Conatus: REVISED EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

be progress towards finding meaning in the universe? And if meaning is thus discovered then perhaps also values and purpose and the discovery of ways people might live without having to assume that human morality is just something that’s been made up, such that it could have been other than it is? In other words, could studying the universe provide an understanding of how people might live?

In the meantime, the way people who are not philosophers or scientists view the world today can often be a search for an essence to things — some kind of meaning beyond appearances in the universe. Essential truths, essential ideas of right and wrong and even an essential aesthetic sense of what is beautiful and what it means to live well. The meaning of the word ‘essential’, for ancient philosophers is the key here, as it sheds light on many modern endeavours to discover truth — and more besides. Looking for essence is not an idea so much credited today, but it is still there beneath modern terms such as ‘substrate’ and it is still a concern held by ordinary folk. If essence were to be accepted, then this is also the place of the individual essence, or soul. We might simply describe it as a search for some kind of authenticity in people.

I’d go as far as saying that a search for essence unlocks a wide breadth of understanding. Part of the reason for looking for essence in the way we present facts about the world is to try to determine what those facts might add up to — what the whole universe might mean or intend — and what we’re likely to discover or wish to discover in the future. That’s narrative as essence. To be honest, I don’t think we can

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