Purpose
Challenge
Humanity needs a new belief system. We need something to make sense of our personal lives and something to unite us in our common struggle. Our daily lives are filled with questions we need answers to. At the root of them are ones like: Why am I here? What is a good life? What is the right thing to do? What is right? What is good? How do I know? Simplified answers taught to us in our childhood are inconsistent and leave us confused, at odds with others, and asking more questions. Uncertainty over what to teach has led to millions being taught nothing, but going without answers dooms us to random actions, repetitions of errors, and lives filled with emotional turmoil. Atheists who believe they are moral have nothing comprehensive to point to for proof, so they continue to be buffeted with derision and fear from others, and perhaps doubt from themselves. These are personal issues, but they swell to global epidemics in our interconnected world. The world wide web brings us all into contact with the ideas of others. Those searching for easy answers could spend lifetimes joining different groups that provide wasteful or harmful solutions. Threats to one another, or to us all, go unsolved or unaddressed and cross political borders—not because they cannot be solved, but because we lack the basic agreement that they are even threats at all. The modern economy is deeply dependent on international trade so the conflict that can come from savage competition, ignoring our shared need for cooperation, has the power to undermine our modern way of life and unravel the progress we have made.
Choice
Our traditional belief systems—ancient religions—each claim certainty in their answers to our questions. Yet they differ. Ancient religions built by ignorant ancients are deeply flawed and either divide us into fractured camps or are followed a la carte with uncertainty and reservation by modern individuals. Post-modern relativism and nihilism abandons our questions to the judgment of the individual. It leaves us empty and isolated, cut off from the millennia of wisdom our ancestors have fought to understand. It has spawned millions of individual belief systems that cannot be reconciled with the truth or with each other. Science answers many questions, millions of them in tiny slices of academia, but it does not tackle the big questions. No science is in charge of understanding and guiding overall scientific inquiry. Traditionally, it was the role of philosophers to stitch answers together to tackle the big questions. With the rise of the scientific method and the splintering of academic specialties, however, academic philosophy has retreated from this broad and all-encompassing role. It is time for that to change.
The Change
Evolutionary Philosophy is the term I am using for a new belief system. Just as Evolutionary Biology and Evolutionary Psychology look to our evolutionary roots for answers about our biological and psychological questions, Evolutionary Philosophy (EvPhil for short) looks to our evolutionary roots for common answers to our common philosophical questions. EvPhil tries to gather all of the best answers we have and winnow them down through an open dialogue to arrive at our best belief system through the survival of the fittest ideas. This is the process I have followed throughout my adult life and I want to use this website to both share what I have found in order to help others answer their questions, and to provide a forum where I can learn from others who have found even better answers than mine. Join in. Learn from me and others. Teach us what you know. Humans have evolved needs to both preserve and extend knowledge. Everyone does both. Some favor one more than the other. Right now, the most conservative among us hold on to religion and ancient values. The most progressive want to throw those all away. It would be better if they were arguing over the same body of knowledge—one to say, "we don't know that yet" and one to say, "we know enough to change." Evolutionary Philosophy welcomes conservative and progressive members into its society. Both types are needed. Let’s unite and make sense of life.
Humanity needs a new belief system. We need something to make sense of our personal lives and something to unite us in our common struggle. Our daily lives are filled with questions we need answers to. At the root of them are ones like: Why am I here? What is a good life? What is the right thing to do? What is right? What is good? How do I know? Simplified answers taught to us in our childhood are inconsistent and leave us confused, at odds with others, and asking more questions. Uncertainty over what to teach has led to millions being taught nothing, but going without answers dooms us to random actions, repetitions of errors, and lives filled with emotional turmoil. Atheists who believe they are moral have nothing comprehensive to point to for proof, so they continue to be buffeted with derision and fear from others, and perhaps doubt from themselves. These are personal issues, but they swell to global epidemics in our interconnected world. The world wide web brings us all into contact with the ideas of others. Those searching for easy answers could spend lifetimes joining different groups that provide wasteful or harmful solutions. Threats to one another, or to us all, go unsolved or unaddressed and cross political borders—not because they cannot be solved, but because we lack the basic agreement that they are even threats at all. The modern economy is deeply dependent on international trade so the conflict that can come from savage competition, ignoring our shared need for cooperation, has the power to undermine our modern way of life and unravel the progress we have made.
Choice
Our traditional belief systems—ancient religions—each claim certainty in their answers to our questions. Yet they differ. Ancient religions built by ignorant ancients are deeply flawed and either divide us into fractured camps or are followed a la carte with uncertainty and reservation by modern individuals. Post-modern relativism and nihilism abandons our questions to the judgment of the individual. It leaves us empty and isolated, cut off from the millennia of wisdom our ancestors have fought to understand. It has spawned millions of individual belief systems that cannot be reconciled with the truth or with each other. Science answers many questions, millions of them in tiny slices of academia, but it does not tackle the big questions. No science is in charge of understanding and guiding overall scientific inquiry. Traditionally, it was the role of philosophers to stitch answers together to tackle the big questions. With the rise of the scientific method and the splintering of academic specialties, however, academic philosophy has retreated from this broad and all-encompassing role. It is time for that to change.
The Change
Evolutionary Philosophy is the term I am using for a new belief system. Just as Evolutionary Biology and Evolutionary Psychology look to our evolutionary roots for answers about our biological and psychological questions, Evolutionary Philosophy (EvPhil for short) looks to our evolutionary roots for common answers to our common philosophical questions. EvPhil tries to gather all of the best answers we have and winnow them down through an open dialogue to arrive at our best belief system through the survival of the fittest ideas. This is the process I have followed throughout my adult life and I want to use this website to both share what I have found in order to help others answer their questions, and to provide a forum where I can learn from others who have found even better answers than mine. Join in. Learn from me and others. Teach us what you know. Humans have evolved needs to both preserve and extend knowledge. Everyone does both. Some favor one more than the other. Right now, the most conservative among us hold on to religion and ancient values. The most progressive want to throw those all away. It would be better if they were arguing over the same body of knowledge—one to say, "we don't know that yet" and one to say, "we know enough to change." Evolutionary Philosophy welcomes conservative and progressive members into its society. Both types are needed. Let’s unite and make sense of life.
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© 2012 Ed Gibney
