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CURRENTCURRENT
WORLD WORLDVIEWSVIEWS
Cherrymae Elda Suñga
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Current World ViewsCurrent World ViewsImplications to Science and Society
The System View of Life
>Open System
>Relationships>Multi-leveled Structure and Self-
Regulation
->The Systems View and Evolution
->The Systems View and Mind
The Mystical View
An Ideal World View
Entropy
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IntroductionIntroduction
Current experience show we cannot
divide the world into independently
existing units or building blocks. As we
penetrate deeply into matte we see notisolated buildings blocks, rather nature
shows us a complicated web of
relationships between various parts of aunified whole.
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In quantum theory, the observed objects can
only be understood in terms of interaction
between the various processes of
observation and measurement, and the end
of this chain of processes lies in the
consciousness of the human observer.The crucial feature of quantum theory is
that the human observer is not only
necessary to observe the properties of an
atomic phenomenon but is necessary evento bring about these properties.
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In modern physics mass is no longer
associated with material substance and
hence particles are not seen as consisting
of any basic stuff but rather as bundles of
energy.
The notion of substances that make upmatter is quite useful at the macroscopic
level but it does not make sense at the
atomic level
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Atoms are made up of particles and theparticles are not made up of any kind of
material substance. When we observe
them we do not see any substance. What
we observe are dynamic continuallychanging patterns ² a continuous dance of
energy.
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Current World ViewsCurrent World ViewsImplications to Science and Society
The System View of Life
>Open System
>Relationships>Multi-leveled Structure and Self-
Regulation
->The Systems View and Evolution
->The Systems View and Mind
The Mystical View
An Ideal World View
Entropy
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The Systems View of LifeThe Systems View of Life
Solutions to problems, particularly as they pertain
to life on Earth and the Earth itself, are no longersimple solutions but multilateral solutions involving
all countries of this Earth.
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As we face the future and attempt tosafeguard the interest of generations yet
to come we begin to realize that we livein an era where there is a need, morethan at any other time in the world·shistory, for greater coordination andcooperation of political and social actionand responsibility which also extends tothe economic system as is evident by the
establishment of an international system.
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The 20th century has also seen a markedconcern for global problems bearing on our
very survival: a warming globe threats to theEarth·s ozone layer, deserts creeping onagricultural lands, pollution of land, sea andair, lack of water in some areas.
There is also the realization that theseproblems are interrelated with one anotherand with man and nature. It therefore seemlogical that the concepts of ¶systems· has
began to be applied to anew view of life.
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A systems view looks at the world in
terms of relationships and integration.Systems are integrated wholes whose
properties cannot be reduced to those of
smaller units. Instead of focusing on
building blocks or basic component
substances, the systems approach
emphasizes basics principles of
organization.
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Every living organism is an integrated
whole, and thus it is a living system. Cellsare living systems and so are various
organs and tissues in the body- the
human brain being the most complex
example.
This kind of material systems are wholes
whose specific structure arise from
interactions and interdependence of theirparts
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Systemic properties are destroyed when
a system is dissected into isolatedelements. Although we discuss individual
parts in a system the whole is different
from the mere sum of its parts.
Another important aspect of systems is
their intrinsically dynamic nature.
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Current World ViewsCurrent World ViewsImplications to Science and Society
The System View of Life
>Open System
>Relationships>Multi-leveled Structure and Self-
Regulation
->The Systems View and Evolution
->The Systems View and Mind
The Mystical View
An Ideal World View
Entropy
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Open SystemsOpen Systems
Living organism are open systems whichmeans that they have to maintain acontinuous exchange of energy andmatter with their environment to stay
alive.This exchange involves taking food/
nourishment, breaking them down and
using some of their components tomaintain or even increase the order of the organism. This process is known asmetabolism.
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Metabolism allows the system to remain
in a state of nonequilibrium in which it isalways ́ at workµ. A high degree of
nonequilibrium is absolutely necessary for
self-organizations; living organisms are
open systems that continually operate farfrom equilibrium.
