The chapter examines Russian political theorist Aleksandr Dugin’s (b. 1962) challenge to the Western liberal order. Even though Dugin’s project is in many ways a theoretical epitome of Russia’s contemporary attempt to profile itself as a regional great power with a political and cultural identity distinct from the liberal West, Dugin can also be read in a wider context as one of the currently most prominent representatives of the culturally and intellectually oriented international New Right. The chapter introduces Dugin’s role (...) on the Russian right-wing political scene and his international networks, Russian neo-Eurasianism as his ideological footing, and his more recent “fourth political theory” as an attempt to formulate a new ideological alternative to liberalism as well as the two other main twentieth-century ideologies, communism and fascism. Dugin’s fourth ideology, essentially meant as an alternative to a unipolar post–Cold War global hegemony of victorious liberalism, draws inspiration from the German conservative revolutionary movement of the Weimar era. In particular, Martin Heidegger’s philosophy of history, with its thesis of the end of modernity and another beginning of Western thought, and Carl Schmitt’s pluralistic model of geopolitics are highlighted as key elements of Dugin’s eclectic political thought, which is most appropriately characterized as a form of radical conservatism. (shrink)

The most important figure among Russia's radical Marxists was A.A. Bogdanov (the pseudonym of Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Malinovskii). Not only was he the prime exponent of a proletarian cultural revolution; it was Bogdanov's ideas which provided justification for concern for the environment. And his ideas are not only important to environmentalists because they were associated with this conservation movement; more significantly they are of continuing relevance because they confront the root causes of environmental destruction in the present, and offer what (...) is perhaps the only way to overcome these causes. (shrink)

There has been a revived interest in the relevance of Kant's philosophy for contemporary global issues. This paper investigates the extent to which Kant's philosophy can provide grounds for addressing the global issue of climate change, despite his seemingly conservative defense of reform over revolution. First, I argue that Kant's account of societal progress as metamorphosis is compatible with the conception of a green revolution understood as restructuring society toward sustainability. Second, I claim that Kant's evolutionary model (...) of political change offers a helpful framework for thinking about how to transition present societies to more sustainable ones. I conclude with reflections on how Kant's views have applied relevance for climate-related problems. (shrink)

As Putin and Xi push for a “multipolar” world where liberal democracy is just one model among many, their challenge to Western Enlightenment ideals is gaining momentum – fueled by Trump’s second presidency and surging “radical conservativism” in Europe. Finnish philosopher Jussi Backman argues that an anti-liberal theory of reality is on the rise, providing a wide-ranging metaphysical underpinning for would-be geopolitical revolutionaries. Drawing on Heidegger, figures like Aleksandr Dugin – sometimes described as Putin’s philosopher – portray liberal metaphysics as (...) inevitably leading to nihilism, posing a serious ideological challenge that liberals and the left need to take seriously. (shrink)

The paper studies the significance of Martin Heidegger's philosophy of history for two key thinkers of contemporary radical conservatism and the Identitarian movement, Alain de Benoist and Aleksandr Dugin. Heidegger's often-overlooked affinities with the German “conservative revolution” of the Weimar period have in recent years been emphasized by an emerging radical-conservative “right-Heideggerian” orientation. I first discuss the later Heidegger's “being-historical” narrative of the culmination and end of the metaphysical foundations of Western modernity in the contemporary Nietzschean era (...) of nihilism and of an emerging postmodern “other beginning” of Western thinking, focused on historical and cultural relativism and particularism. In Heidegger's work of the 1930s and 1940s, we find attempts to apply this historical narrative to interpreting contemporary geopolitical and ideological phenomena in ways that connect Heidegger to certain central ideas and concerns of the conservative revolutionaries, especially Carl Schmitt's geopolitical particularism. De Benoist, the key name of the French Nouvelle Droite and a founding figure of contemporary Identitarianism, is particularly inspired by Heidegger's reading of Nietzsche as the culmination of the “metaphysics of subjectivity” dominating Western modernity. For de Benoist, this modern metaphysics is the root of the “ideology of the Same” underlying the liberal universalism and individualism that he opposes in the name of a cultural ethnopluralism. De Benoist's Russian disciple Dugin bases the pluralistic geopolitics of his radical-conservative “fourth political theory” on the legacy of the conservative revolution, the key intellectual model of which Dugin discovers in Heidegger's notion of the “other beginning”. (shrink)

