Philosophical systems with global attributes can respond to global crises
Yuan Xihao & Yuan Haidan
August 30, 2021
Abstract: Global crises need to be resolved by the global human race. A philosophical and ethical cognitive system that is cross-civilizational, cross-religious, cross-racial, cross-gender, and cross-regional, i.e., with global attributes, is one of the necessary conditions for all human beings to easily reach agreement on global issues. At present, however, there is no such philosophical and ethical system for mankind. Global attribute is one of the attributes of truth. Science, especially natural and formal science, indisputably has such a property. The book "The Third Nature of Homo Sapiens - A Philosophical Framework within the Paradigm of Natural Sciences" proves that it is possible to establish a "philosophy of natural humanity" within the paradigm of natural sciences. The system of "philosophy of natural humanity" with scientific truth, i.e. with global properties, can and will be established. Within such a system of philosophy, philosophers and scientists in the field of philosophy will easily agree on the core issues of truth, thus laying the philosophical and ethical foundations for the solution of global crises for all mankind.
Keywords: philosophy; science; truth; natural human philosophy
"We and our societies and cultures are products of nature and can surely be found within the natural science paradigm of the a scientific approach to the study of philosophical problems." -The Third Nature of Homo Sapiens
The "discursive method" of Western philosophy turns out to be a fraud; it leads to a dead end" -Shrike
As we come to 2021, the global crises we face, whether they be climatic, ecological, international relations, the clash of civilizations, the ravages of viruses, and so on, remain deep. Global crises need to be resolved by the global human race. Then, a philosophical and ethical cognitive system that is cross-civilization, cross-religion, cross-racial, cross-country, and cross-regional, i.e., with global attributes, is one of the necessary conditions for all human beings to easily reach consensus on global issues. The global attribute is one of the attributes of truth. Science, especially the natural and formal sciences, indisputably has this attribute.
I. The need for a philosophical system with global attributes
1、 A philosophical system on human beings with the attributes of truth is one of the necessary conditions for solving the global crises of humankind. Such a philosophical system naturally consists of ethics and its various branches (political ethics, legal ethics, eco-ethics or environmental ethics, economic ethics, social ethics, science ethics, cultural ethics, medical ethics, military ethics, media ethics, journalism ethics, business ethics, etc.) within that system. It goes without saying that the mere fact that the names of these disciplines cover a wide range of areas shows why this is "one of the necessary conditions". This would be another necessary system of human knowledge with truth attributes, in addition to the three main fields of science (formal, natural and social);
2、 It is obvious that a philosophical system with global attributes has not yet been established. This is also one of the fundamental reasons why, despite the fact that scientific and technological consensus on many global issues is already in place, the world is still unable to reach a consensus on their solution, or even if a consensus is reached, it is difficult to implement it. Only a philosophical cognitive system with global attributes, i.e., the attributes of truth, will be recognized by all mankind, and mankind will be able to easily reach agreement on the solution of major problems. Therefore, the establishment of a philosophical system with global attributes, i.e., the attributes of truth, outside of the three major fields of science is an urgent need for all humankind;
3、 Although the disciplines of political science, economics, ethics and sociology, which originally belonged to the field of philosophy, have successively entered the field of the social sciences, using the scientific method as the basis for their research. However, the disciplines in the field of social sciences and the humanities that deal with the unresolved philosophical ultimate questions about human beings (i.e., Who are we? Where do we come from? Where do we ultimately want to go? Kant asks: what can I know? What should I do? What can I hope for? What is man?) All of these are looking to philosophy for truthful answers that can be used to rewrite the underlying logic, or logical starting point, of these disciplines, thus laying the philosophical foundations for the true truthfulness of these disciplines.
