Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life

The Greek philosopher Protagoras, source of the saying “Man is the measure of all things,” offered the following myth about human origins. For some time, only gods existed on Earth. The gods decided to create the different species, not out of a primordial molecular soup but out of earth and fire. The gods distributed the various capacities and abilities—speed, strength, thick hides, tough hooves, agility, tastes for roots or grasses or meat—to the different species so that they would each occupy specific niches and thrive in their own particular ways.

The gods ran out of abilities and talents, alas, before figuring out what to do with that thin-skinned, slow-footed species—humans—who were scattered about in semi-functioning, soon to be extinct bands. Reacting to this state of affairs, Prometheus gave the first humans technology—fire. Zeus, however, quickly realized the limitations of technology. Fire could provide warmth, a means of burning germs out of meat, and forms of defense, but humans would need more to survive; they would need to be bound together in cooperative, strong communities. So Zeus gave humans two qualities. The first is a sense of justice, to ensure that the needs of all would be met. The second was reverence, or the capacity for awe.

In his beautifully distilled book Reverence, philosopher Paul Woodruff reveals in his analysis of ancient Greek and Chinese cultures why our capacity for awe ranks so high on Zeus’s list of prerequisites for the prospects of an enduring human culture (I risk offense by summarizing his argument in the accompanying flow chart).

 

Awe and reverence

 

Awe is triggered by experiences with that which is beyond our control and understanding—that which is vast and requires accommodation. This experience, at its core, centers upon the recognition of the limitations of the self; in Confucian thought, we feel a deep sense of modesty. Around the world awe has a modest physical signature seen in acts of reverence, devotion, and gratitude: we become small, we kneel, bow, relax and round our shoulders, curl into a small, fetal ball (see Darwin’s observations on devotion in table below).

       

ADMIRATION        

EYES OPENED, EYEBROWS RAISED, EYES BRIGHT, SMILE        

ASTONISHMENT        

EYES OPEN, MOUTH OPEN, EYEBROWS RAISED, HANDS PLACED OVER MOUTH        

DEVOTION (REVERENCE)        

FACE UPWARDS, EYELIDS UPTURNED, FAINTING, PUPILS UPWARDS AND INWARDS, HUMBLING KNEELING POSTURE, HANDS UPTURNED

Darwin’s observations of emotions related to awe

Modesty involves placing the self within a larger context. Experiences of awe reveal us to be small iterations of the patterned history of a family or community, small specks of time and matter in the vastness of the universe. Ambitions and crises, desires and longings, are fleeting instants of time. Our culture is a blip in the millions of years of mammalian evolution.

Reverence, Woodruff continues, is grounded in a sense of unity and a feeling of common humanity. For John Muir, the “flesh-and-bone tabernacle” of the self merged with the trees, air, wind, and rock of the Sierras. The perceptual world of discrete objects and forces vanishes; the flimsy screen of rational consciousness, in William James’s terms, is lifted. The mind, like a darkened lake illuminated by the light from the movement of a cloud, reveals forces that interconnect and unite—Emerson’s “currents of the Universal Being.” All objects are animated by the same pattern of vibration of molecules. The structure of the human face reveals the genome that makes up all humans. Mathematical patterns of design unite the life-forms of a tidepool or floor of a forest. Old traditions—Thanksgiving dinner, weddings, toasts, fathers dancing with daughters—fold individuals into time-honored, cooperative patterns of exchange. Out of this perceptual unity emerges a deep sense of common humanity: We were all infants, we all have families, we all experience grief, and laugh; we all suffer; we all die.

And in the end, awe produces a state of reverence, a feeling of respect and gratitude for the things that are given. Rituals build upon this feeling of reverence—we revere birth, we give thanks for food, we honor those who marry, we pay homage to the dead. We bow our head in appreciation of the kindness of strangers and everyday generosity.

Evolutionists like David Sloan Wilson have arrived at their own story about the evolution of awe, which would not seem foreign to Protagoras or Confucius were they studying evolutionary thought today. This thinking assumes that for groups to work well, and for humans to survive and reproduce, we must often subordinate self-interest in the service of the collective. The collective must often supersede the concerns, needs, and demands of the self. Awe evolved to meet this demand of human sociality.