And evolutionary biology keeps reminding us that we are animals, designed by natural selection not for discovering deep truths of nature, but for breeding. Einstein’s theory of special relativity prohibits the transmission of matter or even information at speeds faster than that of light quantum mechanics dictates that our knowledge of the micro realm will always be uncertain chaos theory confirms that even without quantum indeterminacy many phenomena would be impossible to predict Kurt Godel’s incompleteness theorem denies us the possibility of constructing a complete, consistent mathematical description of reality. Moreover, science itself, as it advances, keeps imposing limits on its own power. The American science critic, John Horgan, says how the limit of science is going on as follows. Today the limit of science is shown in the world here and there that is, the destruction of natural environment and the collapse of humanity as well as the limit of science itself. Hence, man, who is often symbolized as ‘the son of nature’ or ‘the humanity of internal nature,’ is buried with the destruction of external nature. But, Cartesian ‘universal science’ overemphasized the mechanic view and a technological knowledge and finally mechanic control of natural environment. 4) In other words, in the beginning the spirit of Europe aimed to a kind of balance between organic and mechanic views of nature. And, he attempted to construct ‘universal science.’ However, his idea was dogmatic and was based on a mechanic mythology.

3) Here, the ‘false enlightenment’ means that our knowledge, will, and act are based on the mechanic view of nature by which our intellect becomes insincere.Īccording to Jaspers’ criticism, Descartes did not see the limit of science and forgot its practical aim. Hence, the modern spirit of Europe becomes falling into insincerity. Karl Jaspers once pointed that the modern history of the West has been made with a “false enlightenment.” According to him, the spirit of the modern Europe tended to go ‘either-or’ direction, namely, going into a mechanic view of nature but not a harmonious view. Furthermore, men forget what nature gives us and what freedom they really have to enjoy. But, the problem is the material civilization radically flourished, while the mental civilization is decreased. In other words, its flourishing material growth. Of course, I do not ignore the advantage that capitalism and technology have given us. In the past a thousand years, the fact that capitalism or individualism has been survived among other thoughts means that we gave up our attempt to improve our society with our will.2)Īny body would agree that the crisis of our modern world occurs because of the unlimited enlargement of human beings’ nature, the unlimited economic development, and the accompanying the destruction of environment and the falling-down of our natural humanity. They are nothing but the results of the thought in which we let our nature leave, namely, the give-up of our will. we tend to interpret the word ‘ism’ as an expression of will of human beings….However, capitalism and individualism are not ‘isms’ by which we, human beings, consciously remake our world. The coming 21st century will begin in a chaotic condition with the fever of capitalism and individualism. He is very cynical about the real contribution to our capitalistic and individualistic society. As dinosaurs disappeared in the past, human beings, who reigned during a few million or ten thousand years and ruled this world with their absolute power, would be completely disappeared in the earth too.1)Įven though what he said suggests a direct warning for human beings who live in this modern world, his warning must be seriously considered due to his thoughtful scholarship. I dare to say that human beings would be disappeared just before 3,000 years. Park carefully explained in his heading remarks of the quarterly journal, “Gwahak Sasang”(The Thought of Science) how the West occupied the East, and how the moral civilization of the East has been changed by the Western mechanic civilization and anticipated the situation of the coming 21st century world as follows:

Seonglae Park, who is the famous scholar in the history of science.

I want to begin to write this essay with mentioning Prof. Our Scientific Era and its Doomsday Effect The Role of Zen Buddhism in the Modern Scientific Eraġ.

Zen buddhism