Do you know how evolution created minds that eventually thought about things such as the meaning of life, as opposed to just optimizing inclusive genetic fitness in the ancestral environment? Is the ability to think about the meaning of life a spandrel?
I’m assuming you’re not asking about the mechanism (i.e. natural selection + mutations)? A trite answer would be something like “the same way it created wings, mating dances, exploding beetles, and parasites requiring multiple hosts”.
Thinking about the meaning of life might be a spandrel, but a quick consideration of it comes up with various evo-psych style reasons why it’s actually very useful, e.g. it can propel people to greatness, which massively can increase their genetic fitness. Fitness is an interesting thing, in that it can be very non-obvious. Everything is a trade-off, where the only goal is for your genes to propagate. So if thinking about the meaning of life will get your genes spread more (e.g. because you decide that your children have inherit meaning, because you become a high status philosopher and your sister can marry well, because it’s a social sign that you have enough resources to waste them on fruitless pondering) then it’s worth having around.
Do you know how evolution created minds that eventually thought about things such as the meaning of life, as opposed to just optimizing inclusive genetic fitness in the ancestral environment? Is the ability to think about the meaning of life a spandrel?
I’m assuming you’re not asking about the mechanism (i.e. natural selection + mutations)? A trite answer would be something like “the same way it created wings, mating dances, exploding beetles, and parasites requiring multiple hosts”.
Thinking about the meaning of life might be a spandrel, but a quick consideration of it comes up with various evo-psych style reasons why it’s actually very useful, e.g. it can propel people to greatness, which massively can increase their genetic fitness. Fitness is an interesting thing, in that it can be very non-obvious. Everything is a trade-off, where the only goal is for your genes to propagate. So if thinking about the meaning of life will get your genes spread more (e.g. because you decide that your children have inherit meaning, because you become a high status philosopher and your sister can marry well, because it’s a social sign that you have enough resources to waste them on fruitless pondering) then it’s worth having around.