Daniel Dennett: Evolution as the Universal Acid
In his book, DARWIN’S DANGEROUS IDEA: EVOLUTION AND THE MEANINGS OF LIFE, Dennett describes evolution as a universal acid that eats through everything it touches; everything from the cell to consciousness to the cosmos is best explained from an evolutionary perspective, as is metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, religion, and the meaning of life. To better understand this, Dennett considers the “great cosmic pyramid. Traditionally this pyramid explains design from the top down—from god down through mind, design, order, chaos, and nothingness. In this interpretation, god acts as the ultimate “skyhook,” a miraculous source of design that does not build on lower, simpler layers. By contrast, evolution reverses the direction of the pyramid explaining design from the bottom up, by what Dennett calls “cranes.” Here physical matter and the algorithmic process of evolution explain the evolution of more complex structures from simpler ones, and they do so without miraculous intervention.
Now applied to meaning, evolution implies that no godlike skyhook is needed to derive meaning; instead, meaning must be created from the ground up, as the subjectivists argued in Chapter 5. While subjectivists have a hard time explaining how you create meaning, evolution does not. If we abandon the idea that god or mind comes first, we see that meaning evolves from the bottom up as order, design and mind are created. At one time there was no life, no mind, and no meaning, but slowly, imperceptibly they emerged. Meaning does not then descend from on high; it percolates up from below as mind develops. The meaning that mind now experiences is not full-fledged meaning, but it is moving in that direction as mind develops. From a mind that itself was built by cranes, composed of molecules, atoms, and neurons in ever more complex arrangements, meaning evolves.
The mental states that give rise to meaning are themselves grounded ultimately in biology. Darwin showed us that everything of importance, including our minds, evolved from below, slowly, by happenstance, and all connected in a tree of life. The tree of life created by evolution is no god to be prayed to, but it inspires awe nonetheless. It is something sacred.
Summary – Meaning is not complete, but it is evolving along with the minds with which it co-exists.
