Looking for the metanarrative of our lives
Excellent article by David Lane. Therein he goes into Edelman’s primary and higher-order consciousness. While acknowledging that natural selection has no purpose it is indeed ironic that we humans, with our self-aware higher consciousness that creates purpose, ended up at the top of the selection process. The downside of the latter is that it is a double-edged sword; it can make up stories that serve the purpose of giving us comfort but not be true. However it also has the capacity via the scientific method to correct those stories with new insights and stories from empirical experiment, hence our superior ability to flourish. Nevertheless, the new stories are still based in natural selection versus supernatural causes. They are better, more accurate stories open to revision pending further evidence. And they are indeed the result of our higher-order consciousness.