Comment by zkmon
3 months ago
Appropriate world view was evolved over millennia through continuous cycles of adaptation helped by sensory perceptions, much before these philosophies came up. You may call it reductionist or whatever. That doesn't change the facts of evolution.
Any new world view that didn't go through same level of evolution and not tested against the physical world around it, is just a sales talk to influence people who were desperate and fearful and struggling for survival. It doesn't matter who stated it and when.
You have missed the point; it has got nothing to do with Evolution/Biology but everything to do with Psychology. Philosophy is just Psychology in another guise which looks for all-encompassing solutions to the questions of "Happiness/Meaning/Being/Existence".
> Appropriate world view was evolved over millennia through continuous cycles of adaptation helped by sensory perceptions, much before these philosophies came up.
No. Evolution/Biology have nothing to do with "worldviews" which is purely a human psychological concept eg. Bacteria has no worldviews but is genetically preprogrammed to do whatever is needed to survive. Adaptation under evolutionary pressure has given us a complex brain/nervous system but we also have something called "Consciousness" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness) There are various models to try and explain it (the above wiki page is pretty detailed) but regardless of any explanation we experience it from moment to moment. That gives rise to a "Mind" and its consequent "Thoughts/Emotions/Feelings/Memories/etc." which is where "we live". So the question is; how do we manage this? The obvious answer of "we always seek to maximize happiness" fails since Humans endure all sorts of hardships/self-harm in search of meaning (eg. gory rituals in many religions).
Philosophers have been studying the problems of Consciousness/Mind/etc. from time immemorial and over time have built up a body of knowledge much of which has been validated by empirical practice eg. Effects of Meditation - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_meditation. It seems we have many "states of consciousness" some of which keep us in a tranquil/peaceful/calm/blissful state over long periods of time. This is what is called "end to suffering due to worldly existence". A philosophical worldview gives a practical roadmap to achieve this.