Serialised book (with a progressively updated >>dashboard/ToC<< page). Part II: Philosophy of the Life Instinct.

Book: Philosophy of Life Instinct: Chapter 9: The Power of Our Intellect

How can we harness it wisely?

Our problem

Should we simply live by how we feel moment to moment? Anger, jealousy, greed, envy, sadness, deceit, wickedness, revenge — should we let them have a free hand? Is this the best way to help the Life Instinct? If we were meant to be saints, why aren’t we? If we were supposed to be full of the milk of human kindness, why aren’t we? Who are we to rebel against our fundamental nature, or nature itself? Didn’t dinosaurs and plants do fine without any thought and self-control? No other species on the planet can think like us. Aren’t we a freak of nature, artificial, unnatural? Should we stop trying to be different, ignore our consciousness, conscience, intelligence, awareness, thought and analytical decision-making and ‘return to nature’?

There are two reasons we shouldn’t and can’t — the first is that we may be different, but we are not unique because apes and other mammals also have the rudiments of awareness and self-control. The second and more important reason is, even if we are exclusive, we know this ability has evolved in us as naturally as any other, including our instincts. (Of course, some could view that it is not natural evolution but God who made us different by giving us the faculty of awareness and self-control. But they would only expect us to use it to the maximum, without questioning its utility, assuming God is not fooling around.)

We saw in chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 that self-awareness, abstract thought, intelligence and free will are part of the continuum of features created by the Life Instinct. They have contributed to our survival, like the evolution of our older and more basic abilities such as bipedalism, improved senses and digestive systems, tool-making ability, and so on.

But it is a fact our abilities are not in balance within and between social groups and individuals. We have serious conflicts in our minds that affect our bodies, interactions, and our very survival. Other life forms on Earth are not as conflicted as we are. They have only one major problem — humans. We also indulge in many social and global excesses through our intelligence, which we fitfully recognise but struggle to contain. Our internal struggles appear in all our behaviours.

We will consider several human traits in the upcoming chapters of Part II. Before we embark on them, we will in this chapter examine the source of these conflicts and excesses and an interim framework to deal with them. I say interim because humanity is a work in progress. As we evolve, so will our techniques to manage ourselves.

In the sections below, we will look at — how our mind operates, its good and bad aspects, the unique position of our intellect, and how we can empower our highest mind.

1. How our mind operates

We are our biology and chemistry. The overall control of all body functions happens at three levels: within cells, between cells and between organs. As we saw in chapter 7, ‘Science and the Life Instinct’, cellular function is complex. So is the communication between cells and organs required to acquire essential information, take actions, and use feedback loops that manage the actions. The human nervous system performs much of this communication.

A. The physical mind

We will begin with an overview of our nervous system and how it works. It will aid our philosophical inquiries.

A.1 The Central Nervous System

This comprises the brain and spinal cord. The brain is responsible for centrally managing various body operations and applying higher intelligence. The spinal cord is attached to the brain and involved in the body’s motor and organic functions.

The brain has three main regions — The brainstem, the cerebellum and the cerebrum.

The cerebrum, the largest part of the brain, fills most of the upper skull. Its two hemispheres use information from our senses to understand what’s going on around us and respond. Nerves go directly from it to the eyes, ears, and other parts of the head. The right hemisphere controls the muscles on the left side of the body, and the left hemisphere controls the muscles on the right side of the body. It also possesses our most advanced abilities — learning, memory, consciousness, thinking and emotions, and speech and reading.

Under the cerebrum at the back of the brain, the cerebellum acts as a bridge between the spinal cord and the cerebrum and coordinates their activities. Nerves from the organs and peripheral areas of our body send signals to the spinal cord, which sends them to the brainstem and into the cerebellum. The cerebrum also sends signals based on sensory analysis to the cerebellum. The cerebellum compares the two signals to determine corrective actions. It then sends control signals back down through the spine and feedback information back up to the cerebrum. In this way, the cerebellum intermediates our balance and complex actions like walking and talking.

