Senses, desires and reason
Question from the Internet:
“Why isn’t reason considered to be one of the human senses? Is there no such thing as objective truth, do we not respond subjectively? Does it not follow the same trajectory as the development of the other senses?”
I don’t think we can call “reason” or our mind a sense. Instead, our reason computed and makes sense of the impulses and the data we collect from the world through our senses.
You are completely right about our consciousness and perception of reality being 100% egocentric and subjective. And as a result, our reason and the “truth” we discern, together with our facts are all also 100% egocentric, subjective, self-serving and self-justifying.
The similarity between our senses and the reason that interprets what our senses detect is that they are all operated and controlled by our “core matter”, which is a totally selfish and introverted desire for pleasures and the totally selfish survival reflex to distance us from actual or feared pain and suffering.
At the core of every though, decision or action we can detect our all-encompassing egocentric and subjective “pleasure/pain” software determnining everything - provided we want to detect it and accept this fact about ourselves.
Most of the time we do not want to do that. Instead, we prefer to set up all kinds of philosophies, theories and even mysticism about the “mysteries of human nature”, when actually there nothing mysterious about us at all.
We simply want what we want and we think we need and we are ready to get it at all cost, mostly at the expense of others - especially since we evolved into a totally integrated and interdependent world.
And the developmental trajectory our our senses and our reason has been fueled by the exponentially growing and insatiable selfish desire that drives us in any given conditions at any given time.
Until we willingly a humbly start studying our own nature and learn how to make adjustments and further develop ourselves, we are simply groping in the dark and all our “solutions” to any problems continue to backfire.