CC BY
7
DOI: 10.24234/wisdom.v20i4.559 Viktor VASHKEVYCH, Nataliia KROKHMAL, Chen QI, Iryna MORDOUS, Taisiia RATUSHNA
PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOURSE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE INTELLECTUALIZATION OF HUMAN NATURE
Abstract
The principal goal of the study is to characterize the philosophical discourse of the development and improvement of human nature in the context of its intellectualization. The article uses a set of methods that make it possible to reveal a philosophical analysis of the development and improvement of human nature in the context of its intellectualization, in particular: general scientific methods; logical methods of theoretical analysis; technical analysis, clarification. Because of the study, the philosophical aspects of the development and improvement of human nature in the context of its intellectualization were characterized. The needs of the modern economic, political, spiritual development of society require further, deeper research of the actual problems of the doctrine of man. Therefore, interest in man and humanity is becoming especially acute, prompting to justify social and cultural transformations.
Keywords: philosophy, philosophical discourse, human nature, human, intellectualization.
Introduction
The relevance of the research topic is due to the fact that in the twentieth century, under the influence of the latest technologies and the active change in the postulates of the personality, the transformation of its biosocial nature and integration into the technosphere was rampaged. This phenomenon has changed the natural and social qualities of a person. In modern scientific discourse, the problem of human renewal is actualized in two planes: improving his bodily capabilities and developing spiritual qualities. Today science has come close to the modification of man as a biological species. The immortalistic intentions of humanity in the information age have spilt over into the movement of transhu-manism. The scientific community notes the erosion of humanism, globalization and virtualiza-tion of human existence; philosophy includes the
concepts of "anthropological crisis" and "toxic social environment", which are manifested in demographic problems, the growth of "social" diseases, provoke psychological breakdowns and stresses at the individual level, and public - social and ethnopolitical conflicts.
The study of non-traditional philosophical doctrines of improving human nature is being actualized as an alternative to the biotechnologi-cal development of civilization.
Today, more than ever, it is crucial to comprehend the applied aspects of intervention in human nature and the socio-cultural consequences of expanding the boundaries of understanding the human, providing not only scientific experiments but also religious practices directly aimed at his psyche and the development of intelligence. The ethical system of humanity acts as the main driving factor in the effectiveness of human transformation with the help of science and reli-
gion. An essential factor in this is the presence of a disciplinary bioethical paradigm. The principal goal of the study is to characterize the philosophical discourse of the development and improvement of human nature in its intellectuali-zation.
Methodology
The article uses a set of methods to reveal a philosophical analysis of the development and improvement of human nature in the context of its intellectualization. In particular, general scientific methods (formal-logical, systemic, structural-functional, specific and historical), logical methods of theoretical analysis (analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparison, abstraction, analogy, modelling, etc.), technical analysis, explanations were used. The historical approach made it possible to trace the chronological sequence of the formation and development of philosophical doctrines of improving human nature to identify internal and external connections, patterns and contradictions of this process.
Research Results and Discussions
Philosophical understanding of man in the context of studying his nature and the development of the internationalization of his essence, the problems of forming a harmoniously developed personality, a democratic society, various biological, social, spiritual, psychological and other aspects of the human. Existence today gains great importance for each individual person and civilized humanity. The modern style of thinking, the way of perception of the world and the symbolic activity of the subject are characterized as communicative, discursive and simulative. In this situation, a socialized person gains even greater independence, responsibility, a degree of self-awareness in measuring his own existence (Barkow, Cosmides,s & Tooby, 1995; Beunaflor, 2006).
Man and his intellectualization and every-
thing human have long attracted the attention of philosophers. However, the formulation and resolution of questions about a person depend on the disciplinary framework and methodological programs, as well as on different worldviews and values. Some researchers choose biology and psychology as the basis of human sciences. They are opposed by representatives of humanitarian knowledge, among whom there are also many disagreements (Castro, 2005; Chibeni, 2005; Estlund, 2011). Note that philosophers also differ in their orientations in searching for essential and system-forming concepts of a person. To the traditional discourses about the man: scientific, religious, moral, metaphysical, new ones have also been added, based on modern humanities that are intensively developing - psychoanalysis, semiol-ogy, ethnography, structural anthropology.
