Myth, Chaos, and Certainty: Notes on Cosmos, Life, and Knowledge

ISBN-13: 9789814877336 / Angielski / Twarda / 2020 / 202 str.

Rosolino Buccheri

Opis

This book offers a study of the three evolutions in a circle (cosmos, life and knowledge) with the aim of discussing the human social behavior, a metaphor of the general behavior of nature (from which man derives) within the fluctuating equilibrium between the opposite tendencies to cohesion and shredding.

Spis treści

Part 1: Law, Chance, and Evolution.  1. The Evolution of the Universe.  1.1 From Lemaître’s predictions to Hubble’s observations.  1.2 From the Big Bang to particles.  1.3 From thermonuclear fusion to neutron stars. Pulsars, black holes, and the future of the Universe.  2. The Origins of Life and Its Evolution on the Earth.  2.1 The anthropic principle. 2.2 Nature’s constants and the conditions for the existence of life.  2.3 The physical-climatic conditions on Earth. 2.4 The epochs of life’s evolution on Earth.  2.5 Looking for "sufficient" conditions.  2.6 What if matter were engraved with life?  3. The Evolution of the Cognitive Experience.  3.1 Mythos and archetype.  3.2 The "nuclear conscience".  3.3 From Mythos to Logos: the "extended conscience".  3.4 Two cerebral hemispheres, two logics.  3.5 A mixing of unpredictable results in the "project" of the living.  3.6 The mental models of reality: filters, ambiguities, contradictions.  Part 2: Within Society between Mythos and Logos.   4. Human Societies and the Social Models of Reality.  4.1 The pathway of human societies.  4.2 Democracy and migrations.  4.3 Stereotypes, prejudices, and the "common sense".  4.4 Specialization and fragmentation, self-referencing, and radicalism.   5. The Conflict between Faith and Science.   5.1 God’s idea and the gaps of knowledge.  5.2 Monotheisms face-to-face.  5.3 The opinion of a theologian.  5.4 From a necessary dialogue to a possible super-religion.  6. The Search for Equilibrium.  6.1 Antinomies’ tension and control.  6.2 Tolerance as the first objective.  Part 3: Integrative and Final Considerations.  7. Between Dream and Reality.   7.1 The unity of culture.  7.2 The myth of unity and the theory of everything.  7.3 Constraints posed by the flow of time.  7.4 Utopias: consoling fantasies?  8.  About the General Meaning of "Myth".  8.1 The positive role of myth along the development of sciences.  8.2 Rationality and myth in music, architecture, and literature.  8.3 Myth-reason in Hermann Hesse and Luigi Pirandello.  9. Where Is Evolution Bringing Us To?  9.1 The open society and the mindful pluralism. 9.2 The future human society: a superorganism or a Babel Tower? 9.3 A possible future for human beings.