The Self-Writing Slate

Chapter 5

Author’s Note: Below is the fifth chapter of my book, where I examine what “human nature” is, how everyone gets it wrong, the “survival value” of volition, and how it is consistent with causation.

The table of contents so far:

Preface 
Chapter 1 
Chapter 2 
Chapter 3 
Chapter 4

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Now here’s the chapter

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Chapter 5: The Self-Writing Slate

The question of “human nature” is where we begin to see the practical impact of everything we’ve discussed up to now about the causal nature of consciousness.

The issue we’ve been dealing with so far is this: Can we only encounter reality, in effect, through a screen, seeing only a representation of it inside our minds, with the actual nature of things hidden from us? Or do we have a direct causal connection with reality?

We’ve already encountered one consequence of this idea that we don’t have a direct connection with reality. If there is some interposing medium between us and reality—a little screen inside our heads on which images are projected—then this medium has its own nature that molds itself onto our experiences and shapes what we see and feel and think and want.

In this outlook, the factor that imposes itself onto our consciousness is what constitutes “human nature” and shapes everything about our lives and actions. There is something outside of our actual perception of objects in the world, something that comes before it or beyond it, that shapes our lives. Our cognition is preceded or superseded by something else. This implies that we are not the causes of our own lives, but merely an effect of some larger force.

In a moment, we will explore how this view is usually held in two competing versions that are mistakenly viewed as opposites.

First, though, consider what view of “human nature” is implied by the correct view of consciousness, the causal view we have examined in the previous chapters.