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COMPARATIVE LITERATURE /118 However, if evolutionism is right in contending that our cognitive ability comes from genetic and biological necessity, not from the free exercise of self-made internal reason, then the contents of the mind are likewise not free but necessary. In other words, our mind is made, not of a neutrally truthful, disinterested knowledge of the world, but of inductive beliefs whose sole use is the preservation of our species. Only a god, a creature untroubled by the business of staying alive, would be able to contemplate the world disinterestedly and perhaps behold its unclouded ontological glory. Because mere living creatures like us cannot afford the intellectual luxury of setting our interests aside, we possess minds that notice mostly those things that are beneficial for us to notice. Insomuch as the mind is encased in a brain and the brain in a living body, says the Darwinist, cognition is a map of living interests written, not by Platoâs recording angel, but by the practical hunter and gatherer in each of us. This restriction on the independence of cognition, however, casts a shadow on the very theory that upholds it. This is why, with exemplary intellectual honesty, Darwin
Comparative Literature – Duke University Press
Published: Jan 1, 2001
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