curiosity

The Privilege Of Curiosity

C2O Editor Conversation Pieces appetite of the mind, curiosity, drive, hindu, homeostasis, jonthan edwards, motivation, privilage, soul 0

The differences between science and religion are often argued. Each attempts to explain, observe, and reveal insight about our reality and universe. The solutions posed are as varied as the people that propose them but beneath them both is a desire to seek a broader understanding about our existence. Investigation is not a uniquely human ability nor is our curios nature isolated to us. Yet, in no other species is the quest for understanding so rich as it is in the human heart and still varies greatly with in us as individuals. Those that are curious seek greater understanding and undoubtedly find it through study, experiment or observation. Each of us as infants are curious but this wanes as we become adults and so it must be acknowledged that the benefit of curiosity is an appetite and capacity for understanding that does not persist equally in us all. Without legitimate interest in understanding, full comprehension is un achievable.

Christian theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) explains the soul as having a sort of pain , ” that which is in hunger or thirst.” Which he goes on to state, ” if the Soul had never experienced that food or drink remove that pain, it would create no appetite to anything.” Here is describing appetite almost as an itch,that needs to be scratched having a previous state of satisfaction to reference the absence of it motivates us to try and return to it. Under this theory, we can only have an appetite for things we have experienced before. This makes perfect sense from the creationist standpoint right? It would mean that we are from a particular source, and our spiritual appetite is motivated buy the desire to join with that source again. This view presupposes we have a soul and, without that fundamental component the theory is flat.

Looking to science for an explanation of curiosity though, we do find some parallels in explanation but drawn from a different fundamental point. In 1865 Claude Bernard described the process of homeostasis. Medically this is the process by which the body maintained equilibrium internally. Each of our bodily functions is self-governing as a product of our brain and cellular instructions. So physically when you have an appetite it is a signal for food triggered in your brain as a part of your bodies homeostatic process. It is an internal condition that stimulates appetite for maintenance as opposed to a return to a state it was in before. This appetite is natural but very simple. It triggers appetite for food in general but does not dictate which specific type of food necessarily this does not address cravings, desire or taste.

Hindu offers a hedonist view to resolve this question of appetite. The Path of Desire, has along it pleasure and an exploration is required to reveal this pleasure. This is not the final stage on our journey under the teachings of Hindu but it is a necessary place to pass through. Here we are guided by the Path of Desire to find pleasure for ourselves. Think of it as the lobby of a building with many more floors and rooms, but a room that must be passed through to reveal the others. Our drive here is not motivated by appetite or balance but a divine path.

In these cases and many more we recognize that this drive is not unshakeable. We are often distracted by the simple realities of our social world. These distractions keep us from servicing our appetite, maintaining homeostasis, and staying on our divine path. For some, it is easier to stay curious, and driven, undistracted by what is happening just in front of us in pursuit of what is beyond it. This makes salvation, education, and enlightenment, much easier. By acknowledging that this ability is not evenly present in all man, but in some cases particularly a special trait we see that those exceptionally curious have great advantage in pursuit of any form of satisfaction or success.

It could be argued that resilient curiosity is born into us but there is evidence to support the idea that our investigative drive lives or dies by circumstance. If it is something that must be protected to survive, who’s job is it to protect it? If it is something that lives within us, then why does it not drive us all with equal intensity? This appetite is what drives interests in our minds, to pursue knowledge,as well as in our hearts to pursue companionship, and in our spirit to pursue enlightenment. It is not only of interest in general but identifying which interests are paramount, and who is to say which satisfactions are of higher merit than the person in pursuit of them? The implications span through out our lives, so which of all the things we can do, should we do?

Religion and science seeks to answer these questions as well. Sometimes with various types of faith, and also with economics, and morality. Regardless of motive or intent, observing various places in our lives where we are drawn to acquire greater understanding we should seek also to protect that impulse from distraction, or catalyze the impulse to proceed through it. We must also observe a lack of curiosity and seek to excite that feeling through reference or exploration, this is the function of inspiration. Inevitably, with enough time, every impulse will be satisfied, or the impulse it self will be deterred from or changed. Conversely, in time, every appetite will return, or the life itself will cease to be.

The Sin Of Knowledge and The Sin Of Ignorance

C2O Editor Conversation Pieces #conflict, curiosity, ignorance, illiteracy, original sin, sin 0

Man, is a funny creature. If you point at something and tell anyone “DON’T TOUCH IT!” you might as well just command him to touch it because as the ancient roman poet Ovid states Nitimur in vetitum translated “We strive after the forbidden”.

It seems that we have been this way since the beginning of our history, our past is littered with fables about our curiosity. Most famous of these is the tale of Adam and Eve. As the story goes God himself told Adam not to eat from the Tree of Life and through a series of curiosities and deceptions the couple ends up eating from the tree anyway, thus granting them the knowledge of good and evil and getting them kicked out of the Garden Of Eden. Everything just snow balls from there.

Many believe this “original sin” is born of our inherent nature, and is the cause of the fall of man. There is something in us that whether we or not we have a hunch that danger is lurking we must find out for sure. It is the reason we move towards to creepy noise in the middle of the night and why we find ourselves yelling at the movie screen, “DON’T GO IN THERE, YOU IDIOT!” whenever we see someone doing the same thing in a film.

It is completely irrational, completely natural, and as we’ve seen completely troublesome. The question is whether it is good.