Working from within the Lakatosian framework of scientific change, this paper seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the Jesuits’ role in the scientific revolution during the years of Galileo’s trials and the subsequent century. Their received research program was Aristotelian cosmology. Their efforts to construct protective belts to shield the core principles were fueled not only by the basic instinct to conserve but also by the impact of official prohibitions from the side of Church authorities. The paper illustrates (...) how these Church restrictions were not as paralyzing for Jesuit intellectuals as has often been thought. They left considerable space for maneuvering. The paper shows how, within this space, Jesuits were engaged mainly in the indispensable task of exhausting all the potential of Aristotelian cosmology. They did this primarily by trying to build intellectual bridges to ensure coherence between three realms of the cosmological imagination of the time: the received Aristotelian view, the new empirical data, and the realm of everyday experience. (shrink)

The paper discusses this year’s Nobel Prize in physics for experiments of entanglement “establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science” in a much wider, including philosophical context legitimizing by the authority of the Nobel Prize a new scientific area out of “classical” quantum mechanics relevant to Pauli’s “particle” paradigm of energy conservation and thus to the Standard model obeying it. One justifies the eventual future theory of quantum gravitation as belonging to the newly established quantum information (...) science. Entanglement, involving non-Hermitian operators for its rigorous description, non-unitarity as well as nonlocal and superluminal physical signals “spookily” (by Einstein’s flowery epithet) synchronizing and transferring some nonzero action at a distance, can be considered to be quantum gravity so that its local counterpart to be Einstein’s gravitation according to general relativity therefore pioneering an alternative pathway to quantum gravitation different from the “secondary quantization” of the Standard model. So, the experiments of entanglement once they have been awarded by the Nobel Prize launch particularly the relevant theory of quantum gravitation grounded on “quantum information science” thus granted to be nonclassical quantum mechanics in the shared framework of the generalized quantum mechanics obeying rather quantum-information conservation than only energy conservation. The concept of “dark phase” of the universe naturally linked to the very well confirmed “dark matter” and “dark energy” and opposed to its “light phase” inherent to classical quantum mechanics and the Standard model obeys quantum-information conservation, after which reversible causality or the mutual transformation of energy and information are valid. The mythical Big Bang after which energy conservation holds universally is to be replaced by an omnipresent and omnitemporal medium of decoherence of the dark and nonlocal phase into the light and local phase. The former is only an integral image of the latter and borrowed in fact rather from religion than from science. Physical, methodological and proper philosophical conclusions follow from that paradigm shift heralded by this year’s Nobel Prize in physics. For example, the scientific theory of thinking should originate from the dark phase of the universe, as well: probably only approximately modeled by neural networks physically belonging to the light phase thoroughly. A few crucial philosophical sequences follow from the break of Pauli’s paradigm: (1) the establishment of the “dark” phase of the universe as opposed to its “light” phase, only to which the Cartesian dichotomy of “body” and “mind” is valid; (2) quantum information conservation as relevant to the dark phase, furthermore generalizing energy conservation as to its light phase, productively allowing for physical entities to appear “ex nihilo”, i.e., from the dark phase, in which energy and time are yet inseparable from each other; (3) reversible causality as inherent to the dark phase; (4) the interpretation of gravitation only mathematically: as an interpretation of the incompleteness of finiteness to infinity, for example, following the Gödel dichotomy (“either contradiction or incompleteness”) about the relation of arithmetic to set theory; (5) the restriction of the concept of hierarchy only to the light phase; (6) the commensurability of both physical extremes of a quantum and the universe as a whole in the dark phase obeying quantum information conservation and akin to Nicholas of Cusa’s philosophical and theological worldview. (shrink)

When a scientist is the first to perform a difficult type of observation and correctly interprets the result as a significant challenge to then-widely accepted core theories, and the result is later recognized as seminal work in a field of major importance, it is a surprise to find that that work was essentially ignored by the scientific community for thirty years. Such was the fate of the doctoral research on the rotations of the Andromeda Nebula (M31) conducted by Horace Welcome (...) Babcock (1912–2003), who went on to become a very prominent astronomer — in an entirely different sub-field, never working on the subject of his dissertation again. This paper seeks to explain the ‘non-reception’ of Babcock’s work on galactic dynamics and the reasons he did no further work in that sub-field. In particular this paper shows that, contrary to the claims of some commentators, the non-reception of Babcock’s work should not be understood as an example of the unjust treatment of a young scientist by the conservative establishment. (shrink)