II. There is currently no philosophical system with global attributes
1、 Currently the most widely known and most widely studied in the world is Western philosophy. There are as many philosophers in the field of Western philosophy as there may be philosophies recognized by the world. As a whole, Western philosophy is actually still in the pre-paradigm period;
2、 Western philosophy has no global properties, i.e., no truth properties. The famous contemporary philosopher Mortimer Adler says: I have used mathematics on the one hand, and culinary style on the other, to demonstrate as clearly as I can the realm of truth and preference at the two extremes. Between these two extremes, philosophical views and religious beliefs occupy a middle ground. 【1】Russell, the famous philosopher and mathematician, said: Between theology and science there is a no-man's land that is attacked by both sides; this no-man's land is philosophy;【2】
3、 The famous philosopher and physicist Shrike says: From the earliest days of Western thought up to the time of Newton, and even up to the time of Kant, no distinction was ever made between natural philosophy and natural science. But since that time the discursive method (belonging to natural philosophy) seems to have separated itself from the experimental procedure (belonging to natural science). As a result, it was only in the middle of the nineteenth century that it began to become clear that the discursive method turned out to be a fraud, and that it was traveling down a dead-end street. 【3】It is inconceivable that countless philosophers have remained in the deceptive dead end of the discursive method for more than a hundred years, even though the West had already figured it out by the middle of the nineteenth century;
4、 It is for this reason that in the twentieth century many social disciplines that originally belonged to the field of philosophy, such as economics, psychology, political science, sociology, anthropology, and even ethics, have entered the field of science and have become "social sciences" (although, as mentioned above, there are still ultimate questions that remain to be answered by philosophy); and together with the formal sciences and the natural sciences Together with the formal sciences and the natural sciences, they constitute the three major fields of science;
5、 For their part, Stephen Hawking and Lenard Monodino asserted in the famous Grand Design that philosophy is dead. Philosophy has not kept pace with modern developments in science, especially physics. Scientists have become torchbearers in our journey to discover knowledge;【4】
6、 Western philosophy has been very interested in the ultimate philosophical questions about human beings (i.e., Who are we? Where do we come from? Where do we ultimately want to go?) Is there a universally recognized answer? No! Does it have answers with scientific properties? Even less!
7、 It is clear that Western philosophy currently has neither global attributes nor provides answers to the ultimate philosophical questions; nor is there any other philosophical system with global attributes.
III. The possibility of establishing a philosophical system with global attributes
1、 Is it possible to build a philosophical system with global attributes? The answer is yes. Natural science is a general term for the study of inorganic nature and organic nature, including the biological properties of human beings. The object of its understanding is the entire natural world, i.e., the various types, states, properties, and forms of motion of natural substances. According to the Grand Design's assertion that "the scientist has become the torch-bearer in our journey to knowledge" and the current state of the natural sciences, in fact philosophical cosmological inquiry has long been and continues to be the task of the natural scientist. According to Shrike's Philosophy of Nature, we might call the natural sciences "philosophy of the natural sciences";
2、 The Grand Design states, "Since man lives in the universe and interacts with other objects in it, scientific determinism should hold for man as well. Because it is so impractical to predict human behavior in terms of the underlying physical laws, we adopt what are called effective theories."【4】 E.O. Wilson points out that solving philosophical problems about humans requires a "big five" of "big five" disciplines, i.e., paleontology, anthropology, psychology, evolutionary biology, and neurobiology A major convergence of disciplines dominated by the【5】
3、 John Brockman says: "Those scientists and thinkers in the empirical world are constructing a third culture through their work and writings. They are replacing traditional intellectuals in rendering a deeper meaning to our lives and in redefining 'who and what we are'" .【6】 To this end, the Third Culture Edge platform has brought together hundreds of the world's leading scientists and thinkers over the past two decades to address these questions, that is, to address philosophical questions about humanity based on science;
4、 The book The Third Nature of Homo Sapiens - A Philosophical Framework within the Paradigm of the Natural Sciences (after the dash is the subtitle of the book) states that, according to Darwin's doctrine, we evolved as animals and are the human family Homo sapiens. Then, no matter how different our society and culture are from other animals, we and our society and culture are still products of nature. Since we are products of nature, we must be able to find ways to scientifically study philosophical issues within the natural science paradigm. For this reason, The Third Nature of Homo Sapiens attempts to establish a philosophical framework about human beings entirely under the paradigm of natural science, i.e., on the basis of the natural sciences, under which a series of major philosophical questions are pursued and explored;【7】
5、 According to Shrike's Philosophy of Nature, we can perhaps call the philosophy about the study of human beings within the paradigm of natural science "philosophy of natural humanity". In this way, the philosophy of natural science and the philosophy of natural mankind are united under the paradigm of natural science and belong to the same natural philosophy. Such a philosophy of natural humanity is also a sub-discipline of the natural sciences, and therefore the philosophy of natural humanity will have the truth attribute of science. With the establishment, soundness and maturity of the philosophy of natural humanity, the philosophy of natural humanity will become a human philosophical system with a global attribute, i.e., the attribute of truth. Such a system will certainly be recognized by all mankind, and thus mankind is expected to easily reach agreement on the solution of major human problems.
IV. The Third Nature of Homo Sapiens begins with an attempt to scientifically answer the question of where did we come from? Who are we? What is the basis of ethics?