The brainstem connects the cerebrum and cerebellum with the spinal cord. It manages basal body functions such as hunger, thirst, temperature, blood pressure, and breathing.

We can say the regions of the brain function through the combination of three mental capabilities, in the Guilford model: Content is worked upon by processes to create products. (1) Content — sensory, symbolic, semantic and behavioural information; (2) Processes — memory, cognition, production and evaluation; (3) Products — Units, classes, relationships, systems, transformations and implications. This three-part function can address almost any situation and is most rich and involved in the advanced cerebral cortex region.

The picture below shows the major parts of the brain. The coloured areas comprise the cerebrum.

The spinal cord has three main parts — the cervical (neck), thoracic (chest), and lumbar (lower back) regions. They connect most parts of the body to the brain, other than the sense organs. The picture below shows the organs to which each part connects.

A.2 The Peripheral Nervous System

This is the rest of the nervous system, comprising the nerves emanating from the brain and spinal cord, the nerves of the sensory organs such as the skin, eyes, ears, nose and mouth, the internal organs and the digestive tract. Its three main functions are — controlling the skeleton via skeletal muscles, controlling the smooth muscles of the internal organs, and controlling the enteric organs (digestive tract).

The picture below shows the major peripheral nerves. The names are not important here, but the complexity and extents are worth noting.

B. The levels of our mind

Our cells, organs, central and peripheral nervous systems work together and form our behaviour’s totality. Broadly, we will think in terms of three behavioural mind levels, as below. They will help us consider our overall well-being and success as a life form.

B.1 The Autonomous Mind

Our body’s physiological functions can be said to be autonomous and automatic. The instinct of self-preservation drives these activities. Examples are — maintaining body temperature, breathing, circulating blood, growing, replacing cells, metabolising food, collecting internal waste for disposal, fighting infections, etc.

Some behaviours or activities that we are initially aware of can become automatic, and we perform them unconsciously most of the time. Some examples of such learned automatic behaviours are — putting on clothes, walking the same route every day, driving, and exercising.

Our instinct for reproduction also drives some of our autonomous activities. For example: rapidly spotting attractive potential mates in a crowd, the sexual act, and instinctive protective actions for spouse and children.

These functions are equivalent to Maslow’s pyramid’s base — physiological needs. The first two Laws of Force of Life Instinct drive them (see chapter 7).

Autonomous decisions are almost instantaneous, with scarcely milliseconds between input and action. The information used is environmental, sensory and circumstantial, in the here and now. Trillions of autonomous actions are performed by us every day.

B.2 The Aware Mind

There are many activities that we carry out consciously. We recognise ourselves as separate from other things and consider our situation objectively. In this mode, we gather a wider variety of information, formulate more complex problem statements, identify the options for action and select one through thinking and analysis.

We perform two types of aware activities — individual and social. They can overlap or influence each other, but each has a different focus. Examples of aware personal activities are: eating, exercising, taking shelter, proposing marriage, studying, fight or flight, etc.

Examples of aware social activities are: making friends, playing sports, joining a club, singing for an audience, attending mass, etc.

We can loosely map these functions to Maslow’s pyramid’s second, third and fourth levels, and a part of the fifth — safety, love, belonging, and esteem needs. All the five Laws of Force of Life Instinct (see chapter 7) drive them.

These actions are slower moving, with potentially hundreds of milliseconds to days between information gathering and action. We take a lot more than immediate sensory inputs into account. We consider our past, future, personal condition, family situation, social needs and expectations, and thousands of other inputs. There can be multiple alternative actions for each problem, and it can take a while to analyse and select one. Tens of thousands of aware activities are performed by us every day.