To comprehend the special relativity genesis, one should unfold Einstein’s activities in quantum theory first . His victory upon Lorentz’s approach can only be understood in the wider context of a general programme of unification of classical mechanics and classical electrodynamics, with relativity and quantum theory being merely its subprogrammes. Because of the lack of quantum facets in Lorentz’s theory, Einstein’s programme, which seems to surpass the Lorentz’s one, was widely accepted as soon as quantum theory became a recognized part (...) of physics. A new approach to special relativity genesis enables to broaden the bothering “Trinity” group of its creators to include Gilbert N. Lewis. Notwithstanding that the links necessarily existing between all the 1905 papers were obscured by Einstein himself due to the reasons discussed below, Lewis revealed from the very beginning the connections between special relativity and quasi-corpuscular theory of light, as he punctuated: “The consequences which one of us obtained from a simple assumption as to the mass of a beam of light, and the fundamental conservation of mass, energy and momentum, Einstein has derived from the principle of relativity and the electromagnetic theory” (Lewis G.N.& Tolman R.C. “The Principle of Relativity and Non-Newtonian Mechanics”, Philosophical Magazine, 1908). (shrink)

The chapter tackles the complex, tension-ridden, and often paradoxical relationship between relativism and conservatism. We focus particularly on radical conservatism, an early twentieth-century German movement that arguably constitutes the climax of conservatism’s problematic relationship with relativism. We trace the shared genealogy of conservatism and historicism in nineteenth-century Counter-Enlightenment thought and interpret radical conservatism’s ambivalent relation to relativism as reflecting this heritage. Emphasizing national particularity, historical uniqueness, and global political plurality, Carl Schmitt and Hans Freyer moved in the tradition of historicism, (...) stopping short of full relativism. Yet they utilized relativistic elements – such as seeing irrational decisions or the demands of “life” as the basis of politics – to discredit notions of universal political morality and law, thereby underpinning their authoritarian agendas. Oswald Spengler, by contrast, took the relativistic impulses to the extreme, interweaving his conservative authoritarianism and nationalism with full-fledged epistemic, moral, and political relativism. Martin Heidegger has recently been perceived as the key philosopher of radical conservatism, and his thought arguably channeled antimodern aspects of historicism into contemporary political thought. We conclude by analyzing how some radical conservative arguments involving cultural relativism and plurality still reverberate in contemporary theorists such as Samuel Huntington, Aleksandr Dugin, and Alain de Benoist. (shrink)

Is there a political philosophy of conservatism? A history of the phenomenon written along sceptical lines casts doubt on the existence of a transhistorical doctrine, or even an enduring conservative outlook. The main typologies of conservatism uniformly trace its origins to opposition to the French Revolution. Accordingly, Edmund Burke is standardly singled out as the ‘father’ of this style of politics. Yet Burke was de facto an opposition Whig who devoted his career to assorted programmes of reform. In (...) restoring Burke to his original milieu, the argument presented here takes issue with 20th-century accounts of conservative ideology developed by such figures as Karl Mannheim, Klaus Epstein and Samuel Huntington. It argues that the idea of a conservative tradition is best seen as a belated construction, and that the notion of a univocal philosophy of conservatism is basically misconceived. (shrink)

A rejoinder to Harri Mäcklin, "A Heideggerian Critique of Immersive Art".

The paper is concentrated on the special changes of the conception of causality from quantum mechanics to quantum information meaning as a background the revolution implemented by the former to classical physics and science after Max Born’s probabilistic reinterpretation of wave function. Those changes can be enumerated so: (1) quantum information describes the general case of the relation of two wave functions, and particularly, the causal amendment of a single one; (2) it keeps the physical description to be causal (...) by the conservation of quantum information and in accordance with Born’s interpretation; (3) it introduces inverse causality, “backwards in time”, observable “forwards in time” as the fundamentally random probability density distribution of all possible measurements of any physical quantity in quantum mechanics; (4) it involves a kind of “bidirectional causality” unifying (4.1) the classical determinism of cause and effect, (4.2) the probabilistic causality of quantum mechanics, and (4.3) the reversibility of any coherent state; (5) it identifies determinism with the function successor in Peano arithmetic, and its proper generalized causality with the information function successor in Hilbert arithmetic. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Philosophy of Enlightenment and Political Conservatism This study aims at giving an explanatory understanding of conservativism in regard to the philosophy of politics, and at discussing its place and future within our historical period. This study asserts that conservative philosophy of politics came about as a reaction against continental enlightenment, and became a political stance within French Revolution. This artical mainly considers the formation of conservative theory, and the relation between conservativism and the philosophy of enlightenment. (...) Moreover, reactions to the philosophy of enlightenment arisen by religious, romantic and conservative thinkers have also been mentioned. Within the history of western thought, political conservativism emphasizes a serious tradition of thought, assumed to bear a rich philosophical heredity. Moreover, among modern philosophies of politics, it also stresses a highly comprehensive doctrine, and a philosophy of politics which has completely marked our historical period. Keywords: Conservativism, Philosophy of Enlightenment, Edmund Burke, French Revolution. (shrink)

