Henry H. Lindner
An outline of the evolution of the Cosmos with its hierarchical levels of complexity
SIGNIFICANCE
By describing the evolutionary origins of all phenomena, this outline organizes all of our knowledge and advances our understanding. It helps us avoid common errors like ascribing consciousness to entities that don't have a nervous system. It explains human consciousness as a natural product of linguistic evolution. This outline could be used to reorganize our divisions of knowledge and thus our university departments and specialties. Most importantly, it creates a philosophical structure in which all sciences can properly function.
OVERVIEW
Space is not nothing, it is a substance which is ground of all being. This is the necessary implication of known physical phenomena including gravity, inertia, and the fixed velocity of light. The Cosmos is space and motions in and of space. Space appears to flow dynamically in gravitation, like a fluid. Inert matter like our Earth appears to be a spatial sink. Space also conducts electromagnetic motion like an elastic solid. See A Theory of Space and Motion.
In the Cosmos, space and its motions have become
organized into increasingly complex non-living, living, sentient,
language-using, and self-conscious entities. This evolutionary process is
hierarchical--it is composed of distinct levels of being; each level operating
according to its unique principles. Evolution is not just a theory of biological change—it is
the inherent process of Cosmic self-development from the formation of the first
particles to humankind’s development of language and philosophy.
At every stage of Cosmic evolution, higher-level phenomena (entities and processes) arise when, under conducive environmental circumstances, lower-level phenomena combine and interact in a new way that persists. Each new level thus arises from and remains dependent upon lower-level processes.
The resultant higher-level regularities constitute new principles unique to that level of being. Higher-level phenomena interact with lower-level and same-level phenomena in new ways.
From subatomic particles to self-conscious humans all Cosmic phenomena are interdependent--consistent with and causally connected to one another.
The primary levels of Cosmic evolution are:
PRESENTATION
At each hierarchical level, causal relationships are identified according to the following scheme:
First-Order Principles - Why x happened - Statements that, for each hierarchical level, define the most general observed regularities that are useful in explaining historical and contemporary phenomena.
Organizing Principles - How x happened - Statements that summarize the less general, more concrete observed regularities at the given level of existence. Organizing principles are derived from first-order principles.
Characteristics - What x happened - An historical summary of events at the given hierarchical level.
Please note that why, how, and what are categories of human linguistic thought and are not actually separable phenomena.
COSMOGONY -- The question of the origin of the universe
The space and motions that comprise our universe are either eternal, or originated at some time in the past. How or why the Cosmos came to exist cannot be determined at this time and may be ultimately unknowable.
All observed phenomena in the universe can actually or potentially be explained as resulting from space and its motions. Thus there is no requirement to posit any supernatural (extra-spatial or extra-Cosmic) being--except in an attempt to explain the origin of space itself.
To posit an extra-spatial creator of space is to attempt to explain something that is evident as resulting from something (or someone) for which (whom) no other evidence exists. This attempt has so far been utterly fruitless and will probably always be so.
ASTROPHYSICOCHEMICAL EVOLUTION
TIME: 20+ billion years ago to the present
ASTROPHYSICOCHEMICAL PRINCIPLES
These are principles of the spatial Cosmos qua spatial. They are inferred from the totality of our knowledge of the Cosmos.
SPACE AND MOTION
The Cosmos is space and motions in/of space. The ultimate substance is the cellular space. All change is ultimately reducible to spatial motions.
CAUSAL EVOLUTION
All spatial motions are produced by preceeding contiguous spatial motions. All effects are caused. All manifestations of space act, react, and interact in ways which are regular and in accordance with their inherent properties. Time is our perception of evolution--the causal sequence of observable motions.
HIERARCHICAL EVOLUTION
Under appropriate local conditions, space and its motions become organized into new structures which are hierarchically distinguishable from the sum of their parts. These structures are stable and persistent combinations of space and its motions. These phenomena act, react, and interact (ARI) in new ways, displaying new properties and regularities.
ASTROPHYSICOCHEMICAL EVOLUTIONARY STAGES
Spatial Creation/Cosmic Inflation
Characteristics
Space
Space is the ground of all being in this Cosmos. It is a hitherto unknown substance. It is not matter as we know it. It has no mass. It appears to be composed of cell-like units at the level of the Planck scale, 10-33cm. The extension and qualities of space's cells determine the size, strength, and possible organization of motions within it; i.e. the fundamental constants (h, G, e, c) and the evolution of hierarchical complexity (subatomic, atomic, chemical, biological, neurological, etc.).
