Shaping Our Emergent Understanding: By Grasping Our Complex Existence

By Alan Youmans

Here are two fundamental human nature concepts for your consideration:

1) Our compelling understanding emerges from the complex interactions of our unconscious instincts with our conscious reasonings.

2) Our personal understanding grabs us emotionally as much as we grasp it intelligently.

Everything presented in this book connects to these concepts.

This book is intended to be a useful, meaningful account of our conscious human existence. It was written for anyone seeking emergent clarity in our increasingly complex world. These essays, excerpts and narratives comprise "the supporting shaping stories" offered as useful context for your objective consideration and subjective judgement.

The reality of human reasoning is bound by an ironic consequence. Objective reality will only be accepted by each individual's compelling subjective decision. A poetic paradox of our human nature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hawes & Jenkins Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9781637841792

Book preview

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Shaping Our Emergent Understanding

By Grasping Our Complex Existence

Alan Youmans

ISBN 978-1-63784-178-5 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63784-179-2 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Alan Youmans

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Hawes & Jenkins Publishing

16427 N Scottsdale Road Suite 410

Scottsdale, AZ 85254

www.hawesjenkins.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Shaping Our Emergent Understanding

by Grasping Our Complex Existence

Imagination is the language of the conscious mind with ideas as its expressive words. Together shaping the stories of our human existence.

Our conscious insight grasps the light of compelling understanding.

Conscious Consequences

Key Word Definitions

Grabbed by Emotion to Grasp Understanding

Taking Shape

A Core Intentional Process

Interactive Emergent Complexity

Steps on the Path to Understanding

Nature's Emergent Patterns

Embracing Science's Enriching Beauty

Language: The Tipping Point to Humanity

The Essential Nature of Language

The Innovation of Written Language

Wittgenstein's Bewitchment

Emergent Human Morality

On the Origin of Our Species' Morality

Fitting Human Values and Ethics

Context: A Pause to Understand Cause

Human Population Growth Timeline

The Contextual Challenge of COVID-19

Ludicrous Speed of Deficit Spending

Springing Philosophy

Ode to Our Emergently Complex Humanity

Appendix: Further Flowing Reflections

Insightful Readings Used for Meaningful Reference

About the Author

Shaping Our Emergent Understanding

by Grasping Our Complex Existence

Imagination is the language of the conscious mind with ideas as its expressive words. Together shaping the stories of our human existence.

See the source image

Our conscious insight grasps the light of compelling understanding.

Conscious Consequences

What is conscious thought? It baffles description because it includes everything through which it might be defined. It is the most immediate quality we know and the last mystery of our being. All other things come to us as its forms; and all human achievements find it in their source and their goal. Its appearance was the great turning point in the drama of evolution. Will Durant

How many times did you read Will Durant's statement on conscious thought?

If you read it more than once, what compelled you to go back and read it again?

If you didn't read it more than once, why didn't you feel compelled to read it again?

By now, if you have read Mr. Durant's statement multiple times, you may find the rest of this book of some interest.

If you didn't read it again, at least you became aware of someone named Will Durant.

In either case, your individual understanding was momentarily shaped.

Key Word Definitions

A selection of useful words to prime the meaningful flow of understanding.

Note to reader:

I placed these definitions here for your usefulreference.

I have grouped these word definitions byrelatedusage (rather than alphabetically).

As with the following writings containing these words,youwill determine the useful meaning of these definitions.

