That’s Why

The biological purpose for a species’ existence is procreation.  In this sense: the perpetuation of the genetic, instinctual and learned behaviours resulting through the life of said species.

Humans, not being precluded from the natural world (though at times it may not appear as such) share the common goal of procreation.  Our highly developed cognitive abilities allow us to not only procreate biologically but in the other sense of the word as well:  to bring into being.

If human life is experience then we are constantly procreating through our shared experiences.  Relying heavily on empiricism, it can be said that nothing can be known save that which we have ourselves experienced.  All thought and therefore action is based on prior first-hand evidence that influences us.  But nothing is so simple.  I propose that through our shared experiences, by learning through that which others tell us of their first-hand experiences, we are able to base our thought and action on this knowledge as well.  In this way, by sharing our selves and our thoughts relating to our actions and the experiences that have caused these things, we are allowing others to consider and perhaps adapt new perspectives.

“The other person’s behaviour is an experience of mine. My behaviour is an experience of the other.”  Because we are basing our perception of an other’s experience on our own past experience, this is an imperfect means of learning.  But because all learning and experience is imperfect based on this rationale, this form of learning is as beneficial as any other.  Because, in relating their experience, an other is basing their perception of the experience from past events in their own life, this is an imperfect means of learning.  But all learning is such and therefore this is just as productive as any other.  

To experience is to bring into being that which has yet to occur in our self.  To lend to others an experience, by creating it through interaction or through shared perspective, we are bringing into being that which has yet to occur in an other’s self.  Thus, we are in a constant state of procreation.

To put life in to base terms is to reduce it to experience and the actions resulting from our thoughts of experiences,  which become experiences for others.  At this level, the introduction of the notion that the purpose of life is procreation allows us to see how intrinsic these two concepts are.

And so, I need not feel bad that I have no desire to have children.

xo