The soul of the universe
“When man first began to interpret the nature of things – and this he
did when he began to be man – life was to him everywhere, and being the
same as being alive. Animism was the widespread expression
of this stage, hylozoism (2) one of its later, conceptual
forms.” Thus begins Hans Jonas’ first essay in his book entitled “The
Phenomenon of life” (1). Most of what we encounter on the surface
of earth is intimately intertwined with the dynamics of life. “modern
thought which began with the Renaissance is placed in exactly the opposite
theoretic situation. Death is the natural thing, life is the problem”
(p.9)
Explanation of life has to be in terms of the lifeless, this is what modern
biology is about. “Life’s place in this world has shrunk to that of the
organism” (p.11). In order to understand life it has to be reduced to
non life. “Our thinking today is under the dominance of death” (p.12)
“Panvitalism” of the past was replaced by “panmechanism.”
The science of the (dead) matter is reaching an impasse,
since it lacks concepts and tools to understand our non-linear surroundings
which are intimately affected by life. Some call this deviation from
traditional science as chaotic, which reflects their clouded vision.
Chaos was first applied to the weather since modern science fails to
account how life shapes it. Any process which involves life, e.g.,
economy, stock market or the web cannot be tackled anymore by the traditional
scientific concepts. We need a new approach whose philosophy is outlined
in Jonas’ book. Back to panvitalism. First we ought to explore our backyard
called Gaia, our super organism in which we exist. Then
we ought to broaden our view and “revive” the dead universe which harbors
vast amounts of life, known as panspermia, some of
which is entering our atmosphere every second.
This is the main theme of the present thread. It started with the
inadequacy of the concept of randomness which is the brainchild
of the “science of the dead|”
Then came short discussions of various concepts of complexity:
Life does not generate complexity from
scratch
The cell is the atom of life.
Gaia
Evolution has a meaning only in terms of
Gaia
Phenomenology of complexity
And more:
References
1. Hans Jonas The Phenomenon of Life- Toward a Philosophical Biology
Northwestern University Press Evanston Ill 2001
2 hylozoism: The philosophical doctrine holding that all matter
has life, which is a property or derivative of matter. (Answers.com)
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