THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SELF St Andrews Episcopal Church Adult Forum Sunday, February 20, 2005

1. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SELF St Andrews Episcopal Church Adult Forum Sunday, February 20, 2005 Neil Greenberg Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Tennessee

2. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SELF St Andrews Episcopal Church Adult Forum Sunday, February 20, 2005 Neil Greenberg Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Tennessee

3. "Who the Hell Do You Think You Are!? The Biology of Self" • Are humans nothing more than a squirming mass of memories enveloped by an ego boundary? • At some level, we seem to know that what we call matter, as the physicist David Bohm once observed, is just a ripple on the ocean of reality.

4. "Who the Hell Do You Think You Are!? The Biology of Self" • But alongside our insignificance, we have the sentiment that we are large–that we “contain multitudes,” as the poet Walt Whitman so famously said.

5. "Who the Hell Do You Think You Are!? The Biology of Self" • Part of the resolution of this seeming paradox is that humans are part of one another. To be “a part of the main,” as the poet John Donne put it, is among the hallmarks of the “mystical experience.”

6. Knowing who you are involves more than appearances – you must know your competencies and boundaries. Confidence in this knowledge provides a significant fitness advantage for any organism. Narcissus by Caravaggio (1597)

7. Γνωθηι σεαυτονGNOTHI se AUTON To be an effective, competitive organism, we would be wise to follow the advice of the Oracle at Delphi: “Gnothi se auton” (Know thyself) Is this the primal function of art? Of Science? the ancient ruins of the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. is spread out over the southern slopes of Mount Parnassos, beneath the Phaidriad rocks.

8. At this point, to more fully understand the relationship between humanity and nature, we can invoke the powerfully integrative perspective of DEEP ETHOLOGY

9. DEEP ETHOLOGY: the convergence of complementary perspectives: Development, Ecology, Evolution, and Physiology

10. Gradualism in Mental Powers • If no organic being excepting man had possessed any mental power, or if his powers had been of a wholly different nature from those of the lower animals, then we should never have been able to convince ourselves that our high faculties had been gradually developed . . . . there is a much wider interval in mental power between one of the lowest fishes . . . and one of the higher apes, than between an ape and a man; yet this interval is filled up by numberless gradations. (Charles Darwin, 1871, p. 445)

11. Bricolage: from thermoregulatory reflex to social display • feathers raised by pilomotor muscles • an ancient autonomic theromregulatory mechanism • ordinarily hidden • displayed when aroused

12. The Lizard’s Flag • Erected by the hyoid apparatus • an ancient mechanism activated by stress • ordinarily hidden • displayed when aroused

13. DEVELOPMENT Being “part of one another” involves: • “Epigenesis” – Our “genetic program” interacts with specific stimuli in the environment, energizing (or suppressing) specific genes. • “Social Constructivism” -- As social organisms we are part of one another’s environment. • “Social referencing” -- trusted “caregivers” resolve ambiguous feelings

14. EPIGENESIS “. . . involves the interaction of genetic and environmental factors in causing behavioral traits. Many genes require specific environmental circumstances in order to be expressed. Many genes are never expressed. The genetic "program" refers to the potential for initiating and orchestrating specific physiological processes that MAY ultimately manifest themselves in a trait such as behavior

15. EPIGENESIS The interaction of fixed and flexible elements like flowing water – we follow the contours of the landscape, and at the same time gradually sculpt that same stream-bed that first guided us.

16. ECOLOGY Organisms must cope with the environment in which they find themselves at any particular moment But both they and their environments are in continual flux. They change as they mature and their experiences accumulate and they change their environments

17. MEETING NEEDS “Be all you can be . . .” (US Army recruiting slogan) For most creatures, self-actualization is manifest as fitness "The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for. . . .” (Oscar Wilde, from The Picture of Dorian Gray)

18. EVOLUTION Self actualization involves “being all you can be” – Biologically that translates into “fitness: Success in transmitting “biologically relevant information” to the next generation • “Direct Fitness” – Offspring: individuals that bear at least half your genes. • “Indirect Fitness” – Other individuals benefit from your “altruism,” understood as any resources that could otherwise be made available to your own offspring • “Inclusive Fitness” – The sum of direct and indirect fitness

19. The Biology of Self • The evolutionary significance of KNOWING ONE’S SELF

20. What are my LIMITS? • We need to know the BOUNDARIES of our competence and potential • All our philosophies are expressions of the “peacock’s tail” of that “need to know.” • The human brain is insatiable for facts and patterns that reveal the answers . . . • Causes . . . Consequences • Where did I come from? • Where am I going? “Vitruvian Man” by Leonardo – reflects his conviction that all things can be measured

21. GNOTHI se AUTON SELF KNOWLEDGE is ADAPTIVE! It ENHANCES BIOLOGICAL FITNESS To be an effective, competitive organism, we would be wise to follow the advice of the Oracle at Delphi: “Gnothi se auton” (Know thyself) Is this the primal function of art? Science? the ancient ruins of the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. is spread out over the southern slopes of Mount Parnassos, beneath the Phaidriad rocks.

