Peter Kreeft lists it as one of the two most important questions we can ask: “What is man?” and “What is the purpose of his life on this earth?” C. S. Lewis wisely observed that “the first qualification for judging any piece of workmanship from a corkscrew to a cathedral is to know what it is—what it was intended to do and how it is meant to be used.” …
If we knew independently that only matter existed, for example, we would have to describe ourselves in purely materialistic terms. Everything we are, feel, know, and do would have to be completely describable in terms of atoms in motion. On the other hand, if we experience ourselves in ways that appear to transcend the purely physical, this would seem to tell us that some kind of metaphysical dualism must be true.3 So far, so good. But what if we seem to get one kind of answer when looking inward subjectively and another when trying to look outward with objectivity? In other words, what if we can’t honestly reduce ourselves, as we know them from the inside, to nothing more than atoms in motion, but when we look out at the universe that is all we can objectively detect? … Atoms in motion, in other words, simply cannot account for the fact that we know, perceive, and understand atoms in motion.
– Mere Humanity, Donald Williams
