Being Human

Seán Ó Nualláin

Description

This feels like a time of environmental and moral crisis without parallel.... Not only do human beings seem not to believe in anything but, despite exponential advances in information production, we do not appear to know much either. This book is a guide for everyone who feels understandably perplexed.

The book considers issues as diverse as:

• the lure of alternative religions and belief systems


• the use of the rhetoric of economics to justify amoral decisionmaking


• Green politics and genetically-modifies crops


• New technology's power to preserve the status quo, and


• the true impetus behind the Human Genome Project.

Presenting an explanation of recent findings in science and their relationship with society and politics, this book seeks to give guidance towards responsible political action. Starting from themes developed in the companion volume The Search for Mind, the author attempts to provide intellectual roots for the 'anti-capitalist' or 'anti-globalization' movement and, in particular, treats social protest as a form of knowledge-seeking.

The author brings to very topical and controversial concerns some much-needed clarity. Complete with reader-friendly summaries of current thought in the biological, physical, and social sciences, this book is designed primarily for the popular market but will also appeal to those working or studying in these fields.

Prologue (1)

Preface to the Second Edition (5)

Introduction (17)

1. The Current Crisis (23)


2. Our Age of Innocence (61)


3. Theories of Everything (159)

Conclusions (221)

Appendix A: How does Science Progress? (227)

Appendix B: The Reduced History of Physics (229)

Appendix C: Genetic technologies (235)

References (239)

Index (247)

 

Sujets

• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• General officer
• Anthropology
• General
• Cultural Studies

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2003
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781841508658
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Being Human
The Search for Order
Se n Nuall in
Revised edition published in Paperback in Great Britain in 2003 by Intellect Books , PO Box 862, Bristol BS99 1DE, UK
Revised edition published in Paperback in USA in 2003 by Intellect Books , ISBS, 5824 N.E. Hassalo St, Portland, Oregon 97213-3644, USA
First published in Hardback in 2002
Copyright 2002 Se n Nuall in
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.

Copy Editor:
Peter Young
Typesetting:
Macstyle Ltd , Scarborough, N. Yorkshire
Cover Design:
Accent Design , Blackrock, Ireland
Printing and Binding:
Antony Rowe Ltd, Eastbourne