At the same time these self-organizing
systems have a high degree of stability.
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The stability of self-organizing systems, iscompletely dynamic and must not be
confused with equilibrium. It is consists of maintaining the same over all structure inspite of ongoing changes and replacementsof its components.
For example, all the cells in our body exceptthose in our brain are replaced within a fewyears, yet we have no difficulty recognizingfriends even after long periods of separation.
Such is a dynamic stability of self organizingsystem.
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A system in a state of continual
fluctuation even when there is no
disturbance is called homeotasis.
When there is a disturbance the
organism tends to return to its original
state and it does so by adapting in variousways in the environment. For example:
Stress Adaptation
Somatic Adaptation
The process of Evolution
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These three modes of adaptation arecharacterized by increasing flexibility and
decreasing reversibility.The ability of the organism to adapt to
environment changes through geneticmutation. This represents only one aspect of the phenomenon of evolution.
On the other side, the creative developmentof new structures and functions without anyenvironmental pressures, is a manifestationof the potential for self-transcendence thatis inherent in all living organisms.
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The Darwinian concept therefore
expresses only one of twocomplementary views that are necessary
in understanding evolution.
Living organisms being open systems
themselves, keep themselves alive andfunctioning through intense transactions
with the environment itself consists
partially of organisms.
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Most organism are not only embedded in
the ecosystems but are complex
ecosystems themselves containing a host
of smaller organisms that have
considerable autonomy and yet integrate
themselves harmoniously into thefunctioning of the whole i.e., they live as a
system.
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Current World ViewsCurrent World ViewsImplications to Science and Society
The System View of Life
>Open System
>Relationships>Multi-leveled Structure and Self-
Regulation
->The Systems View and Evolution
->The Systems View and Mind
The Mystical View
An Ideal World View
Entropy
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RelationshipsRelationships
Close coordination of activities exists notonly among individuals of the same aspectbut also among different species, and againthe resulting systems have the characteristics
of simple organisms.Sy mbiosis is a phenomenon that happens
when many types of organisms that werethought to represent well-defined biological
species have turned out, upon closeexamination, to consist of 2 or moredifferent species in intimate biologicalassociation.
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For example: bacteria that are usable for
energy needs of plants have incorporated
themselves in the roots of the plants to
become almost indistinguishable. Bacteria
live in symbiotic relationship in tissues of
higher organisms especially in the intestinaltracts of animals and humans.
In brief, we do not have solitary beings.
Every creature is, in some sense connected
to and dependent on the rest.
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Current World ViewsCurrent World ViewsImplications to Science and Society
The System View of Life
>Open System
>Relationships>Multi-leveled Str ucture and Self -
Regulation
->The Systems View and Evolution
->The Systems View and Mind
The Mystical View
An Ideal World View
Entropy
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MultiMulti--Leveled Structure and Self Leveled Structure and Self--
RegulationRegulationAnother principle of living systems is
their tendency to from multi-leveled
structure² this is pervasive throughout
nature. At each level of complexity weencounter systems that are integrated,
self-organizing wholes consisting of
smaller parts and at the same time actinglike parts of larger wholes.
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An example is the organ systems of human
beings --- each system is made of organs,
each organ is made of tissues, each tissues ismade of cells.
The important aspect of stratified order in
nature is not transfer of control but ratherthe organization of complexity. The various
systems levels are stable levels of different
complexities and this makes it possible to
use different descriptions of each level.
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The concept of stratified order also
provides perspectives on the
phenomenon of death. Self-renewal is anessential living systems. The structures
that are being replaced are themselves
living organisms- from their point of view,the self-renewal of the larger system is
their own cycle of life over death.
Birth and death are central aspects of
self-organization.
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James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis
suggested that the phenomena happen tothe Earth can only be understood if the
planet would be regarded as a single living
organism. Recognizing that their
hypothesis represents a renaissance of anancient myth, these scientists have called
it the Gaia hypothesis after the Greek
Goddess of the Earth.
