Philosophical essay on invisible forces and human agency

viewed as external causes. Forces operating on human bodies to produce action, in contrast, are viewed as reflective of purpose, driven not only by external causes but, more importantly, by abstract reasons such as goals, aspirations, and destiny. The meaning- making proclivities of humans are so irrepressible that when external forces operate on human bodies to produce a significant impact on humankind, even the causes of the actions of these human bodies tend to be regarded in terms of more abstract purposes and reasons. The anthropomorphic description of hurricanes is a caSe in point. Actions of objects have causes, whereas actions of humans have reasons. Invisible forces that operate on humans but that appear to operate independent of human agency have been the subject of religious speculations for centuries. These invisible forces include: internal neural and biological forces (e.g., homeostatic processes, autonomic activity) that exert regulatory forces which are largely hidden from conscious experience or control; strong emotions that seem to arise apart from conscious human intention (e.g., rage, fear, empathy); phenomena such as dreams or hallucinations that seemingly operate independent from the human will; motivations, biases, inclinations, predilections (such as anthropomorphism, ambiguity avoidance, preference for simple explanations, etc.) whose presence is so universal that, like language, the capacities for their development or expression may have an evolutionary basis; individual beliefs (such as the belief that there is a reality outside our head/we are not dreaming; the belief in human freedom; in values such as equality, etc), attitudes, preferences, Page |12 goals, or intentions; aggregated beliefs that result in social norms, values, religion, culture, and social movements; and codified forces such as decrees, rules, alliances, and laws. Before the enlightenment of the 18th century, many scholars believed that thought was instantaneous and that action was governed by an indivisible mind separate from the body. Ifa palpable cause for a person’s behavior could not be identified, the Divine or some counterpart constituted a more agreeable explanatory construct than invisible forces acting through scientifically specifiable mechanisms. Unparalleled advances in the sciences have occurred since the dawn of the Enlightenment, including the development of scientific theories about magnetism, gravity, quantum mechanics, and dark matter that depict invisible forces operating with measurable effects on physical bodies. During this same period, serious scientific research on invisible forces acting within, on and across human bodies was slowed and underfunded in part because the study of the human mind and behavior was regarded by many in the public and in politics as soft and of dubious validity. The result is that many still regard the mind and behavior as best understood in terms of the actions of non-scientific agents, such as a god or gods, and the manifestations of mental illness as the result of a failure of individual will —a denial of the possibility that invisible forces (that is, forces that are tractable scientifically but of which a person is not normally aware) can affect mind and behavior. One could try to explain away the gap in scientific knowledge about invisible forces by referring to the conception of science and religion as HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021258