5. Fifth Lecture: Temporality and Properties of Evolutionary Truth
I wrote this lecture years ago; however, it remains relevant as the foundation for explaining the Evolutionary Truth model. This lecture focuses, to an extent, on the nature of truth, making a principal distinction between fact-based truths and truths related to the experience of being in the world—much like Heidegger explores in On the Essence of Truth. Additionally, this lecture expands the model by defining the four fundamental properties of Evolutionary Truth: Temporality, Thrownness (Geworfenheit), The Propensity to Nihilism, The Internal Balance of Male and Female Characteristics
When one recognizes the necessity of de-subjectivizing identity and accepts primordial Subjectivity (S₀) as the fractured foundation of being — over which self-consciousness retains a degree of agency — it becomes even more essential to explore this dimension of human existence. Two principal approaches to this level of subjectivity emerge: the Tao Te Ching, which emphasizes passive (minimally active) acceptance, and the Western philosophical tradition, shaped by religious influences.
Following the logic of Hegelian idealism (or a Žižekian interpretation of it), one might insist on seeking a third alternative — a "third pill" — especially when attempting to integrate this model into empirical therapy. The fundamental question then arises: Do intrinsic, organic properties exist within the primordial mode of being that can be identified and analyzed? Before engaging in metaphysical or ontological inquiry, we must first consider a scientific and evolutionary perspective.
Our ancestors have survived for 6–7 million years, which suggests that certain psychological mechanisms contributed to this endurance. This is what we may call Evolutionary Truth—the biological wisdom that is partly learned, partly innate, embedded within all human beings, and aimed at maximizing survival and continued evolution. By conceptualizing this inherited biological knowledge, we can achieve two things: (1) a deeper understanding of the potential for psychological interventions at the primordial S₀ level of subjectivity, and (2) a fundamentally new way of experiencing reality.
Individuals who have expanded their concept of truth through an awareness of Evolutionary Truth report a profound shift in their experience of existence. At the level of everyday life, truth is typically understood as a correspondence between an external object’s properties and our cognitive representation of them (e.g., "the sky is blue"). At the primordial level of subjectivity, however, truth is a transformative process — one that begins by revealing the sheer existence of things, independent of objective measurement or comparison (e.g., "the world is"). It pertains to the direct unveiling of reality at the core of human existence. In this sense, truth is the unconcealment of reality — to the best of our present capacities.
Evolutionary Truth thus represents the essential properties of truth that have allowed humankind to persist and evolve across millennia.
Encountering Evolutionary Truth: Unconcealment and Self-Discovery
When engaging with Evolutionary Truth, both in the world and within ourselves, we must learn to recognize and discern its presence. Many great thinkers have conceptualized reality in a similar manner. Heidegger refers to this process as "unconcealment" or "disclosure" (Aletheia in Greek), asserting that “to understand something means to have already disclosed it in one way or another. Understanding is a way of disclosing.” Through this process, things or people revealthemselves to us, whether we seek to comprehend art, scientific discoveries, our own psyche, other individuals, or significant psychological events in our lives.
When it comes to our own being (as Dasein), we must actively participate in its revelation. Heidegger emphasizes that “Dasein is not something which another can reveal; it must reveal itself. Its existence is something that it must take over and make its own.” This notion aligns with Hegel's reflexive determinism, which takes an even more proactive stance. Hegel perceives human consciousness and understanding as dynamic, continuously evolving through self-reflection. He asserts that “the subject has the character of self-reference, in that it is only through its own activity that it acquires knowledge of itself.” This self-referential process of understanding not only enables us to comprehend ourselves but also shapes our perception of the world around us.
These ideas also resonate with Nietzsche’s will to power, which frames human existence as a process of active becoming and growth. His assertion that “man must overcome the limitations of his nature and become something new and greater, to transcend his current state” encapsulates the same fundamental principle: truth is not merely uncovered but actively shaped through engagement with existence.
The Mechanics of Truth-Revealing: Cyclical Growth and Expansion
When examining the mechanics of how truth emerges from apparent nothingness, different thinkers provide distinct yet interconnected approaches.
Hegel employs dialectics — the negation of negation, which is ultimately an affirmation of the affirmative. This process ensures that each stage of understanding is synthesized into a new, more profound realization.
Heidegger’s Dasein, in a similar manner, is engaged in an ongoing cycle of "returning to the need" — a relentless drive to seek and repeat the truth-revealing process.
Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence highlights the cyclical nature of history, wherein truth is rediscovered and refined over time.
To discover Evolutionary Truth, one must not perceive it as a linear, step-by-step progression, but rather as a phenomenon that reveals its hidden potential in a cyclical process of transformation and expansion. Understanding evolves not by moving forward in a straight line but by deepening and synthesizing insights in an ever-expanding pattern of discovery.
A compelling historical example of this process is the shift from Darwinian to Newtonian truth. It was not a mere linear progression from one theory to the next, but rather an inward expansion, where synthesis and integration of past knowledge led to new theses and further disclosure.
A Non-Reductionist Approach to Truth
Many great thinkers have approached truth and reality in a similar manner. The core idea underlying these perspectives is that truth is not a mere reduction of complexity but an engagement with it. This approach rejects simplistic, mechanistic explanations in favor of an appreciation for the underlying structures of existence. While human experience and the world itself remain vast and multifaceted, there are fundamental principles worth exploring — principles that allow us to uncover, understand, and integrate Evolutionary Truth into our own lived reality.
Temporality and the Properties of Evolutionary Truth
The first property we encounter when engaging with Evolutionary Truth is temporality. Every action, aspiration, and mode of being is inevitably tied to the foreclosure that death imposes upon existence. To analyze this phenomenon, we turn to Heidegger’s approach to temporality, in which he asserts:
“Dasein exists as born; and, as born, it is already dying, in the sense of being-towards-death.”
