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International Tinnitus Journal, Vol.ll, No.2, 103-105 (2005)

EDITORIAL World, , Human Spirit: Extrapolating the Direction from the Past Through the Present and Into the Future

or human , is a specific monodirectional The Roman philosopher Lucius Aenaeus Seneca F forcing us into serial development (4 Be - AD 65) then defined the phrase nihil in intel­ and behavior. We are living in the now, but we [ectu, quod non erat ante in sensu (from Naturales know that we stem from yesterday and that we are fac­ Quaestiones; "nothing can enter into the intellect if it ing the future: our tomorrow. With respect to bodily ex­ does not first pass through the gates of the senses"). In istence, every human seemingly has only one life. The this, Seneca coined the essentials of humans' communi­ human life can be regarded as constructing a wheel : We cation with the world and fellow men within the world. can imagine that year by year we fit a new spoke into We can encode from our surrounding things, facts , pic­ that circular element, a wheel that we call life and that tures, smells, odors, and sounds only after they have rolls us in only one direction, the future. Through de­ been perceived by our senses. veloping the species for many generations of humans, This really was an important philosophical step in many of these virtual wheels have been linked serially, the description of how human spirit works. All our un­ one behind the other. On the basis of culture and civili­ derstanding within our "now" needs that zation, many humans have formed swarms of such arrives through the senses. The encoding is performed wheels for sharing work and skills. Humankind is roll­ in chemical or physical and in pictures of ing forward, also with parallel constructs of wheels but the percept, which we have available from vision , hear­ always going in only one direction: the future. ing, equilibrium, taste, smell, and touch. Not only the of contemporaneous humans but In an incredible leap forward by and the lives of other animals, especially mammals, seem­ recording, some 10,000 years ago in lower Mesopotamia, ingly have a similar construct. More than 3,000 years humans began picture writing what they saw, heard, ago, the Greek philosophers defined the human as a lOon smelled, and touched, as well as what they thought, val­ politicon (i.e., a socialized animal) acquiring political ued, and understood. Their now could be abilities. Humans living in epochs of millennia before saved and shared not only with other contemporary the appearance of Christ came to know that, distinct from humans but with future generations. This method of re­ other living -especially from the vertebrate ani­ cording served for planning, decision making, and de­ mals (and more especially from the mammals)-they velopment regarding the future. Even now, the self is not possessed something unique-a new, differentiated sys­ completely understood. Currently, the of "self" tem of symbolization and communication (i.e., tools, mostly has replaced earlier conceptions of the . artifacts, language, writing, and the like) . The famous European philosophers (e .g., Hume, Humans at that time already were known to be Locke, Berkeley, Leibniz, Goethe), who represent the de­ equipped with spirit and soul, language, communica­ velopment of an empirical philosophy, basically followed tion, memory, planning, , and will. They un­ the of Seneca. However, after the Thirty Years' derstood that these capabilities were not found in ani­ War in Europe, sometime in the second half of the sev­ mals; yet the biological construct of humans, with bones, enteenth century, Gottfried von Leibniz added to the ob­ muscles, nerves, and inner organs, was very similar to servations of Seneca a second phrase, noted in the Latin that of mammals, as everyone knew. language: nisi erat in intellectu ante (" ... nothing may Many speculated about how the invisible spirit could enter your intellect .. . if it is not there already")! This enter the and when it did so. The Holy Bible meant that a human can , think about, and used the picture of a bird, a dove-the Holy Spirit­ understand facts only spiritually; these facts enter penetrating into a newborn child and installing the so­ through the senses into the brain. This is added by called spirit, thereby allowing humans to know about Leibniz: if not there from conception, then the source God, the soul, human values, responsibility, and the like. of understanding already is innate within the brain.

103 International Tinnitus Journal, Vol.lI, No.2, 2005 Claussen

The English philosopher (b. 1632, d. landmark work in the history of . The work 1704 at Oates, Essex, UK) was an initiator of the en­ is devoted to three connected considerations: how we lightenment in England and France and an inspiration see or visually estimate the distance of objects from for the United States Constitution. His "An Essay Con­ ourselves, the situation or place at which these objects cerning Human Understanding" is an account of human are located, and the magnitude of such objects. knowledge, including the "new science" of his day, Berkeley's most famous work, " of which finally led to the modern sciences. His essay, Human Knowledge" (1710), argued against the princi­ printed in four books, delineates how the realization of ple of Locke' s abstract general ideas. He thought that knowledge fundamentally is different from the phe­ some abstract ideas are impossible objects: They are nomenon of belief. However, Locke agreed that knowl­ not needed for either language learning or language edge typically is accompanied by belief. Knowledge is use. His theories implied that ordinary physical objects direct awareness of certain facts . Locke saw exist only if they are perceived. Berkeley coined the of some agreement or disagreement among things to be phrase, Esse est percipi! by which he implied that it is basic. Belief for him, however, consisted of taking essential that all sensible objects are capable of some proposition to be true, whether or not one is di­ perceived. To his understanding, every physical rectly aware of the corresponding facts. is just a collection of sensible qualities being perceived Locke regarded ideas as mental objects. He believed by humans. However, there is evidence that every sen­ that humans can regulate and govern our beliefs, form­ sible also is an . Therefore, physical objects ing capacities with a mental of getting things right. are just collections of sensible ideas; no idea can exist He also thought that the human mind at birth is a tabula unperceived. Berkeley argued further that no one can rasa (blank tablet). In book four of his essay, he conceive a sensible object that exists unperceived. He launched his famous attack on innate ideas and innate concluded from this that no such object can exist "with­ knowledge: To wit, the mind uses its innate capacities out the mind." to work on material presented to it by sensation and re­ When going back to only the important empirical flection . By the latter, he meant self-awareness. philosophers of the modern age, we cannot neglect ref­ The aforementioned famous German philosopher, erence to the Scottish philosopher, historian, econo­ mathematician, and political adviser Gottfried Wilhelm mist, and essayist (b. 1711, d. 1776 at Ed­ Leibniz (b . 1646 at Leipzig, Germany; d. 1716 at Han­ inburgh, Scotland). He is known especially for his over, Germany) formulated in his : "Consider­ philosophical empiricism and skepticism. His most oft­ ing accurately, it must be said that there is noth­ cited works include "A Treatise of Human " ing in things except simple substances and, in them, (three volumes, 1739-1740). In this treatise, he ex­ nothing but perception and appetite. Moreover, plained that philosophy "cannot go beyond experience; and are not so much substances or things, as and any hypothesis that pretends to discover the ulti­ they are the phenomena of percipient beings, the mate, original qualities of human nature ought at first to of which is located in the harmony of each percipient be rejected as presumptuous and chimerical." Hume's with itself (with respect to different ) and with treatise is very skeptical and tended to give us a notion other percipients." of the imperfections and narrow limits of human under­ Leibniz concluded that the basic individuals of an standing. He began his treatise by arguing that natural acceptable ontology are all "monads" (i.e., immaterial philosophers and scientists should explain how sensa­ entities) who lack spatial parts and whose basic proper­ tion works. He focused on those entities that are the im­ ties are a function of their and appetites. He mediate and only objects present to the mind. These he held that each monad perceives all other monads with called perceptions and identified them as two kinds: varying degrees of clarity, except for God, who per­ impressions and ideas. Hume initially suggested that ceives all monads with utter clarity. impressions are more forceful than ideas but that some The Anglo-Irish Anglican bishop, philosopher, and ideas (those of memory) do sometimes take on enough scientist (b. 1685 at Disert Castle in and vivacity to be called impressions. These ideas County Kilkenny , Ireland; d. 1753 at Oxford, England) finally , then, cannot be distinguished from impressions. is best known for his empiricist philosophy, which The greatest German poet, novelist, playwright, holds that save the spiritual exists only inso­ and natural philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe far as it is perceived by the human senses. Berkeley's (b. 1749 at Frankfurt am Main, Germany; d. 1832 at Wei­ first major publication was titled "Essay Towards a mar, Germany), formulated in his scientific work a basic New Theory of Vision" (1709). Berkeley'S theory of within the ontology of living beings, which he vision became something like the academically ac­ called metamorphosis. In , this means striking per­ cepted view on the topic for nearly 200 years and is a manent changes of form or structure (or both) in individ-