B.3 The Philosophical Mind

This is the highest level of intelligence of which we are capable. What this means in simple terms is that we consider the big picture and take a detached view of our behaviour, society, world, and universe. Like the other two levels, this also identifies problems, analyses the information it gathers, and reaches conclusions.

Examples of philosophical analyses are — morality and ethics, justice, freedom, government, religion, god, etc.

To an extent, all of us are philosophical. But some of us are more so. We look at how much philosophy is good individually and in the population in sections 3 and 4.

Philosophical mind activities align to the very top of Maslow’s pyramid, self-actualisation or self-fulfilment. They correspond to the fifth Law of Force of Life Instinct (see chapter 7).

The philosophical level’s thoughts and actions are the slowest, taking days to years to reach conclusions or take steps. It contemplates the entire human species, the planet, our origins, our behaviour as individuals and societies, and metaphysical questions about the cosmos and other subjects. The problems it tackles are abstract and layered, and the analysis is complicated. We may deal with just a handful of philosophical matters in our lives.

C. How our mind controls itself

Each level of our mind regulates itself and regulates the others.

Without making it technical, let us look at a couple of examples of each. (The illustrations are of positive outcomes, but they are often not so in reality. Section 2 supplies illustrative examples of adverse effects.)

C.1 Autonomous mind

Internal regulation: 1. Oxygen falls low in an organ, and signals are sent from the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) to the spinal cord, which then speeds up our heart rate to pump blood faster and makes our lungs breathe deeper. 2. Viruses are detected in an organ, and the PNS activates white blood cells and other defences to eliminate the infection.

External regulation: The autonomous mind works with the aware mind in such ways: 1. The oxygen supply does not increase sufficiently, the PNS signals the Central Nervous System (CNS), and the aware mind reduces activities and makes our body lie down as it may increase the blood flow. 2. The infection is not taken care of, the PNS sends pain signals to our CNS to make us aware of the serious situation, and we take medicine.

C.2 Aware Mind

Internal regulation: 1. A father is lied to by his son, gets angry and wants to shout at him but controls himself and calmly grounds him. 2. A scientist works out a way of collecting water on Mars and writes a paper on it.

External regulation: The aware mind affects the philosophical and autonomous mind in such ways: 1. The father is not sure he has done the right thing and wants to think more generally about children, lying and punishment, which he does with his philosophical mind. 2. The scientist is reminded by thinking about water on Mars that he is thirsty and drinks water.

C.3 Philosophical Mind

Internal regulation: 1. A businessman realises that he has earned more than enough and working more has no value. 2. Someone comes to believe the pain inflicted on feedstock is unethical and turns vegetarian.

External regulation: The philosophical mind affects the aware and autonomous mind in such ways: 1. The businessman hands over his company to spend more time with his family. 2. Becoming vegetarian reduces the person’s previously high level of bad blood cholesterol.

2. The good and bad of our mind

Beauty and beast in one

We saw how our mind’s different systems regulate themselves and each other. It is a delicate and intricate dance that works wonderfully, a thing of beauty.

But we noted that the mutual effects could also be harmful. It is far from uncommon across our minds, lives and generations.

Here are a few examples: 1. The Autonomous level’s urge to feed, when left uncontrolled, makes us obese, sick and unhappy at our Aware level. 2. The Aware level’s focus on getting ahead in life makes us irregular in eating, sleeping and exercising, disrupting our Autonomous level. 3. The Philosophical level’s push to totalitarian control in several countries leads to unhappiness in the Aware level and stresses the Autonomous level in its citizens.

When any level of our mind becomes excessively active or restricted, we suffer individually and collectively. In recent years we have found that the entire planet, its life forms and ecosystems, all are affected by human activities, which is to say our minds.

There is a constant tension between the three — our mind’s basal instincts, conscious, and reflective minds. Reducing their conflicts and imbalances is vital, for we are still evolving as animals and far from lasting well-being and balance with nature.

