| Bruce Buchanan, M.D., D Psych., is a physician recently
retired after a career in medical practice, public health, psychiatry, university
teaching, and in governmental policy studies and management, with a lifelong interest in
philosophy and cybernetics. He has been very active in many venues including
Consciousness Studies, Sustainability of Gaia, and Global Social-Dialogue, Gaia
Preservation Coalition, Council on Global Issues, Canadian Association of the Club of
Rome.. He has great analytical clarity, with a penchant for practical applications
of theory ... in diverse topics and areas of substantial human concern. |
A Note of Introduction:
Key to understanding Buchanan's ideas is the recognition that we live in a time of
historic change, and that it is essential for the survival of human civilization that the
problems of adapting human life to the environment be managed successfully. A solution to
this problem requires an appreciation of its fundamental nature, and its relation to the
intellectual revolutions which have produced both science and the modern world.
Since the time of Copernicus and Galileo it has been recognized that the earth is not the
center of the universe, and that the matters that make up the heavens are also those found
on earth. Since the time of Darwin and T.H. Huxley it has been recognized that human
nature is grounded in biological realities. And more recently it has been widely
recognized that the mental and physical (including biological) worlds - what appear to us
as worlds of matter and spirit - belong to one single unitary or non-dualistic world
The questions arise: If we human beings are so thoroughly part of the universe
in which we live, from whence come the Values which guide our lives? What is their
origin, use and justification? It is here proposed that enduring values can only be
grounded in choices among available alternatives, and that systems sciences can illuminate
these conditions. Choices based upon abstract ideals held as unconditional
absolutes, to the extent that they cannot be corrected by experience and learning,
constitute a mojor source of many of our problems.
Buchanan's first three papers discuss these questions on three levels:
(1) *Assessing Human Values* describes the grounds of values in human
existence;
(2) *Values, Systems and Consciousness* explores the implications to this
concept of
values for the processes of
human thought and consciousness; and
(3) *Information Requirements for a Viable World* considers the implications
of
values, feedback and
adequately complex models for the maintenance and positive
development of human civilization.
Comments and suggestions are welcome!
Please email Bruce Buchanan at:
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