In philosophy and the humanities, a person is defined precisely as the bearer of reason. It is fundamentally different from animals in its rationality, which allows restraining and controlling bodily training and instincts. Thanks to the mind, a person comprehends the laws of the universe, discovers sciences, invents technology, transforms nature and creates a new environment for living. However, besides rationality, other spiritual characteristics of a person can be noted: only he has faith in God, the distinction between good and evil, awareness of his mortality, memory of the past and faith in the future. Only man can laugh and cry, love and hate, judge and evaluate, fantasize and create.
The philosophical vision of man and his nature in the context of intellectualization underlies any scientific study of issues related to him. The difference between the philosophical doctrine of man and other sciences is that it explores the more general problems of human existence, the specifics of man's existence as a species. Such problems include the problem of anthroposocio-genesis, the origin of man and human society, the meaning of human existence as a species and the meaning of the existence of an individual, the problem of freedom and the need for human ac-
tions. For the solution of all these issues, a special component of philosophical knowledge arose - philosophical anthropology.
Man is mysterious and incomprehensible, unusual and unlike other creatures. On the one hand, it is part of the natural world and is subject to its laws. To survive, he must adapt to natural and social conditions, most of which have developed as such results of human activities, usually not transmitted and not planned by an individual person. A person has a clear awareness of his freedom and decides on his own, even if he is doomed to hard physical labour and poverty. He knows about good, love, justice, even if he deceives, commits violence. Knowledge of the highest values, striving for the best, and desire for holiness - all this makes a person an exceptional being. Knowledge of the highest values, striving for the best and striving for holiness - all together - make a person an exceptional being.
Throughout the existence of humanity, a lot of both purely religious and philosophical studies have been written on the problems of improving human nature. A powerful layer of philosophical and religious research was created between these two methodological frameworks. The ideology-cal position of their authors determines the degree to which these studies belong to religious or philosophical schools. This is quite natural since every "philosophical teaching about man includes the ideal of man. Thus, this teaching seeks to give the image of a perfect man. A perfect person is not only one who has maximally realized the fullness of his essence but also one who, in this case, overcame it or developed further, that is, transcended it. A positive transcendence is possible only in the direction of some unconditional and absolute beginning. "Therefore, in most spiritual traditions of humanity, the problem of human perfection is considered as a path to the absolute and has a philosophical character" (Kaplan, R. & Kaplan, S., 1989; Mendoza & Edgar, 2008; Stevenson, 1999).
If we generalize the ideas about the perspective of human development generated by human-
ity in the twentieth century, we can group them according to the ideological characteristics in the following blocks:
1. Orthodox religious views: a person will change in the future, but this will be a moral transformation and improvement. This opinion, in particular, is shared by the two most widespread world religions - Christianity and Islam. The Buddhist doctrine of reincarnation does not provide for general changes in humanity, neither in the direction of improving its nature nor in the direction of improvement, perfection. This is due to the fact that it recognizes only the individual path of the human soul to perfection.
2. Orthodox-scientific views: in the future, a certain improvement of a person is possible such as moral, intellectual and physical. But Homo sapiens will remain a stable biological species, will not be qualitatively different from the existing one, but will improve quantitatively the primary indicators of development inherent in modern man naturally. This point of view is shared by Darwinism, positivism and Marxism.
3. The transhumanistic (posthumanistic) concept of "improving" a person through its endless improvement in the process of scientific and technological progress, the use of advanced technologies to improve human capabilities, since disability, illness, and involuntary death are considered phenomena that need to be overcome. People must turn into beings with superpowers, and Homo sapiens will replace the "posthuman"
Transhumanists propose to use modern technologies for growing organs (artificial organs, cryonics) to improve a person, mental technologies (nootropics), reproductive technologies (means of improving reproductive performance, pre-implantation genetic diagnostics and selection of embryos), technologies for the physical improvement of a person (doping, plastic surgery, exoskeleton). Shortly, they consider it expedient to use human
genetic engineering, create a neurocomputer interface, and propose an implantation upgrade of a person by exogenous intervention in the body (exocortex, loading consciousness, and isolated brain). Because of such "improvement", a person will become an ageless Immortal bio-cybernetic organism, which chooses its own "physically mental configuration" in its own nature. This worldview is spread by the eponymous international intellectual and cultural movement that combines the political ideology of libertarian transhu-manism, communist transhumanism (techno-communism) and technogayanism. 4. Evolutionary-cosmic concept: man is included in the process of constant cosmic evolution. The existing species of Homo sapiens is not perfect and evolutionarily complete and has irreversibly transformed into perfect spiritual species of intelligent life that already exist in the Universe or should appear as a result of the evolution of humankind. This opinion is shared by representatives of numerous schools of esoteric philosophy, theosophy, Living Ethics, Russian cosmism, mystical Christianity and the like. This classification allows us to state that for a philosopher in the context of the tasks of studying the philosophical doctrines of the twentieth century on the improvement of human nature, the field of research interest is limited to the evolutionary-cosmic approach, the analysis of which, of course, should be carried out in comparison with orthodox religious concepts about human nature.