Motion
Energy is our measure of actual or potential motion in/of space. All motions are uniquely, causally related to the local space. The fundamental spatial motions are these:
Hadronic: (1) space consumption and creation--the
strong nuclear force and gravity
Fluid-Dynamic: (2) space flow and mass motion--inertia, translation, and
rotation (3) space waves--neutrinos and gravity waves
Electromagnetic: (4) space cell stress and rotation--electromagnetism
(5) space and electromagnetic structures--subatomic particles (6) space and
electronic motion--electrodynamics
Evolution
is the causal Cosmic
process of change. All change is evolution. All change is
caused. All change results from a preceeding state of affairs.
Time
Time is simply our word for our experience of Cosmic evolution. We measure the time of an process or event by comparing its evolution to a simple standardized process like that of a pendulum or atomic oscillations.
The Cosmic Cycle
Organizing Principles
The strong nuclear force and gravity
Electromagnetism
Particle Evolution
Characteristics
Particle condensation
Expansion and cooling of the Cosmos allowed the sequential evolution of the stable particles--hadrons and electrons. The union of a proton and an electron formed hydrogen, the simplest atom.
Nucleosynthesis
Electrons
Antiparticles
Unstable Particles
Neutrinos
Organizing Principles
Spatial Fluid-Dynamics
Weak nuclear force
Atomic Evolution
Characteristics
Atomic Synthesis
As the Cosmos cooled to about 3,000 K (~300,000 years after its the last Big Bang), electrons combined with nuclei to form stable atoms, hydrogen and helium. This marked the end of the Big Bang.
Matter Era
The energy density of matter (mostly hydrogen and helium) overtook the energy density of radiation. The hadronic mass became predominant by a factor of one thousand.
Stellar Nucleosynthesis
Hydrogen and helium clumped together by force of gravity, forming galaxies and then individual stars. Gravitational contraction created high temperatures within developing stars. Hydrogen began to fuse into helium--creating solar energy.
Elemental Synthesis
Heavier atomic elements (carbon, nitrogen, silicon, etc.) were formed by fusion as a stars deteriorated in cycles of expansion and superheated contraction.
Organizing Principles
The strong nuclear force
Which binds hadrons (protons and neutrons) together in nuclei. This force is responsible for the energy released during nuclear fusion and fission.
The Nucleo-electronic interaction
A highly complex interaction which binds negatively-charged electronic wave-fields to positively-charged nuclei.
Chemical Evolution
Characteristics
Planetosynthesis
In the Big Bang, much of the matter of the previous Cosmos survived, including heavy elements. After inflation, this matter formed new planets which were captured by newly formed stars. Only on cool planets were complex chemical compounds able to form and persist.
Chemical Compounds
Atoms of various size combined in myriad ways to produce elemental and molecular metals, liquids, solids, and gases. The amounts of various elements available, and the other aspects of the local planetary environment determined the kinds of substance that could form and persist.
Organizing Principles
Covalent Bonding
The interaction of atoms to form compounds is determined by the number of electrons surrounding the nucleus, particularly the number of electrons in the outermost shell. Certain chemical combinations of elements persist because they are more stable in the given environment. The combined state is more apt to persist than the uncombined state.
Other Chemical Interactions
Other types of elemental bonding are hydrogen bonds, metallic bonds, bonds in crystals, etc. Chemical laws determine the physical properties of bulk matter as affected by molecular size, shape, and interactions; and interactions of molecules with radiations and fields.
ASTROPHYSICOCHEMICAL CAUSALITY
Determination
Gross determination of all events by causal regularities (laws) inherent in space and its motions.
Randomness
Random motion of particles and atoms is increased with increasing temperature. A degree of indeterminancy is present in all quantum particle interactions because electrons and hadrons are composed of electromagnetic waves. Thus randomness is present in the most fundamental interactions of all matter and from the very start of the Big Bang. As a result of this randomness, what has come to exist is the result of sufficient but not necessary causes. (Another Big Bang with the same starting conditions would result in a similiar Cosmos but the location, mass, and number of resultant bodies would differ. A planet conducive to the evolution of life might not exist; or there might be more of them.)
Degrees of Freedom
One degree of freedom exists at this level as a result of the variability due to randomness.
Teleology
That which occurred was the result of the interaction of the determinancy and indeterminancy inherent in the fundamental elements (space and its motions). No other telos or goal need be implicated to understand the events.
ASTROPHYSICOCHEMICAL MECHANISMS
TIME: ~3 Billion Years Ago - Present
BIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES
REPRODUCTION
Those complex (biochemical) forms which can self-replicate are more able to persist.
BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTIONARY STAGES
Biochemical Evolution
Characteristics
Environmental
The phenomenon of life is apparently confined to Earth in this solar system due to its unique physico-chemical environment. Given the hundreds of billions of stars in this galaxy, and the hundreds of billions of other galaxies visible to our telescopes, we must consider it highly probable that there are billions of Earth-like planets in the Cosmos that are also supporting the evolution of living and language-endowed creatures.
Biochemical Synthesis
Molecules in the ancient earth seas combined chemically to form simple biochemicals (amino acids, nucleic acids, glucose, etc.).
Polymerization
Polymers of these molecules formed which were stable and persisted - perhaps this occurred on the surface of clay or another conducive material.
Replication
At least one type of macromolecule, DNA, formed copies of itself and thus persisted in a new and unique way.
First Organism
The first entity that could be called "living" was probably a DNA polymer associated with amino acid polymers (proteins). These simple proteins catalyzed the chemical reactions involved in replication.
Organizing Principles
Chemical Laws
All the laws of chemical bonding and interaction that are involved with living organisms are studied as Biochemistry.
Reproduction
Specialized macromolecules were most efficient - DNA became the reproductive code for all forms of life
Procaryotic Cellular Evolution
Characteristics
Cell Membrane
When, over millions of years, this DNA and its associated macromolecules became surrounded with a continuous lipoprotein coating, the first procaryotic cells came to exist.
Cytoplasm
All biological processes within procaryotic cells are carried out by organic molecules which are free floating within the cytoplasm or attached to the outer membrane. There are no internal membranes and no organelles except ribosomes.
Metabolism
The macromolecules within procaryotic cells perform the simplest biological functions: absorption, excretion, metabolism, anabolism, and reproduction.
Fission
Procaryotic cells reproduce by fission - splitting into two new organisms. The DNA is replicated first, then the cell membrane splits.
Symbiosis
Procaryotic cells (bacteria, mycoplasmas) do not associate to form multicellular organisms, but do form advantageous communities (blue-green algae).
Organizing Principles
Homeostasis
Challenge
Evolutionary improvements at this level, and at all higher levels, occurred when the existing life forms were challenged by change in their environment; a change strong enough to elicit an adaptive response, but not so powerful so as to destroy the life form.
Sustenance
Those biological forms which develop means to preserve and protect their DNA, are more able to reproduce.
Adaptation
Those complex (biological) forms which best adapt to changes in their environment are more able to survive.
Responsiveness
Those organisms which can learn to inhibit non-productive responses are more able to sustain themselves.
Symbiosis
Those organisms which can benefit from interaction with other organisms are more able to survive and reproduce.
Symbiosis - Biological forms associate and interact with various results.
Commensalism
Biological forms associate for mutual benefit, often on the basis of complementary differences.
Amensalism
Biological forms associate where one form is benefitted and the other is unaffected.
Predation
Biological forms associate where one form is benefitted and the other is harmed.
Eucaryotic Cellular Evolution
Characteristics
Incorporation
Eucaryotic cells originated as a community of procaryotic cells. Specialized cells performing different functions associated for enhanced survival. Eventually these cooperating cells were incorporated into a single large cell. Thus the eucaryotic cell is a society formed from specialized macromolecules and procaryotic cells, i.e. Chloroplasts, mitochondria, flagella, microtubules, etc.
Organelles
Organelles were specialized structures within the cell that performed various functions: absorption, ingestion, digestion, excretion, metabolism, anabolism, protection, structural support, circulation, motion, and reproduction.
Organizing Principles
Specialization
Biological forms which become efficient at particular tasks receive enhanced benefits from cooperation and thus are more able to survive. division of labor - mutually enhanced survival
Histologic Evolution
Characteristics
Symbiotic Aggregation
Multicellular organisms formed by symbiotic aggregation of like and unlike cells.
Cells that formed the different tissues of a larger organism were specialized in their functions: absorption, secretion, excretion, metabolism, information processing, protection, structural support, circulation, motion, and reproduction.
Organs
Sexual Reproduction
Every cell in the multi-celled organism carries two non-identical copies of DNA. Certain cells specialize for the reproductive function.
Development
The organism is not reproduce in its final form but must develop from a single fertilized gamete (sex-cell).
Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny
The development of the individual organism, from embryo through maturity, follows a sequence similar to the evolutionary development of the species. The single cell divides into the various specialized cells that make up the organism.
Organizing Principles
Mutualism
Mechanisms of evolutionary change - aggregation (of molecules and cells), symbiosis, incorporation, parasitism, mixing of genetic material, sexual reproduction, and genetic mutation.
