Man, Animal and Progress

I don't think I've ever written a post that is response to a comment. However, I would like to refute Yoni's comment on my previous post.

Firstly, nowhere to I imply that I am anti-progress. I completely agree with the idea that what separates man from animal is his desire for progress, to be able to see not only what is in front of him, but also what is not in front of him, or what could be there. In fact, I believe it all hinges on words such as "could" and "would," which imply man's ability to imagine a different world from the one empirically presenting itself to his senses. This, I believe, is what creates the possibilities to have ideologies (the world as it should be), and religions (Heaven, the World To Come, etc.). It is this ability that made the first monkey jump down from the trees. While the trees may have had an adequate amount of food, foraging the forest provides a chance of finding better food.

Further, Yoni states that it is man's tendency to never be satisfied that separates us from animals. I would argue exactly the opposite, however. Animals are, by nature, never satisfied. They spend their entire lives hunting for food, hunting for mates, and attempting to gain dominance over their clan. (An apt example of this is how I killed my first goldfish. It was time to feed the fish, so I poured a little bit of fish food. The fish ate all of that, so I poured in a bit more. The fish ate that, and on and on the cycle went. In the morning, the fish was floating at the top of the bowl. In other words, the fish did not possess the ability to stop acquiring.)

Man, on the other hand, has the ability to willfully stop himself from progressing. This can take many forms, the simplest of which is the "game." By definition, a game implies an activity which has no utility. Of course, one could argue that playing chess makes your mind sharper, and playing football makes you stronger. Nevertheless, these are merely the ancillary purposes of the game. If they were the primary purposes, then why not just study logic puzzles and life weights instead.

The other way in which we willfully cease progress is through the Sabbath, or any form of pre-ordained rest. The animalistic tendency would be to continue to produce more, with every waking moment. Man, on the other hand, has the ability to cease work completely on purpose, because he understands that there is more to life than maximum production.

This, perhaps, is the thrust of my previous post. It is not that it is unnatural or anti-evolutionary to not work. Rather, it is that man has the unique ability to both willfully produce and increase efficiency, yet at the same time willfully cease production, and enjoy things that do not have to do with production and efficiency.