The idea of a perfect man is more than a philosophical or religious idea. For many eras, in many changing forms, it is one of the driving motives and regulatory principles in the life of the most religious traditions, spiritual communities, cultures and civilizations. It deeply affected both the consciousness of the individual and the character and activity of social structures. However, it cannot be considered a completely universal anthropological idea and a necessary part
of the ideas of man and humanity about themselves. History knows epochs and communities, such directions of human thought to which this idea was not inherent. Such is our modernity, postmodern secularized culture in the circle of dominant ideologies, images, archetypes of which the idea of a perfect person is absent and the advance towards it in the development's context of intellectualization.
To understand the ontological and anthropological background of the emergence of non-traditional philosophical doctrines to improve the twentieth century, we need to identify the key ideas and practices of improvement. It will also be important to investigate the spiritual search of humanity, to compare the stages and forms that human consciousness goes through on the way to perfection in different traditions. The concept of perfection and perfect man belongs to Greek philosophy. They are practically not used in the Torah. It has two anthropological categories that correlate with the concept of a "perfect person": "the elect" and "the righteous". But the concept of "the chosen one" is fundamentally different from the concept of perfection. An election is a fundamentally incomprehensible act of divine will, in no way - neither logically nor ethically justified: "The person that the Lord chooses is a saint." (Ventegodt, 2003; Max-Neff, 1992; Hume, 2002; Hegel, 1967)
The concept of human improvement is an integral part of the anthropological doctrines of all considered religious traditions, both monotheistic and polytheistic, new and with a thousand-year history. They provide for the spiritual movement of the adept of religion to the sacred attractor, which is the transcendental essence of a high order: the Absolute, the Supreme, Tao, God and the like. The goal of human life, striving for perfection, is the maximum approximation, before identification, to the sacred attractor, which involves crossing the anthropological border, marking the achievement of perfection.
The passage of the stages of spiritual growth is impossible in most traditional religions with-
out the will of the Absolute. In the end, it allows the person to begin this process and determines the boundaries and success of his progress along with it. In Judaism and partly in Islam, without the will of God, all human efforts will remain within the framework of "righteousness", and the achievement of perfection is possible only for those chosen by God, that is, the attribute of "chosenness" (Noonan, 2003; Machery, 2008; Hull, 1986).
In the process of self-improvement, a person receives certain superpowers (vision of divine light, samadhi, the gift of prophecy, healing, etc.). They can be interpreted as side undesirable effects ("pleasure") and in all the traditions considered are not considered an end in itself for the spiritual growth of the practitioner. When a person has crossed the anthropological border, it receives certain attributes and a limitless possibility of the Absolute partially or completely repulsed with it, as a rule, losing corporeality, or (as in Taoism) becoming immortal in the human body.
The problem of man in the development's context of its intellectualization refers to the "eternal" problems of philosophy. From various interpretations of the essence of man, we meet in almost all significant philosophical works. This is convincing evidence that the issue of understanding and studying oneself and one's own kind has been the subject of constant human attention for a long time. Over the centuries, the range of practical human activity expanded, more and more spheres of aim reality became the arena of this activity. More and more, he mastered the laws of reality, learned to use them in his practice. At the same time, a person constantly faced questions about the essence of his being, the meaning of life, the purpose of existence in this world, the system of life values, and many others, which demanded and did not find convincing irrefutable answers. But the man stubbornly did not stop his search.
Proceeding from the fact that the problem of a person is extremely broad and complex, in this section, we will focus on how it was treated and
solved in the history of philosophical thought, and we will clarify the category of "human essence", the issue of its socialization and the meaning of human life and humanity (Hancock, 1993; Hume, 2002; Wilson, 1978; McKeon, 1966).