1、 To answer the question where did we come from? --We came across the boundary (crossed the biological line) from the anatomical species of Homo sapiens (still an animal) that formed 200,000 years ago. (1) According to ecological theory, we began to partially transgress the boundaries of the ecosystems in which Homo sapiens had evolved for hundreds of thousands of years about 70,000 years ago, and in just a few tens of thousands of years we rapidly spread out into virtually all of the major terrestrial ecosystems of the planet, occupying a mega-ecological niche that is unparalleled in the history of living things; (2) according to genetic theory, we partially transgressed the boundaries of the ecosystems where Homo sapiens had evolved for hundreds of thousands of years about 12,000 years ago. (2) According to the theory of genetics, we partially broke through the control of the biological genetic mechanism about 12,000 years ago, and successfully carried out genetic interventions on some animals and plants, gradually developed agriculture and animal husbandry, and gave up the gathering and hunting life that human beings have evolved for millions of years and settled down; Homo sapiens broke through the two major mechanisms that have been used for 3.5 billion years for the evolution of organisms in just a few tens of thousands of years, i.e., the control of biological populations by the ecosystem and the control of the genetic mechanism of the reproduction of organisms by their own. These two breakthroughs are the two symbols of "where we come from";
2、 Answer who we are? --We are Homo sapiens after transgression. After crossing the boundary, we are no longer completely controlled by the ecosystems and genetic mechanisms, and we have gradually gained the potential ability to act arbitrarily under the laws of physics through the interaction of the third nature and the cultural cloud, and have gradually developed to the extent that (1) we can arbitrarily intervene in and destroy the ecosystems and the large-scale man-made agro-pastoral ecosystems; and (2) we are constantly expanding our intervention in the genetic mechanisms of the organisms, including our own; this is an insurmountable gap between us and animals. mechanisms; this is an unbridgeable gap between us and the animals. Apart from us, all plants and animals are still controlled only by the moderation of ecosystems and their own genetic mechanisms;
3、 Answer what should we do? (This is directly related to where we are going?) --This is the question of ethics. Ethics must first face the difficulty that the "ought" cannot be derived from the "real". Otherwise, the whole scope of ethics, including ethics in all fields, lacks a reliable underlying logic and premise.
3.1 Sean Carroll, a renowned scientist and theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), states that the 18th-century dilemma posed by David Hume can be condensed into a modern maxim: "You can't derive what ought to be from what is". For silent nature cannot tell us what to do. We can make our own judgments, and we are part of nature, but different people will end up with different judgments (i.e., without truth properties). Trying to deduce ought from what is is logically impossible. Both before and after the appearance of Hume's famous treatise, countless scholars have hesitantly announced that they have finally cracked the code and proved how to derive the consequent from the actual. But they were all wrong. It's like someone telling you that they added up two even numbers and got an odd number. You don't need to verify the calculations to know they're wrong. 【8】This is a puzzle that has remained unsolved but must be solved for over 2,000 years in ethics;
3.2 Nature does not tell us any natural laws and how they should be applied, but we keep on discovering natural laws and developing science and technology with the attribute of truth, which are widely used by all mankind; this is the derivation of scientific laws from natural laws, which have global attributes, i.e., the attribute of truth, and are recognized by all mankind as laws. Similarly, on the basis of natural science, The Third Nature of Homo Sapiens proposes the method of deriving laws from laws instead of futilely pushing out "ought to be" from "reality", which solves this seemingly insoluble problem in ethics. We know that nature is organized and conforms to natural laws. Our transgressions have partially broken the laws of ecosystems and genetic mechanisms, but our survival and reproduction still cannot be separated from ecosystems (especially the biosphere, the largest ecosystem) and genetic mechanisms. After we crossed the border, in the interaction between Homo sapiens' third nature and the cultural cloud, we gradually gained the potential to behave arbitrarily under the laws of physics, and the evils that these abilities continue to generate are increasingly visible in the negative consequences (i.e., the global crises) for the biosphere and for our own species. Homo sapiens already knows that, to survive or to perish, it must make scientific choices and enact scientific laws in accordance with the laws of nature, i.e., choices and laws with global attributes, which is the basis of all ethics of mankind. 【7】
4、 From the above 3 short articles it has been shown that under the paradigm of natural science we can answer initially scientifically who are we? Where do we come from? And we have scientifically deconstructed the millennium-old ethical dilemma of trying to introduce the "ought" by the "real", and derived scientific laws from natural laws to meet the needs of human beings for sustained survival on this planet, so that human ethics have a scientific basis from now on.
