The phenomenon of science

Valentin Fedorovich Turchin0231039832, 9780231039833

Valentin Turchin presents in The Phenomenon of Science an evolutionary scheme of the universe-one that begins on the level of individual atoms and molecules, continues through the origin of life and the development of plants and animals, reaches the level of man and self-consciousness, and develops further in the intellectual creations of man, particularly in scientific knowledge. He does not see this development as a purposeful or preordained one, since he accepts entirely the Darwinian law of trial and error. Selection occurs within a set of random variations, and survival of forms is a happenstance of the relationship between particular forms and particular environments. Thus, there are no goals in evolution. Nonetheless, there are discernible patterns and, indeed, there is a “law of evolution” by which one can explain the emergence of forms capable of activities which are truly novel. This law is one of the formation of higher and higher levels of cybernetic control. The nodal points of evolution for Turchin are the moments when the most recent and highest controlling subsystem of a large system is integrated into a metasystem and brought under a yet higher form of control. Examples of such transitions are the origin of life, the emergence of individual selfconsciousness, the appearance of language, and the development of the scientific method.