One ancient sage said: "There is no more interesting object for a person than a person himself'. What is a man? At first glance, this question seems ridiculously simple - who does not know what a person is! This opinion is deeply mistaken. Man is a complex creation of nature, society and himself. This creation includes reason, will, character, and emotions, as well as work and communication. That is why such sciences as genetics, physiology, medicine, psychology, sociology, anthropology and many others study it. Today these sciences are combined into a system of complex human knowledge. Philosophy also occupies an important place in this system. Even a particular discipline was formed - philosophical anthropology, that is, the philosophical doctrine of man.
An irrational idea of the essence of man became the most widespread in the twentieth century. For example, according to the theory of existentialism, a person lives in a world that is alien to him. His being is irrational and incomprehensible. The meaning of human life consists in mystical communion with God or in experiencing the "reality" of individual life. The problem of man arose so sharply that it caused the emergence of a separate philosophical science - philosophical anthropology (as already mentioned), which largely used the experience of the irrational understanding of man. Rejecting the rationalistic concepts of human consciousness and behaviour, which are determined precisely by the mind, philosophers drew attention to the fact that the will to live or the will to power, faith, the desire to experience genuine life can decisively affect a person. Irrationalist theories were largely confirmed by the events of the history of the twentieth century, which cast doubt on the reasonableness of human behaviour. In the 20th
and 21st centuries, the dominant line was scientific rationalism as a particular value. Humanity has become a witness to the development of science, technology, witness the changes that have taken place in technology, in the means of communication. The image of a modern person becomes communication-centred.
Another critical factor in human development is language, which is a symbolic system. In a general sense, speech is understood as a system of signs, with the help of which a person receives, distributes, stores and processes information. Natural human speech is primary, and the historically formed system of signs serves for thinking and communication. It is widely believed in science that the prerequisites for the emergence of human speech were complex motor and sound forms of signalling that exist in higher animals. In the process of transition from animal ancestors to humans, a linguistic signalling system is formed; that is, sound means of detecting emotions and causative agents for actions turn into a means of designating things, their properties and relationships, and contribute to deliberate communication. The emergence of language turned out to be a powerful tool for the further development of man, his consciousness. Thanks to language, transferring social experience, cultural norms and traditions are successfully carried out. The continuity of different generations and historical eras is realized through the language.
One of the most exciting questions in the context of intellectualization is the problem of the relationship between consciousness and language. There is an opinion that a person can think without words and resorts to them only when he needs to convey thoughts to anyone, that you can think without language, and this kind of thinking is "correct". However, one cannot agree with this point of view. The fact is that consciousness from the very beginning exists in the material dimension of language. Only through language does it become real, accessible for perception by other people. Opinion receives a material, verbal form not only
when we speak or write but also when we think. There is a specific language centre in the brain, and the thinking process is associated with signals coming to this centre from the organs of speech, hearing, vision, and the like. It has been experimentally proven that the linguistic shell appears along with the thought.
In the context of our research, the language may perform two principal functions: a) the organization of knowledge and their preservation and b) communication, information transfer. The first function of speech reinforces the results of thinking. The history of language shows how, in the transition from concrete thinking to abstract, the formation of words denoting general concepts took place in the language.
Besides language, another factor allows people to communicate and understand each other: human consciousness is a product of social evolution. Consequently, there is a certain "similarity" between intelligence, consciousness. It follows from this that, despite individual differences, they have some common features. This community appears due to upbringing, education and, in general, the influence of the social environment. This similarity is also determined by the exact mechanisms of functioning of the physiological apparatus of consciousness, the same logic of thinking, similar processes of practical activity.
From everything that has already been said, it is clear that man is a very complex being. Nevertheless, the key thing is that duality or dual essence, the coexistence of man and animal, natural and social, spirit and body, man and God, good and evil. These oppositions create a dynamic tension that feeds culture, symbolizes man's eternal mystery, and stimulates his search for his destiny and place in the world. It is wrong to think that such metaphysical ideas about human nature are purely metaphorical, that is, ones that are unimportant and useless. As can be seen from history, the source of the cultural explosion is not only new technologies, but ideas, especially a person's idea of himself, about its goals
and ideals, which significantly determine a person's social, economic, and cultural achievements. Any conception of man proceeds from the existence of natural and rational in it. Associated with this is the difference between the disciplines that study a person. The intelligent side is studied by philosophy and the humanities, while the animal side is studied by biology, medicine and other natural sciences. The holistic image of a person consists of a simple amount of knowledge. However, the two sides of human nature are not considered equal. Philosophy presents man as a predominantly rational being, and biology gives preference to the natural side of man, and the mind also becomes genetically dependent on nature.
