Subjective knowledge: the Swing of Rationale - Emotion

By: Shahab Sabahi, Policy Analyst in Energy Security and Policy Research Group

What is the nature of knowledge? How does the mind acquire knowledge?

In the sphere of policy design and the clash of objectivity-subjectivity, it has been always a crucial question to answer “What do we really know?”   

Formerly academia thought of what we call “natural science” an offshoot of Descartes division of the universe in matter and spirit, while it dealt only with the former. Therefore, the study of the mind and its affairs should either fall in the spirit category or; for the sake of remaining objective-oriented; should assume that they behave like classical objects, and possible quantum effects should be negligible.

The quantum theory, though, provides a ground to understand the development of knowledge; it is based on a series of complex mathematical formula which one may find it hard to follow and apply.

An alternative explanation, which is formulated upon the evolutionary theory, gives a preliminary picture to who may have a quest to crack the nut of the knowledge mystery.     

If we assume that a similar law of evolution is responsible for all living phenomena, from the creation of species to the immune system, and we admit that mind is one of them, and then a possible scenario emerges, which is compatible with the latest neurophysiological findings.

Thoughts are continuously and randomly generated, just like the immune system generates antibodies all the time without really knowing which ones will be useful. Thoughts survive for a while, giving rise to minds that compete for control of the brain. At each time, one mind prevails because it can better cope with the situation. Which mind prevails has an influence on which thoughts will be generated in the future. In practice, a mind is the mental equivalent of a phylogenetic thread (of a branch of the tree of life). We are conscious, by definition, only of the mind that is prevailing.

In ancient times the minds generated chaotically were simply yelled to the "rational" apparatus of the brain, which would act as the mediator with the environment: it would translate "illusions/visions" into actions. The result of actions into emotions, and emotions would either reinforce or weaken the mind in control. Emotions would select the mind.

This is more evident in children, who explore many unrelated thoughts in a few minutes: whatever the various minds produce. Later, the adult is better adjusted to select "minds" and does not need to try them all out. The adult has been "biased" by natural selection to recognize the "best" minds.