The Nature of Humans 8 Philosophy
This essay examines the nature of humans in terms of their Philosophy.
Each type of Philosophy is identified, its basic tenants stated and its validity to our current society is established.
Conclusions are then drawn
Types of Philosophy
Naturalism
This holds that only natural laws operate in the world.
This is invalidated since we now understand that natural and artificial, human created, laws operate in the universe.
Metaphysics
This deals with the nature of being and the nature of the world.
This is invalidated since we now have scientifically established models of the physics of the universe and human beings.
Ethical
These are concepts of right and wrong conduct.
This is invalidated since we understand that the human being arrives as a blank sensing system into the universe and is then raised and educated within cultural and society constraints and beliefs that form its whole nature, character and actions. No one ethical philosophy that can predominate without creating harm and so all are invalidated.
Religious
These are belief and cultural systems based on imposed faith without proof.
These are invalidated since the nature of religion is as an ancient social control system that has been transposed through into the current world.
Scholastic
This is knowledge extended by inference, concepts and distinctions.
Even though an education system is a construct of a culture and society that is imposed on a new born human being and then reinforced during their life the nature of learning in itself validates this as a Philosophy. Scholastic Philosophy allows development of an individual’s beliefs to challenge those that exist.
Modern Humanism
This involves critical human thinking and evidence.
This philosophy is valid in the same manner as Scholastic.
Empiricism
This is knowledge from sensory experience.
This is validated since sensory input and output are scientifically proven fundamentals to the nature of humans.
Enlightenment
This is a philosophy of individualism, reason and analysis.
This philosophy is valid in the same manner as Scholastic and Modern Humanism.
Rationalism
This is individualism, reason, analysis, with proof through science and mathematics.
This philosophy is valid in the same manner as Scholastic, Modern Humanism and Enlightenment.
Encyclopaedist
This is the systemized collection, definition and dissemination of knowledge.
This philosophy is valid in the same manner as Scholastic, Modern Humanism, Enlightenment and Rationalism.
Kantian Criticism
This holds that all actions have an underlying principle that can be established.
This philosophy is valid in the same manner as Scholastic, Modern Humanism, Enlightenment, Rationalism and Encyclopaedist.
Counter Enlightenment
This is anti-individualism, reason, analysis and anti-revolutionary.
This philosophy is invalidated in that it denies the free empirical, evolutionary, nature of life and humanity.
Utilitarianism
This holds that the individual should be subservient and provide for the needs of the greater population, culture or society to benefit themselves.
This philosophy is invalidated by the human necessity for individual survival before they can achieve anything else. Before assisting or saving others can be achieved a human being must survive.
Idealism
This holds that reality is a mental construct, and non-materialistic, nothing can be known without the mind.
This philosophy has become outdated by scientific knowledge and is therefore invalidated.
There is no 'mind', 'self', 'consciousness' location in the human brain.
The human being has been established to be merely a sensory input, neural response, sensory output mechanism programmed by its parents genetic code and programmed by the nature of the culture and society it is born into and lives in.
Reality is a mental construct of humans but not on an individual level.
It is imposed on humans by humans.
Reality is materialistic for survival reasons before values, qualities, appreciations of beauty, cultures or societies impose further established economic controls on the individual human being.
Positivism
This holds that a philosophy of reality can be established by science and mathematical representations of sensory experience.
This philosophy is valid in the same manner as Scholastic, Modern Humanism, Enlightenment, Rationalism, Encyclopaedist and Kantian Criticism.
Epistemology
This is the study of Knowledge.
This philosophy is valid in the same manner as Scholastic, Modern Humanism, Enlightenment, Rationalism, Encyclopaedist, Kantian Criticism and Positivism.
German Psychologism
This is the psychological study of the development of mental processes.
This has been superseded in the same manner as idealism and so is invalidated.
Nihilism.
This is the philosophical belief that all values are baseless, that nothing can be known or communicated, that everything is nothing, without meaning, morals, knowledge or reality.
Human values come from Needs.
Human values are not baseless.
They are identified, communicated and traded in our society.
Everything is sensed, rationalized, laid down in synaptic patterns, related by electro-chemical stimuli and communicated by sensory output.
Everything can be known or communicated.
Nihilism is an outdated, invalidated, philosophy.
Critical Idealism
This is the systematic examination of reality as a mental construct, it is non materialistic, believing nothing can be known without the mind.
This has been superseded in the same manner as idealism and so is invalidated.
American Idealism
This holds that reality is a mental construct, non-materialistic, and that nothing can be known without the mind but that the mind can influence action and alter things external to the mind.
This has been superseded in the same manner as idealism and so is invalidated.
New Idealism
This hold that reality is a not a mental construct, it can be defined as materialistic, anything can be known with the mind and the mind can influence action and alter things external to the mind
This has been superseded in the same manner as idealism and so is invalidated.
Evolutionism
This holds that there are evolutionary improvements through time for all things.
This is validated since it acknowledges the necessity of evolution.
Pragmatism
In this philosophy metaphysics is rejected, scientific examination is used to produce proofs, practical ideas are to be retained and non-practical ideas rejected.
This is validated since it allows presentation of ideas but also presents a scientific framework to continually test the ideas against.
Psychoanalysis
This is the process of making the conscious mind aware of the unconscious mind to create an acceptable state of existence.
This has been superseded in the same manner as idealism and so is invalidated.
Neo-Positivism
This holds that there is an objective reality. That mathematical representations of sensory experience as reality can be created.