V. The Philosophical Framework of The Third Nature of Homo Sapiens within the Paradigm of the Natural Sciences
In addition to answering the above questions, The Third Nature of Homo Sapiens establishes an essentially complete philosophical framework within the paradigm of the natural sciences, or the "Philosophical Framework for Natural Humanity."
1、 "(a) The first cornerstone of the Philosophical Framework for Natural Humanity: transgression. Homo sapiens' partial transgression of the two mechanisms by which organisms are regulated by ecosystems and controlled by genetic mechanisms is called transgression, and it is scientifically falsifiable;
2、 The second cornerstone of the "natural human philosophical framework": the third nature of Homo sapiens. It refers to the fact that in addition to the two major natures of survival and reproduction that all living creatures have, Homo sapiens also has a third nature. That is to say, Homo sapiens will always have the possibility of feeling eager and insatiable pursuit of anything, including their own survival and reproduction activities; always curious and inquisitive, thirsting for all wisdom, and full of motivation to innovate; more controlled by the secondary rewards, and even regard some extremely abstract concepts, such as ideology, as rewards; interpret and make assumptions based on perceptions alone, establish order, create rules, improvise, and explain the "meaning" of behavior; and interpret the "meaning" of behavior based on perception alone. "meaning" of behavior; imitates, learns, and teaches; is aesthetically and artistically inclined; covets virtual reality, can reason about invisible forces, builds concepts about the unknowable, and can adapt to different environments by separating the real from the virtual; fantasizes about the future and uses montages to show new scenes; multiple brain systems are able to communicate with each other; has changeable values. communicating with each other; having changeable values; conscious reflection and even the ability to question and adjust automated homeostasis, setting socio-cultural homeostasis higher than the ideal range needed for survival, etc.; Homo sapiens' third nature is the hypothesis put forward in the book, which is first and foremost based strictly on the scientifically falsifiable doctrines of at least ten brain scientists and neuroscientists around the globe today;
3、 "The third cornerstone of the Philosophical Framework for Natural Humanity: the culture cloud. All the cultures that have ever existed in the history of humankind are called culture clouds. The cultural cloud is a self-evident fact;
4、 "Philosophical Framework of Natural Humanity": Starting from the three major natures of Homo sapiens and the three cornerstones, it is judged that Homo sapiens evolve synergistically with culture under the driving force of the third nature and thus transgress the boundary; the three major natures of Homo sapiens, namely, the nature of survival, the nature of reproduction, and the third nature, are manifested in the biological nature of Homo sapiens; Homo sapiens transgressing the boundary manifests itself in the superimposition of the biological and the cultural nature, and every individual Homo sapiens manifests itself in the specific superimposed state under the effect of its superimposed nature. Each individual Homo sapiens manifests a specific superposition state under the action of its superposition, and the superposition state is a dynamic state; the interaction of superposition of human beings and culture produces the phenomenon of culture cloud; the formation mechanism of culture cloud is a blind mechanism; the interaction of superposition of human beings and culture cloud becomes the driving force of history and forms history; the main driving force behind the two cornerstones of the human being transgressing the boundaries and the culture cloud is the third nature of the Homo sapiens;
5、 Within the above philosophical framework, The Third Nature of Homo Sapiens asks and explores philosophical questions about epistemology, free will, the fallacy of social Darwinism, the problem of good and evil, the basis of ethics, meta-ethics, the law of survival after human transgressions, freedom and equality, fairness and justice, truth, aesthetics, the meaning of life, and the mechanism of human civilization, among other philosophical issues. For the first time, the ultimate philosophical questions about human beings are answered philosophically under the paradigm of natural science: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where do we want to go in the end? Kant asks: What can I know? What should I do? What can I hope for? What is man?
VI. Definition of good and evil
The above mentioned 13 philosophical questions have been pursued and explored within the framework of the "Philosophy of Natural Humanity", and one of them, the definition of good and evil, is briefly summarized as follows.
