For 50,000 years, man has been cowed down by nature. Travelling from place to place as a Nomad, searching for food, our brain has most often been of little use against the claws, the teeth, the speed, the wings, the Climbing abilities and the strength of other animals. Simple tools made crudely out of stone, had done nothing to negate the advantages of other animals. As a simple example, in the gladiatorial arena for criminals in Rome, a man facing a wild animal such a lion with a steel sword, or spear, was considered a dead man. How much more so for a simple stone weapon.
Indeed, our only succor was in numbers. By sticking together like herded sheep, we could, by sheer quantity hope to keep our predators in bay. Staying in a group decreased the chances that you would be the one to be eaten. Let the lion take the fellow on the outside.
Nature attacked us from other sides as well. An enormous number of deaths in childbirth took place. The mortality rate was appaling. Other animals had no such problems. In addition, we had no recourse against the weather in terms of fur. No recourse against hard sharp stones on the ground, in the form of pads.
Yes, nature was out to get us. Not one thing did she give man that was useful against the overwhelming advantages of other animals. In handing out her gifts, she forgot man, and gave a pathetic brain.
But then something happened that nature did NOT expect. Slowly or rapidly, at some point in time, man began to communicate in language to his friends. That silly useless brain devised it. Nature never expected this to happen. And now, at long last, we can get our revenge.
Language evolved into primitive writing. And NOW, we came into our own. Precious knowledge gained over years of painful death and experience, that had to be relearned each time the last person knowing it died, could be communicated via writing. We could now take off from where the last person left off. While other animals had to start over, we could stand on the shoulders of our brave forefathers and continue their progress. And that has led us to where we are now.
We can now stand up on a high hill and look at nature scornfully. She tried to make us suffer. Tried to play with us. Tried to degrade and humiliate us. And now look! We have won. And we are proud.
If nature cannot give us furs for protection, we will SKIN her delicate darlings, our brother and sister animals, to wear what nature did not give us. If we don’t have pads on our feet, we will CUT a pathway through her beloved forests, and sear them with concrete to clear the way. We will RIP the metal from her womb screeching, to make iron and steel for our weapons, which nature did not provide us with.
Nature must be thankful that for some reason or the other, or perhaps for no reason at all, she implanted within us, a sense of the aesthetic. By itself nothing is beautiful. It is we humans who create the beauty of the sunrise. No animal stops to look at it. We give beauty to the flowers. Indeed, it is us, who are the source of all beauty, and it is for this very reason alone, that we have not completely destroyed nature. Because our sense of beauty will not stand it.
This " patheic brain" has aided man to insulate hmself from the cruelty of nature; physical forces beyond his control. It has also given him reason. To understand his inner world, which is a hundred times more cruel than the physical. To see, how from abstract knowledge, he creates concepts, from time to time, and then directs his life through them. Seeing them,sets him free !