104 Editorial International Tinnitus Journal, Vol. 11, No.2, 2005

uals after birth and continuing until death. Also, humans computer science. Konrad Ernst Otto Zuse (b. 1910 at undergo a permanent change throughout all of life. Berlin, Germany; d. 1995 at Hiinfeld, Germany) was a Only nowadays do we understand that the perpetua­ German engineer and pioneer of electronic data process­ tion of genes from one human generation to the next is ing. In 1936, he constructed and presented the first com­ made up in long, written lines that encode the program puter, working on the bases of binary digits and running for the serial makeup of our life. We now begin to on Zuse's own computer programs. Modern data pro­ understand the so-called codones. For improving the cessing by means of computers and technical sensors studies of genetics today, we need also to use linguistic functions as would a prosthesis to the human mind, en­ approaches. hancing the limited capacities of humans. The computer There is a permanent, innate drive throughout our also is growing into the function of a mental mirror, al­ life toward conversions along the axis of our time. Thus, lowing humans to study themselves and human data incoming new sensory percepts are dealing with perma­ processing in a model with which they can experiment. nently changing bodily structures, , , The modern electronic computer is a new tool for and experiences. Much of science was accumulated in logical discovery. By the use of specialized programs, the new age by humans searching in science and the fine computers prove to be superior to humans in arts. As a result, the knowledge has become encyclopedic. and in the capacity of calculations, storage, and judg­ A European philosopher and humanist who greatly ment capabilities. The computer can be used as a uni­ influenced the cultural and literary renaissance of the versal simulator. Through it, the world's complexity is twentieth century was Jose Ortega y Gasset (b. 1883, symbolized in such a way that humans can perceive the d. 1955 at Madrid, Spain). His most famous book was world more quickly and the world comes closer to the The Revolt of the (1932). individual human spirit. Concerning the development of fine art and modern Ultimately, however, the limitations that were for­ sciences, his book, The Dehumanization of Art (1925), mulated by all of the afore-mentioned philosophers influenced Europe and Latin America enormously. For (and especially by Ortega y Gasset) continue into the Ortega, reality is identified with his own life. For him, future. The human computer method of inquiry is use­ something is real only insofar as it is rooted and ap­ ful for the study of our position within biological evo­ pears in his own life. He calls his own life "my self." lution. Even some epistemological and metaphysical This individual reality is also defined by the circum­ concepts enter nowadays into computer modeling. A stances of his very personal life. The self is not an en­ model is similar to its object in important respects but is tity separate from what surrounds the individual. There simpler. is a dynamic interaction and interdependence of the When extrapolating the direction of generations from self, the persons, and the things around the individual the past through the present into the future, we have to human. These and the self together constitute our real­ accept that the perceptible complexity of the world has ity. Because every life is a result of an interaction be­ also a technically produced diminutive replacement tween the self and an individual's special circum­ of humans (i.e., modern data processing together with stances, every self has a unique perspective. then its computers), which demands that even scientists must is based on the unique point of view from which it is go to the roots of ethics and values in order to apply the determined, and no perspective is false, except that right human direction to ongoing development. which claims exclusivity. This doctrine is known as Still, until now, we could not see where codifications Ortega's perspectivism. other than what we are receiving through our senses are Humankind has gone a long way in understanding brought into our . Only those parts of the world its abilities for transferring aspects of the world through that we can encode with our senses will form the stones our senses into the human spirit. Also, we must extrap­ of the mosaics for our feeling , thinking, understanding, olate the one-way direction from the past through the and the like with respect to the world. On our horizon present and into the future. Finally, in the twentieth are creative and innovative bridges through the human century, we were able to study many important evolu­ senses into the human spirit. They run along new ave­ tionary phenomena by formulating hypotheses and test­ nues (e.g., in the of Claussen's "narrative sensol­ ing them in experiments through our observations. ogy"). The paths into new fields of human findings and Alan M. Turing (b. 1912 in London , England; d. 1954 especially open other levels of knowledge for at Wilmslow, Cheshire, England) was an outstanding artists and scientists searching along the borders be­ British mathematician and logician who made major tween what is known and what remains unknown. contributions to and formulated the modern structure of data processing, which later was named Claus-Frenz Claussen, MD

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