ABSTRACT
So far as we can perceive with our own five senses, from the point of view of a star, a volcano, a dawn redwood, a salmon, perhaps even a dog, whatever is, simply is. But from the point of view of a human being, whatever is has meaning. Everything that exists, every event that happens, has some sort of cause and some sort of purpose. We are not always able to say what those are, but we believe profoundly that causes and purposes do exist, and much of the time we are actively searching for them. Causes and purposes are what narrative stories are made of and, as shown in Chapter IV, our brains are story-making organs. That interpreter in the left cerebral hemisphere insists on creating stories for us, because they are what consciousness needs to think with. Stories, reasons, purposes – all are part of the behavioral guidance system needed for human survival. Without stories, without meaning, our amazing flexibility of action, our precious freedom and free will, would be incoherent. Our enormous ability to “learn from experience,” and hence adapt to widely diverse environments, could not properly be orchestrated. We need context, a story, a frame for thinking.
