Scientific and Philosophical Perspectives on Gratitude: Underappreciated Reasons for Thankfulness
By
numeri
The bagel they save for the regulars. Don't skim, savour.
Summary
The article presents a philosophical and scientific exploration of gratitude, examining underappreciated reasons to be thankful from evolutionary biology, genetics, and existential perspectives. It discusses how evolutionary adaptations like dogs' apparent love for humans can be genuinely meaningful, the biological benefits of sexual reproduction in combating genetic degradation, and various other scientific and philosophical insights about human existence that warrant appreciation.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledThat your dog, while she appears to love you only because she's been adapted by evolution to appear to love you, really does love you.
That if you're a life form and you cook up a baby and copy your genes to them, you'll find that the genes have been degraded due to oxidative stress et al., which isn't cause for celebration, but if you find some other hopefully-hot person and randomly swap in half of their genes, your ba
That your dog, while she appears to love you only because she's been adapted by evolution to appear to love you, really does love you.
That if you're a life form and you cook up a baby and copy your genes to them, you'll find that the genes have been degraded due to oxidative stress et al., which isn't cause for celebration, but if you find some other hopefully-hot person and randomly swap in half of their genes, your ba
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