Normative Reasons and Theism by Gerald K. Harrison

Author:Gerald K. Harrison
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

5.Evolutionary forces are responsible for producing in us the mental instruction manuals constitutive of our faculties of reason.

6.Therefore, evolutionary forces are the mechanism Reason used to produce in us the mental instruction manuals constitutive of our faculties of reason.

6.11 A Mente Divina

If the above is right, then Reason has somehow been able to harness evolutionary forces and use them to get the basic copies of her book into our minds. They are to her what the publishing processes that produced this book are to me. And in that case, I think we can safely conclude that she is a mind of incredible ingenuity, understanding and power (though note it would be to bloat this conclusion to insist she is maximally possessed of these properties).

Consider also the nature of the book in question. My washing machine’s instruction manual is currently very useful to me, for the machine is new and I have no very good idea how to operate it or what the various beeps and other sounds it keeps emitting mean. So, the author of the manual, whoever he, she, or they may be, is currently exercising a degree of influence over me, because to some extent I need to consult their work if I am to wash my clothes. But it is hardly an awesome amount. It’s only when I come to try and use the washing machine that it exerts itself, and I am not compelled to use my washing machine and could easily replace it with a different, less perplexing one if I choose.

By contrast, my copy of Reason’s book is an instruction manual on the world. The world is the place I live in all the time. I can’t exchange it for another or take a break and live in limbo for a while. And though I can, perhaps, escape altogether, even then I would need to consult my instruction book to figure out how. So, my instruction booklet on all of reality—Reason’s book—is, indispensable to me in a way that my washing machine’s instruction manual is not. Consequently, the author of Reason’s book—Reason herself—has an awesome and almost inescapable degree of influence over me, and everyone else who has had a copy of it produced in their mind, for we are constantly having to consult it. Those who systematically fail to consult it will, after all, be scythed away very quickly.

As has already been noted, Reason’s book contains not just informational instructions, but all manner of personal instruction, commands, recommendations, pleas, suggestions and commendations. It would seem, then, that there are things she passionately wants us to do, beliefs she wants us to hold, and people she wants us to become, irrespective of whether we happen to want to ourselves. So, it appears not just to be an instruction manual designed to help us get what we want, but also an instruction manual designed to get us to do, believe, and be the kinds of thing she, Reason, wants us to do, believe, and be. It is, as has already been noted above, an instruction and lifestyle promotion manual.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.