The goodness of our intellect

Our Aware and Philosophical Mind’s power has made us the predominant species on the planet. We have spread to all corners and become very numerous. We flatten mountains, dig deep into the earth, dam the largest rivers, release enormous power and travel in space. No creature with only an Autonomic Mind would achieve so much control over its environment and destiny.

Our life has no absolute value in the universe, as we explored in chapters 1 and 2. But within our existence, the Life Instinct has equipped us with an advanced brain whose analytical capacity has done us much good.

Our intelligence has made food and shelter plentiful in the last few millennia, reduced wars and pogroms, abolished slavery, and suppressed overt racism. Representative forms of government have replaced colonialism and dictatorships. More leisure time has become available for arts and sports. Many peaceable spiritual movements such as yoga, zen and meditation have spread. As a result of all this, the number of us living in hunger, fear and pain has reduced appreciably, even as we have grown more numerous. These are telling metrics for the success of human intelligence.

At the individual level, how have our awareness, thought and reflection improved? Has the incidence of anger, violence, cheating, lying, revenge, greed and other base emotions reduced in the population? Even if our minds’ autonomous and reactive parts are essential, we generally take them to be ‘base instincts’ now, keeping them in check and control. Although it is difficult to assess the ideal level of control, it is a revealing self-recognition by our species of higher intelligence’s practical ascendency.

Are we getting more and more self-controlled? Is the prefrontal cortex becoming stronger with every generation? Will the base emotions disappear in 15 or 20 human generations? It remains to be seen. If we could get data from five hundred or a thousand years ago, it would be more predictable. Meanwhile, we can only go by circumstantial evidence that shows an appreciable increase in our gentleness, tolerance, charity, self-control, social niceties, lawfulness, morals and ethics.

The problems of our intellect

We have also gone too far with our intelligence in many ways. More and more powerful weapons, nuclear bombs, totalitarian governments, religious strife and global ecological disruption are just a few depredations wrought by the same Aware and Philosophical Minds in us that have done us so much good.

In essence, movements such as Nazism, Communism and several militant religious movements have been philosophical ideas. Yet, they have caused hundreds of millions of humans to die or live in misery. It shows us that not all ‘higher’ thought is positive.

Nuclear bombs and the ability to release uncontrolled radiation are outcomes of science.

Cloning and genetic manipulation of life forms and even human embryos by molecular biochemistry are undoubtedly fraught with ethical and species threatening dangers.

So then?

Constant improvement is an innate urge in us, and we will probably keep improving our minds as a species. But we cannot leave this entirely to trial and error, the survival of the fittest.

We have to recognise that we are in the midst of a phase of severe risks to our survival and that of most other life forms on Earth. At this point in the early twenty-first century, our advanced mind’s adverse effects appear to be overtaking the good it has done us. Is our intelligence itself a danger to our Life Instinct? Are our intelligence’s outcomes the path we will take to extinction, rather than a comet colliding with Earth? Will our Life Instinct allow itself to be extinguished in us, along with us? Is it so limited in its power ultimately? In our intellect, has the Life Instinct begotten a monster, an evil genie that will consume it?

3. The Special Position of Our Intellect

There are three reasons why we cannot go back to thinking less. The first is that the genie of intelligence is out of the bottle of evolution. There is no putting it back. The second is that the only way we can control it is to use it more, not less, for its power is the only one we possess to control it. We cannot wait for an alien life form or God to arrive and save us from self-destruction. Our best mind is all we have.

The third reason is that Life Instinct impels me to see our intellectual power’s positives. It makes me believe in it. For example, from my experience of myself, friends, family members and colleagues, those who are more thoughtful appear more peaceful, healthy, prosperous, and have more such people around them. These are vital positives for the Life Instinct. There is also the fact that most people agree that higher education and thinking are potent aids to most situations in life, indeed for a better life.

Overall, intelligence is a good genie; we just need to make it more so.

