Conatus: REVISED EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

when considering the universe as ‘the One’ is that the One cannot have purpose. This is a further aspect of the essential paradox of the universe when we try to contrast our limited view of it to any kind of ‘view from eternity’ or ‘God’s eye view’.

A further idea of purpose sits between our ‘parochial’ and our ‘cosmic’ mysterian alternatives. We need to remember that we are not just individuals trying to find our own personal purpose, nor are we simply ascribing to some universal or religious purpose. We are part of families, neighbourhoods and communities, and also part of eco-systems, the bio-sphere — nature as a whole. So a further view of purpose would be to say simply: What should we do? How should we live? To what ends are human cultures and societies aspiring? This, I suggest, is the further ingredient needed in order to take the next step towards an ethic. All this is not antithetical to personal meaning. Looking back at that contrast — ‘the meaning of my life is X — therefore…’ compared to, ‘the meaning of the universe is X, therefore…’ — could we instead say, ‘the meaning of my society/nation/culture/community is X, therefore my role is…’?

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To conclude this section on value, let me just summarise again the process that has been considered and that will lead us into our considerations of ‘the good’ in the next section.

Even if value is innate, we cannot really dig down to the original value, just as we cannot dig down to an original ‘substance’ or substrate, in the physical sense. So we are likely to have

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