Overview

The authors of these essays examine core dimensions of the human condition in light of biophilosophy and process metaphysics, which they apply to such core anthropological issues as the survival of both the human species and the biosphere as a whole. With a general focus on the unique capacity for symbolization as marking an important and influential factor in human evolution, the authors address key issues in biophilosophy, such as the specific ways we differ from other species, our capacity to symbolize and create a helpful or dangerous distance from life, and our playfulness and proclivity for mythmaking. Questions addressed include the following: How did symbolic thought shape the evolution of the human species? How did symbolic systems shape human experience of and reasoning about space, time, matter, life, and natural processes? How do our unique forms of power relations distinguish humans from other species? How do our spiritual and metaphysical belief systems influence human rationality and morality? How can we balance our spiritual needs with our rational abilities, and how could this influence our future evolution? How should we respond to the trends towards transhumanism and bio-technocracy? Our intellect is troubled by a consciousness of its own evolution, by the ecological and ethical challenges of a severely degraded environment, and it wields great symbolic and mythic fictions with the power to influence the bio-social evolution of future humans. Despite all our unique qualities, we cannot set ourselves apart from the natural heritage we share with every living being on planet Earth. Somewhere between transhumanism and cosmohumanism, we must find an ethical guide, an organismic and cosmic consciousness, and a speculative framework to manage our knowledge and our spontaneous actions towards the future.

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9781940447476

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If you want to understand why we are in environmental crisis, this is where you need to look. Social engineering solutions, managed by current power structures, won't do it; one has to plumb the deepest features of human existence biological, cultural, and symbolic. These beautifully integrated chapters offer the insights into our species that are necessary for recognizing dangers and knowing where our greatest strengths lie. Philip Clayton, co-author of What Is Ecological Civilization? For a long time biologists followed physics in limiting their explanatory data to what the scientist can observe. Now, the cutting edge of biology recognizes that the perspective of the living creatures biology studies plays a role in the evolutionary process. This becomes especially important in the evolution of human beings who through their use of symbols create new worlds for good and ill. No longer do we need to reduce all explanation of evolution and of what has evolved to survival value. Intrinsic values are also important. The new science of biology integrates human experience into the real world it studies. This book is at the cutting edge of this new biology. John B. Cobb, Jr., Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Author Information

Spyridon A. Koutroufinis was born in Greece. He was awarded a doctorate in philosophy of science from the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 2009 he passed the post-doctoral habilitation examination at the Technical University (TU) Berlin where he is an associate professor (Privatdozent). Between 2012 and 2014 he was a visiting associate professor and research scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. He has specialized in biophilosophy, process- and classical metaphysics, and theory of complexity. He is the author and editor of five books. Rene Pikarski is completing his doctoral studies at the Munich School of Philosophy with a focus on international understanding. His PhD thesis is on the philosophies of Henri Bergson and Michel Foucault and their application to a biophilosophical concept of intuition for contemporary socio-critical discourses and ethopoetic processes. He works in Berlin as an author and host to support the preservation and rediscovery of the East German fi lm heritage, and he is the editor of the Journal of theRene Pikarski is completing his doctoral studies at the Munich School of Philosophy with a focus on international understanding. His PhD thesis is on the philosophies of Henri Bergson and Michel Foucault and their application to a biophilosophical concept of intuition for contemporary socio-critical discourses and ethopoetic processes. He works in Berlin as an author and host to support the preservation and rediscovery of the East German fi lm heritage, and he is the editor of the Journal of the DEFA Foundation.

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