them, if that were something we
10
were inclined to do. It’s up to us what strategy we want to take, and what to
11
do with our fish once we’ve caught them.
12
It makes sense, then, to put aside the concept of “commandments” and
13
instead propose Ten Considerations: a list of things we think are true, that
14
might be useful to keep in mind as we shape and experience our own ways
15
of valuing and caring about our lives. We can draw inspiration from the
16
universe by listening to it carefully.
17
•
18
19
1. Life Isn’t Forever.
20
21
Julian Barnes, in his novel A History of the World in 10 1/ 2 Chapters, imag-
22
ines a version of what heaven would be like. A man, who had been a
23
working- class Englishman, wakes up after his death in a new environment,
24
where everything is wonderful. He can have anything he asks for, with one
25
implicit catch: he has to have the imagination to ask for it. Being who he is,
26
he has sex with countless attractive women, eats meal after amazing meal,
27
meets up with famous celebrities and politicians, and becomes so good at
28
playing golf that he scores a hole in one more often than not.
29
Inevitably, he begins to grow fidgety and bored. After inquiring a bit
30
from one of heaven’s staff members, he discovers there is an option to simply
31
end it all and die. And do people in heaven actually choose to die, he asks?
32
“Everyone takes the option,” the staffer answers, “sooner or later.”
33
Humanity has always imagined ways that life might continue on after
34
our bodily deaths. None of them holds up very well under close examina-
35S
tion. What the stories fail to account for is that change, including death,
36N
42 0
Big Picture - UK final proofs.indd 420
20/07/2016 10:02:56
l I S t E n I n g t O t h E W O R l d
isn’t an optional condition to be avoided; it’s an integral part of life itself.
01
You don’t really want to live forever. Eternity is longer than you think.
02
Life ends, and that’s part of what makes it special. What exists is here,
03
in front of us, what we can see and touch and affect. Our lives are not dress
04
rehearsals in which we plan and are tested in anticipation of the real show
05
to come. This is it, the only performance we’re going to get to give, and it is
06
what we make of it.
07
08
09
2. Desire Is Built into Life.
10
Imagine trying to achieve perfect stillness. Close your eyes, slow your
11
bodily rhythms, let your mind go quiet. While some are better at it than
12
others, no person can ever be truly motionless. You will always be breath-
13
ing; your heart will be pumping; billions of ATP molecules are being syn-
14
thesized inside you, then used to power invisible processes inside your body.
15
There is no perfect stillness this side of the grave. (And not even then,
16
though we may be permitted a bit of poetic license.)
17
Compare this with a computer. Build a machine with immense process-
18
ing power, turn it on, and watch what it does all by itself: nothing at all. It
19
will just sit there. We can program it, give it some task and ask it to do
20
something. But if we don’t, the machine won’t have volition just because it
21
has the capacity to crunch numbers. You can ignore it and it won’t get im-
22
patient; cause it damage and it won’t defend itself; belittle it and it won’t be
23
annoyed.
24
Life is characterized by motion and change, and these characteristics
25
manifest themselves in human beings as forms of desire. From our evolu-
26
tionary origins we have things that we want, from enjoying a good meal to
27
helping other people to creating an affecting work of art. It’s those desires
28
that shape us, and cause us to care about ourselves and others. But they
29
don’t enslave us; we are reflective and self- aware, with the ability to shape
30
what it is we care about. We can, if we choose, focus our caring on making
31
the world a better place.
32
33
34
S35
N36
421
Big Picture - UK final proofs.indd 421
20/07/2016 10:02:56
T H E B IG PIC T U R E
01
3. What Matters Is What Matters to People.
02
The universe is an intimidating place. Compared to its smallest pieces, we
03
are quite large; there are about 1028 atoms in a typical human body. But
04
compared to its overall size, we are absurdly small; it would take more than
05
1026 people holding hands to stretch across the span of the observable cos-
06
mos. Long after the human race has vanished from existence, the universe
07
will still be here, trundling along in placid accord with the underlying laws
08
of nature.
09
The universe doesn’t care about us, but we ca
re about the universe. That’s
10
what makes us special, not any immaterial souls or special purpose in the
11
grand cosmic plan. Billions of years of evolution have created creatures ca-
12
pable of thinking about the world, forming a picture of it in our minds and
13
holding it up to scrutiny.
14
We are interested in the world, in its physical manifestations and in our
15
fellow humans and other creatures. That caring, contained inside us, is the
16
only source of “mattering” in any cosmic sense.
17
Whenever we ask ourselves whether something matters, the answer has
18
to be found in whether it matters to some person or persons. We take the
19
world and attach value to it, an achievement of which we can be justly
20
proud.
21
22
23
4. We Can Always Do Better.
24
Understanding develops through the process of making mistakes. We make
25
guesses about the world, test them against what we observe, learn more
26
often than not that we were wrong, and try to improve our hypotheses. To
27
err is human, and that’s about it.
28
We can make our fallibility into a virtue by recognizing it and cherish-
29
ing it, by always working to do better at whatever it is we are attempting.
30
Mathematical proofs can be perfect in their logic, but scientific discoveries
31
are typically the conclusion of a long series of trials and errors. When it
32
comes to valuing, caring, loving, and being good, perfection is even more of
33
a chimera, since there isn’t even an objective standard against which to
34
judge our successes.
