Matthew Blakeway

This is the user page of Matthew Blakeway



My work is focused on demonstrating that you can reduce human nature solely to logic and evolutionary theory. Gene based evolutionary theory states that genetic mutations are selected if they enhance reproduction and survival – a quality that evolutionary theorists call “fitness”. However, if we are to believe evolutionary theory, then humans present an apparent contradiction: they are products of evolution but have an alarming tendency to self-destruct. If a tendency to survive is always naturally selected, then our tendency to self-destruct cannot be biologically innate.

Humans are almost certainly the only animals on this planet that have the intellect to outthink their own biology. And there’s the rub! If biology programmes us to survive and we outthink it, what are the possible consequences? I am working to show that the possible consequences can be codified and their outcomes deduced. And if we reduce these consequences to generic types, then there are a finite number of possible outcomes. We can thereby describe different mechanisms that lead humans to self-destruct and explain how biological survival mechanisms can be corrupted. Self-destruction is rational, and the concept of “irrational” is scientifically incoherent.

My first book, The Logic of Self-Destruction: The Algorithm of Human Rationality, was published in 2014. My next book is seeking to demonstrate that “mental illness” is a complex logic problem – by exploring the rational consequences of misunderstood emotions, we can demonstrate that certain combinations lead to compulsive self-destructive states that psychiatrists diagnose as mental disorders.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them here and I will try to revert in a timely fashion. Alternatively, you can find Logic of Self-Destruction on Facebook -
or follow me on Twitter @matthewblakeway.