(December 16, 2016 at 8:55 pm)Mudhammam Wrote: [quote='Emjay' pid='1470630' dateline='1481920025']That's not design at all. But the only truth that neurons, or any other part of our apparatus, must be aware of is a statistical one-- that this form or that behavior leads to a persistence in information over individuals over time.
I have to inquire, if neurons weren't, in evolutionary terms, designed to track truth
Very much of how we think is designed to filter out truth in favor of utility. That's why optical illusions work.
Quote:-- not for the sake of truth but simply because the more accurate the representation of the world, the easier can harms be avoided and the more can energy-saving advantages be procured -- then what explains our success as a species at overcoming nature and the ignorance she fosters upon us all, especially when this ignorance can be so dangerous?Ignorance of the need to run away from a lion is dangerous. Ignorance of the fact that 99.999999% of everything we see is empty space probably is not dangerous. Therefore, we run from lions, and have trouble grasping that our desks are as empty as the solar system is.
Quote:Can one really believe that the only difference in beauty between the Sistine Chapel and some ordinary six year old's finger painting is an arbitrary or irrational judgment formed by one's brain that the former is far more beautiful?I'd look at it like this: our arbitrary judgments are skewed by our nature, and beauty is a description of one of the experiences which are dependent on our nature. It is because people are naturally inspired by sunsets that we call sunsets beautiful, not because there is something intrinsically beautiful in them.
