How Peircean semiotic philosophy connects Western science with Eastern emptiness ontology.
Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology December 1, 2017 DOI: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2017.08.011 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism |
| Keywords | Peircean semiotics Process philosophy Quantum philosophy Synechism Tychism |
| Key points | Argues that Peirce's semiotics, combined with Luhmann's autopoietic system theory within a Cybersemiotic framework, offers an ontological path to a transdisciplinary science that overcomes the limitations of mechanistic physicalism and German idealism. |
Abstract
In recent articles in this journal I have discussed why a traditional physicalist and mechanist, as well as an info-computationalist, view of science cannot fulfil the goal of building a transdisciplinary science across Snow's two cultures. There seems to be no path proceeding from mechanistic physicalism to views that encompass phenomenological theories of experiential consciousness and meaning-based cognition and communication. I have suggested, as an alternative, the Cybersemiotic framework's integration of Peirce's semiotics and Luhmann's autopoietic system theory. The present article considers in greater depth the ontological developments necessary to make this possible. It shows how Peirce avoids materialism and German idealism through his building on a concept of emptiness similar to modern quantum field theory, positing an indeterminist objective chance feeding into an evolutionary philosophy of knowing based on pure mathematics and phenomenology that is itself combined with empirically executed fallibilism. Furthermore, he created a new metaphysics in the form of a philosophical synechist triadic process philosophy. This was integrated into the transcendentalist view of process view of science and spirituality developed from Western Unitarianism by Emerson (agapism), and featuring a metaphysics of emptiness and spontaneity (tychism) that are also essential for the Eastern philosophies of Buddhism and Vedanta.
Comparable studies
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|---|---|---|---|
| Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience | 1995 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |