In response to the paradigma shift FROM SURVIVAL TO QUALITY OF LIFE the greatest ever : a progressiv

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In response to the paradigma shift FROM
SURVIVAL TO QUALITY OF LIFE (the greatest ever)
a progressive evolutionary worldview

• ECCO Jan. 25th 2007
• Jan Bernheim
• Vrije Universiteit Brussel
• jan.bernheim_at_vub.ac.be

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A poorly prepared project takes three times as
long as planned

• A well prepared project takes twice as long as
  planned

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Abraham Maslows Pyramid of Human needs
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The greatest paradigma shift ever FROM SURVIVAL
TO QUALITY OF LIFE
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Suffering as the default state of the human
condition

• Nature is indifferent to suffering only survival
  matters
• Examples spider wasps, predators
• ? Escapisms renunciation (oriental philosophies)
  or metaphysical transcendency (religions,
  mysticism, the eternal life of the soul)

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Challenges 1/4

• The old discourses, religions and communism, for
  example, are discredited.
• Richard Dawkins (The Delusion of Religion, 2006)
  religions are pernicious because
• - Fallacious
• - Calamitous
• - Obstructive for progress

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President Bush says God talks to him. If he had
said it was through his hairdryer, there would
have been a national emergency. I for one dont
see what the hairdryer adds to the ridicule of
the situation Sam
Harris In Letter to a Christian Nation
2006
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Pros and cons of religions

• Good people do good things and bad people do bad
  things. But for good people tot do bad things, it
  takes religion.
• Stephen
  Weinberg
• And for bad people to do good things also that
  takes religion.
• Freeman Dyson

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CHALLENGES 2/4

• The old discourses filled needs. Their discredit
  leaves voids
• Believers are happier, give more to charities
• Unbelievers know better what they dont believe
  than what they do believe.
• A world without God is cold and gloomy, without
  transcendence.
• Can one replace religions by a scientific
  worldview that would be at least as satisfying?

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Challenges 3/4Alternatives to the great
discourses?

• Grotesque worldviews (fundamentalisms, New Age)?
• Relativisms?
• Consumerism and Postmodernism vacuity as a
  worldview.

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Challenge 4/4

• From heteronomous (communitarianisms,
  authoritarianisms), humans have become autonomous
  
• (? individualism).
• (Also according to modern christians, e.g. Roger
  Lenaerts S.J. De droom van Nebuchadnezar,
  Lannoo, 2004)

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What after the grand discourses?
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What to expect from a worldview help in
confronting the big questions

• What exists? an ontology
• Where do things come from? an ontogenesis
• The purpose of life? an axiology
• Where are we going? a futurology
• Truth and un-truth? an epistemology
• How to live in uncertainty? a life praxis
• An explanation of behaviours? a praxeology
• Good and bad? an ethics
• A rational framework for emotions and mysteries

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Objective

• Can we, following Leo Apostel, construct a
  contemporary worldview based on the sciences and
  multidisciplinarity?
• Lets rise to the challenge the Darwinian (
  matter) and historical ( time) perspectives lead
  to a
• progressive evolutionary worldview

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Evolutionary Theory short instructions for the
user 1/3

• 1) variation and ?2) selection of better fit
  variants
• Evolution is both conservative and progressive
  what works well persists and what works better is
  selected.
• It obtains for both genes (units of biological
  transmission) and for memes (units of cultural
  transmission)
• Fitness for what? For capacity of survival and
  procreation

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Evolutionary Theory short instructions for the
user 2/3

• The two imperatives of de existence areSURVIVAL
  and PROCREATION
• In a competitive world, with limited resources,
  the two survival strategies for which we were
  selected are
• - agression - egoism
• and
• - co-operation - altruism

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Avatars of Aggressivity

• violence,
• elimination,
• appropriation,
• submission,
• exclusion,
• exploitation of nature and humans
• ....

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Avatars of co-operation

• Kindness, friendship, love (in that order),
• solidarity, compassion, care (in that order),
• benevolence, helpfulness
• credibility,
• justice
• ? in short what we call the VIRTUES, a universal
  ethics, secular humanism, the inter-religious
  common language proposed by the catholic ethicist
  Tristram Engelhardt MD.

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What to expect from a worldview help in
confronting the big questions

• What exists? an ontology
• Where do things come from? an ontogenesis
• The purpose of life? an axiology
• Where are we going? a futurology
• Truth and un-truth? an epistemology
• How to live in uncertainty? a life praxis
• An explanation of behaviours? a praxeology
• Good and bad? an ethics
• A rational framework for emotions and mysteries

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Agression and co-operation as survival strategies

• A mix of both strategies is necessary for
  survival.
• Problem Our genes by and large are those of the
  hunters- gatherers of 10.000 years ago, selected
  for what THEN was the best mix of agression and
  co-operation were misfits, poorly adapted to
  the present world, which is far more complex.

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An ETHICS
Behavioural mix adapted to society
AGGRESSION
CO-OPERATION
Time, Complexity
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CONSEQUENCES OF INCREASING COMPLEXITY

• The more complex a society, the more opportunity
  for aggression co-operation,
• More interactions more feedback
• ? aggression inhibited
• ? co-operation rewarded

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An ETHICS

• Time, Complexity

Behavioural mix adapted to society
Acceleration
AGGRESSION
CO-OPERATION
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How do we cope with our genetic misfitness?

• We compensate for our obsolete genes by memes
  horizontally and vertically transmissible
  cultural factors, such as
• behaviours, judeo-christian norms et laws or
  secular humanistic principles ...
• ? Civilisation is a means to cope with our
  obsolete genes.

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An ETHICS

• Time,
  Complexity

Behavioural mix adapted to society
AGRESSION
Genetic mix
CO-OPERATION
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An ETHICS

• Time,
  Complexity

Behavioural mix adapted for society
AGRESSION
CULTUREL AJUSTMENT NEEDS
Genetic mix
CO-OPERATION
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What to expect from a worldview help in
confronting the big questions

• What exists? an ontology
• Where do things come from? an ontogenesis
• The purpose of life? an axiology
• Where are we going? a futurology
• Truth and un-truth? an epistemology
• How to live in uncertainty? a life praxis
• An explanation of behaviours? a praxeology
• Good and bad? an ethics
• A rational framework for emotions and mysteries

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An ONTOGENESIS where do we come from?

• Ontogenesis repeats phylogenesis / development
  re-iterates history (Haeckels law)
• For anatomy
• In the mental and behavioral realm developmental
  psychology
• For societies and civilisations modernity
• versus
• the anteriority (not inferiority!) of
  alternative societal models

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What to expect from a worldview help in
confronting the big questions

• What exists? an ontology
• Where do things come from? an ontogenesis
• The purpose of life? an axiology
• Where are we going? a futurology
• Truth and un-truth? an epistemology
• How to live in uncertainty? a life praxis
• An explanation of behaviours? a praxeology
• Good and bad? an ethics
• A rational framework for emotions and mysteries

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The purpose of life? an AXIOLOGY

• From survival to QOL the greatest revolution
  ever
• Its utilitarian ethics, suffering and enjoyment
  as the measure of all things (JS Mill, J.
  Bentham, Peter Singer, ) also provides the
  purpose of life maximising the ratio of
  enjoyment and suffering

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Definitions of Happiness

• Relativistic, from Aristotle to postmodernism
• Escapistic
• Evolutionary sustainable pleasure, i.e . the
  feeling one has when the indicators for
  satisfaction of needs are favourable food,
  shelter, love, growth and (Maslow!)
  self-actualisation

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A tall order to measure subjective
well-being, the perception quality of lifei.e.

