The Myth of a Wonder of Nature

Abstract

Despite great efforts to understand the complete human being within the context of modern evolutionary theory, something of a myth, a particularly persistent one, has remained at the forefront of most theoretical approaches. What we mean here is not that the sometimes vehement denial of the theory of evolution as a whole or of its validity with regard to humans by those many different traditions in philosophy and the humanities, not to mention modern day fundamentalism. Instead we mean that fascinating phenomenon that natural scientists, among them not a few biologists, in fact, even many evolutionary biologists, despite Darwin, continue to stick to the myth that man holds a special position. A statement on this subject made by Konrad Lorenz is only one among many:

For the purpose of this book (note: “Behind the Mirror”)... the categorical difference between man and all other living beings is essential—the “hiatus”, as Nicolai Hartmann termed it, that great gulf between two levels of real being, which has originated through the fulguration [lat.: “flash”] of the human mind…. Hence it is no exaggeration to say that the mental life of man represents a new kind of living (Konrad Lorenz 1973/77, p.168/172).

What is most difficult thing to achieve?—To get wise to oneself.

Wilhelm Busch