Rescuing Humanity
Transcending the Limits of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Published on 18. May 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
384 pages
978-1-4875-5247-3 (ISBN)
Description
In Rescuing Humanity, Willem H. Vanderburg reminds us that we have relied on discipline-based approaches for human knowing, doing, and organizing for less than a century. During this brief period, these approaches have become responsible for both our spectacular successes and most of our social and environmental crises. At their roots is a cultural mutation that includes secular religious attitudes that veil the limits of these approaches, leading to their overvaluation. Because their use, especially in science and technology, is primarily built up with mathematics, living entities and systems can be dealt with only as if their "architecture" or "design" is based on the principle of non-contradiction, which is true only for non-living entities. This distortion explains our many crises.
Vanderburg begins to explore the limits of discipline-based approaches, which guides the way toward developing complementary ones capable of transcending these limits. It is no different from a carpenter going beyond the limits of his hammer by reaching for other tools. As we grapple with everything from the impacts of social media, the ongoing climate crisis, and divisive political ideologies, Rescuing Humanity reveals that our civilization must learn to do the equivalent if humans and other living things are to continue making earth a home.
Vanderburg begins to explore the limits of discipline-based approaches, which guides the way toward developing complementary ones capable of transcending these limits. It is no different from a carpenter going beyond the limits of his hammer by reaching for other tools. As we grapple with everything from the impacts of social media, the ongoing climate crisis, and divisive political ideologies, Rescuing Humanity reveals that our civilization must learn to do the equivalent if humans and other living things are to continue making earth a home.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
1 b&w table
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
517 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4875-5247-3 (9781487552473)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Willem H. Vanderburg has taught preventive engineering, sociology, and environmental studies at the Centre for Technology and Social Development at the University of Toronto.
Content
Preface
Introduction
Suspended in Language and Culture
Attempts at Escaping Our Suspension in Language and Culture
Foundationalism and the Architecture of Non-Life
The Technical Division of Labour and the Architecture of Non-Life
Technique and the Architecture of Non-Life
Technique, the State, and the Law
Growing Up and Living with Technique
1. Our Physical Embodiment within the Relativity of Life and the World
Can We Escape Our Embodiment?
The Great Cultural Divide in the Relativity of Human Life
The Relativity of Our Lives before Screen-Based Devices
The General Relativity of Human Life and the World before Screen-based Devices
2. Our Social and Cultural Embodiment in the Relativity of Human Life in the World
A Hidden Discontinuity
The Artificiality of a Culture
Screens as Magic Portals
Growing Up with Symbolization and Desymbolization
Two Streams of Experiences
Language Acquisition in Anti-Societies with Three Frames of Reference
3. Living with a Dual Relativity beyond Cultural Embodiment
A General Interpretation of Our Dual Relativity
Living and Constructed Entities
The Emergence of Cultural Mediation in a General Relativity
From Cultural to Technical Mediation
The Economy, Art, and the Order of Non-Sense
Making Sense of Non-Sense
4. Mathematics as the Non-Language of Science and Technique
Mathematical Foundations and Truths
The Emergence of a Secular Religious Daily-Life World
Science and Mathematics
Disciplines, Games, and the General Relativity of Human Life
Mathematics as a Discipline
Mathematics, Languages, and Games
Mathematics and Time
Mathematics and Daily Life
Mathematics and Education
Is Mathematics the Secular Religion of Technique?
5. Human Knowing and Discipline-Based Science
Is Our Science Unlike All Others?
Disciplines and Daily-Life Knowing
The Known and the Unknown
Culture and Discipline-Based Science
Science, Reality, and Our Life-Milieu
Physics as a Mathematical Game?
Our Metaphors for Space, Time, Matter, and Numbers
Science, Religion, and Christianity
6. Human Doing, Technique, and the Living of Our Lives
Naming What We Have Lost
Recognizing the Symptoms of What We Have Lost
Absolute and Relative Efficiency
Economics as Technique
Our Daily Lives and the Professions of Technique
Technique and Non-Life
Technique as Response to Relativism, Nihilism, and Anomie
Epilogue: Possessed by Secular Myths
Endangered by Secular Religious Attitudes
Is Humanity Truly against Enslavement?
Notes
Index
Introduction
Suspended in Language and Culture
Attempts at Escaping Our Suspension in Language and Culture
Foundationalism and the Architecture of Non-Life
The Technical Division of Labour and the Architecture of Non-Life
Technique and the Architecture of Non-Life
Technique, the State, and the Law
Growing Up and Living with Technique
1. Our Physical Embodiment within the Relativity of Life and the World
Can We Escape Our Embodiment?
The Great Cultural Divide in the Relativity of Human Life
The Relativity of Our Lives before Screen-Based Devices
The General Relativity of Human Life and the World before Screen-based Devices
2. Our Social and Cultural Embodiment in the Relativity of Human Life in the World
A Hidden Discontinuity
The Artificiality of a Culture
Screens as Magic Portals
Growing Up with Symbolization and Desymbolization
Two Streams of Experiences
Language Acquisition in Anti-Societies with Three Frames of Reference
3. Living with a Dual Relativity beyond Cultural Embodiment
A General Interpretation of Our Dual Relativity
Living and Constructed Entities
The Emergence of Cultural Mediation in a General Relativity
From Cultural to Technical Mediation
The Economy, Art, and the Order of Non-Sense
Making Sense of Non-Sense
4. Mathematics as the Non-Language of Science and Technique
Mathematical Foundations and Truths
The Emergence of a Secular Religious Daily-Life World
Science and Mathematics
Disciplines, Games, and the General Relativity of Human Life
Mathematics as a Discipline
Mathematics, Languages, and Games
Mathematics and Time
Mathematics and Daily Life
Mathematics and Education
Is Mathematics the Secular Religion of Technique?
5. Human Knowing and Discipline-Based Science
Is Our Science Unlike All Others?
Disciplines and Daily-Life Knowing
The Known and the Unknown
Culture and Discipline-Based Science
Science, Reality, and Our Life-Milieu
Physics as a Mathematical Game?
Our Metaphors for Space, Time, Matter, and Numbers
Science, Religion, and Christianity
6. Human Doing, Technique, and the Living of Our Lives
Naming What We Have Lost
Recognizing the Symptoms of What We Have Lost
Absolute and Relative Efficiency
Economics as Technique
Our Daily Lives and the Professions of Technique
Technique and Non-Life
Technique as Response to Relativism, Nihilism, and Anomie
Epilogue: Possessed by Secular Myths
Endangered by Secular Religious Attitudes
Is Humanity Truly against Enslavement?
Notes
Index