Just as we needed to taste the fruit, the temptation of knowledge leads us to clone animals, explore space, and strive for artificial intelligence. Time and again we argue the moral rectitude of these endeavors, and time and again we push forward in the name of progress. Humanity has forever been split between those that believe knowledge is a sin, and those that believe ignorance is.

Since the dawn of modernity we have seen a crusade for literacy in developing nations as the pathway to economic independence. A quick gaze shows how murky the waters of the past are without written language. We impress upon these people the importance of linguistic communication. But there was a time when language, was a new and suspicious technology.

Socrates was skeptical of the use or written language, its powers and its dangers. He cautions against it’s reckless use in the Phaedrus around 370 B.C. “this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves.”

With learning, comes empowerment, and absolution of dependency, but it goes hand and hand with conflict. As each of acquires new knowledge, we form our own opinions and means to act upon them. A hyper critical environment creates disunity, which is what led to the eviction of Adam and Eve from the garden.

It is this argument that has stifled sex education in the United States. As many have said before, “There are certain things you can’t un-know.” Knowledge is a particular tool for survival, but it can also be a weapon or harmful even to the person that holds it if not instructed on its proper use. We see hesitation about the conveyance of sexual education because we lack a firm means to regulate the use of that information.

This conversation is at the crux of the Edward Snowden case. His theft and release of classified documents has been classified as high crime against the U.S. but many citizens belief him to be on individual who embodies exactly what the American constitution represents.

Our view on this issue is as divided as on any other technology or tool, from guns, to artificial intelligence. Humanity has at once a great fear of and desire for knowledge. We push for literacy but censor the reading of specific books. It is a dichotomy we can not escape, living in a world where we sin sit at opposing extremes.

If we take the stance that knowledge ALWAYS good, we sacrifice privacy in the name of transparency. Opposingly, if we take the stance that knowledge is ALWAYS bad then we relegate ourselves to the past so we are destined to live in the conflict.

The Breakfast Club: August

C2O Editor Places, Social Change curiosity, General Assembly, The Breakfast Club, whole foods santa monica 0

Yesterday, we partnered with General Assembly and Whole Foods Santa Monica to bring you the best quality in locally sourced goods, and an investigation into curiosity!

Megan Hubbell prepared the several dishes along with 12 curiously delicious sauces and Natalie Patterson facilitated a discussion that got us thinking about our personal experience with discover, leaning, and inquisition.

We found that there were many things that stifle our creativity, as adults. One person mentioned an abundant access to information. Another insight was that we often lack the time to follow through with learning what we are interested in. Additionally the point was made that some consumer information is outright hidden from us or blockaded by marketing jargon.

It did seem that there were examples of adult curiosity and that the capacity for us to wonder, and imagine is still within us if we give it the room to thrive. We ended the morning by sharing a few things we were curious about and a few pledged to learn more about those things in the near future. It was an interesting morning, filled with curios minds and warm smiles.

A few photos from the event are below.

Thank you to all that attended and for those that missed it we hope to see you next time!

All photos by Captain Salguero.

Curiosity: Exploration, Novelty, And Risk

C2O Editor Publisher's Note curiosity, edmund burke, psychology of curiosity, risk 0

In a famous quote Edmund Burke states ” The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the mind, is curiosity.” This is profound for a couple reasons; one, it was written in 18th Century Dublin but curiosity is not something we often refer to as an emotion. Secondly it is curious that curiosity would be found so early in the mind but it makes total sense.

If you are a cause and effect type of person you could say that beneath every action is some core, perhaps subconscious, motivating factor. It could be argued that curiosity is an instinct that helps us find food. It is the thing that makes us look under a rock for some worms, or maybe water. We can’t fully describe how it works but we know it is what has kept us moving since the beginning of time.

Curiosity, might have been the thing that helped us find food in the early days or even find water but now it has become something else. It is a source of inspiration and motivation for us to explore our planet, ourselves, and even outer space for seemingly unknown reasons. As a race, we are always looking for answers. Even when we find some answers we go out searching for more.

But some of us have lost our curiosity, we have decided to stop looking for answers, and exploring. What are the things that keep us from being curious? Some claim fear and pain could be reasons for holding us back. If we’ve gone out searching and had a negative experience it can keep us from doing so again. This fear can stifle our curiosity and paralyze us.

On the other side of things we have to ask if the cause and effect relationship, the search for food or other value, what really causes us to be curious. Perhaps it is a part of us that seeks novelty whether or not we deem the experience as potentially positive or not. It could be that what we seek is simply stimulation without claim on whether it is positive or negative. So we traverse our environment moving towards the things we do not understand.

We see this in some people and cultures, a link to bravery and courage, but also recklessness. The climbing of mount Everest is an example of something we’ve done only to see if we could. Through preparation we find that it will not be a pleasant experience, and the risk is our very lives, but there are still individuals that try.

When applied to knowledge and creativity, what influences the student or the artist to continue to explore? Is it the hope of prestige or something more innate.

I would claim that curiosity is the feeling that compels us to seek, with absence of incentive or pressure. This means that it compels us to move before we’ve formed a conscious expectation of what we will find. It is the direction we walk when we’re on afternoon stroll, and the things we ponder in our daydreams.

This force leads us subtly towards what becomes desire, and later personal will. All through August we will combing through the nature of this force and all of the above.

-mP-

Maceo Paisley