Global evolutionism and the modern scientific picture of the world is a topic that many researchers have devoted their works to. At present, it is becoming more and more popular, since its framework addresses the most important issues of science.
The concept of global (universal) evolutionism assumes that the structure of the world is being consistently improved. The world in it is considered as integrity, which allows us to talk about the unity of the general laws of life and makes it possible to make the universe "proportionate" to man, to relate it to him. The concept of global evolutionism, its history, basic principles and concepts are discussed in this article.
Background
The idea of developing the world is one of the most important in European civilization. In its simplest forms (Kantian cosmogony, epigenesis, preformism), it penetrated into natural science as early as the 18th century. Already the 19th century can rightfully be called the century of evolution. Theoretical modeling of objects characterized by development began to be given much attention, first in geology, and then in biology and sociology.
The teachings of C. Darwin, research G. Spencer
Charles Darwin was the first to apply the principle of evolutionism to the realm of reality, thus laying the foundations of modern theoretical biology. Herbert Spencer attempted to project his ideas into sociology. This scientist proved that the evolutionary concept can be applied to various areas of the world that are not related to the subject of biology. However, classical science as a whole did not accept this idea. For a long time, evolving systems were considered by scientists as a random deviation resulting from local disturbances. Physicists made the first attempt to extend this concept beyond social and biological sciences, hypothesizing that the Universe is expanding.
Big bang concept
Data obtained by astronomers have confirmed the inconsistency of opinion on the stationary nature of the Universe. Scientists have found that it has been developing since the Big Bang, which, according to the assumption, provided energy for its development. This concept appeared in the 40s of the last century, and in the 1970s it was finally established. Thus, evolutionary ideas penetrated cosmology . The concept of the Big Bang significantly changed the idea of how substances appeared in the Universe.
Only at the end of the 20th century did natural science receive methodological and theoretical means for the formation of a single model of evolution, the discovery of general laws of nature that bind the appearance of the Universe, the Solar System, the planet Earth, life and, finally, man and society into one whole. Universal (global) evolutionism is such a model.
The rise of global evolutionism
At the beginning of the 80s of the last century, the concept of interest to us entered into modern philosophy. Global evolutionism was first considered in the study of integrative phenomena in science, which are associated with a generalization of evolutionary knowledge accumulated in various branches of natural science. For the first time, this term began to determine the desire of such disciplines as geology, biology, physics and astronomy to generalize the mechanisms of evolution, to extrapolation. At least, such a meaning was invested in the concept that interests us at first.
Academician N.N. Moiseev pointed out that global evolutionism can bring scientists closer to resolving the issue of meeting the interests of the biosphere and humanity in order to prevent a global environmental catastrophe. The discussion was conducted not only within the framework of methodological science. It is not surprising, because the idea of global evolutionism has a special worldview load, unlike traditional evolutionism. The latter, as you recall, was laid down in the writings of Charles Darwin.
Global evolutionism and the modern scientific picture of the world
At present, many assessments of the idea we are interested in in the development of a scientific worldview are alternative. In particular, the view was expressed that global evolutionism should form the basis of the scientific picture of the world, since it integrates the sciences of man and nature. In other words, it was emphasized that this concept is fundamental in the development of modern science. Global evolutionism today is a systemic entity. As V. S. Stepin notes, in modern science, his positions are gradually becoming the dominant synthesis of knowledge. This is the core idea permeating special pictures of the world. Global evolutionism, according to V. S. Stepin, is a global research program that sets a research strategy. Currently, it exists in a variety of versions and variants, characterized by different levels of conceptual elaboration: from unreasonable statements that fill the everyday consciousness to detailed concepts that examine in detail the entire course of the evolution of the world.
The essence of global evolutionism
The emergence of this concept is associated with the expansion of the boundaries of the evolutionary approach adopted in the social and biological sciences. The fact of the existence of qualitative leaps to the biological, and from it to the social world, is in many ways a mystery. It can be comprehended only by allowing the need for such transitions between other types of movement. In other words, based on the fact of the existence of the evolution of the world in the later stages of history, we can assume that it as a whole is an evolutionary system. This means that as a result of successive changes, all other types of movement have been formed, in addition to social and biological.
