HUMAN—GENERAL CONCEPT
Chapter 3. Directions for Further Research into the Human Being
Human beings exist in the physical world, possess a body, perceive the reality around them, experience feelings, think, and are capable of consciously determining their own actions.
Yet studying the human body is not the same as studying the human being as a whole.
The body sustains human physical life and interaction with the material environment. Psychic organization is associated with perception, experiences, memory, and inner states. Rationality manifests in the ability to understand what is happening, to be aware of oneself, to set goals, and consciously to change the direction of one’s own activity.
These aspects of human existence are closely connected. Distinguishing them does not yet imply that each exists independently of the organism. At the same time, a description of biological processes does not, by itself, exhaust all questions concerning the human being as a person and a subject.
To advance our understanding, we need to examine several fundamental problems directly related to human origins, the characteristics of human organization, and possible purpose.
1. From Fundamental Questions to a Research Program
The investigation of human nature requires a systematic examination of questions concerning different aspects of human existence.
Some of these questions concern human origins and the emergence of the human being’s complex organization. Others concern the structure of the organism, its capabilities, limitations, and interaction with the surrounding environment. Questions of psychic activity, rationality, self-awareness, and the capacity consciously to determine one’s own actions occupy a special place.
These questions are interconnected, but they are not identical.
Explaining the origin of the human organism does not, by itself, reveal the nature of individual consciousness. Studying physiological processes makes it possible to identify mechanisms of life activity, but does not replace the study of human personality. The possession of particular abilities is not sufficient grounds for concluding that a human being has an originally established purpose.
Further research must therefore be organized so that each problem is examined within the boundaries of its own subject matter, while the results obtained can subsequently be compared with one another.
This requires us to identify the principal areas of work, establish appropriate methods of inquiry, and formulate requirements for the results obtained.
2. Principal Directions of Research
The first direction is the emergence of complex organized systems.
Before investigating the origin of the human being as a highly organized living creature, we must establish the general principles governing the emergence, existence, and development of complex systems.
The subject of this research includes interactions among elements, the formation of stable structures, the emergence of functional connections, mechanisms of self-regulation and reproduction, and transitions to new levels of organization.
It is especially important to distinguish random combinations of elements, physical and chemical self-organization, cumulative development through heredity and selection, and purposeful design.
The task is not to choose one explanation in advance, but to establish the actual capabilities of each mechanism, the conditions necessary for its operation, and the limits of its explanatory adequacy.
The result should be an understanding of which processes can bring about complex organized systems, under what conditions this occurs, and which questions remain open.
The second direction is human origins.
Research into human origins must take account of the distinction between the emergence of the biological organism, the development of psychic capacities, and the formation of rational subjecthood.
The investigation rests on paleontological, genetic, anatomical, archaeological, and other available evidence.
On the basis of this evidence, we must examine existing explanations of human origins, identifying their factual foundations, causal mechanisms, additional assumptions, and testable consequences.
At the same time, the evolutionary history of the human organism, supported by extensive scientific evidence, must be considered with attention to the actual degree to which the relevant propositions have been established.
Hypotheses of intelligent creation, biological design, or combinations of different mechanisms may also be analyzed. However, the mere logical possibility of such an explanation does not constitute evidence that it actually occurred.
The result of this direction should be a system of substantiated propositions about human origins in which established facts are distinguished from reconstructions, hypotheses, and unresolved questions.
The third direction is human biological organization and the environment of human existence.
The subject of investigation is the human body as a living system with particular needs, capabilities, limitations, and mechanisms for interacting with the surrounding environment.
We must establish which conditions ensure the organism’s full functioning and promote the preservation of health, development, and recovery, and which conditions cause excessive strain, forced compensation, and damage.
Particular attention should be given to human physical organization, patterns of movement, climatic conditions, nutrition, work and rest regimes, and age-related features of development.
The results obtained will make it possible to identify the ranges of conditions most favorable to human existence.
However, an investigation of a physiologically favorable environment must be distinguished from a reconstruction of the original conditions of human origins.
A claim that a particular environment actually existed at the beginning of human history requires independent historical, ecological, and other evidence.
The result of this direction should be a substantiated understanding of how human organization corresponds to different conditions of existence and of the limits of its physiological capabilities.
The fourth direction is psychic nature, rationality, and the possible purpose of the human being.