Specialization
and division of labor - mutually enhanced survival
BIOLOGICAL CAUSALITY
Determination
Gross determination of all events by regularities (laws) inherent in space. But at this stage, higher-order laws (chemical and biological) are primary in determining the sequence of events. These higher-order interactions become manifest only in conducive circumstances (Earth's seas of 3 billion years ago).
Randomness
A certain degree of randomness has not only contributed to these conducive circumstances, but contributes also to the formation, location, and structure of living entities.
Degrees of Freedom
As organisms become more complex, their range of adaptive behavior increases and they are less dependent on environmental circumstances. The evolution of life can be seen as an evolution towards greater degrees of freedom from astrophysicochemical determination.
Teleology
At the biological level of existence, a telos or goal can be discerned. Biological organisms exist and strive to survive and reproduce because this has proven effective in promoting the replication and thus persistence of their DNA.
BIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS
BIOLOGICAL PATHOLOGY
Death
Those organisms which die after reproducing undergo faster genetic change and thus more rapidly adjust to changing conditions, and thus more able to survive and reproduce.
All biological processes (reproduction, sustenance, etc) are ultimately dependent on the complex arrangement of molecules within individual cells. Death occurs to a cell when that complex arrangement can no longer perform its biological functions (metabolism, absorption, secretion, etc.) and an irreversible process of disruption has begun. Death occurs to a multicellular organism when the complex arrangement of its cells can no longer perform its biological functions (respiration, circulation), and an irreversible process of cellular disruption has occurred.
Programmed
All multicellular organisms which reproduce by gametes are apparently programmed to die. This maximizes genetic change and the rate of evolution.
Premature
Unicellular organisms reproduce by division and thus have no programmed death. Both uni- and multicellular organisms can die prematurely as the result of a pathological process.
Hereditary (Genetic)
Environmental
Non-infectious
Malnutrition
Maldevelopment
Poisoning
Overpopulation
Trauma
Neoplasm
Infectious
TIME: 2 billion years ago to present
The development in multicellular animals of specialized cells that rapidly convey and store information created a new level of space complexity.
NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES
DIGITOANALOGIC INFORMATION PROCESSING
Those organisms which can gather complex information about their internal and external environment, process that information, react appropriately to that information and remember that information are more likely to survive and reproduce.
ALGORYTHMIC COMPRESSION
Organisms with complex neural systems that can organize percepts of significant environmental phenomena so that entities, motions, and causal sequences are accurately and rapidly comprehended are more able to survive and reproduce.
NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL EVOLUTIONARY STAGES
Neurocellular Evolution
TIME: 2 billion years ago to present
Characteristics
Certain ectodermal (skin) cells evolved the ability to react to environmental stimuli by alterations in the electrical potential across their cell membranes.
Habituation
These neurocells (and their unique DNA) were incorporated into multicellular organisms where they served the specialized function of sensing certain environmental parameters and provoking adaptive action by effector organs.
Excitability
Conductivity
Transmissability
Sensation
Specialized organelles reacted to changes in temperature, light, sound, pressure, odor, etc.
Reaction
Conduction
Electrical polarization and depolarization of specialized conductive cells enabled the transfer of information throughout the organism.
Reaction
The organism could respond in a rapid, coordinated manner to the stimulus by the use of efferent nerves and muscular systems.
Memory
Retention of learned information was made possible through semipermanent and permanent electrochemical and molecular changes within nerve cells (mechanism still not understood).
Organizing Principles
Analogic Response
Digital Response
Neuroassociational Evolution
TIME: ~570 million years ago to present
Stimulus-response systems developed from simple one-celled systems, to two-celled systems (afferent and effector neurons), to systems with many intermediate neurons between the afferent and effector neurons.
Characteristics
Synapse
Electrical
Chemical
Ganglion
Brain
Information Processing System
Centralized information processing became possible using digital (on/off depolarization) and analog (variation in cell polarization) capabilities of intermediate nerve cells.
These information-processing systems (IPSs) enabled the organism to make graded and varied responses to environmental stimuli. As the number and complexity of intermediate (associational) neurons increased, so did the adaptivity (intelligence) of the organism.
Organizing Principles
Neuronal Inhibition
Instrumental Conditioning Evolution
TIME: ~450 million years ago to present
Characteristics
In vertebrates, central nervous systems assured the survival of large, complex organisms by allowing centralized control of internal functions and of reactions to external stimuli.
Trial and Error
Enlarging brains carried out more complex digital and analog information- processing tasks allowing highly discriminative responses to stimuli.