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Aware of our Earth a aliveplayed an important role inman·s cultural past and it
was revived whenastronauts were first ableto look at our planet fromouter space. Theirperception of our planet- abeautiful blue and whiteglobe floating in a sea of darkness, moved deeplyand was profound spiritualexperience that foreverchanged their relationship
wit the Earth.
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What astronauts and many men and
women on Earth before them realized is
that the Earth is not only teeming withlife but seems to be a living being in its
own right. All living matter on earth,
together with the atmosphere, oceans,and the soil form a complex system that
has all the characteristic pattern of self-
organization.
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Current World ViewsCurrent World ViewsImplications to Science and Society
The System View of Life
>Open System
>Relationships>Multi-leveled Structure and Self-
Regulation
->The Systems View and Evolution
->The Systems View and Mind
The Mystical View
An Ideal World View
Entropy
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The Systems View and EvolutionThe Systems View and Evolution
There are fundamental differencesbetween the new systems view of
evolution and the view of classical Neo
Darwinian Theory.The classical theory sees evolution as
moving towards an equilibrium state with
organisms adapting themselves ever more
perfectly to their environment.
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According to th esystems view evolution
operates far from equilibrium and unfolds
through an interplay of creation and
evolution.
It also takes into account that the
environment itself is a living systemcapable of adaptation and evolution.
Thus, in the systems view, the focus shifts
from the evolution of an organism to theconvolutions of an organism plus
environment.
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Darwin·s theory of evolution posits the
specie, subspecies or some other building
blocks of the biological world as the unitof survival. However, a century later it
becomes quite clear that the unit of
survival is not any of these entities; whatsurvives is the organism in its
environment.
An organism that thinks only of survival
will invariably destroy its environment and
in the end itself.
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From the systems view the unit of survival isnot an entity but rather a pattern of
organization adapted by an organism in itsinteractions with the environment. Anelaboration of this idea is shown in theevolution of life on Earth is as follow:
The earliest forms of life appeared on Earth about ½billion years after the planet was formed.
The emergence of eukaryotes.
Organisms developed sexual reproduction whichintroduced genetic variety .
Emergence of consciousness which made it possible toreplace mechanisms.
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Current World ViewsCurrent World ViewsImplications to Science and Society
The System View of Life
>Open System
>Relationships>Multi-leveled Structure and Self-
Regulation
->The Systems View and Evolution
->The Systems View and Mind
The Mystical View
An Ideal World View
Entropy
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The Systems View and MindThe Systems View and Mind
There are large manifestations of mind of which our minds are only subsystems; thisidea has implications for the naturalenvironment. If we separate mental
phenomena from the larger systems, andconfine them to human individuals, we willsee the environment as mindless, and tendto exploit it.
Our attitudes will be very different if we seethe environment as alive and mindful likeourselves.
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Multi-level structure of organisms implies
that there are also levels of minds.
In the individual organisms there are
various levels of metabolic mentations
involving cells, tissues, organs. Such notion
of mind as a multi-leveled phenomenon of which we are only partly aware in
ordinary states of consciousness is
widespread in many non-Western nations.
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As in the case of the evolution twocomplementary approaches are needed;
the r eductionism appr oac h- to understandthe detailed neural mechanism and theholistic appr oac h- to understand theintegration of this mechanisms into the
functioning of the whole system.Since the systems view of mind is not
limited to individual organisms but can be
extended to social and ecologicalsystems.
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Current World ViewsCurrent World ViewsImplications to Science and Society
The System View of Life
>Open System
>Relationships>Multi-leveled Structure and Self-
Regulation
->The Systems View and Evolution
->The Systems View and Mind
The Mystical View
An Ideal World View
Entropy
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The Mystical ViewThe Mystical View
It regards consciousness as the primary reality and
the reality and the ground of all being. In its puristform. Consciousness is nonmaterial, formless, void
of all content, without reality.
