Innatism

In the Matrix, Neo just knew something was wrong.

For quite some time, I've been rattling around the three main questions in philosophy: God, reality, and freewill. While I've already touched on these questions in previous blogs and have nothing major to add to them, I can't help but step back and think why I am so determined to logically prove that God is real, reality is real, and freewill is real rather than accept what most philosophers advocate.


If you were to believe most philosophers, you would come to the conclusion that God isn't real, reality is an illusion, and freewill is an illusion. With that being said, I am certain that most -if not all- people would disagree with at least one of those conclusions. Even if you are very knowledgeable on philosophy like I try to be, you are almost guaranteed to disagree with at least one of those conclusions. There could be several reasons for this. For one, I think the implications for these conclusions go places that most people wouldn't accept even including the advocates of those conclusions. It's very telling seeing philosophers such as Sam Harris defend notions against freewill while also saying that you should still teach your children that they have freewill. Even in the video (I linked the whole discussion for context and because it is a very interesting discussion), Eric Weinstein hints at the point I am trying to make for this blog post which is the concept of Innatism.

 

I feel that most people including myself believe in certain things not for any particular logical reason but rather something innate. I struggle everyday in trying to articulate my thoughts. In fact, the main purpose of this blog anymore is for me to write down these thoughts so that I do not forget them and have easier access to them. Yes, I can be clever and explain why reality could just be another illusion in your mind, but deep down we know that this is "real" and not just another dream. We could debate various reasons why the screen you are reading this blog post on is real and why those reasons may be invalid, but we still believe that this screen is "real". 

It would seem that the wiser we get, the dumber we may apparently seem to be. Bringing up God and freewill may not seem as apparent, but what if someone tried telling you that the screen in front of you isn't really there. In the context of philosophy, it may be a very deep discussion, but outside of that context, it would be patently absurd. 

Now innatism is not a coherent logical argument. Just because something seems true, doesn't necessarily make it true. I want that point to be abundantly clear. With that said, it would seem that there are some aspects to reality that seem inherently, universally, and innately true. Not to keep picking on Sam Harris (he's the most noted atheist that I frequently listen to), but even as an atheist, he still yearns for some spiritual fulfillment (I and over a billion people call that faith in God). I already touched on reality, and freewill is in a similar vein (our entire justice system depends on it). We simply lack the articulation and the origin of these innate issues.

Philosophy of Innatism

Sorry, I'm a sucker for math jokes.

I never bothered looking up innatism until I was looking for a picture for this blog post. Heck, even the name was purely serendipitous. Coincidentally, a concept that I thought was purely some clever observation I made is -of course- a longstanding philosophical debate. Particularly between Descartes and John Locke's blank slate concept. You can read the wikipedia article about innatism, but I covered it quite well in the previous section. I just didn't use some of the fancier imagery and philosophical references. Many times when I write these blog posts, I like to write down my ideas and then do more research on them. Sometimes I'll retroactively change my written ideas to the new ideas from said research. In this blog post, I am using that research to further reinforce my point.  

Some of the scientific research on innateness is very interesting, but the last point I want to make in this blog post is that this isn't the first time this has happened to me. For various reasons, when I was much younger, I pondered if I was the only real person in the world and everyone else were simply actors in my reality (I think this was before I watched The Matrix too). This idea is known as solipsism. There are sillier examples such as fan theories for fiction and the like. I'm sure you have probably had really brilliant thoughts that turned out to have secretly (to you) been well thought out debates. I've had plenty of arguments with friends where they came up with a seemingly brilliant deduction only for me to point out to them that it already has name.

Innatism may not be a coherent argument, but it is interesting that despite evidence to the contrary, we may still firmly believe in God, reality, and freewill. Our current logic may point to all of them being illusions, but most -if not all- of us will at least believe that one of the three is true. The fact that these mass commonly held beliefs exist at all shouldn't be simply dismissed. To suggest that we all have been brainwashed into believing these matters is just absurd. Regardless, even though we may firmly believe in these things, some of us still strive to link logic with our innate beliefs thus continuing our quest for the Logos.