The problem of anthropomorphism in Jonas’s phenomenology of bet365 offers
December 13, 2022 10:08 Source: "Chinese bet365 offers" Issue 2550, December 13, 2022 Author: Ren Ziyuan

According to the diagnosis of bet365 offers philosopher Hans Jonas,A view of nature limited by dualism and mechanics,Contemporary existential philosophy and biological science ignore the dimension of inwardness of bet365 offers,The resulting loss of nature’s purpose and value,This is the crux of the ecological crisis in the technological age。In the book "Phenomena of bet365 offers" published in 1966,Jonas is committed to using the monism of organic bet365 offers to overcome the spirit and body in modern thought、Subject and Object、The binary opposition of survival and death,Provides a new perspective for understanding the relationship between man and nature。From the perspective of Jonas’s influence on contemporary ideological trends,His phenomenology of bet365 offers is a double-edged sword: on the one hand,It contributed to the current “Jonas turn” in cognitive science;On the other hand,Since Jonas aims to resurrect natural teleology,The anthropomorphic element makes many researchers uneasy。Currently,There are different opinions surrounding the issue of anthropomorphism in Jonas’s phenomenology of bet365 offers,To be analyzed。This article considers this issue,Trying to clarify the doubts that caused the controversy,And point out the source of the dispute。
  Anthropomorphic connotation of bet365 offers phenomena
Jonas’s Research Line of bet365 offers Phenomenology,Can be seen as an "existential" interpretation of biological facts。Jonas thinks,“Contemporary existentialism is obsessed with people themselves,It is customary to describe many things rooted in organic existence as human privileges and predicaments,Do this,It withholds from the organic world the insights that can be learned from self-awareness。As such,Science Biology,Because its rules are limited to physical ones、External facts,The inner dimension of bet365 offers must be ignored”。As opposed to,Jonas reintroduces immanence into the growth mechanism of organisms,Making nature embody traces of subjectivity like humans。His discussion focused on elucidating the teleological connotation of “metabolism”,can be divided into the following three levels。
First,Metabolism refers to the activities of living organisms through material exchange with the environment to maintain bet365 offers form or identity。This form is the mark that distinguishes living matter from inanimate matter: the identity of inanimate matter is only the aggregation of manifold,And the identity of living entities is self-constituted - "by themselves,For themselves,And continually maintained by themselves"。Therefore,bet365 offers is an organic existence that is self-integrated and self-sustaining。In the living body,Wholeness is not an aggregation,It is a positive action。So,Only a living body can be called an organic "individual" with substantial content。
Secondly,Organism in exchange activities with the environment,Being a producer of its own activities,Also a product of one’s own activities,This kind of exchange activity reflects the inevitability of organisms being subject to the environment,There is also freedom to transcend circumstances,Therefore a necessary freedom。Metabolism is the purposeful activity of an organism toward higher and richer freedom,It is always paying attention to its own existence,And work hard for it。Judging from this attention and effort,Mechanistic explanation model,“External linear time pattern of cause and effect,Including past causal control,is not enough”。For active organisms,The future, not the past, is the dominant time dimension,“bet365 offers is essentially what it becomes”。Therefore,Organisms cannot be understood merely as products of effective causes,It must also be understood from a teleological perspective。“No matter what,Teleological structure and behavior of organisms is more than just a descriptive alternative…without teleology there would be no organisms;Without immanence, there is no teleology。”
Finally,Purposiveness exists in varying degrees in all organisms: it is already effective in the reactivity of all plants;More effective in animal impulses with motor abilities and sensory organs;Achieve self-transparency in human consciousness。The task of philosophical biology is to trace the free unfolding of this germ in the ascending levels of organic evolution。In the concept of freedom,We have an “Ariadne line” that explains bet365 offers。Therefore,Jonas restored the existential link between man and nature by revealing the natural teleological connotation of organisms。
Looking at the above arguments,It is not difficult to find that Jonas’s explanation of metabolism is a kind of bet365 offers。He reintroduced teleology into nature,It is equivalent to giving human characteristics to all other living things。Modern science opposes teleology,The direct reason is that it is anthropomorphic,“The struggle against teleology is a stage in the struggle against bet365 offers”。Therefore,Evaluate Jonas’ biological philosophy from a modern scientific way of thinking,Or try to introduce Jonas’ biological philosophy into biological science,Will inevitably face the problem of bet365 offers。
 Accusations and defenses of bet365 offers
"Phenomena of bet365 offers" was soon criticized by Yelton (J. Yolton)’s criticism,"In the case used by Jonas,Except Behavior and Anthropomorphism,Nothing is working”。After,Barbara (R. Barbaras) understands Jonas’s natural teleology as a theory of anthropomorphic projection,“Jonas cited an ‘interpolation’,By this interpolation,I give to metabolic processes seen from the outside the same interiority I find in myself”,Same as all projection theories,“The difficulty arises, of course, from the initial rift between interiority and exteriority”。In recent years,The criticism of Jonas’s anthropomorphism focuses on the intersection of phenomenology and cognitive science,For example Varela (F. Varela) and other scholars’ enactivism。In critic Villalobos (M. Villalobos) and Ward (D. Ward)It seems,They are introducing a "problematic anthropomorphism" into scientific research,Thus it is contrary to the original intention of enactivism to construct a scientific paradigm。
Jonas generally brings teleology into the category of anthropomorphism,As the opposite of the mechanistic theory of natural science。He even concluded,“It’s not anthropomorphism that’s wrong,But modern science”。Therefore,He is indeed defending anthropomorphism,And consciously examine biological sciences critically from a phenomenological standpoint。But,This does not mean that Jonas supports all anthropomorphisms without reservation,“To avoid the trap of anthropomorphism,Must use it critically,This is self-evident”。To clarify Jonas’s true attitude towards anthropomorphism,Can be accessed via Waymans(M. Weemans) and other scholars advocated a distinction between "empirical anthropomorphism" and "advanced anthropomorphism" in the book "The Lens of Anthropomorphism"。The former means projecting human subjective structures into nature,Seeing humanity in the diversity of nature;The latter means that people are essentially similar to all things。The declaration that “Only bet365 offers can understand bet365 offers”,Undoubtedly Jonas’ support for advanced anthropomorphism。
It’s worth noting,The main context in which Jonas defends advanced anthropomorphism does not appear in "The Phenomena of bet365 offers",But in the book "Organism and Freedom"。Jonas wrote,“When you doubt whether the lizard on the roadside is alive or dead,We can scratch it with grass stalks,See if it reacts,That is, it can move。To determine whether the saplings we planted remain viable,We will observe it in a few days,See if it grows”。This means,Before the so-called "projection",There is a more primitive relationship between bet365 offers and bet365 offers,"gained first-hand knowledge of the vitality of the body from the fact that he himself was a living being,And this knowledge is denied to a disembodied mind”。Because we ourselves are alive,In the embodied experience of encountering bet365 offers with bet365 offers,We can grasp the inner dimensions of other lives。
To this,Jonas has the following argument。First,Metabolism draws the boundaries of organic bet365 offers。Second,We can gain primitive experience of other lives at a basic physical level。Third,In encounters with other lives,We can gain a general understanding of metabolism based on our own bet365 offers experiences。In this way,Jonas provides assurance for the ontological status of anthropomorphism。Immanence and purpose are “ontological surprises” emerging from nature,Not a projection of human characteristics at the phenomenal level。At the same time,Jonas is not responsible for the dilemmas that arise in cognitive science,Because his biological philosophy is not biological science in the first place,Rather, it provides a way to reflect on the premises of science。
Jonas clearly realizes,“bet365 offers itself is as old as Western science”,The struggle between the two has been going on for a long time。Actually,There is a more profound problem behind this struggle,That is, whether the gap between humans and other animals actually exists?In taking the above position,Jonas places himself within an ancient naturalistic tradition,This tradition begins with Aristotle,All the way to Leibniz and Whitehead,That is, treating human immanence as a type of animal immanence,Advocates strong continuity between humans and animals。Opposite,Another humanitarian tradition that did not break with modernity,Instead inherited Descartes、The ideological legacy of Kant and Heidegger,Believe that there is an insurmountable gap between humans and animals。Because the two traditions are fundamentally incompatible,So the controversy over bet365 offers is destined to be difficult to reach a settlement。
Jonas may have difficulty proving the accuracy of anthropomorphism,But it can prove its beneficial effects。The final chapter of "Phenomena of bet365 offers" shows that,The reason why he firmly chooses anthropomorphism,Even anthropocentrism in a sense,Aims at transitioning from the philosophy of organisms to the philosophy of man,Transition from nature to ethics,“Through the continuity of mind and organism and organism and nature,Ethics becomes part of natural philosophy”。The successor to this line of thought is the "Principle of Responsibility",Jonas warns us in this book: bet365 offers is an intrinsic value,We have an obligation to ensure the survival of all bet365 offers。
  (Author’s affiliation: School of bet365 offers, Fudan University)

Editor: Zhang Jing
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