Philosophical aspects of the new evolutionistic paradigms

The evolutionistic paradigm has had a strong extension and refinement in the 150 years from Darwin onward, representing the background as far as the recent neuroscience acquisitions are concerned- not only of all the modern biology and the correlated disciplines, but also of geology, paleontology and modern cosmology. Despite its relevant role such paradigm hasn’t received proper acknowledgment in the philosophic field, though various authors have reached important developments and explanatory and cognitive results thanks to it. We can mention Konrad Lorenz and Karl Popper as two of the most important figures in the current formulation and definition of the “evolutionistic theory of the knowledge”. Such notion of reality has suffered a sort of subordination in respect to the previous philosophical paradigms in which it has been restricted and forced due to some initial controversial evaluations strongly in contrast with western theological speculation, but moreover for its interpretative and objectively innovative capacity. All this has brought to a distortion of the meaning of this powerful idea of the man reality precluding an efficacious use of the innovative and potential contents of such paradigm. The evolutionistic idea is based on two main concepts. First of all on the deep indeterminateness of the evolutive dynamics especially when they are meant at a level of “coarse grained” analysis. This is due to the chaos and the intrinsic complexity and of the subtle, very detailed, evolutive dynamics, which originate from subatomic phenomena where the quantum indeterminateness is in force. Besides, though at higher levels, there is a further chaos coming from the non-linear biological, ethological and ecological processes and to the hereditary and genetic modalities of the living world. All the so called “sensible to the initial conditions systems” converge towards this profound valence of the living world. Secondly on the teleology of the evolutive dynamics. The evolutive-genetic processes analysis doesn’t show any teleonomic element similar to those which, on the contrary, are commonly adopted in various religiously oriented philosophic thoughts. The evolutive processes are connected to an appreciable series of factors so that they originate very complex and univocal, intrinsically unimaginable dynamics. Moreover the modalities through which such dynamics are brought about express a “logic” that is often not compatible with the ones invoked when teleologic “interpretations” of the evolutive processes are proposed in the theistic finalistic metaphysics. Some aspects give an overall idea in which there is no place for the traditionally evoked teleonomic goals made in all the “syncretistic” attempts between biology and theistic ideas; as for example the - not optimised - functionality and architecture of genomes, the recurrent presence of real “project bugs” in the body and organs of various forms of life, the precise nature recurrence to the “blind” evolutive logic of “trial and error”, the contingency of the evolutive courses along “the fitness surfaces” in the end, the natural phenomena dynamic unity in a cosmological field - widely born out by experimental evidences. Contrasts and misinterpretations derive from an imperfect and erroneous evaluation of these deep peculiarities of the evolutive paradigm so that they have conditioned the development of a correct philosophical interpretation of the evolutive thought. The results of some researches carried out in the past allow us to propose new explicative hypotheses in which the evolutive process is presented as no more conditioned by the pre-existent metaphysical aspects; these hypothesis can offer new contents not only as regards anthropology, ethology and other connected disciplines, but above all as to a very important series of strictly philosophical and theological evaluations. Our proposal, in opposition with the traditional philosophic epistemological trend, is characterized by a new approach which generates, “ex novo”, new and unprecedented metaphysical paradigms from the present scientific ideas, better than restricting the present-day scientific thought into earlier and anachronistic metaphysics. In the end, starting from the “knowledge evolutionistic theory”, we arrive at the definition of an original anthropologic profile of man considered as a “sentient entity” on which are centred all the classic philosophical themes and the western theological reflections. This leads to a completely different location of a lot of philosophical aspects which bring to Kant’s thought, to the “a-priori” themes, to the “phenomenon” and “noumenon” concepts proper of his thought and proposes new philosophical developments especially in a theological and metaphysical field. Furthermore, from such hypothesis derive some needs, that we have already analysed, which agree with the distinction between “religions” and “theo-etho-tomies”, explicative positions able to define themes as the consciousness emersion, the authentic origin of our intellectual and personal experiences, in a new theoretic frame coherent with the modern scientific evidences; a frame which allows to get over any dualistic opposition nature/culture, by now, refuted by the modern neurosciences though still firmly and unconsciously confirmed by a great part of the phenomenological thought. The above mentioned “natural” meanings of sentient entity and humanity express themselves in a “genesis” of a new alternative, coherently evolutive-shaped philosophical frame. The reversal of a trend where the evolutive theory foundations and the modern scientific evidences in a biologic ethological field are used to make a neo-synthesis of new/original philosophical models. In conclusion, while the evolutive thought was used to be bent and obliged into inadequate, biological fixedness frames, the new approach opens novel interpretative paths unspoilt by old and anachronistic previous rules. This permits to overcome the interpretative limits due to unfounded theoretic philosophical positions with new modalities: an important epistemological result, relevant for some theological themes.