22. KNOWING ONE’S SELF • We know consciously only what we experience • But many experiences are not accessible to consciousness • We develop confidence in our non-conscious competencies by practice, enhancing connections between conscious and non-conscious domains • And then “trusting” ourselves

23. "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.“ --Albert Einstein

24. The Biology of Self The LIMITS of KNOWLEDGE • the world is known only in fragments; a sense of continuity depends upon neural mechanisms. • We have an “instinctive” conviction in an intellectually accessible mechanistic order in in nature. (AN Whitehead 1967)

25. We see the world not as it is, But as we are . . . (Talmud)

26. We see the world not as it is, But as we are . . .

27. But do we necessarily see the world as we are ? Cardinal Barberini:my dear Galileo, you think in simple movements, but what if God made the stars like this (moving his finger in zig-zags) Galileo: Then God would have made man’s mind like this (moving his finger in zig-zags)

28. The organism imposes limits • Science seeks (and often succeeds) in transcending them: We have prosthetic eyes and ears . . . • BUT we live in our unique Umwelt – our sensory and perceptual world -- for example: • Vision: 390-780nm • Hearing 20-20K Hz “Vitruvian Man” by Leonardo – reflects his conviction that all things can be measured

30. For example, we communicate with bits of information such as words or numbers . . . As far they refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

31. Immanual Kant Critique of Pure Reason "The senses cannot think. The understanding cannot see."

32. We see the world not as it is, But as we are . . .

33. We see the world not as it is, But as we are . . .

34. We see the world not as it is, But as we are . . .

35. The Biology of Self • The SELF as concerned with CAUSES and CONSEQUENCES (history and future)

36. Causes and Consequences "A warp in the simian brain....made us insatiable for patterns--patterns of sequence, of behavior, of feeling-- connections, reasons, causes: stories."(Kathryn Morton, 1984) “. . . the need for a narrative is absolutely primal” (Oliver Sacks 1987)

37. Connections The love of system, of interconnection, which is perhaps the inmost essence of the intellectual impulse . . .” (Bertrand Russell, 1917)

38. The Biology of Self • THEORY and REALITY-TESTING: necessary expressions of the way the brain is organized

39. The Orchestrated Brain Many spots contribute to reading ability, but only one can recognize words

40. Affect & Moral Judgment BA9/10 (medial frontal gyrus),BA31 (posterior cingulate gyrus), and BA39 (angular gyrus, bilateral)were significantly more active in the moral-personal conditionthan in the moral-impersonal and the non-moral conditions. Greene et al 2001

41. Brain and Religious Experience Normally, the “orientation area (bottom right) is active Meditating, the area is quiet and the meditator cannot find the border of self and world

42. Ineffability: cannot be described in words. Noetic quality: It gives insight and knowledge into deep truths, which are sustained over time. Transience: cannot be sustained for long Passivity: may be facilitated by preliminaries, but once begun they seem out of control. (William James 1918)

43. there is no confidence without the convergence of evidence and theory • BELIEFS are forged from percepts that CORRESPOND to the reality of the world. (“Reality testing” finds them more-or-less valid) • BELIEFS consist of percepts that COHERE with all our other experiences (“theorizing” or “story-telling” finds they more-or-less fit with other beliefs)

44. LEFT HEMISPHERE Coherence: creates a “stable and internally consistent belief system to “save appearances” (Ramachandran 1998) Probabilistic reasoning (Osherson et al 1998) Abstract object recognition (Marsolek 1999) RIGHT HEMISPHERE Correspondence: tests reality and if damaged, confabulation runs rampant (Ramachandran 1998) Deductive reasoning (Osherson et al 1998) Specific object recognition (Marsolek 1999)

45. All truths wait in all things, They neither hasten their own delivery nor resist it, They do not need the obstetric forceps of the surgeon. The insignificant is as big to me as any, What is less or more than a touch? Logic and sermons never convince, The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul. --Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself," 647-655.

46. "Our life is an appenticeship to the truth that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning, and under every deep a lower deep opens" --Ralph Waldo Emerson