"Self-protection begins at the beginnings of life, manifesting in the processes
of attraction and aversion that are implicitly based upon the distinction
between self and non-self. At the most basic level of life, single-cellular
organisms distinguish between what is threatening and what is beneficial to
them in their environment, aggressively repulsing the one and engulfing and
absorbing the other. This discrimination of semiporous membranes is a primary
prerequisite of life. Without it, single-cellular life forms would never have
survived and gradually developed into more complex and multicellular organisms
such as our present species, homo sapiens.
"We are all descended, through the extended processes of evolution, from those
creatures whose successive transformations produced successful biological
organisms. This occurred through the processes of differential reproductive
success, in which those organisms that reproduce more prolifically over
successive generations pass on more of their heritable xvii characteristics
than those who reproduce less. The theory of evolution thus depicts a positive
feedback loop in which those specific behavioral patterns that lead to greater
reproductive success are steadily reinforced over extended periods of time. As
biological creatures, we all therefore embody the cumulative results of
whichever behaviors facilitated more reproductively successful interactions
between our forebears and their natural and social environments. That is to say
that the characteristics we embody today reflect, for the most part, behaviors
that have successfully furthered their own reproduction in the past.
"Chief among these behavioral patterns are the physical and mental capabilities
that allow us to acquire food and shelter, and the cognitive and emotional
wherewithal necessary for reproducing and raising offspring. In other words,
the will to preserve personal existence, a desire for those activities that
lead to reproduction, and sufficient attachment to the people and things
necessary to achieve these objectives are all essential for producing,
preserving and re-producing human life. That these drives, this thirst for
life, are constitutive of the very form of existence we embody right here and
now follows from the simple yet profound postulate at the heart of evolutionary
theory: what has been more (re)productive in the past is more plentiful in the
present. These include as well, of course, our acute social sensitivities, our
abilities to think, feel and empathize, to wonder and to worry, to love and to
hate, to compete and to cooperate; none of these are, in theory, who
lly outside the broad scope of the extended, interdependent and
self-reinforcing processes known as evolution."
(William S. Waldron,'Common Ground, Common Cause: Buddhism and
Science on the Afflictions of Self-Identity').
http://www.gampoabbey.org/documents/Waldron-CommonGround.pdf
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