While the idea that human existence progresses toward death from the moment of birth has persisted throughout history, Heidegger ties it more intimately to the experience of being itself.
According to him, as Dasein, we do not simply die at some future moment—rather, we are always processing death, moving toward personal completion throughout our existence. We strive for wholeness by integrating the unclaimed aspects of ourselves, incorporating what remains outstanding into our being. This process of completion is a primordial mechanism, an essential force driving human desire. From this perspective, true existential completeness is only attained at death—when nothing remains to be integrated, we cease to exist as living beings.
Somewhat ironically, the moment of our fullest integration is also the moment we disappear. Death is not a singular event that arrives at an arbitrary point in life; rather, it is always already within us. Of all the inherent properties of being, death is the most influential. Its pervasive influence is why other levels of subjectivity continuously engage in distracting us from the fundamental reality of our ongoing movement toward nothingness. Heidegger emphasizes this by stating:
“Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death.”
Instead, we are always engaged in being-towards-death—moving toward an encounter that we can never fully experience, yet one that remains ever-present, staring us in the face as an inevitability that can only be anticipated, never directly grasped.
This leads to a profound paradox: it is inherently impossible for us to fully understand ourselves at the primordial S₀ level of subjectivity because the moment we "complete" ourselves, we also lose our self-consciousness. Returning to Hegel, this irony is captured in his famous metaphor:
“When the owl of Minerva spreads its wings, it is already dusk.”
By the time full understanding is possible, no one remains to witness it. However, as we shall see later, Hegel himself offers a way to overcome this paradox.
The Evolutionary Truth of Death and Its Influence
From the perspective of Evolutionary Truth, we are, before all else, defined by our own death. In many ways, the essence of primordial subjectivity is its death. Žižek, drawing from Freud, highlights the death drive as the primary source of human impulses and desires. It is not merely that we are destined to die — rather, our unconscious yearns for a return to inanimate existence. This latent force shapes how we interpret reality and how we experience life itself.
To confront existence meaningfully, we must accept the profound role of death rather than resist it. Otherwise, our engagement with subjectivity becomes distorted and hostile. As Irvin Yalom insightfully states:
“Death kills us, but the idea of death can save us.”
Regardless of our efforts to avoid it, death is an ever-present force. When we are not distracted by external engagements, we inevitably return to thoughts of mortality. It flows through our veins, a force that can overtake us at any time, governing the deepest structures of our existence.
Three Additional Properties of Evolutionary Truth
Beyond temporality, three more properties define Evolutionary Truth—each rooted in our biological reality and inherently linked to the nature of human existence. These are:
Thrownness (Geworfenheit)
The Propensity to Nihilism
The Internal Balance of Male and Female Characteristics
To a significant extent, temporality serves as the foundation of these properties, influencing their manifestation as essential expressions of Evolutionary Truth.
Thrownness: Confronting the Reality of Our Existence
Thrownness refers to the inescapable fact that we are thrown into existence without prior consultation. We arrive at a random point in time, in a random location, with unchosen physical attributes (height, appearance, skin color, social status, etc.).
Yet, despite this arbitrary beginning, we bear the responsibility for constructing our own reality. As Kant argued, we do not passively absorb the external world—we actively shape it. This responsibility is daunting, as we must navigate an existence filled with uncertainty while grappling with an inherent inner void and a reality shrouded in concealed truth.
Sartre captures this existential condition succinctly when he states:
“Man is condemned to be free.”
Freedom, though often romanticized, is an immense burden. It forces us to confront the weight of decision-making and the challenge of choosing our own path. Unsurprisingly, hierarchies—as an evolutionary construct—serve as a psychological antidote to this existential dilemma. As we shall see, our instinct to structure and organize reality is an evolutionary adaptation that helps us cope with the radical uncertainty of thrownness.
The Propensity to Nihilism: The Struggle for Meaning
Our position as beings-in-the-world presents another challenge: the tendency toward nihilism. No matter how much we accomplish, the conditions of life provide more reasons for suffering than joy.
As Nietzsche famously declared:
“God is dead.”
In the absence of a transcendent, universal value, humanity faces an evolutionary imperative: the task of discovering meaning. If an individual fails to find or construct a belief system that anchors them, chaos follows.
Our cognitive sophistication makes this challenge even more acute. We can relive the past and imagine the future, yet rather than providing comfort, this ability often deepens our suffering. The more we achieve, the more aware we become of what remains undone.
To counteract nihilism, we must actively discover meaning—a foundation that allows us to withstand life's social injustices, relational suffering, and the corruption of authority. When the forces of existence overwhelm us, meaning is the only safeguard against despair.
The Internal Balance of Male and Female Characteristics
This concept extends beyond sex and gender into a deeper existential structure. Human beings cannot transcend isolation and loneliness without forming meaningful relationships. Achieving this relational harmony requires balancing the masculine and feminine forces within us.
Each person—regardless of gender—is shaped by two archetypal influences:
The Father (both nurturing and authoritarian)
The Mother (both benevolent and destructive)
These archetypes influence how we engage with nature and culture. If one fails to acknowledge and integrate these internal forces, navigating life’s hardships in a way that minimizes suffering (both for oneself and others) becomes extraordinarily difficult.
Conclusion: The Foundation of Subjectivity
This lecture introduced the primordial Subject (S₀) — the aspect of subjectivity that we can consciously conceptualize. We explored the Evolutionary Truth, its fundamental properties, and the ways in which these principles shape human existence.
Each of these concepts will be examined in depth in the other lectures, forming a theoretical structure that not only clarifies the nature of being but also lays the groundwork for effective therapeutic interventions—helping individuals confront the inherent challenges of existence.
