starkid wrote:
Aristophanes wrote:
Yeah, it only gave us the ability to domesticate plants, tame animals, create society, harness math science and engineering, and create the infrastructure to allow 6+ billion people to survive. Those things didn't just happen, they happened because someone asked "what if..."
Off-topic, but I always cringe inwardly when people mention these sorts of things, offer no proof, and assume that other people consider them to be positive developments, although I suppose that assumption is justifiable in light of popular opinion.
I never said I approved, I merely stated how it happened. He stated philosophy doesn't help people survive-- I just showed you how it did. Without the ability to problem solve none of those things would have occurred. How do you problem solve? You think about what to do next, that's philosophizing.
Every animal on earth has adaptive strategies for it's survival and for millions (possibly billions if we include micro-organisms) of years they have played out these strategies, some dying off, some evolving and surviving. Over that course of time there has never been a species that can tame nature as humans can. What separates us from the rest of these species of millions of years of evolution is the creative side of our brain-- we are not limited to pure animal instinct alone. So yeah, I'm saying that's important, the most important part of human evolution thus far is our brain.
Either that or god just plopped all that good stuff on us and we just need to wait it out for the rapture. That's another competing theory of human progress.