Do we have any examples of humans successfully navigating an ontological crisis?
How do you define “successfully”?
For example, all the disagreement over “free will” seems to be because many humans have a sense of morality which presumes some sense of an extraphysical free will. Confronted with evidence that we are physical systems, some people resort to claiming that we aren’t actually physical systems, others modify their conception of free will to be compatible with us being physical systems, and some declare that since we are physical systems, we have no free will and the concept was confused from the start. Those are three different outcomes of running into an ontological crisis—which one counts as being successful? (Of course, not everyone thinks that morality requires an extraphysical free will in the first place.)
Similarly, there is currently controversy over animal rights, which for some is influenced by the ontological question of whether animals suffer in a manner similar to us; historically, similar ontological considerations influenced the question of whether to treat black people or women the same as white men. The theory of evolution probably caused some sort of ontological crises, and so on. In each case, there are various ways of dealing with the issue, but it’s not clear which one of them counts as a “success”. (Aside for the fact that we’d like to call the reactions which align with our way of thought as successes, of course. Needless to say, this comment does not endorse the ill-treatment of black people, women, nor for that matter animals.) Society just generally splits into different opposing camps, they debate each other for a while, and then generally some of the camps just happens to win out for whatever sociological reason.
How do you define “successfully”?
For example, all the disagreement over “free will” seems to be because many humans have a sense of morality which presumes some sense of an extraphysical free will. Confronted with evidence that we are physical systems, some people resort to claiming that we aren’t actually physical systems, others modify their conception of free will to be compatible with us being physical systems, and some declare that since we are physical systems, we have no free will and the concept was confused from the start. Those are three different outcomes of running into an ontological crisis—which one counts as being successful? (Of course, not everyone thinks that morality requires an extraphysical free will in the first place.)
Similarly, there is currently controversy over animal rights, which for some is influenced by the ontological question of whether animals suffer in a manner similar to us; historically, similar ontological considerations influenced the question of whether to treat black people or women the same as white men. The theory of evolution probably caused some sort of ontological crises, and so on. In each case, there are various ways of dealing with the issue, but it’s not clear which one of them counts as a “success”. (Aside for the fact that we’d like to call the reactions which align with our way of thought as successes, of course. Needless to say, this comment does not endorse the ill-treatment of black people, women, nor for that matter animals.) Society just generally splits into different opposing camps, they debate each other for a while, and then generally some of the camps just happens to win out for whatever sociological reason.