I also urge you to search for any further reference information as you see fit.

grab: to grip and take forcefully

grasp: to grip and hold firmly

embrace: conscious act of willing acceptance

shaping: creating form or structure

understanding: gaining a compelling grasp of reality by using intelligent means

reason: the self-organized conscious process of thinking, understanding and decision-making

free will: conscious ability to directly choose one's actions and to accept the consequences

compelling: personally convincing reasons

consent: voluntary agreement

coercion: to compel agreement by force, intimidation or authority

subtle: use of clever, indirect means to achieve agreement

distort: to twist the shape or proven understanding of something

constrain: to limit or prove

consilience: agreement between different imaginative structures

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science: the systematic study of nature through observation, experimentation and testing of theories

physics: the fundamental nature, structure and interactive properties of energy and matter

matter: the substance composing physical objects

mass: the quantity of matter

physical laws: The proven interactions of energy and matter

energy: basic activating substance powering physical nature through its conversion

entropy: flow of converted heat energy and associated substances dispersed into the environment

affordance: useful form of energy provided by the environment

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being: sustained existence

nature: sustained physical existence in a changing material environment

reality: observed physical existence

phenomenon: observed physical existence with intriguing causes

essential: indispensable to sustained existence

interaction: exchanged actions by physical objects

dynamic: change-causing interactions

adaptive: dynamic effects gaining environmental fitness

effect: result caused by dynamic change

novel: new, original or unique effect

emergent: adaptive effects with expanded novel capacities

complexity: expanded emergent effects with partial understanding of novel capacities

structure: formed features of emergent complexity

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mind: human conscious and unconscious features emerging from complex brain interactions

consciousness: essential self-awareness of the human mind in the natural world

unconscious: inherent instincts and involuntary responses hidden from the mind's awareness

objective: independent of the conscious mind for its natural existence

subjective: wholly dependent on a conscious mind for its existence

experience: conscious interaction with the physical environment

intelligence: complex ability to consciously learn, understand and adapt

cognition: emergent intelligent means of perception, memory, imagination, learning, reasoning and judgment

understanding: gaining a compelling grasp of reality by using intelligent means

insight: deep intuitive understanding

knowledge: practical, purposeful understanding

recognition: triggering, or recalling, an understanding

comprehension: forming an understanding

interpretation: applying an understanding

meaning: intended useful understanding

meaningful: fitting useful understanding

context: additional information used in forming a more meaningful understanding

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human nature: the evolved quality of conscious self-awareness and its emergent cognitive intelligence

humanity: instinctual, adaptive and behavioral qualities unique to conscious human beings

humanities: culturally adaptive features of language, art, economics, philosophy, religion, law and politics

society: group of people subject to the same dominant culture

culture: ideas, values, customs, features and practices of a society

language: spoken or written human exchanges using words in culturally meaningful ways

metaphor: ideas or words with a symbolic or deeper connection

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use: causing interactions

useful: purposeful interactions

unusable: not available for interactions

practice: repeated use of a method or an idea

practical: effective purposeful use

pattern: repeated useful structure

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quality: subjective degree of something

quantity: objective amount or measurement

elegance: quality of being insightfully simple

valid: quality of proven effectiveness

reliable: quality of being repeatedly effective

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philosophy: a useful, meaningful understanding of human existence

logic: our self-organizing useful process for imaginatively forming meanings

art: beauty realized and expressed for culturally insightful meaning

technology: knowledge structured and described for culturally useful purposes

The dynamic cultural marketplace of language-based human social exchanges affords the compelling means of human existence.

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Grabbed by Emotion to Grasp Understanding

Complexly shaping our instinctive unconscious feelings with our compelling conscious thinking.

Understanding is the indispensable core of our conscious being. Our personal ability to understand is essential to being human.

The foundation of human nature is our conscious self-awareness. Whether called the consciousness, the self or the soul, it is the quality which uniquely distinguishes the existence of human beings from all other known life forms.

Our unconscious survival instincts are the foundation of our more recently evolved conscious intelligence. These underlying involuntary emotions constantly shape our thoughts; constrained only by our voluntary thinking capabilities.

Because of this, your unconscious emotions involuntarily grab you. Consequently, you voluntarily grasp conscious understanding.

Essential human learning complexly emerges from the interaction of these unconscious emotions with our conscious thinking as we gain adaptive experience.

Our individual human reasoning is intentionally shaped by each of