How To Be An Excellent Human: Mysticism, Evolutionary Psychology and the Good Life

287 Pages·2013·1.518 MB·English

by  Bill Meacham Ph.D.

How To Be An Excellent Human

How To Be An Excellent Human
Mysticism, Evolutionary Psychology
and the Good Life

Bill Meacham, Ph.D.

Earth Harmony
Austin, Texas
Copyright © by Bill Meacham, 2013. All rights reserved. No part
of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any
means without written permission of the author, except for brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Contact the author at http://www.bmeacham.com.

Published in the United States of America by Earth Harmony
Inc., 603 Kingfisher Creek Drive, Austin TX 78748-2424.

ISBN-13: 978-0615727004

ISBN-10: 061572700X
Dedication
I dedicate this work in memoriam to Laszlo Versenyi and Na-
thaniel Lawrence, two exceptional teachers of philosophy, the
love of wisdom, at Williams College. From these men I gained a
lifetime of inspiration.

Contents
Acknowledgements ...................................................................... xi
Part I: Setting the Stage ............................................................... 1
Chapter 1, Introduction ................................................................ 3
Chapter 2, Posing the Question .................................................... 5
Chapter 3, The Good ..................................................................... 9
Chapter 4, The Goodness Ethic .................................................. 13
Method .................................................................................... 16
Part II: The Broadest Vision ....................................................... 19
Chapter 5, Our Place in the Grand Scheme ............................... 21
The Mechanistic World View .................................................. 22
Process Metaphysics ............................................................... 23
Panpsychism ........................................................................... 25
Inside And Outside ................................................................. 27
Implications ............................................................................ 31
Chapter 6, A World Alive ............................................................ 33
Chapter 7, The Quantum World: Oneness ................................. 37
Chapter 8, The Quantum World: Agency ................................... 43
Indeterminacy ......................................................................... 43
Causality ................................................................................. 44
The Brain ................................................................................ 45
Beyond the Causal Veil ........................................................... 47
Chapter 9, The First-Person Point of View ................................. 51
Who Experiences? ................................................................... 54
Chapter 10, Speaking of the Self ................................................ 57
The Self in the World .............................................................. 58
The Self and Others ................................................................ 59
Self and Soul ........................................................................... 60
Chapter 11, All is One ................................................................ 63
One Universal Interiority ....................................................... 64
How Do We Know? .................................................................. 67
The Nature of The God ........................................................... 67
Divine Influence ...................................................................... 69
Chapter 12, Aspects of The One ................................................. 73
The One Expresses Itself In Activity And Repose .................. 73
The One Is Infinitely Wise ...................................................... 74
It Is Useful To Pay Attention To The One .............................. 75
Reality Is Good ........................................................................ 76
We Are All Connected ............................................................. 76
Chapter 13, A Mystical Perspective ............................................ 77
The Goodness Ethic and Divine Guidance .............................. 77
The Purpose of Life ................................................................. 79
Loving God .............................................................................. 80
Alignment with Divine Will .................................................... 80
Duality of Good and Evil ......................................................... 81
God’s Goodness........................................................................ 82
Part III: Facets of Human Nature .............................................. 85
Chapter 14, What Are We Capable Of? ...................................... 87
Chapter 15, Humans as Apes ..................................................... 89
Chapter 16, Evolution ................................................................. 97
Chapter 17, Ways of Knowing: Cognition and Emotion ........... 103
Evolutionary Psychology ....................................................... 103
Cognition ............................................................................... 105
Emotion ................................................................................. 107
Implications .......................................................................... 109
Chapter 18, Intelligence ........................................................... 111
The Scope Problem ................................................................ 112
Theory of Mind ...................................................................... 114
Chapter 19, The Overlooked Adaptation .................................. 117
Traits of Undistressed Humans ............................................ 123
Humans are Good ................................................................. 126
Chapter 20, The Human Virtue ................................................ 129
Chapter 21, Our Sense of Morality ........................................... 135
Moral Intuition...................................................................... 136
Six Moral Domains................................................................ 139
Caring and the Prevention of Harm.................................. 140
Fairness and Reciprocity ................................................... 140
Ingroup Loyalty ................................................................. 141
Authority and Respect ...................................................... 141
Purity and Sanctity ........................................................... 142
Liberty and Oppression ..................................................... 142
Analogues in Other Species .................................................. 143
Chapter 22, Ways to Say “Should” ............................................ 147
How the Mind Works Morally ............................................... 147
Philosophical Implications .................................................... 148
A Universal Morality ............................................................ 154
Empathy ............................................................................ 154
Nonzero-sum games .......................................................... 155
Rational persuasion .......................................................... 156
Need for reason ................................................................. 156
Chapter 23, Religion ................................................................. 159
Chapter 24, When Intelligence Fails ........................................ 169
Self-Deception ....................................................................... 169
The Mating Game ............................................................. 170
Reciprocal Altruism........................................................... 171
Social Hierarchy ................................................................ 174
Summary of Self-Deception ............................................... 175
Maladaptation ....................................................................... 175
Afflictive Emotion ................................................................. 179
Chapter 25, The Rider and the Elephant ................................. 181
To Know The Good … ........................................................ 185
Chapter 26, Being the Rider: Strategy ..................................... 187
Chapter 27, Being the Rider: Tactics ........................................ 191
Working with Habit .............................................................. 191
Overcoming Afflictive Emotion ............................................. 193
Overcoming Distress Patterns .............................................. 196
Working with Instinct ........................................................... 197
Chapter 28, Summary: What Is It About Humans? ................. 199
Part IV: Conclusion ................................................................... 203
Chapter 29, To Be Of Service .................................................... 205
Postscript: Why I Clean Up the Park ....................................... 209
Part V: Appendices ................................................................... 213
Appendix A, The Good and The Right ...................................... 215
The Good ............................................................................... 216
The Right .............................................................................. 216
Confusion Between the Good and the Right ......................... 217
Why It Matters...................................................................... 217
Meta-ethics: Good vs. Right .................................................. 218
Advice: Use Goodness Language........................................... 226
Appendix B, The Nature of the Good ........................................ 229
Goodness as Virtue and Intention ........................................ 231
Appendix C, In Defense of Panpsychism .................................. 235
Appendix D, Truth .................................................................... 243
Congruence ........................................................................... 243
Consistency ........................................................................... 244
Coherence .............................................................................. 245
Usefulness ............................................................................. 245
Confidence ............................................................................. 246
Non-Falsifiable Theories ....................................................... 247
What Is Knowable and What Is Believable .......................... 247
Notes ......................................................................................... 249
Bibliography.............................................................................. 261