Theme of Sophia-Iberia in Europe
Human evolution from its anthropic roots
- The general theme: this is Human Evolution as a general framework which Sophia-Iberia wishes to approach from certain, specific points of view (formal approach) which will be explained below. This begins with the principle that man is like a micro-cosmos which reflects all of reality. Therefore, man and his evolutionary reality cannot be known without the universe and, in turn, the knowledge of the universe requires the essential component which is the knowledge of human reality.
- The anthropic approach: Sophia-Iberia seeks knowledge on human evolution from its anthropic roots. What does this mean? If man has been formed in the evolutionary process, this depends on the nature of matter, of the universe and of life. It depends on certain properties which are called anthropic because they make man possible. Knowing what man is (his nature) and how this nature will affect human and cosmic future depends on the knowledge of his anthropic roots.
- The philosophical or metaphysically neutral sense of the term anthropic is important to note in the context of Sophia-Iberia. This does not necessarily imply a theist understanding, and much less, what is today called intelligent design. We believe that speaking of anthropic roots (or similarly anthropic principles) in this weak sense can be accepted by agnostics, atheists and theists.
- The scientific-philosophical approach: this approach is both scientific and philosophical. To know the roots of human evolution depends on the results of science. However, only the results which can generate consequences regarding the latest philosophical problems arise from the knowledge of man and the universe. Therefore, those results which can generate philosophy of science are interesting. For example, a change in the chemical formula of a determined antibiotic in order to make it more therapeutically effective is a scientific result which does not appear to have philosophical consequences. However, results concerning the nature of matter, of the universe or of life would have, including those which refer to the causes, determination and indeterminacy, biological order, holistic factors regarding matter, the universe and life, etc. Therefore, in Sophia-Iberia strictly scientific communications are of interest which, even though they do not explicitly explain their projection as regards philosophy, do in fact have such a projection. Also of interest are the communications in which scientific results are dealt with and their repercussions on philosophy are explicitly reasoned, either as regards man or the universe. Of course, all the other communications which generally deal with what is known as the philosophy of science: matter, the universe, life, man-neurology and the formal sciences.
- The multidisciplinary approach: as stated above, Sophia-Iberia proposes a multidisciplinary reflection focused on human evolution and its anthropic roots. Therefore, it does not exclude the paleontological or paleoanthropological approach; but is not reduced to this. The focus on human evolution from its roots makes it necessary to have a wider interdisciplinary reflection which connects with the physics of matter, scientific cosmology, biology and neurology, the formal sciences, philosophy, etc.
- The scientific-philosophical-theological approach: the purely scientific (but important for the philosophic) and the scientific-philosophic are, in principle, independent from the theological. However, the Sophia-Iberia approach also involves a final theme: the type of theology which the scientific-philosophical image of human evolution leads to. This thematic approach is also neutral as such as the question can be answered from the standpoint of agnosticism and of atheism (on stating that no type of theology is possible) or theist (and within this, the variety of forms in which theism and its relationship with science should be discussed).
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