• To quantify what is qualitative
• To make objective what is subjective

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Mesurer ce qui est mesurable, et rendre mesurable
ce qui ne l est pas.
René Descartes
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Conventional question versus Anamnestic
Comparative Self Assessment (ACSA). Which global
question is better suited?
OR
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Examples of sequential ACSA measures during
disease

• Bernheim, J.L., and M. Buyse 1984, J.
  Psychosoc. Oncol. 1. 25-38

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Discrimination (inter-group comparisons)
Sensitivity to objective change (after life- and
QOL-saving transplantation in End-Stage-Liver
Disease )
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The distribution of happiness in the world
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This was a snapshot.

• Next question
• does happiness progress?

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OBJECTIVE indicators of (SUBJECTIVE) happiness

• Health
• Wealth
• Security
• Liberties
• Equality
• Tolerance
• Information, knowledge

• In short
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

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Are these indicators - stable?- in
regression?- in progress?
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Liberties, Self-determination and Control

• Over death palliative care and euthanasia.

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Liberties, Self-determination and Control

• Over death palliative care and euthanasia.
• Over procreation.
• Over sex life.
• Over partner choice.

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CONCLUSION

• Yes, if
• Happiness is the highest good,
• And the evolution of the objective conditions for
  happiness is the indicator of progress,
• then there is objective progress.

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What to expect from a worldview help in
confronting the big questions

• What exists? an ontology
• Where do things come from? an ontogenesis
• The purpose of life? an axiology
• Where are we going? a futurology
• Truth and un-truth? an epistemology
• How to live in uncertainty? a life praxis
• An explanation of behaviours? a praxeology
• Good and bad? an ethics
• A rational framework for emotions and mysteries

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Maslows Pyramid of Human Needs
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How do we live? A political-economical PRAXEOLOGY

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  condition of happiness
• NEW phenomena
• -gt the entrance of ethics in Realpolitik
• -gt intolerance for unhappiness
• -gt the extinction of generation conflicts

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What to expect from a worldview help in
confronting the big questions

• What exists? an ontology
• Where do things come from? an ontogenesis
• The purpose of life? an axiology
• Where are we going? a futurology
• Truth and un-truth? an epistemology
• How to live in uncertainty? a life praxis
• An explanation of behaviours? a praxeology
• Good and bad? an ethics
• A rational framework for emotions and mysteries

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What to expect from a worldview help in
confronting the big questions

• What exists? an ontology
• Where do things come from? an ontogenesis
• The purpose of life? an axiology
• Where are we going? a futurology
• Truth and un-truth? an epistemology
• How to live in uncertainty? a life praxis
• An explanation of behaviours? a praxeology
• Good and bad? an ethics
• A rational framework for emotions and mysteries

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The progressive evolutionary worldview in
everyday life a LIFE PRAXIS

• Good deeds in complex systems, small actions
  may have great consequences.
• Hope is a rationel use of probability / Risk
  acceptation
• It is highly irrationnal not to take emotions
  into account

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What to expect from a worldview help in
confronting the big questions

• What exists? an ontology
• Where do things come from? an ontogenesis
• The purpose of life? an axiology
• Where are we going? a futurology
• Truth and un-truth? an epistemology
• How to live in uncertainty? a life praxis
• An explanation of behaviours? a praxiology
• Good and bad? an ethics
• A rational framework for emotions and mysteries

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Scientific Emotionality, evolutionary
spirituality.From Spinoza to Teilhard to Apostel
1/2

• Feeling the world becoming ever more complex, and
  entropy decreasing
• Profound satisfaction with the reality of
  progress and our place as the temporary endpoint
  of the evolution of living beings at the heart of
  the continuum between elementary particles and
  the universe
• Wish to understand ever more about the cosmos,
  nature and ourselves

• Feeling the presence of God
• Feeling deep peace and harmony
• A wish to come closer to God

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A progressive evolutionary worldview

• Provides
• Not a road, but a roadmap
• Not roots, but a GPS
• Not a destination, but reference points
• (you need lighthouses, but the last thing you
  want to do is head for them)

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