Complex behavior could be genetically acquired (instinct), and also could be learned (classical and operant conditioning).
Social behaviour appeared among (and between) species.
Communication allowed exchange of information and was necessary for social cooperation.
Primary Representational System
Animals with complex neural systems create and maintain protoconcepts. These mental tools are algorythmic compressions of perceptions of significant environmental phenomena.
Communication
Through the use of vocalizations, displays, and badges one organism was able to inform another of its internal state, or to communicate knowledge of the environment.
Cooperation
Under conducive circumstances, organisms discovered the advantages of cooperation under a division of labor.
Society
Gains outweigh the disadvantages. due to its enhancement of survival and reproduction - its gains outweighed its costs.
Spontaneity
Much animal behaviour is spontaneously generated from within the organism, not a response to an environmental stimulus. Thus animals do not only react, they also act. They show evidence of a will. ENCYBRIT vol 14 p. 633
Imprinting
Latent Learning
Curiosity
Play
Organizing Principles
Insight Learning Evolution
Characteristics
Abstraction - protoconcepts
Insight Learning
Imitation
Tool Use and Construction
Motivation
Separation/Individuation
Development
Action
Emotion
Emotions developed in higher animals. They were the result of complex information processing that evaluated a stimulus in the mental context of the various instinctual drives.
Communication
Society
Organizing Principles
NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISMS
NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL CAUSALITY
Determination
Gross determination of all events by regularities (laws) inherent in space; but at this stage, higher-order laws (biological and neurological) are primary in determining the sequence of events.
Randomness
A certain degree of randomness has not only contributed to these conducive circumstances, but contributes also to the formation, location, structure behavior of neurological entities. As the sequence of events is determined by higher-order laws, the amount of randomness increases as does its quality. (An animal will react in a certain way to a stimulus if it is in one motivational state, and will react differently if it is in another.)
Degrees of Freedom
Neurologic organisms do not only react to stimuli, they initiate behavior. Experiments show that even if all inputs to the central nervous system are interrupted, animals will make spontaneous movements. Thus neurologic organisms play a separate and qualitatively unique initiating role in the sequence of events. They manifest a degree of freedom from lower-order causal laws.
Teleology
At the Neurobehavioral level of existence, a telos or goal can be discerned. Neurobehavioral organisms exist and strive to survive and reproduce because this promotes the replication and thus persistence of their DNA.
NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL PATHOLOGY
Neurological Pathology
Disorders of the neurological hardware
Psychological Pathology
Maldevelopment of behavioral software, i.e. faulty programming. Usually caused by trauma such as lack of mothering, abandonment, physical abuse, etc.
TIME: 1 million years ago to present
LINGUOCULTURAL PRINCIPLES
LINGUISTIC ALGORHYTHMIC COMPRESSION
Those humans which can use language as an information processing tool and can create an analogic mental representation of experienced phenomena and their causes are more able to survive.
LINGUOCULTURAL EVOLUTIONARY STAGES
Protolinguistic Evolution
Characteristics
Confined to homonid species
The information processing capabilities of the human brain reached a certain critical power which enabled man to invent language; a new and unique event in the cosmos.
Only with the use of language did man's accomplishments begin to separate him from other primates.
The first and simplest words were probably just imitations of sounds made by the indicated animal or activity (onomatopoeia) and variations of preexisting primate calls.
Words for new objects often created by analogy to more familiar objects
Words served as a mental tool to organize perceptions and make them persist in memory - thus greatly improving man's efficiency and cooperation.
Protolanguage brought about the earliest tool-making advances.
Ideas represented with words are called “memes”. Memes are often organized into systems of ideas. Humans created complex memetic models to explain their world. These early models are called “religions”.
With the evolution of language, memes became the dominant force in human life and behavior.
Concepts
Memory Control
Behavioral Control
Social Control
Tool Making
Bicamerality
Organizing Principles
Lexicon
Onomatopoeia
Metaphor
Metaphier
Metaphrand
Paraphier
Paraphrand
Analogy
Protolinguistic Pathology
Maldevelopment of linguistic information processing
Neurolinguistic Pathology
Disorders of the speech hardware
Genetic Disorders
Acquired Disorders
Psycholinguistic Pathology
Maldevelopment of behaviorolinguistic software
Autism
Linguistic Evolution
Characteristics
Early human mentality is concrete, thoughts take the form of hallucinated voices (right side of brain speaks to left).
With language man could carry out complex learned tasks: building a fire, making a knife - probably by simple hallucinatory repetition of instructions.
