A PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW OF CIVILIZATION

Abstract

Civilization comprises the dynamic interchange or “transaction” between three open entities—human nature, values and environment, physical and ideal—and can be understood only as their “emergence” or “transcendence.” The scientific and technological age views civilization in East or West largely in the context of man's control and manipulation of nature. The furniture and appurtenances of civilized living, the scaffolding and the frame-work rather than the mansion itself loom larger in the picture. However, the mansion of civilization is represented by the insights, appreciations, values and aspirations of mankind. It is these enduring experiences of the race which embody the essence of civilization and should obtain primary consideration in any adequate treatment. As the philosophy of science and technology makes a tour round the globe, the meanings, appreciations, and values that civilization actually experiences in its orientation to cosmos and to existence as a whole are discounted as metaphysical and religious—irrelevant for modern secular culture.