David Ryder – Designer – Blog
philosophy
Social Philosophy and Instincts
02 years ago
We are all born with them: fixed action patterns that are involuntarily learned. They are the primordial drive behind the acting forces of every human. They are nearly unavoidable and are the key to survival. Yet in such a civilized and industrialized society we are taught to forgo basic instincts and replace them with logical approaches to nearly everything in life. These instincts that at one time completely ruled humans are being quelled out of us.
At the most basic level instincts drive us to seek shelter, eat, and reproduce. There are however more evolved and complex instincts working behind the scenes. Instincts that encourage fear in particular situations, specifically that subconsciously tell us to fight or take flight in situations that warrant almost immediate response to confrontation. They help us survive when surrounded by a natural and dangerous environment. It’s the underlying force that decides what route to take when scrambling across a stream or up an unsturdy precipice.
Instincts are also believed to have social influences. Through the evolution of man cultural adaptation has given rise to instincts that work to create social relationships and determine on an individual level in what direction to take a relationship or how to approach another human.
The primitive man gathered socially for ceremonies that banished evil spirits, guaranteed bountiful crops, and generally protected themselves from magic. These activities were driven by basic social instinct. One could extrapolate from this that the phenomenon of organized religion is then to some degree instinctual. The desire to socially share a spiritual experience is somewhat based on the dependency humans desire to feel towards the group. So when did this personal and social experience become replaced with redundant and impersonal procedure? The instinct to discover spirit socially and personally has been superseded by the unnatural procedural gathering that is not only unexplantive but unfufilling.
Social mores and moral compass can also be said to derive from primitive instinct. Instincts that have been bestowed upon us by God and inherited from generation to generation. Some social philosophy suggests that instincts have been given to man by God to elicit activities that are later explained by reason. In other words, we are instinctively driven to explain our unexplained actions and motives by reasoning after-the-fact.
A more general explanation of social instincts can be applied to our ability to ascertain the truth from social interaction. I could easily argue that humans are driven to seek the truth and there is an unexplainable yet familiar feeling and/or aura that surrounds the suspicion of a awry situation. We may occasionally feel something is wrong given different cues given from a group or individual. It is a subconsciously driven feeling and I would derive this feeling from primitively inherited instinct. The passing of instinct to the early man from God was passed down ancestrally and remains today. Some people may lack an aspect of this instinct or simply have a weaker understanding of it. Some would call these people naive, blissfully unaware, or simply ignorant.
The point is, instincts that produce feelings or set off alarms, or drive us in a certain direction, in my humble opinion, should at the very least be thoroughly investigated or blindly followed. Instincts are what have kept humans alive and allowed us to adapt and to deny them would be fallacious in the insurance of our continued existence.
More reading:
The Role Of Instinct In Social Philosophy
The Social Philosophy Of Instinct
One night at silver lake
02 years ago
I hear the roar of the river in the background and the crippling silence it brings. It delivers a melodic rhythm that borders on oscillation. I fight the sleep it is tempting as I write.
With higher elevation comes lower temperature and greater clarity in the skies. Cleaner air, more serenity, and a greater sense of grandeur follows. And in this particular spot, a soft breeze is being carried along the path of the roaring river. Everything can be heard: the rustling of the leaves, the turbulent river, the wind roaming through the trees, and occasional animals scurrying along the forest floor.
There is an assured comfort in sleeping under the stars, albeit it is much more pleasurable to share with someone you love. The strength of the mountains is comforting and overwhelming at the same time. There is nothing out here to think about save what is immediately surrounding you. When you can feel you are a part of nature – as opposed to separate from it – it becomes so easy and rewarding to enjoy the simplest stimulus out here.
As I lay here on the soft earth with an unobstructed view of the sky – aside from the few pine trees – I think of the faith I have that I will be protected in my sleep by that which watches over me. I am completely exposed and vulnerable. However the view and freedom from the openness that comes with it calms any apprehension that is associated with this vulnerability. Small risk, small exhilaration.
Good quotes
02 years ago
I know quotes can often be taken out of context but regardless, the following – in empty context – hold some truth, inspiration, and humor to me.
“In the future, will it be legal to poison, mutilate, or infect people, as long as you provide them with food, water, and space to die?” ~ Octavia Butler
“Letting opportunities pass you by leads to regret.”
“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.”
“If you tell the truth, you do not have to remember anything.”
“Just because someone doesn’t love you in the way you want, it doesn’t mean that they don’t love you with all that they have.”
“Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.” – Mark Twain
When it is true love, you simply just know… you feel it in your mind, heart, and soul.
There’s one sad truth in life I’ve found
While journeying east and west -
The only folks we really wound
Are those we love the best.
We flatter those we scarcely know,
We please the fleeting guest,
And deal full many a thoughtless blow
To those who love us best.
~Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Don’t smother each other. No one can grow in the shade. ~Leo Buscaglia
Trouble is part of your life, and if you don’t share it, you don’t give the person who loves you enough chance to love you enough. ~Dinah Shore
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~Marcel Proust
You don’t need a parachute to skydive… you only need a parachute to skydive twice.
People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves” ~ Mathew 10:16
Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
“As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.” ~ Nelson Mandela
“When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.” – Sir Winston Churchill
“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” – Mark Twain
“Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.” – Albert Einstein
“Computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps only weigh 1 1/2 tons.” – Popular Mechanics, 1949
“A good programmer is someone who always looks both ways before crossing a one-way street.” – Doug Linder
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
Work like you don’t need money, love like you’ve never been hurt, and dance like no one’s watching.
If you were a tear in my eye, I would not cry for fear of losing you.
When you walk through life’s pastures, you are bound to step in manure; you can stand there and curse or you can look for the horse.
“Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend’s forehead.” ~ Chinese Proverb
“You can put a rattlesnake on a rollercoaster, but you can’t make it bake you a cake.” ~ Dr. Phil
“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” ~ Douglas Adams
“The past is only a guidepost… not a hitching post.” ~ Thomas Holcroft
“To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.” ~ Eva Young
“You do not lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership.” ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
Back to basics
02 years ago
Sometimes I wonder if I will have the opportunity to go back to basics. To break out of this shell that I had never imagined myself retreating into. I seem to have been roaming nomadically for the past 10 years. Didn’t necessarily have ultimate freedom, but definitely had more than I have now. I am proud of what I have accomplished, and what I am accomplishing, but sometimes I just want to let it all go and live to only think of what I need to do to stay alive and enjoy my time on this earth.
One – among a few – of the reasons I have such a deep connection to the movie Into The Wild is the same longing I have as the main character to leave my organized and structured life for immersion in nature, natural, simple, pure, evangelical. For me there is nothing more spiritual than not knowing which direction civilization is, completely off the grid, and connecting to something that is impossible to connect to in an industrial civilization.
I believe for this purpose that my move to Utah has been more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. I have the mountains in every direction I go and really for anyone that has lived outside of the West, there is little better than watching a setting sun painting a hazy sky all shades of red and blue over the peak of a mountain. To have that in your back yard is very rewarding. It’s inspiring and moving. Something so simple that none of us should lose sight of.