This philosophy is valid in the same manner as Scholastic, Modern Humanism, Enlightenment, Rationalism, Encyclopaedist, Kantian Criticism, Positivism and Epistemology.
Existentialism
This holds that there is individual existence and freedom of choice. Humans define their own reality rationally in an irrational universe.
This has been superseded in the same manner as idealism and so is invalidated.
Intuitionism
This holds that there is a constructive mental activity of humans that exists without the discovery of principles in objective reality.
This has been superseded in the same manner as idealism and so is invalidated.
Phenomenology
This is the study of the structures of experience and consciousness by the individual.
This is validated since it is evolutionary in nature and promotes a unity amongst the dispersed cultures of the current humanity.
Philosophical Hermeneutics
This is the understanding of non-linguistic expressions and text interpretation.
This is validated since it is evolutionary in nature and promotes a unity amongst the dispersed languages of the current humanity.
Neo-Aristotelianism
This is literary criticism.
This is validated since it is evolutionary in nature and promotes a unity amongst the dispersed literature of the current humanity.
Neo-Realism
This is a re-assertion of absolutes or universals. Re-establishing that real object exist.
This has been superseded in the same manner as idealism and so is invalidated.
Frankfurt School
This is the identification of the structure and constraints of society and then the identification of ways to remove alter or evolve them to free people from them.
This has been superseded in the same manner as idealism and so is invalidated.
Modernism
This is a movement in the arts that aims to bring about social and mental change in human existence.
This has been superseded in the same manner as idealism and so is invalidated.
Critical Rationalism
This is self-criticism based on rationalism.
This philosophy is valid in the same manner as Scholastic, Modern Humanism, Enlightenment, Rationalism, Encyclopaedist, Kantian Criticism, Positivism, Epistemology and Neo-Positivism.
Pluralism
This is engagement with the diverse philosophies of the Earth.
This is validated since it is evolutionary in nature and promotes a unity amongst the dispersed philosophies of the current humanity.
Objectivism
This is realism, the conviction that reality is mind-independent.
This has been superseded in the same manner as idealism and so is invalidated.
Cultural Theory
This uses the sciences of comparative anthropology and semiotics to define concepts of cultures.
This is validated since it is evolutionary in nature and promotes a unity amongst the dispersed cultures of the current humanity.
Structuralism
This holds all elements of human culture are parts of a system of signs.
This is validated since it is evolutionary in nature and promotes a unity amongst the dispersed cultures of the current humanity.
Deconstruction
This is a method of critical analysis of texts in terms of their meaning.
This is validated since it is evolutionary in nature and promotes a unity amongst the dispersed philosophy and literature of the current humanity.
It should be combined with Phenomenology, Philosophical Hermeneutics, Neo-Aristotelianism, Pluralism, Cultural Theory and Structuralism as a single discipline of Cultural Theory
Post Modernism
This examines and reproduces sceptical and ironic interpretations of culture.
This has been superseded in the same manner as idealism and so is invalidated.
Neo-Pragmatism
This is an interpretative form of cultural context, relative, pragmatism.
This is validated since it allows presentation of ideas but also presents a scientific framework to continually test the ideas against.
This is government by mutual consent of the governed.
It has recently mutated into focus group, engineered consent politics.
This has been superseded in the same manner as idealism and so is invalidated.
Feminist Ethetics
This is a revision to ethics to ensure feminist ethics are communicated.
This is validated since all human beings views form philosophy.
Local Realism
This holds that an object is only locally influenced.
This has been superseded by the findings of Quantum mechanics.
This has been superseded in the same manner as idealism and so is invalidated.
Non Local Realism
This holds that an object is influenced by all things in a system.
This is validated by the Quantum Theory and experiment.
Pre Determinism
This is the philosophy that all events are determined in advance.
This is under scientific consideration at the present moment and so remains valid.
Determinism
This is the philosophical position that for every event, including human action, there exist conditions that could cause no other event.
This is under scientific consideration at the present moment and so remains valid.
Indeterminism
This is the opposite of determinism. It is the concept that certain events are not caused, or not caused by prior events.
This is under scientific consideration at the present moment and so remains valid.
Reductionism
This is the scientific attempt to provide explanation in terms of the examination of ever smaller entities.
This holds true for Classical and Quantum Mechanics and so is validated.
Emergence
This is the opposite of reductionism. It uses a scientific experimentation to test if larger entities, patterns, and regularities arise through interactions among smaller or simpler entities that themselves do not exhibit such properties.
This holds true for Classical and Quantum Mechanics and so is validated.
Conclusions
The remaining, validated philosophical theories of our age are.
Scholastic, Modern Humanism, Empiricism, Enlightenment, Rationalism, Encyclopaedist, Kantian Criticism, Positivism, Epistemology, Evolutionism, Pragmatism, Neo-Positivism, Phenomenology, Philosophical Hermeneutics, Neo-Aristotelianism, Critical Rationalism, Pluralism, Cultural Theory, Structuralism, Deconstruction, Neo-Pragmatism, Feminist Ethics, Non Local Realism, Pre Determinism, Determinism, Indeterminism, Reductionism and Emergence
These share the principles of individual, non-specific gender, or life form, sensory experience in all cultures and societies, concept, analysis, study, critical thinking, scientific evidence, critical communication to promote human survival, fulfil needs and achieve evolution.
These indicate the philosophical direction of humans in our current age.
Ian K Whittaker
Websites:
https://sites.google.com/site/architecturearticles
Email: iankwhittaker@gmail.com
01/06/2015
14/10/2020
2032 words over 7 pages