Brendan Mitchell
Philosophy – H03
Dr. Phil Oliver
Nov. 14, 2018
Carl Sagan’s Man in his Arrogance
Exactly 21 years before Charles Darwin published his Origin of Species, he wrote down something most profound in his notebook that no one else had ever realized: “Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work worthy of the interposition of a deity. More humble and I believe truer to consider him created from animals.” This quote can be considered one of the most influential phrases of history, and you most likely never heard of it. Charles Darwin set in motion the spur of modern rational thought. Darwin in this quote claims that humanity is oblivious to the evidence that we are in fact animals, and we therefore view ourselves as some sort of descendent of God of gods. Before the time of Charles Darwin and his knowledge of evolution the belief in almighty God or gods seems completely rational, but with scientific proof and observation we must consider ourselves differently. We must view ourselves as people, but also as animals.
Certainly, Charles Darwin has inspired me, although I will admit it was he who directly inspired me. Carl Sagan is one of my favorite people to have touched our grain of sand in the universe. He took it upon himself after years of scientific research, missions, and exploring to educate the average person on how the universe operates. Sagan’s ultimate goal in life was to further the knowledge that for so long seemingly only belonged to and effected people in the scientific/philosophical minority. But through the means of books like Pale Blue Dotand TV appearances like his show Cosmos: A personal voyage, Carl Sagan was able to touch even more people than Darwin.
I recall one of my favorite speeches of all time; it’s called Man in His Arrogance by Carl Sagan. And it was broadcasted on PBS in 1980 as a segment of Cosmos: A personal voyage. His words mimic the profoundness and boldness, which Darwin had done a hundred and fifty years before. In this speech Sagan will talk about what it means to be human and to have knowledge that we consider most profound, yet we see past its glory to bestow on ourselves an even greater glory that does not have any evidence. And how this arrogance is leading our rational thought down a dark path: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSrL0BXsO40.
I hope you find this speech as eye opening as Sagan intended and as well as I see it. To recap on his thoughts, Sagan opens with an astounding fact that many of us do not know that when one looks up at the stars they are looking into the past because light only travels so fast. Telescopes are a time machine and that blows our mind because we can’t grasp what that means for how big the universe is. He transitions towards Darwin’s quote by defining a human characteristic that being our ability to think about and determine who our creator is, thus we can recognize our shortcomings because in fact there is no evidence other than exitance for an almighty God. Man is arrogant in that light simply because we are animals on Earth as Darwin proved. We deceive ourselves on a daily basis. We believe that our actions have no real consequence on natural world for we project our own wisdom onto it. Our own wisdom is what makes us arrogant.
Darwin and Sagan wanted the same for humanity. They wanted us to be humbler about our existence, relish the fact that by happenstance you are alive. Embrace reality even though it is terrifying to think about. We don’t have evidence of anything bringing us here to now, so in the mean time we should start thinking about each other and our actions because if we don’t get along and make sacrifices we are then truly in a bottomless freefall.
Questions:
1. What was Sagan’s ultimate goal in life?
2. Who first said, “Man in his arrogance…”?
3. What was Sagan PBS show called?
4. When did the show first air?
Discussion Questions:
1. How did Sagan’s speech make you feel?
2. Should we listen and consider scientists like Sagan that conflict with the word of God?
3. Do you think man is arrogant simply because we do not know our origins of reality?
Darwin and Sagan wanted us to be humbler, but also more intrepid in exploring every facet of our existence... not to shy away from the Big Questions about our origins and destiny.
ReplyDeleteI do love the fact that Sagan gave his Gifford Lectures nearly a century after Wm James gave his, and that both celebrated the varieties of human experience. Surely one of the greatest experiences is that of indulging our curiosity and pursuing knowledge wherever it leads.
I think Sagan's first book, The Cosmic Connection, is the one that pointed me to philosophy. I'll always be grateful.
Midterm:
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ReplyDeleteI appreciate how you state the philosophical importance of Sagan's work in addition to his work as a scientist. I find it fascinating that he understood that writing and communicating with other about the extreme vastness of space in comparison to our own lives could only result in people challenging at least some of their beliefs; and instead of forcing a purely secular view devoid of the possibility of spirituality, he established that you should be able to come up with the notion of your own existence within the context of your scale to "the pale blue dot". He really laid the foundation for other scientist communicators like Neil Degrasse Tyson and others to even present these ideas and to demonstrate the importance of them.
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