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PLEASURE AND REASON AS ADAPTATIONS TO NATURE'S REQUIREMENTS
Author(s) -
Burhoe Ralph Wendell
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
zygon®
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.222
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1467-9744
pISSN - 0591-2385
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9744.1982.tb00474.x
Subject(s) - pleasure , sociocultural evolution , selection (genetic algorithm) , natural selection , natural (archaeology) , function (biology) , environmental ethics , aesthetics , psychology , sociology , social psychology , epistemology , geography , biology , evolutionary biology , philosophy , anthropology , computer science , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , archaeology
. The values which guide mental and physical behavior seem to be derived from evolutionary facts. In our brains, selection of genes has tied the experience of pleasure to motivating what nature requires us to do for the good of ourselves, our kinsmen, and our ecosystem. When our brains evolved to house also a cultural heritage (including religion, the motivation of sociocultural goals, and rational discourse), hellish tensions could arise to split brain function (minds) and societies. Salvation could and did come from natural selection's replacement of discordant elements in our heritages by better coadapted ones. In this replacement, human rational decisions participated. Selection also continued to adapt these symbiotic heritages to their common environment.