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This manifestation of consciousness isassociated with the Divine in manytraditions.The mystical view of consciousness is based
on the experience of reality in nonordinarymodes of awareness which are traditionallyachieved through meditation but may also
occur spontaneously in the process of artistic creation and in various contexts. Theroots of cultural crises lie in the imbalancebetween two modes of consciousness whichhave been recognized as characteristicaspects of human nature through the ages.
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They oftentimes referred as masculine,
feminine; linear, nonlinear; yin, yang by the
Chinese.In traditional Chinese, Y ang is our masculine
side- active, rational competitive, scientific;
Y in is the feminine side- yielding, intuitive,
cooperative, mystical side.
Before the 1960s, the yang seemed to be
consistently favored by Western culture but
in the 1960s to the current decade someauthors believe the movement is toward the
other direction.
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Most of the manifestation in this time is
found to be of the trend that counteracts
the rational, machine attitude and values,attain a balance between the masculine
and the feminine. Hence, the movement
has been towards yin.
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Current World ViewsCurrent World ViewsImplications to Science and Society
The System View of Life
>Open System
>Relationships>Multi-leveled Structure and Self-
Regulation
->The Systems View and Evolution
->The Systems View and Mind
The Mystical View
An Ideal World View
Entropy
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An Ideal World ViewAn Ideal World View
any philosophy that advocates the continued rape of thisEarth in the hope of achieving some kind of paradise in thealien planet is a philosophy that threatens the very existenceof our Earth. The proposal to colonize other planets whenwe have exhausted our Earth·s resources or overpopulated itis a myth fostered by the world-power game that compete
for the world·s resources and dominance of outer space.- J. Michell
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J. Mic hell , a scholar who spent years
researching and rediscovering the wisdom
of ancient civilizations, speaks of thepower of mythology, each dominant myth
exerts great influence on society.
Examples are the two contrasting myths:The Newtonian Myth
Plato who gave the myth that the world is a living
creature
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Michell believes it is a fundamental error
to regard the universe as a mechanism
because of the effects of that view.If we decide to regard the Earth as a
living organism in an organic universe, that
decision will condition the way we relateto it. If we see the Earth as a living
creature we will be able to detect the
symptoms of overall illness.
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At this point we identify two constant
sources from which we draw a cosmology.These two sources are: human nature and
the nature of the universe.
Michell thinks there are at present two
general world-views or cosmologies, one
established in power and the other still in
the process of formation.
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First the force, now power, was the
expanding universe theory as the modelfor an ape-to-spaceman view of history
because man is now able to explore the
universe though at a vast cost of the
Earth·s resources.
Second, Darwin's view of life as
spontaneous development from simple
organisms to larger complex forms hasbeen taken as a universal paradigm.
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A rival of Darwin, Kropotkin ha san oppositeview of life. According to him, nature·s first
principle is mutual aid relationships betweenand within species. They are not primarilyaggressive but cooperative.The study of long lasting civilizations in the
past shows only in this way, by allowing
society to reflect the entirety of humannature- its positive inventive aspect as wellas its traditionalist Earth rooted aspect- canwe hope to slow down and harmonize the
inevitable tendency to rise, to progress anddissolve which is inherent in all humaninstitution.
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This implies a steady-state model of the
universe. The type of science appropriate
to a steady state society will be very
different from what it is now.
The purpose of a steady state science is
to form relationships between people andhuman activities, and the world we live in.
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The traditional view of the life span of a
culture as a process of running downfrom the time of original inspiration is the
opposite of the modern view which is
that cultures tend to naturally improve
and develop.
This is related to the Darwinian belief
that life forms have spontaneously
organized themselves from simpler tomore complicated organisms with human
awareness somehow developing as a
function of matter.
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The general notion has been criticized as
contradicting the second law of
thermodynamics- the tendency of energyto spread itself and dissipate (entropy).
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