World Affairs

Vol. 6, Number 3 (July-September 2002)

A Search for a Philosophy for the New Millennium
J C Kapur

All our search for knowledge of the sciences and religious beliefs is a search for truth.

The search for a new paradigm is also a search for truth. The truth about how our past actions has brought us to our present state, and how our action in the present will determine our future. But the unanswered question before a paradigm evolves is the image of the future and the set of parameters, the values and constraints, which should guide that future.

Our planet earth is an infinitesimally small part of the cosmic universe. And the orderliness of this universe is guided by eternal forces of infinite magnitude. The human affairs on this planet can only be conditioned by the same orderliness and constraints, which govern the transcendental reality. In understanding the vastly complex infinite cosmos the scientists fragmented those small parts of reality which they could perceive, into smaller and simpler units till the solution becomes evident.

These processes of fragmentation of the scientific order also got reflected in the societal order; through the separation of the material and the spiritual, and rapid movement of the material without any limitations, or ethical and moral constraints. Although the new sciences transformed the very idiom of science, and established the interconnectivity of all phenomenon, and also that these two orders must move synchronously. But the logic and compulsions of the uncontrolled material expansion and the interests of the colonial oligarchies coincided in a manner that liberated the instruments of the new sciences from the compulsive constraints imposed by technological vulnerability, the speed of change and disorders in an uncontrolled socio-politico-techno-economic state. We are thus brought to our present state of chaos and disorder. And the processes that brought it about, continue unabated.

Therefore the preservation of the status quo, that is of maintaining the dominant position of the oligarchies of the unipolar system; in the midst of the developing compulsions of mass deprivation and poverty, has made the present situation both elusive and dangerous at the same time. This has also given a profit veneer to science, religion, philosophy and aesthetics.

All living beings and forms represent the expression of cosmic laws. These diverse cosmic expressions were expunged from the socialist idea and are now being banished from the market place. The new scientific method is repeatedly establishing that there is no reason to believe that the discovered truths of the yesteryears will always remain truths. Similarly time frozen revelations from another age and another moment in time and environment cannot intervene in the dilemmas of our time. And yet an alternate paradigm based on science and a higher level of consciousness moving together is considered a threat to the system, both material and metaphysical. Hence an urgent need to transcend the self-imposed limitations, and approach our dilemmas from higher levels of understanding of our present state, including the philosophical issues and concerns of the growing number of victims of deprivation worldwide. And to seek a new definition for human rights, as also the right for a dignified survival for all.

This hierarchy of values will also include ecological security and a deeper commitment to moral and ethical concerns and spiritual beliefs. The profit motivated interventions into the biosphere and human genetic structures are becoming a threat to the larger human purpose and dignity.

But what we are witnessing today is an exercise of indiscriminate power by the oligarchies within a unipolar system. Images are being forged for a new human order, with a unidirectional compass and a route map with all the roads leading to a closely held fortress of the oligarchies. It will be appropriate here to reflect on how this is being brought about, through a metaphor of the rats being controlled by the snakes and the snakes by the mongoose. The mongooses of the world are therefore in great demand to help save and operate the paradigm of ‘Armament Protected Consumerism’

Under the cover of globalisation, what is emerging out of all this is an anarchical order of power. Most countries of the world particularly the developing world are being threatened or overwhelmed by the consequences of some or the other aspects of the parameters governing the paradigm. Even more its ecological consequences.

It is forcing the pace of globalisation, while at the same time fragmenting the politico-socio-techno-economic parameters to make these more graspable or controllable. And this widening schism has caused an uncontrolled drift of the human system. Also the processes of putting it together with weapons of mass destruction and the overt and covert acts are losing out to the forced and self-propelling processes of fragmentation. The rats and the snakes and the mongooses are all being tossed on to a ship in a turbulent sea.

But the search for a new paradigm is the for search for truth, and the process of re-harmonising what has been fragmented for profit. In terms of the new sciences, such a two-valued order does not correspond to the structure of reality. And the material reality cannot be equated with real reality. Infinitesimal cannot be equated with the infinite.

But in the market place, the resting place for the operating paradigm; the things that cannot be sold or exchanged or marketed have no value in principle. So our real selves have no value.

Simultaneously pressures are being exerted with a monotheistic fervour to force widely diverse ethnic, racial, religious and cultural groups, entities and nations into consumerist life styles and cultural mores.

All influence and power are being appropriated within a unipolar system. A structure that is visibly becoming unsustainable and has reached a destructive, aggressive stage of ‘Armament Protected Consumerism’.

This is not only the crisis of immanence (for the moment) because those who order our world by controlling the pinnacles of science have chosen, or are unable to relate to the imperative of the new sciences. That is the transcendental interconnectedness of all phenomenona and to bring the socio-economic parameters in synchronicity with the instruments of the new sciences. And even more serious in human terms is that they are subverting their own capacity to relate to the shifting idioms of science.

Thus the type of consumerist and secular world view that is being propagated and the institutions that are being created on a fragmented reality in line with the old sciences, are becoming increasingly inadequate and fragile because of the inherent contradiction, as also because of an incapacity to comprehend the role of higher human dimensions (culture spirituality) as an important vehicle for human evolution. And they are thus missing the connecting link, which brings together the material and the spiritual.

We are manipulating the world as a part of creation in which we do not include ourselves and expect nature to function like a clock. "And take over god’s work after the job of creating is done".

And for this, they need a submissive population moronised to unconditionally respond to their messages without exercising their own will. The media are playing their own role to bring about such an order.

Similarly they do not see the deeper connection that we are part of a common infinity, of a large complex system and integrated in it in a highly sensitive way. So by destroying the environment, we are destroying ourselves.

In this issue of World Affairs, the scholars reflect on some fundamental philosophical concerns in constructing a new paradigm for a sustainable human future. Jerzy A Wojciechowski once again raises the perennial question on the meaning and purpose of life, and our place in it. While Côme Carpentier provides our connections with the emerging sciences. Karan Singh and Jorge Valero show the pathways to peace and coexistence. Terry Mollner provides glimpses of a loving society.

Hans-Peter Dürr shares insights into the images of reality unveiled by the new sciences and the interconnectivity of all phenomena.

G Srinivasan projects some new perspectives on axiomatic laws in the millennia old Indian philosophy of Sankhya and its reflections on the new sciences, and also the unification of science and religion through a mathematical frame.

We are publishing this to invite comments on these new approaches to reality. We hope that these contributions will provide some valuable insights into the emerging global context.