This statement can be considered as the most general formulation of what global evolutionism is. Briefly outline its main principles. This will help you better understand what is at stake.
Basic principles
The paradigm of interest to us made itself felt as a matured concept and an important component of the modern world picture in the last third of the last century in the works of cosmology specialists (A.D. Ursula, N.N. Moiseev).
According to N. N. Moiseev, the following basic principles underlie global evolutionism:
- The Universe is a single self-developing system.
- The development of systems, their evolution is directed: it follows the path of increasing their diversity, complicating these systems, as well as reducing their stability.
- Random factors that influence development are inevitably present in all processes of evolution.
- Heredity dominates the universe: the present and the future depend on the past, but they are not determined unambiguously by them.
- Consideration of the dynamics of the world as a constant selection, in which a system of many different virtual states selects the most real.
- The presence of bifurcation states is not denied; as a result, further evolution becomes fundamentally unpredictable, since random factors act during the transition period.
Universe in the concept of global evolutionism
The universe in it appears as a natural whole, developing in time. Global evolutionism is an idea according to which, as a single process, the whole history of the Universe is considered. The cosmic, biological, chemical, and social types of evolution in it are interconnected successively and genetically.
Interaction with various fields of knowledge
Evolutionism is an essential component of the evolutionary synergetic paradigm in modern science. It is understood not in the traditional sense (Darwinian), but through the idea of universal (global) evolutionism.
The primary task of developing the concept of interest to us is to bridge the gaps between different areas of life. Its proponents concentrate on those areas of knowledge that can be extrapolated to the entire universe and which could link different fragments of being into a certain unity. Such disciplines are evolutionary biology, thermodynamics, and recently it has been making a great contribution to global evolutionism and synergetics.
However, the concept of interest to us at the same time reveals the contradictions between the second law of thermodynamics and the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin. The latter proclaims the selection of the states and forms of the living, the strengthening of orderliness, and the first - the growth of the measure of randomization (entropy).
The problem of the anthropic principle
Global evolutionism emphasizes that the development of the world as a whole is aimed at enhancing structural organization. According to this concept, the entire history of the Universe is a single process of self-organization, evolution, self-development of matter. Global evolutionism is a principle that requires a deep understanding of the logic of the development of the Universe, the cosmic order of things. This concept currently has multilateral coverage. Scientists consider its axiological, logical, methodological and ideological aspects. The problem of the anthropic principle is of particular interest. Discussions are still ongoing on this issue. This principle has a close connection with the idea of global evolutionism. It is often regarded as its most modern version.
The anthropic principle is that the emergence of mankind has been made possible thanks to certain large-scale properties of the universe. If they were different, then there would be no one to know the world. This principle was put forward by B. Carter several decades ago. According to him, there is a relationship between the existence of reason in the Universe and its parameters. This led to the question of how random the parameters of our world are, how related they are. What will happen if their slight change occurs? As the analysis showed, even a small change in the basic physical parameters will lead to the fact that life, and therefore the mind, simply cannot exist in the Universe.
Carter expressed the relationship between the appearance of reason in the universe and its parameters in a strong and weak formulation. A weak anthropic principle only states the fact that the conditions existing in it do not contradict the existence of man. A strong anthropic principle implies a more stringent relationship. The universe, according to him, should be such that at a certain stage of development it allowed the existence of observers.
Co-evolution
In the theory of global evolutionism, the concept of “co-evolution” is also very important. This term is used to denote a new stage in which the existence of man and nature is coordinated. The concept of co-evolution is based on the fact that people, changing the biosphere in order to adapt it to their needs, must also change themselves in order to meet the objective requirements of nature. This concept in a concentrated form expresses the experience of mankind in the course of history, which contains certain imperatives and regulation of social interaction.
Finally
Global evolutionism and the modern picture of the world are a very relevant topic in natural science. In this article, only basic issues and concepts were considered. The problems of global evolutionism, if desired, can be studied for a very long time.