35S
We nevertheless make progress, both at understanding the world and at
36N
422
Big Picture - UK final proofs.indd 422
20/07/2016 10:02:56
l I S t E n I n g t O t h E W O R l d
living within it. It may seem strange to claim the existence of moral progress 01
when there isn’t even an objective standard of morality, but that’s exactly
02
what we find in human history. Progress comes, not from new discoveries
03
in an imaginary science of morality, but from being more honest and rigor-
04
ous with ourselves— from uncovering our rationalizations and justifica-
05
tions for behavior that, if we admit it, was pretty reprehensible from the
06
start. Becoming better people is hard work, but by sifting through our bi-
07
ases and being open to new ideas, our ability to be good advances.
08
09
10
5. It Pays to Listen.
11
If we admit that we can always be mistaken, it makes sense to open our
12
minds to our fellow human beings to hear what they have to say. We all
13
have our biases, so getting a bit of outside perspective isn’t a bad thing. If
14
purpose and morality aren’t out there to be discovered, we might be able to
15
learn something from our compatriots in the ongoing creation of meaning.
16
That includes ancient wisdom. Over thousands of years, people have
17
struggled intensely with the question of how to be a good person. For the
18
large majority of history, that work has been carried out within religious or
19
spiritual traditions. There’s no reason to throw out everything associated
20
with the great thinkers of the past just because we have a more updated and
21
accurate ontology. Nor is there any reason to stick with ethical command-
22
ments that have become unmoored from their original justification. We
23
can take inspiration from ancient teachings, not to mention from great lit-
24
erature and art, without being bound by them.
25
Consciousness gives us an inner model of ourselves. It also allows us to
26
model other people, opening the door for empathy and ultimately to love.
27
To not only listen to others but also to imagine ourselves as them, to con-
28
sider what they care about, is a powerful driver of moral progress. Once we
29
see that mattering comes from inside people, understanding others be-
30
comes more important than ever.
31
32
33
6. There Is No Natural Way to Be.
34
Evolution is extraordinarily ingenious, inventing mechanisms that human
S35
designers would be hard- pressed to match. But there was no designer, which
N36
423
Big Picture - UK final proofs.indd 423
20/07/2016 10:02:56
T H E B IG PIC T U R E
01
has its drawbacks. There is no simplistic, undivided self, no tiny homuncu-
02
lus in the brain steering us around on the basis of unbendable rules. We are
03
the final product of a cacophony of competing impulses, and so are other
04
people.
05
If we are part of nature, it can be tempting to valorize “being natural.”
06
That’s backward: we can’t help but be natural, since we are unavoidably
07
part of nature. But nature doesn’t guide us or lay down rules, or even offer
08
exemplars of good behavior. Nature is kind of a mess. We can be inspired
09
by it, and occasionally horrified by it, but nature simply is.
10
Searching for clues to the nature of human caring and morality in
11
the behavior of our animal cousins reveals a mixed bag. Chimpanzee so-
12
cial groupings are dominated by males, while bonobos are dominated
13
by females. Elephants mourn for their dead comrades, and species as di-
14
verse as rats and ants have been known to rescue friends who are in trou-
15
ble. Biologists Robert Sapolsky and Lisa Share studied a group of Kenyan
16
baboons who fed off the garbage from a nearby tourist lodge. The clan
17
was dominated by high- status males, and females and lesser males would
18
often go hungry. Then at one point, the clan ate infected meat from the
19
garbage dump, which led to the deaths of most of the dominant males.
20
Afterward, the “personality” of the troop completely changed: individu-
21
als were less aggressive, more likely to groom one another, and more egali-
22
tarian. This behavior persisted as long as the study continued, for over a
23
d
ecade.
24
The lesson is not that we should learn from the baboons (although if
25
they can improve their lifestyles, maybe there is hope for us). It’s that we are
26
not simple, unified, fixed creatures. We have inclinations and desires, partly
27
born of our innate dispositions, but we also have the opportunity to change,
28
as individuals and as a society.
29
30
7. It Takes All Kinds.
31
32
If our lives are to have meaning and purpose, we are going to have to create
33
them. And people are different, so they’re going to create different things.
34
That’s a feature to be celebrated, not an annoyance to be eradicated.
35S
Much of what has been written about the quest to lead a meaningful life
36N
has been produced by people who (1) enjoy thinking deeply and carefully
42 4
Big Picture - UK final proofs.indd 424
20/07/2016 10:02:56
l I S t E n I n g t O t h E W O R l d
about such things, and (2) enjoy writing down what they have thought
01
about. Consequently, we see certain kinds of virtues celebrated: imagina-
02
tion, variety, passion, artistic expression. And these are all worth celebrat-
03
ing. But a fulfilled life might alternatively be characterized by reliability,
04
obedience, honor, contentment. Some might find fulfillment in devoting
05
their efforts to helping others; others will concentrate on their own daily
06
practice of being. The right way to live for one person might not suit some-
07
one else.
08
Poetic naturalism doesn’t provide much comfort for those who take joy
09
in telling other people the proper way to live their lives. It allows for plural-
10
ism in purpose and meaning, a rich ecosystem of virtues and lives well lived.
11
We are faced with both an opportunity and a challenge. There is no
12
single right way to live, an objectively best life out there to be discovered by
13
reason or revelation. We have the opportunity to shape our lives in many
14
ways, and count them as true and good.
15
16
17
8. The Universe Is in Our Hands.
18
We are collections of atoms and particles, bumping into one another and
19
interacting through the forces of nature. We are also collections of biologi-
20
cal cells, passing electricity and chemicals back and forth as we metabolize
21
free energy from our environments. And we are also thinking, feeling, car-
22
ing beings, capable of contemplating our actions and making decisions
The Big Picture Page 71