The study of psychic organization should reveal the interrelationships among perception, feelings, needs, memory, thought, and behavior.
A particular task is to investigate self-awareness, will, the capacity for autonomous goal-setting, and the conscious transformation of one’s own activity.
Here we must distinguish the mechanisms of information processing, manifestations of rational behavior, and the question of the nature of the subject who is aware of himself or herself and of his or her own actions.
Research must establish which properties and processes are confirmed by observations, which have substantiated scientific explanations, and which require further philosophical and ontological examination.
The functional orientation of human capabilities forms a separate subject of investigation.
Human beings can use knowledge and acquired capabilities not only to sustain their own existence, but also to create benefits, support the development of others, and transform the surrounding environment.
Within the concept of the Creative Causality Research Center, the unfolding of the inner potential of human essence is understood as the goal of human existence, while becoming an autonomous subject of creative causality is regarded as its possible purpose.
However, it is necessary to distinguish between a goal consciously adopted by a person, the functional capabilities of human nature, and a supposed originally established purpose.
The latter cannot be regarded as established merely on the basis of the existence of corresponding capabilities.
The result of this investigation should be a deeper understanding of the nature of human rationality, the conditions under which an autonomous personality is formed, and the possibilities of creative activity.
3. Research Methods and Principles
No single universal method is equally applicable to the investigation of all these different aspects of human existence.
Anatomical organization can be investigated through direct observation, measurement, and experiment. Human origins require comparison of historical and biological evidence. Psychic processes are studied through behavioral, psychological, and neurophysiological methods. Questions of essence, causality, and purpose also require conceptual and logical analysis.
Nevertheless, differences among methods should not lead to different standards for the reliability of conclusions.
The guiding principle of this work is the consistent distinction between an observed fact, its interpretation, a proposed causal explanation, and conclusions that genuinely follow from the available grounds.
Each hypothesis considered must be evaluated according to its ability to explain established phenomena, remain consistent with reliable knowledge, generate testable consequences, and withstand comparison with alternative explanations.
Testing the completeness of causal explanations is especially important.
The identification of a regularity does not always reveal the cause of its existence. Yet the absence of a known explanation is not grounds for automatically accepting any alternative hypothesis as true.
Where factual evidence is insufficient to support a proposition, that proposition must retain the status of a hypothesis or an open question.
When using mathematical models, we must recognize that a quantitative calculation is reliable only to the extent that its initial data, assumptions, and chosen method of description are justified.
The interconnection of different research directions must be ensured through common requirements for logical consistency, testability, and the distinction between levels of knowledge.
This approach makes it possible to maintain methodological impartiality without artificially equating the evidential strength of different explanations.
4. Expected Results and the Formation of an Integrated Concept of the Human Being
The ultimate task of the proposed program is to formulate a substantiated, integrated concept of the human being.
For this purpose, it is not enough to obtain separate facts about the origin of the organism, its physiological capabilities, psychic processes, and rational activity.
We must establish how the knowledge obtained relates to other findings, which connections among the phenomena under investigation have been confirmed, and which questions have not yet received adequate explanations.
The distinction between general human nature and its individual forms of manifestation is especially important.
A definition of the human being must account for the properties shared by members of the human species without reducing individuality exclusively to differences in biological organization, acquired experience, or behavior.
It must also account for the human capacity for development, the acquisition of new qualities, and conscious participation in transforming the conditions of one’s own existence.
At the same time, an integrated definition must not become a mere enumeration of every known human property.
Its task is to express the most essential foundations characterizing the human being as a distinctive living creature and to establish the relationships among those foundations.
If research provides sufficient grounds to establish the nature of human rationality and subjecthood, the corresponding propositions must enter into this definition. If certain questions remain open, they cannot be replaced by conjectures presented as established facts.
Thus, further work should lead to a coherent system of knowledge encompassing established human properties, the regularities of human organization, substantiated explanations of origins, possibilities for development, and the limits of existing understandings of human nature.
On this basis, it will become possible to proceed systematically from a general concept of the human being to specialized investigations of physiological, psychological, and subjecthood-and-volition organization, and then to the study of the formation and development of human personality.
The principal result should not be the definitive assertion of a preconceived view of the human being, but a definition of human nature in which every essential proposition has a clear foundation, an established meaning, and an appropriate degree of evidential support.