How can we ensure that we benefit from each level of our mind while avoiding its worst aspects? Is it even possible, given how different they are in how they work and their widely different modes and speeds of action?

Fortunately, we can observe ourselves with detachment. To add to our good fortune, we have the freedom to choose our thoughts and actions, as we posited in chapter 6 on Free Will. Of course, we will readily admit that these capabilities are probably limited from a cosmic perspective. We may not be free enough from our bodies’ specific nature to observe ourselves indeed without bias. And perhaps we are not as capable of using our freedom as we would like to believe either. But we need to make the best of what we have.

The next positive to note is that although our brains’ broad structures are fixed, they are highly complex organelles made up of billions of cells and connections, changing throughout our lives. For a long time in our lives, they grow in capability before declining. It is well accepted these changes are in response to both nature and nurture.

We may be able to change our cerebellum to an extent, but our ability to change our brainstem is quite limited. And this is a good thing, as it deals with our body’s physiological processes intimately tied to our essential existence as a life form, evolved from a common primordial ancestor like other earthly life forms. Any significant change to the brainstem would make our existence unviable in the physical ecosystem in which we have developed over billions of years.

Our brain (and hence our mind) is most pliable in its upper reaches. It has plasticity and can be moulded (refer to https://t.ly/xhw1). New neural pathways for new knowledge, rules and ideas are developed here regularly. This modifiability is higher in the advanced parts, i.e. the cerebrum, the cerebral cortex within it, and especially the prefrontal cortex (also called the neocortex), the seat of awareness, learning and thought. We have named the most advanced abilities of this part the ‘Philosophical Mind’.

That the Philosophical Mind is the most amenable to change is serendipitous. Although the most unsure and slow-moving, it is the most potent part of our mind. Through the survival of the fittest, evolution will only increase the Philosophical Mind’s prevalence.

4. Empowering Our Philosophical Mind

‘Intellectual’ need not be a bad word, and it should not be a bad word. Think of all the great people we admire. If we examine their lives closely, we will find they worked their minds hard. It is not an interesting aside; it made them what they were. They were interested in many things and put in a tremendous amount of thinking. When we consider Plato, Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Galileo, Newton, Leonardo, Shakespeare, Franklin, Kant, Marx, Einstein, Gandhi, Mandela, etc., we see great intellects, not bodies. And whatever your persuasion, you can be assured of representation by great thinkers. They include the secular and the religious, capitalists and socialists, pragmatists and idealists, rationalists and mystics, artists and scientists. Indeed, variety is a significant power of the intellect, not to be suppressed but set free. It will eventually sort out the best directions for humanity.

Our highest brain functions must take responsibility for balancing our mind's autonomous, aware, and philosophical parts. If it means curbing its own power in some cases, it should wisely do so. We have a supra-awareness of which we can take advantage. We can observe ourselves observing ourselves. The higher this detachment, the deeper our insights, understanding and control. If we can make our Philosophical Mind strong first, we can apply its salubrious effects to our Aware Minds and fortify our Autonomic activities.

What are the ways to strengthen our Philosophical Minds, the highest form of our intellect? This book cannot elaborate on all the bodies of knowledge, thought and practice that have proven themselves over centuries. We can only point out some of the critical factors that support enlightenment in humans. Let us look at them briefly, but practice them as much as possible while discharging our lives’ routine duties.

6.1 Education (including science)

Literacy equips the cerebrum with more symbols, meanings and relationships to use. Scientific education reinforces analytical and rational thought. The study of Humanities adds the dimension of understanding the behaviour and forces that act on our species. Philosophy as a study subject elevates the mind to the highest levels of universal ideas, including mathematics, linguistics, logic, metaphysics and human society.

There is extensive evidence that education elevates life and human behaviour. Learning has been accelerated by the renaissance, industrial revolution, scientific revolution, the internet and other paradigm shifts in communication, socialisation, information availability, knowledge and thought. Today, no one denies the value of education in improving ourselves as humans and having a better life. Undoubtedly, the population that uses the aware and philosophical mind is steadily increasing as education spreads.