Today, the need for the formation of a diversified personality has become especially acute since only such a person can fully build the future of the planet, which is becoming more and more complex and precarious. For a long time, there has been an idea of the ideal of a person. This idea can be considered quite relevant, justified from a practical point of view. The following parameters are included in this performance:
1. strength and health;
2. diligence, possession of practical skills and abilities;
3. reason, wisdom, understanding of life;
4. kindness, morality, a high degree of humanity;
5. beauty, development of taste, aesthetic feelings. Based on these parameters of a harmonious personality, a person's ideal can be determined by the following characteristics: strong, diligent, wise, kind, beautiful. Artificial intelligence, including machine
learning and deep learning, is neutral only at first glance. A closer look reveals that it can greatly affect the interests of people in specific cases. In many areas of life, deciding based on mathematical calculations offers tremendous benefits. However, if AI becomes too important in human life, which implies the identification of repetitive behaviour patterns, it can turn against users, lead
to injustice, and the limitations of human rights.
The tension between the benefits of AI technology and the limitations of human rights is particularly evident in the area of privacy. The right to privacy is a fundamental human right necessary for a safe and dignified life. However, the digital space, including when we use apps and social media, collects a tremendous amount of personal data (with or without our knowledge) that can be used to create our profile and predict our behaviour. We share information about our health, political beliefs, family life, even without knowing who will use this data, for what purpose and how.
Artificial intelligence greatly expands our ability to live the way we would like. But he can deprive us of them. Therefore, clear regulation in this area is necessary in order to avoid its transformation into a modern Frankenstein.
Man has undoubtedly used the forces of nature. Using fire becomes an important factor in this. When man invented special devices for producing fire, he finally drew a clear, almost insurmountable border between man and animal. The human brain also developed under the influence of life circumstances, which were transforming. In the future, the need for communication, collective living, developed labour activity turned out to be dependent on one person's life on the life of others, forming a person as a biosocial being. A person of the modern type - Homo Sapiens - appeared 40-50 thousand years ago. However, even now, the social side of a person develops along with the development of society. This raises the question of the possibility of further evolution of man as a biological species. Some scientists argue that biological evolution has stopped. That is, the biological, anatomical and physiological characteristics of modern humans are the same as 10 thousand years ago. Another point of view is for the continuation of human biological evolution at the present stage. As confirmation, facts are cited about an increase in life expectancy, an increase in height, as well as a decrease in genetic well-being (the birth of
many children with disabilities), a significant decrease in the age threshold for diseases of the cardiovascular system and oncological diseases, and the like. This question remains open.
Conclusion
Philosophers say: a person should live as if there is an eternity ahead of him. Has man really learned to conquer death? "Eternity" must be understood in such a way that a person entrusts himself with tasks for implementing which he does not have enough personal life. So, affairs associated with an excessive risk to life - there is contempt for death, neglect death. A person doing good, loving, engaging in creativity ultimately leaves behind a wonderful memory and gratitude of people. Thus, in a certain sense, man conquers death, breaks through into eternity. Birth and death set the limits of human existence, and they are not something completely external and alien to a person. First of all, they are comprehended in terms of body and soul, and the ab-solutization of one of them can lead either to excessive fear or complete fearlessness. If a person separates the spiritual from the bodily, that is, presents them as two hostile principles, he is at the mercy of ideas and despises bodily life. Otherwise, he obeys desires and influences and then changes his spiritual essence. Thus, we again come to the question of the meaning of life, the answer to which each person must find and implement only independently.
Freedom and awareness of the finiteness of his life give a person a unique, inimitable opportunity to create his own world, unlike others, the opportunity to draw a sharp border between him and the rest of the world once again. This is what distinguishes a person in the Universe: the ability not to duplicate (albeit with variations) his ancestors, but to be unique every time. However, a person as a conscious and responsible creature must consider the interests of others and personal involvement in social, spiritual, cultural, and historical integrity. This is what inspires him with
the meaning of his being.
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