The use of words became an extremely powerful tool to organize man's perceptions and his actions.
Survival of human species greatly increased by this quantum increase in ability to store and manipulate knowledge
Predation (hunting animals or humans; taking other human's goods) increasingly is replaced by cooperative enterprise with the rise of agriculture.
Meme complexes (memeplexes) became a dominant force in human affairs. Memeplexes are similar to genomes in that they compete with one another for dominance. Memeplexes have weapons and defenses to assure their survival. For instance, a memeplex the orders the killing or enslavement of aliens would tend to assure the survival and propagation of that memeplex.
Myth/Religion
RELIGION - The primitive, non-philosophical use of language-based information processing to explain sensory evidence, calm existential fears, fulfill wishes, and provide moral, social and political guidance. Religions are a kind of memeplex. Because the religious memeplex serves important, immediate personal and political needs, it is tenaciously defended by its believers. They resist any application of the philosophico-scientific tests of truth - correspondence to sensory evidence and coherence (non-contradiction). Religious memeplexes usually attempt to disable the minds rational/philosophical faculty and thus the mind’s “immune system”. All religions are relatively inaccurate, non-logical (contradictory) systems of belief.
Statism
Technocultural Evolution
Culture evolves as men develop an increasingly complex analogic representation of their experience.
Primitive religion arises as man ascribes all phenomena to the few entities which he already comprehends, e.g. seasons, rain, and fertility ascribed to the activity of some powerful animal or man.
Man worships that which he seeks to influence - that which is crucial to his life - that which he cannot understand
Voices are believed to be those of gods and kings Language enabled more productive cooperation of large groups of humans -birth of agriculture and industry (Neolithic Revolution)
Civilization is born when writing is invented allowing greater organization and cooperation among men
Writing
Organizing Principles
Syntactic structur
Persistance of successful memes and memplexes
Linguistic Pathology
Memeplexes False ideas are
destructive to the extent that they cause human beings to think and act in ways
that do not conform to physical or to human reality.
Religions
Myth
Ideologies
Simple Delusions
Technocultural Pathology
LINGUOCULTURAL MECHANISMS
LINGUOCULTURAL CAUSALITY
Determination
At this level there is still gross determination of all events by regularities (laws) inherent in space; but at this level, higher-order laws (neurological and psycholinguistic) are primary in determining the sequence of events. Memplexes compete with one another for survival. Ideas determine humans’ actions and thoughts and humans are not yet capable of criticizing and improving the ideas that dominate their society.
Randomness
A certain degree of randomness has not only contributed to these conducive circumstances, but contributes also to the formation, structure, and content of human language and behavior. As the sequence of events is determined by higher-order laws, the amount of randomness increases as does its quality. (A human will react in a certain way to a stimulus if it has one interpretation of events, and will react differently if it has another interpretation.)
Degrees of Freedom
Linguistic humans form word-concepts of internal and external phenomena which allow them a more rapid and adaptive response to events. They escape the more rigid neurobehavioral determination by their much greater information-processing ability. A new behavior or technique, once acquired by one individual, can be rapidly learned by others.
Teleology
At the Linguocultural level of existence it is human society that promotes the replication and thus persistence of the species DNA. The individual's self-preserving instincts are subordinated to the welfare of the society and thus the gene pool. Individuals are controlled by their society's memeplexes..
CONSCIOPHILOSOPHICAL EVOLUTION
Time: 6th Century B.C. to the present
CONSCIOPHILOSOPHICAL PRINCIPLES
Consciophilosophical Information Processing
Those humans that self-consciously and deliberately use language-based information processing to integrate all available sensory evidence into an accurate and system of word-formulas that identifies the causal structure of the Cosmos are more able to survive and pursue their happiness.
CONSCIOPHILOSOPHICAL EVOLUTIONARY STAGES
The Origin of Consciousness
Characteristics
The Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (See
Julian Jaynes’ “The Origin of Conscsiousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral
Mind”
The concrete, hallucinatory, mythic mentality of humankind was dominant in the earliest civilizations (Sumerian, Egyptian, Babylonian).
This mentality began to breakdown as man became more conscious (aware) of the external world and of himself
This origin of self consciousness occurred as a result of increasing knowledge, linguistic sophistication, and contact with other societies with different hallucinatory control systems. (aquaintance with the multiplicity and relativism of belief systems)
As the gods no longer spoke to man, he turned to various magical rites in order to make the gods speak. He used different evocative rituals to divine the gods' will and make decisions (augery, astrology, etc.)