6.2 Freedom

The power of the Philosophical Mind can create massive social changes. It can bring down governments, religions and human power structures. Naturally, the freedom to think, discuss and disseminate ideas is essential for the Philosophical Mind’s flowering. The civilisations that produced the most outstanding new ideas were relatively free at the pinnacle of their philosophical periods, whether in India, China, Greece, Rome or Britain. As democracy and freedom of the individual and society spread worldwide, the Philosophical Mind’s use will increase.

6.3 Financial well-being

Reflection and philosophical thought need time. If one is busy taking care of physical and survival needs, one can hardly spare the effort to exercise the Philosophical Mind. There has to be a minimum level of material comfort, with the necessities of life taken care of, for individuals and a society to consider the questions of existence, morality, ethics, natural balance and self-restraint. One can only hope that the large portion of the world’s population that lives in a hand-to-mouth existence will reduce rapidly, for the quality of humanity’s minds will increase with it.

6.4 Challenges

Necessity is often the mother of invention, and challenges faced by societies and individuals have played a large part in human thought development. We only have to look at how difficult periods in our history led to new ideas and concepts that changed societies and the entire world. But we do not wish humankind more challenges just for new philosophical insights. Rather, the way to meet existing challenges is to elevate our thinking to the intellectual level, making more use of our mind’s most advanced capabilities. Whether it be the current problems of ecological ruin, widespread poverty or civil war, they can only be relieved by our most reflective and wise thinking.

6.5 Meditation and Mindfulness

You may not practice meditation or mindfulness, and some may associate these things with particular religious or spiritual movements or parts of the world that are not their natural milieu. Still, there is great power in these practices for a rational and scientific reason — they strengthen the very parts of the cerebrum or prefrontal cortex that are the seats of our highest and most enlightened thoughts and emotions. If you haven’t tried them, perhaps it is time.

6.7 Exercise, Reading and Art

There is substantial evidence that aerobic exercise improves upper brain function. A certain amount of it every day will help us think better. Reading is still the best way to learn, focus, imagine and fire up the highest parts of our brain. Almost all savants have been avid readers. Art exposure and practice, especially classical music and fine art can enhance intelligence (e.g., https://t.ly/Y2xb).

6.8 Religion

We must give credit where it is due. Religious thought has contributed significantly to philosophy. Whether or not we believe in God, the universal seeking for ultimate answers and guidance is a crucial motivator of religious seeking. In some practices that are nominally called religion, e.g. Hinduism, there is sometimes little difference between secular philosophy and the seeking for universal realities and powers. Those seeking to elevate their Philosophical Mind can do worse than take a religious path to it, as long as their philosophy is good enough to deprecate base and extreme avenues.

Conclusions

We are part angel, part beast, still working out how to manage our limitations and powers as we continue to evolve.

We would not be alive without our basic instincts, but self-awareness, thought, reflection and self-control are good for us. Their evolution in the most successful life form on the planet proves their soundness for the Life Instinct. We can never ‘return to nature’ as there is no way back. Our intellect has become a part of our nature.

We are not perfect in the exercise of our conscious minds. Unrestrained and excessive use of it can also be harmful. It is better to have control over it and loosen it in the right circumstances than allow our selfish instincts to misuse our intellect.

So the Philosophical Mind needs to observe everything, including itself, understand, accept, then act in a manner that benefits all life and nature. That is what the Life Instinct has created it for. Our intellect has enormous power. Let us use it well.

© 2020 Shashidhar Sastry. All rights reserved.

(As each chapter of the book is published, its link is updated in the ToC below.)

Table of Contents

Part I Metaphysics of The Life Instinct

Part II Philosophy of The Life Instinct

Part III The Life Instinct and The Future

Published By Shashidhar Sastry

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