The book defines good and evil as right and wrong judgments against human behavior and its consequences. It thus defines the good and evil of all actions of Homo sapiens and their consequences as:
1. Biosphere: Making the biosphere more suitable for human survival is good, and vice versa;
2. The Homo sapiens species: not destroying the reproduction of the Homo sapiens species or prolonging the survival of the Homo sapiens species is good, and the opposite is evil;
3. Homo sapiens individual and homo sapiens community animal nature: not destroying the survival and reproduction nature of homo sapiens individual and community, the evolution of moral and emotional needs or improving the survival and reproduction nature of homo sapiens individual and community, the evolution of moral and emotional needs is good, and vice versa is evil. The absence of harm between Homo sapiens individuals and communities is good, and the opposite is evil;
4. The third nature of Homo sapiens: In conformity with the above goodness, the third nature of Homo sapiens can be moderately realized as good, and vice versa as evil;
5. Homo sapiens superpowers: It is good that homo sapiens superpowers are developed in conformity with the above mentioned good, and it is evil that the opposite is true. The absence of harm between Homo sapiens superpowers is good, and the opposite is evil;
6. Intelligent Circle: In line with the above good basis for the development of the intelligent circle does not destroy or even improve the biosphere for good, at least the intelligent circle can not destroy the self-regulating ability of the biosphere, and vice versa for evil;
7. Cultural sorting and error correction: All thoughts, laws and behaviors that do not conform to the definitions of good and evil at the above levels since the transgression of human beings have been corrected through cultural sorting and error correction, so as to enable us to form an error correction mechanism that conforms to the definitions of good and evil at the above levels.
From the scientific definition of the problem of good and evil, the definition of the meta-ethical level can be successfully resolved; and as a basis it can be smoothly entered into the various fields of ethics;
VII. The time will come to establish a natural human philosophical system with global attributes
All the above grounds and facts indisputably show that the time is coming to establish a natural human philosophical system with global attributes.
The study of philosophical problems within the paradigm of the natural sciences can be made to conform to the axiomatic assumptions on which science is based: that there exists an objective fact, shared by all rational observers; that this objective fact is determined by the laws of nature (lex talionis); and that these laws of nature (lex talionis) can be discovered by means of systematic observation and experimentation. Then, scientists and philosophers in the field of philosophy will easily agree on the central events of truth, so that philosophy will be able to match the advances made in mathematics and experimental science, and philosophy will be able to enter into the "physical world as ordered and understandable". It is therefore to be expected that a new era of a natural human philosophical system, with global attributes, will dawn.
As mentioned earlier, the disciplines in the field of social sciences and the humanities that deal with the ultimate philosophical questions concerning human beings are looking forward to philosophical answers with truth, which will certainly rewrite the underlying logical starting points of these disciplines accordingly, and lay the philosophical foundations of these disciplines for the real attributes of truth.
To summarize, the natural human philosophical system is a science within the paradigm of the natural sciences and is a part of the natural sciences. The system of philosophy of natural human beings has global attributes, which will make it easier not only for scientists and philosophers to agree on the core events of truth in the field of philosophy, but also, and more importantly, for the whole of humankind to agree on the solution of global crises.
Notes:
【1】 Mortimer Adler. The underpinnings of philosophy: six philosophical themes in the eternal pursuit of mankind[M]. Translated by Luan Jianhong,Beijing:CITIC Publishing House, 2019,58-59.
【2】 Russell. History of Western Philosophy [M]. Translated by He Guangwu, Joseph Li and Ma Yuande, Beijing: Commercial Press, 2005, 5-6.
【3】 Moritz Shrike. Natural Philosophy [M]. Translated by Chen Weihang, Beijing: Commercial Press, 1997, 5-6.
【4】 Stephen Hawking, Lenard Monrodino. Grand Design [M]. Translated by Wu Zhongchao, Changsha: Hunan Science and Technology Press, 2011, 3-4.26.
【5】 Edward Wilson. The origin of creation [M]. Translated by Wei Wei,Hangzhou:Zhejiang People's Publishing House,2018,36.
【6】 John Brockman. The problems that scientists worry about all night long[M]. Translated by Hu Zhengfei, Wang Yang, Yang Mingfang,Hangzhou:Zhejiang People's Publishing House,2017,24-25.
【7】 Yuan Xihao and Yuan Haidan. The third nature of Homo sapiens-A philosophical framework in the paradigm of natural science[M]. Second edition, Akron, OH: 48Hr Books, 2020, 17.237-238.283-286.
【8】 Sean Carroll. The Big Picture: on the origin of life, its meaning, and the universe itself[M]. Translated by Fang Qin,Changsha:Hunan Science and Technology Press,2019,367-372.
This article originally appeared in: China Academic Journals - Education and Social Sciences Series, Issue 7, 2021 (a national excellent journal under the supervision of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China and hosted by Tsinghua University). Domestic uniform issue number: CN11-9108/C)
Copyright case: 1-10824460351
Preprint release: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3919886
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