Writing
Intercultural Contact
Political Instability
Survival Value of Deceit
Analog Self
Self-consciousness arose as man came to understand which events in his world were caused by his own actions and which were the result of natural phenomena or other individuals. Language thus permitted the creation of a linguistic analog self or "I" by which each individual perceived himself as an actor on the world stage and not just as integral part of the natural and spiritual whole of reality. This complete differentiation of acting self from background is also learned by language-using human children during their cognitive development.
One's consciousness is increased by greater knowledge of self through interaction with others, self-analysis, and/or professional analysis.
Hierarchical Mentation
Freedom
With the onset of conscious thought and deliberation, man escaped the degree of determinism inherent in the physical, biological, neurological, and linguocultural (memetic) levels of existence. Mankind is now able to critically evaluate memes and memeplexes and reject those that do not conform to Cosmic reality—that are inconsistent with the evidence, with logic, and with philosophical rules of thought.
Man's freedom of will arose
only to the extent that he exercised his capacity to analyze the past and
project the consequences of alternative actions. Consciouness and freedom are
not on/off phenomena, both are increased as one's knowledge of self and
environment is increased.
Choice
Responsibility
Meaning
Isolation
Stimulation of Appetites
Philosophy
Organizing Principles
Logic is the use of language in a way that conforms to Cosmic regularities at the most fundamental level. The philosophical rules of thought are the use of language to conform to higher, more complex causal principles.
Syntactic Language
Consciousness arose as a result of the increasing discriminatory power of language applied to all experienced space phenomena, external and internal.
Knowledge
One's consciousness is increased by greater knowledge of one's self and one's environment through education in the human and natural sciences.
Philosophic Evolution
PHILOSOPHY - The conscious, deliberate use of language-based information processing to represent all available sensory data and integrate causal scientific theories of Cosmic phenomena into a coherent and efficacious system of linguistic formulas. The truth of every linguistic formula in the system is subject to rigorous and continuous testing. Those formulas are considered conditionally true which accurately correspond to all sensory and scientific evidence and which logically cohere with all other formulas and which prove efficacious to the human pursuit of knowledge and happiness. All sciences--physical, biological, and human--are specialized areas within Philosophy. Philosophy (with its sciences) is an objective, shared human enterprise. Humans pursue it in order to increase their productivity, health, wealth, understanding, wisdom, and ultimately, happiness.
In Ionia (Aegean Turkey), 6th century B.C., Thales of Miletus made the first recorded attempts to explain natural phenomena as the result of mechanistic cause and effect. As a result of the persian conquest of Ionia, Ionian Philosophy centered in Athens where Plato and Aristotle identified the major questions of philosophy and applied philosophic analysis to every area of life. Plato contaminated philosophy with quasireligious idealism and authoritarianism. With the conquest of Athens by Sparta, Alexander, and then Rome, philosophy retreated into quasireligious sects. In Roman Stoicism and the Christianity, scientific philosophy remained submerged. Only in the Late Medieval Renaissance and French Enlightenment did philosophy come to dominate intellectual life. The deterioration of the French Revolution into totalitarian terror and Napoleon's subsequent invasion of Europe resulted in the creation of authoritarian nationalism, and cosmopolitan philosophy was repudiated. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, philosophy remained hostage to quasireligious ideologies - nationalism, socialism, fascism, capitalism, and communism. Only in narrow fields of the physical and biological sciences did philosophic progress occur. Some progress occured in psychology, but ethics, politics, and economics have remained hostage to the dominant ideology - National Socialism.
Characteristics
Once man had clearly distinguished himself from his environment, he no longer attempted to explain natural phenomena as products of some personality. He began to seek mechanistic explanations instead of anthropomorphic ones.
This resulted in the breakdown of religious domination of thought. Logical reasoning was applied to all aspects of life. Men asked questions and sought naturalistic causes.
In Greek civilization, we find the first conscious, rational, scientific attempts to explain the nature of man, the world, and the gods (Milesian philosophers)
Greek Philosophers raised and analyzed all the essential questions of philosophy--metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, politics, and aesthetics.
Judaism and Christianity and their offshoots have suppressed philosophical cognition, which has not regained the prominence it had in ancient Greek thought.
Authoritarian systems of all kinds also suppress philosophical cognition since it is the primary challenge to their hegemony.
Rationalism
Objectivism
Scientific Method
SCIENCE - An arm of philosophy which concentrates on one discrete category of space phenomena. It seeks to construct formulas which identify significant phenomena and causal relationships within its purview. It uses specialized tools and procedures appropriate to its object of study. It gathers data by observation and experiment. It integrates the data accumulated by forming linguistic and/or mathematic formulas which are rigorously and continuously tested for correspondence to space phenomena and for logical coherence. Every science, in both its working assumptions and its formulas, must be informed and criticized by philosophy.
