Meditation 62: The Will to Explain

Nietzsche wrote that there is at least one thing that human nature will not abide, and that is inexplicable suffering. We might include in this a need to understand the existence of evil in general. Suffering and evil give an edge to our need for explanations. However, the fact that we do find ourselves able to explain and understand many things feeds our curiosity about the universe as a whole and the phenomena within it that we do not understand or cannot readily explain in plain terms. Perhaps part of the problem I address lies with our very success in giving convincing explanations for many things.

The problem is that humans have a drive to explain what happens in the world, whether or not there are any good reasons to embrace a particular explanation. For example, humans have long wondered where they come from, what their purpose is, how the universe and our world was created, why there are natural disasters, wars, cruelty and all the suffering that belongs to being an animal?  Many theories have been proposed and stories told to give us at least the appearance of an explanation that satisfies the understanding.

The will to explain can be accomplished in at least two ways. One is through understanding phenomena as conforming to natural law.  The law gives us a pattern, and the phenomenon is merely an instance of this law. This is how we understand natural processes. However, since humans are purposeful beings, they also have a strong desire to find purpose in the universe. Religions arise to explain its existence and to give a meaning and purpose to human life. Without that, it seems, our lives are of no particular account and have no particular purpose. Like the seasonal leaves, individuals are born, live through the stages of life, and then fall back, in death, to become recyclable elements of the universe. There is no transcendent meaning in this repetition of lives. In the end, our best guess is that life itself will be extinguished in the dark coldness of space, if not soon, then in a relatively few billion years.

This does not sound so good. Not only is there no transcendent meaning or purpose to human life, all life is essentially surplus to requirements. The universe has no need of life, but life needs the cooperation of the universe. Our will to explain away this apparent absurdity of existence then kicks in to provide a more satisfying and gratifying scenario. We tend to make up explanations for things that actually have no explanations that we can know for sure. This is not a fully rational enterprise, though it is all too human, and only possible for ‘rational’ creatures.

What we get are stories that explain to us the ‘truth’ about matters we really want to understand, but where knowledge is most difficult to achieve. For example, consider the many creation myths that have been told. They are all different and cannot all be true. Taking just the metaphysical topic of the nature of Substance, we find early on many candidates for the ultimate substance of the universe. Thales thought that everything is water, since water can take different forms while remaining water. Anaximander thought that the ultimate substance is ‘Boundless’ from which specific kinds of things, like earth, air, fire and water are generated. Empedocles thought that these four were elemental substances themselves. Democritus held that atoms make up the substance of the universe and that they are uncreated. There are many attempts, all of them arguable.

Another example takes the other fork and looks for hidden purposes to explain the mysteries of life and the universe. Here again, we find nothing but differing stories. All religious writings use narratives to implant their messages. In polytheism we find wonderful stories about gods and goddesses, heroes and monsters. In monotheism we find stories about the creation of the universe according to God’s will and creative power, and schemes of rewards and punishments. The universe was created with an end in view, and that end is known by God, though we know it only with difficulty and faith.

Whether delving into the depths of being, or searching for hidden purposes, the human drive to explain things has mixed effects. On the one hand, it has been a spur to the imagination in making up wonderful explanations about all sorts of things. Some of these, tested by experience and theory, have added immeasurably to human understanding of the processes of nature. Others, to my thinking, are more an expression of wishful thinking than understanding.  The ‘ultimate’ explanations found in metaphysics and in different religions traditions remain a kind of magical thinking that is bolstered by the fact that no one else has an ironclad explanation, either.