Why Do Humans Ask Why
“Seeing the Mountain and the Water”
Seeing a mountain as a mountain; seeing water as water.
Seeing a mountain as no longer a mountain; seeing water as no longer water.
Finally, seeing the mountain as a mountain again; seeing water as water again.
At the dawn of human consciousness, perhaps we didn’t ask why. But when did humanity begin to ask? This marks the origin.
Why can frameworks like “2W1H” (What, Why, How) be so effective for exploring problems? Why are there exactly three components? Why these three?
We think, but we rarely reflect on the fact that we are thinking.
Where does thought originate? The brain.
Where does the brain’s power originate? Consciousness.
One key concern of philosophy lies in exploring origins.
If humans ask why, what might the result be? Possibly understanding.
If humans don’t ask why, the world may simply follow its preordained trajectory.
By constantly pursuing the origins of the world and asking why, we aim to uncover the logic of existence. Beneath this inquiry lies an implicit truth: causal logic.
The Illusion of Cause and Effect
It’s difficult to articulate how the brain, before it possesses consciousness, perceives and interprets the world. How does a child understand the world? Do children even think, or is their understanding beyond thinking? After we mature, is our thinking merely a constrained reflection of deeper truths?
The world appears to revolve around causes. At the moment humans ask why, a foundational belief within consciousness emerges—faith in cause and effect.
I’ve often recalled a scene from the novel Destiny where Han Xin’s perspective shifts as he comes to terms with the existence of extraterrestrial beings. Similarly, New Song left me astonished at how Wang Anshi, despite knowing the future, accepts that this knowledge changes nothing.
One of the immutable rules of this universe seems to be: “Everything happens for a reason.”
But is it true?
Could absolute faith in causality prevent us from uncovering the roots of the world? Much like we say absolutes are merely special cases in probability, could causality itself be a veneer? What if dark matter forms the majority of existence, and visible matter is just a fragment?
Beyond Appearances
When the essence we firmly believe in turns out to be mere appearance, would you still trust the world?
Our pursuit of “why” shapes our understanding of reality, but the answers we find might only scrape the surface. By questioning causality itself, we might finally begin to see the world for what it truly is.