Conatus: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

‘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…’?

Our values can be ‘cosmic’ and transcendental, or they can be innate to the universe, or they can be innate to an individual, or they can be a justification for our own personal preferences, or, indeed, some strange mixture of all of these. And given the discussions in the previous chapters, we do not often acknowledge that our perception of the world is primarily phenomenological. I’m not intending to come down in favour of any one of these approaches. But the examination of quality, value, meaning and purpose is a necessary step to take the discussion into matters of ethics and morality.

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