The Two Arrows of Efficiency: A Commentary on Konstantin S. Khroutski's BioCosmology - Science of the Universal Future

Abstract

Konstantin S. Khroutski (E-Logos 2006) has proposed a "Science of the Universal Future" moving away from an objectivist emphasis on evolutionary struggle espoused in current paradigms of understanding, and towards a comprehension of the universe as subjective and collaborative towards personal and universal ends. He argues that individuals are born with an inherent health design, which he labels their "basic cosmist functionality" (BCF). Contemporary science has drifted away from, and is actually adverse to arguments for design in nature, thus the need to explore more deeply what functionality means from a combined philosophicalscientific perspective. In this review I look at classical notions of causality in natural process through the eyes of philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Bertrand Russell. Among his four types of causes, Aristotle's notion of efficient cause is accepted as the most viable alternative for explaining universal process. Mechanisms of causal efficiency operate in the immediate future to instigate change and in the immediate past to finalize change at every point as the individual advances through time. Teleology can be interpreted as the operation of physical and biological laws as well as more gross patterns of process in chaotic, complex, and living systems, which shape changes in the individual within the openness of the present moment. Modern science is capable of discerning bio-psychological and existential patterns that optimally fit the individual if health is to be maintained. The analysis concludes that a universe with occupants possessing personal functionality can be explained by causal efficiency connecting the open present with a naturally organizing immediate future and past, thus avoiding conflicts over design.

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