Macaques, commonly classified as wild animals, are often excluded from consideration as companion animals due to prevailing prejudices and institutional frameworks. However, newly emerging observations reveal that some individuals have formed deep, reciprocal emotional bonds with macaques, integrating them, not merely as pets, but as genuine members of the family. This lifestyle appears to bring greater psychological, intellectual and social fulfillment for the macaques, surpassing the well-being of both their wild and captive counterparts, thus contributing to the emergence of more (...) evolved profiles. These cases challenge among others, the dominant long-standing paradigm that macaques “cannot be pets” or “belong only in the wild” rooted in earlier observations of captive macaques suffering neglect and psychological distress, observations which have shaped current legal and ethical assumptions. They highlight a quiet revolution in human-macaque relationships, rooted in mutual understanding, enrichment and fulfillment, deep emotional reciprocity, and argue for distinguishing macaques integrated into families from the conventional notion of “captivity” which fails to reflect their lived experience. Despite growing evidence of healthy, enriched, and mutually fulfilling human-primate relationships, many regulatory bodies, continue to operate under conventional non-inclusive convictions, instead of exhibiting scientific curiosity and ethical reflection. As a result, they would intervene in the name of the law to confiscate well-cared-for macaques, sometimes selectively and without conducting any behavioral or welfare assessments, disrupting their lives, causing trauma, withdrawal, and even fatal outcomes, to which authorities nonetheless remain indifferent and unaccountable. This paper examines the ethical and scientific shortcomings of rigid legal applications and critiques how institutional bias and the unchecked enforcement, particularly through the story of monkeys Kaka, Mit and Puka, can become a mechanism of harm in the name of conservation and the law, no longer serving an intent to protect, but to punish, deriving the law from its original purpose. This is especially problematic when authority is delegated to NGOs or agencies driven by personal or political agendas rather than genuine concern for animal welfare. This review challenges assumptions, urges case-by-case welfare assessments prioritizing bonds and quality of life over rigid legal classification, thus advocates for policy reform that incorporates behavioral indicators into legal processes, highlighting the need to distinguish between fulfillment and distress, as confiscation affects abused and emotionally-bonded macaques differently. It calls for making ethics a legal duty to protect animals from being victimized by punitive practices, It also encourages transparency and recognizes that some human-primate relationships are profoundly beneficial. (shrink)

In this article we scrutinize what can be called an "experimentalist dogma" presupposed in Pablo Melogno's analysis of empirical incommensurability in the chemical revolution. According to Melogno, the fact that experimental methods were preserved throughout the chemical revolution was an indication that there were no relevant perceptual differences between Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier. In order to refine Melogno's general analysis, we will present a taxonomy of varieties of empirical incommensurability and discuss their relationships. To exemplify this categorization, (...) and to show its metatheoretical adequacy, we will apply it to the neuronist revolution, that is, to the process of discovery of the neuron in the late 19th and early 20th centuries within neuroanatomy, taking as our main case study the controversy between Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramón y Cajal. From the analysis of the controversies regarding dendritic spines and stellate cells of the cerebellum, in particular, we question the experimentalist dogma, highlighting how, in these controversies, the conservation of experimental practices does not guarantee the similarity of perceptual contents. Moreover, we will argue that, all other experimental conditions being equal, differences in experiential content between Golgi and Cajal are best explained by differences in their commitments to incompatible conceptual schemes. (shrink)

