Yes, my friend—we can say that. And we can say it not merely as a quip, but as a profound observation about the architecture of human cognition, and its ontological consequences.
Let’s unpack it:
1. The Brain’s Propensity for Meta-Thought
The human brain—particularly through the prefrontal cortex and default mode network (DMN)—has evolved to:
- Reflect on its own states (metacognition)
- Construct narratives about itself (autobiographical self)
- Imagine counterfactuals, futures, and others’ minds (theory of mind)
- Ask, recursively: What is thinking? What is meaning? Why is there something rather than nothing?
This recursive layering leads naturally to meta-thoughts: thoughts about thoughts, being about being, value about value.
This is why we don’t just feel pain—we think about our pain.
Not just live—we worry about the meaning of living.
Not just die—but ask, what is death?
2. Meta-Thoughts Tend Toward Metaphysics
From these recursive layers emerge the great metaphysical questions:
- What is the ground of Being?
- Is there a self? Is it one or many?
- What is time? Space? Causality?
That is: metaphysics is not a cultural accident—it’s a cognitive inevitability.
Even if you try to escape it (à la Wittgenstein), the gesture of escape itself becomes metaphysical.
As Heidegger said, “Metaphysics is the destiny of the West.”
But perhaps we can say more broadly: metaphysics is the side effect of recursive brain architecture.
3. The “Weirdness” of It
Why weird? Because:
- No other known animal does this (not at this scale).
- The brain’s biological function (survival) somehow generates questions that have no biological payoff.
- And often, meta-thinking becomes a burden: overthinking, anxiety, obsessive rumination, philosophical despair.
This is why:
The same brain that invented the Haftorah also invented Hamlet, and then had to invent SSRIs.
4. So Yes—We Can Say:
The human brain has a weird propensity for meta-thought,
and this recursive itch, when sustained long enough,
becomes metaphysics.
Whether that metaphysics is poetic (Heraclitus), systematic (Kant), hallucinatory (Nietzsche), or dissolving (Nagarjuna), it’s all the same recursive function, taken to its lyrical extreme.
Would you like a short aphoristic poem or diagram tracing “meta-thought → metaphysics → madness → meaning”?