Gerard Bodifée 0503

Question: Science often denies that the Kosmos has brought us forth as meaning-making beings. The fact that we are able to do this emerges from the very cosmos that they are studying

Bodifée: This is so very true! And it is true not only for such a farreaching concept as "meaning making", but even for something as common and ordinary as our "will", wanting to do something. Nowhere in scientific terminology do we find this concept. Science explains everything in terms of causes. Causes have their consequences and in the cause we find the explanation for the phenomenon. And what will happen if I confront the scientist with how strange it is that he describes the world in terms of causes, while when I do something intentionally, I do it because I want to. And yet, I am only a construction built from molecules. I am nothing but a part of the world that our scientist is describing. How is this possible? In answer he will start reasoning our will out of existence. He will say that will is only my illusion, my mistake. But in explaining it like this, he is not explaining the world, he is explaining it away!

Instead, we should take as our starting point the world as we experience it. The world in which intentional acts exist, in which striving and willing exist. All of this has come forth from the universe. As Aristotle said: a stone falls to the ground because it wants to be on the ground. We find this naive, and indeed we can no longer describe things in this way. But there is nevertheless a grain of truth in this formulation, an insight which we have lost. There is a will in the world. And we must rediscover this will and give it its place. Schopenhauer did this extensively, in his fabulous work, which tragically ended in absolute pessimism.