FORMULA - A meaningful combination of linguistic and/or mathematic symbols. Philosophic formulas are those which are an attempt to represent space phenomena and causal relationships. Scientific formulas are given different names in accordance with the degree to which they have been tested and accepted by scientists:
HYPOTHESIS - A formula which has explanatory efficacy but requires further testing.
THEORY - An formula which has been repeatedly tested and is generally accepted.
LAW - A repeatedly tested and universally accepted formula which has proved efficacious in all practical applications.
PRINCIPLE - A formula which requires acceptance and is untestable because it represents a fundamental and necessary basis of all space phenomena and all formula-making.
Secularism
Breakdown of belief in philosophical and religious authority. Discovery of the efficacy of systematic observation and experiment
Breakdown of belief in governmental paternalism. Separation of government and economics. Separation of government and religion. Realization of the efficacy of individual freedom and responsibility. Application of science to production of energy and goods, made possible by freedom from govermental interference in individual ownership and control of property
Elimination of nationalist
and other collectivist belief systems. Full realization of efficacy of
individual pursuit of happiness in the framework of voluntary cooperation as
the basis of morality world-wide. Government limited to protecting individuals
from use of physical force/coercion by others.
Individualism
Consensualism
Organizing Principles
Logical Coherence
Objective Correspondence
Prediction
CONSCIOPHILOSOPHICAL MECHANISMS
Consciophilosophical Causality
Determination
At this level there is still significant determination of all events by regularities (laws) inherent in space; but at this stage, higher-order laws (psycholinguistic and conscious/intellectual) are primary in determining the sequence of events.
Randomness
A certain degree of randomness has not only contributed to these conducive circumstances, but contributes also to the formation, structure, and content of human language and behavior. As the sequence of events is determined by higher-order laws, the amount of randomness increases as does its quality. (A human will react in a certain way to a stimulus if it has one interpretation of events, and will react differently if it has another interpretation.)
Degrees of Freedom
With self-consciousness and philosophic information processing, the individual attains a much higher degree of freedom that existed at lower levels. The amount of freedom varies from individual to individual. A human's degree of freedom (escape from being determined by his past and present environment) is directly proportional to his degree of consciousness and the effort he makes to use his intellectual capacity. His degree of consciousness is partly determined by familial and societal influence. The individual can increase his consciousness through intellectual education and through extrafamilial and extrasocietal relationships.
Teleology
At the Consciophilosophical level of existence, each human is aware of his unique desires and capabilities. Each human strives for happiness according to his scale of values. His behavior is no longer necessarily determined by neurobehavioral drives which evolved by maximizing species DNA persistence. The society is, for the self-conscius individual, now only a means to his pursuit of happiness.
Psychopathology
These disorders are the result of developmental deprivation. The individual must pass through all preceding hierarchical levels in its own development. Just as the fetus must pass through stages of growth that recapitulate the evolutionary stages, so too the infant must pass through the developmental stages of non-linguistic, then linguitic human evolution. The inability to progress through all levels of neurobehavioral, linguocultural, and conciopsychological growth prevents the inidvidual from achieving full self-consciousness.
Neurosis
The repudiation of part or all of the self as the result of parental and societal abuse; resulting in self-repression of desires, emotions, and thoughts. Consciousness of self is inhibited and the individual must create a false self in accordance with parental and societal models. All religions and all non-scientific ideologies support neurotic disfigurement of the individual's personality through their false, and thus unhealthy, doctrines.
Inasmuch as the individual is neurotic, he is non-conscious and cannot make full use of the philosophical method. He has lost contact with important aspects of his self and must adhere to false beliefs. He cannot be fully objective. He must resort to fallacious argument in attempting to justify his beliefs. But inasmuch as he is not neurotic he can use the philosophical method to detect some of his false beliefs and neurotic tendencies. Escape from neurosis requires both philosophic deprogramming and restorative experience of his natural self in loving relationships with others.
Sociopathology
Some degree of neurosis is
affects all individuals. Societies differ as to the kind and degree of
neurosis. This is the cause of all self-defeating personal, social, and
political behavior. Political domination is the societal expression of the
individual's inner domination by the false self and its ideologies. As the
natural neurobehavioral self has been repudiated and is dominated by the false
linguocultural self, so the individual believes that society requires
politicoideological control and coercion. This leads to the expansion of
societal control to every aspect of life. The agent of control is government.
War
Coercion
Sado-Masichism