The Evolution of the Evolutionary Idea

Abstract

Who am I? Where am I? Who are you? Why are we here? These are some of the existential questions humans have asked since leaving the blissful state of undifferentiated subconsciousness of “oneness with nature” and “oneness with wholeness.” At the dawn of consciousness, Homo sapiens sapiens (HSS) took the first step into the world of self-reflection about the “I and thou,” “we and others,” and “we and nature.” This separation from nature and from “oneness with wholeness” marked the critical point of transcending “biological evolution” and entering the path of “cultural evolution.” After dozing in a faint dawn of preconsciousness for several million years, “we humans finally awakened into the stark sunlight of life and discovered that we are here—‘the flat fact’—of our existence.