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Electronic ISBN 1-84150-865-9 / ISBN 1-84150-088-7
Contents
Preface
Introduction
1 The Current crisis
i The environmental crisis
ii The demographic crisis
iii The economic crisis
iv The political crisis
v The moral/fideistic/epistemological crisis
2 Our Age of Ignorance
i Noetic Science
ii Physics
iii Biology
iv Economics
v Technology
vi Psychology
vii Politics and Sociology
viii Religion and Myth
viii.1 Universals in religion
viii.2 Cosmogony
viii.3 The psychology of the millennium
viii.4 The problem of human suffering
ix Value
x Some conclusions
3 Theories of Everything
Introduction
i Dei ex machina
i.a The sciences of complexity
i.i.a Catastrophe Theory
i.i.b Chaos
i.i.c Games
i.i.d Something for Nothing?
i.b Information
i.c Computation
i.d Buckserologists (Know-it-alls)
ii Precedence claims and claim-jumps
Introduction
ii.a Physics
ii.b Darwinism
iii Eschatologies
iv Stake Takeover
v Weltanschauungen
v.a Gurdjieff
v.b Marxism
Conclusions
Appendix A: How does Science Progress?
Appendix B: The Reduced History of Physics
Appendix C: Genetic technologies
References
Index
Dedication
To all who sincerely seek the truth, whether in their study or on the streets of Seattle, Genoa, and Dublin
Acknowledgements and Errata
Barbara Lougheed acted as midwife for this book and I humbly thank her and her family. Likewise, Linda Scales and Accent Design contributed in their different ways. Appendix C was commissioned by me in my role as Irish Green party science and technology convener; I wish to thank Ray Ryan for this.
There is a rather noticeable mistake about Rom in the second edition of Search for Mind , but not in the first. On this point, i.e. that of errata, writing about Ireland was perhaps a mistake, as the subject is perhaps too close. This is exemplified by the hejira of Conor Cruise O Brien from advocate of Irish unity to revisionist to again supporting Irish unity as the only way of defeating the IRA; their goal of Irish unity achieved, they would rather presumably disband. I thought I was confused! As I write, the rather shocking view enunciated here about 9/11 is becoming commonplace, and more s the pity that it may even be correct.
Preface
There is a remarkable consensus that something is wrong with the current globalised politico-economic system. Remarkable not only in its diversity, but also in its awareness that no tested viable alternative currently obtains. The green/anarchist/socialist/trades union Seattle mob finds itself singing from the same hymn sheet as George Soros when pointing out where the problems are. When it comes to solutions, however, each faction has its own separate agenda. As on this, the political/economic level, so also on the epistemological and fideistic levels. Yet the act of recognising this diversity is itself salutary; remarkably, unlike our Biblical predecessors, we can communicate to each other the fact that there is a confusion of tongues. Such communication is a central, relatively modest, aim of this book. However, it has the gall to go on to propose solutions, at the appropriate levels, if tentatively, to current environmental and political problems. Moreover, it does so by digging into the academic disciplines which deal with these problems, and related subjects. Finally, it explores apparently unrelated areas of human activity, like religious practice, to determine whether they have any future constructive role to play. The solutions proposed will not detain us here; they are re-introduced, time and again, in the course of this book.
It is the second volume in a two-volume series. The Search for Mind , originally published in 1995, sought to provide a lingua franca for the disciplines that comprise cognitive science. The structure of that book is straightforward; its major chapters are on philosophy, psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence (AI), and consciousness studies. Areas like anthropology and ethology are touched upon. If a theme emerges independently in two different disciplines, its status is heightened. The response to the book from specialists in each of the component disciplines was gratifying, and it has been updated rather than reworked for the revised edition. However, Alberto Greco s review in Philosophical Psychology questioned whether there was bigger game to be hunted, a more general Noetic Science , and to some extent this book can be seen as a response to that challenge.
We take from the first volume only a certain questioning attitude about the true subject-area of psychology, a dynamic view of knowledge that will be further developed, and the notion that the human mind/body is an opportunistic system capable of adapting over time to enormous changes in the social and conceptual orders. (The general hierarchical format of the first book, with much use of sub-sectioning, is adhered to; readers of this volume are encouraged to emulate readers of the previous volume in dipping in as they wish to particular sections). There is a strong claim implicit here that psychology , as currently understood, can tell us little about certain questions in the social and noetic spheres. On the one hand, it is being argued that the political movement ending in the utopian socialism of the Soviet Union needs a level of analysis other than the psychological for its explanation. On the other, it is being argued that our acceptance of the truth of findings in areas like quantum mechanics (QM) is, to some extent at least, an act of faith; the limits of our cognitive apparatus have been exposed as we approach the very small, as the very large. As it attempts to tease out where these limits are in the context of various disciplines, this book becomes vastly more ambitious, controversial and potentially significant than its predecessor. The remainder of this preface will look at the potential benefits and pitfalls involved.
The first pitfall is, quite simply, professional discourtesy; I regret if any specialist in any of the areas involved here feels slighted by this project. Hopefully, the immediately following discussion will restore any wounded pride. Any project like this one is written at a number of levels; there are benefits and pitfalls at each. In The Search for Mind , as has been noted, the creation of a new lingua franca between the separate disciplines and the emergence of synthesis were the benefits. Another such in the early 90s was quite simply the compilation of salient facts about different disciplines in a single book. This, of course, is now a much less valuable exercise; the facts are readily available, free of charge, on the Web. Moreover, there now is much less excuse for inaccuracy. At the Gradgrindian level of just the facts, then, the potential pitfalls outweigh the potential benefits. Finally, the challenge of providing as good a prose description of many of the concepts here as those available on the Web is a considerable one.
The above, however, is not one of the foremost sources of danger. These relate to a complete insensitivity to the disciplines as actually practised, rather than their bald written expression. Such insensitivity can result in the type of obnoxiousness that we associate with the superannuatedly precocious. (Several uncomplimentary references to middle-aged enfants terribles will be made in the course of this book). What these malcontents do not realise is that the whole human psyche is involved in any authentic scientific enterprise; in particular, scientific formation involves the association of certain emotional connotations with certain findings in certain disciplines. Just as we cringe - or, at best, smile bravely - as an eight-year-old plays unfeelingly through a late Beethoven quartet, so do we find revolting a discussion of cosmology without an access of wonder, or cloning without a certain seriousness about the potential consequences. There are analogous patterns in every discipline from the natural and social sciences.
Secondly, and much more subtly, practitioners of these disciplines often have robust rules of engagement with their disciplines, and with each other, whereof they remain silent. Be right, or be fun is one of them. As any player of a contact sport knows, there are the rules, which are written down and implemented by the referee, and then the code, which is often rather rough justice administered by the players themselves. In an area like QM, the code is altogether more fugitive and yet compelling. Thus, we can understand Einstein s comments about the early David Bohm that he got his results too cheaply as being about code-violation. Even if laconic in eventual expression, any putative breakthrough in a field must manifest evidence of thousands of hours spent fully engaged. Moreover, in a field like QM, one is serving at least two masters; the dictates of mathematics, and what can only be described as physical intuition . In that vein, to take another example, Roger Penrose praises Newton for his superb physical intuit