We argue that the logical outcome of the cladistics revolution in biological systematics, and the move towards rankless phylogenetic classification of nested monophyletic groups as formalized in the PhyloCode, is to eliminate the species rank along with all the others and simply name clades. We propose that the lowest level of formally named clade be the SNaRC, the Smallest Named and Registered Clade. The SNaRC is an epistemic level in the classification, not an ontic one. Naming stops at that (...) level because there is no currently acceptable evidence for clades within it, not because no smaller clades exist. Later, included clades may be named. They would then become the SNaRCs, while the original SNaRC would keep its original name. We argue that all theoretical tasks of biology, in evolution and ecology, as well as practical tasks such as conservation assessment, are better approached using this rankless phylogenetic approach. (shrink)

This chapter critically examines the dominant tradition in formal education as an indirect driver of biocultural homogenization while revealing that there is an alternative tradition that fosters biocultural conservation. The dominant tradition, originating in the Seventeenth Century scientific revolution effected by René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Isaac Newton, John Locke and allied thinkers, privileges science, seen as facilitating the technological domination of the world in the service of economic growth, as the only genuine knowledge. This is at the foundation of (...) a globalized, homogenizing culture that reduces everything and everyone to instruments of the globalized economy. The alternative, now recognized as the Radical Enlightenment, has its roots in the Renaissance. Represented by thinkers such as Giordano Bruno, Giambattista Vico, Gottfried Herder and Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling, it challenges such dogmatic scientism and upholds the value of diverse cultures, past and present. It offers an alternative tradition and model of education fostering imagination, understanding and appreciation of diversity in the quest for wisdom. It is a model of education which engenders respect for and appreciation of the value of different cultures, including indigenous wisdom with very different attitudes to nature, thereby developing the capacity to reflect on, question, criticize and overcome the homogenizing imperialism of mainstream modernist culture. (shrink)

This is the first Italian translation of Bentham’s “Deontology”. The translation goes with a rather extended apparatus meant to provide the reader with some information on Bentham’s ethical theory's own context. Some room is made for so-called forerunners of Utilitarianism, from the consequentialist-voluntarist theology of Leibniz, Malebranche, John Gay, Thomas Brown and William Paley to Locke and Hartley's incompatible associationist theories. After the theoretical context, also the real-world context is documented, from Bentham’s campaigns against the oppression of women and cruelty (...) to animals to his projects of political reform. Another section illustrates the ideas of Bentham's followers as well as the objections raised by nineteenth- and twentieth-century critics of utilitarianism. Table of contents I. BEFORE THE TEXT 1. Bentham’s legacy 2. Bentham the Reformer 3. Bentham and the enlightenment project of a reformed morality 4. The principle of utility 5. Deontology or private morality 6. Utilitarianism as «eudemonologism» II. TEXT Deontology I. Deontology: theoretical II. Deontology: practical III. III. CO-TEXT 1. Biography 2. The reform of legislation 3. The Philosophic Radicals between the French revolution and the Industrial revolution IV. CONTEXT 1. Forerunners of Utilitarianism 2. Psychological associationism 3. The oppression of women 4. Cruelty against animals 5. Parsimony and industry in Hogarth’s prints 6. Followers 6.1. John Stuart Mill 6.2. Henry Sidgwick 7. Critics 7.1. Romantic, conservative, and Christian critics 7.2. Socialist critics 8. Consequences: neo-utilitarianism 9. Consequences: critics of utilitarianism 9.1. Deontological critics 9.2. Perfectionists critics 9.3. Sceptical critics 10. Bentham’s legacy for contemporary ethics, by Bikhu Parekh Bibliography Lexicon Index of names and concepts READER'S GUIDE. (shrink)

While Hegel’s political philosophy has been attacked on the left by republican democrats and on the right by feudalist reactionaries, his apologists see him as a liberal reformer, a moderate who theorized about the development of a free-market society within the bounds of a stabilizing constitutional state. This centrist view has gained ascendancy since the end of the Second World War, enshrining Hegel within the liberal tradition. In this book, Renato Cristi argues that, like the Prussian liberal reformers of his (...) time, Hegel was committed to expand the scope of a free economy and concurrently to ensure that the social practice of subjective freedom did not endanger political stability and order. Aware that a system of mutual advantage failed to integrate the members of civil society and that profound social disharmonies were ineradicable, Hegel adopted the views of the French liberal _doctrinaires_, who sought to realize the principles of the French Revolution by supporting Louis XVIII’s sovereign assertion of the monarchical principle. Not surprisingly, Hegel hailed the French _Charte_ of June 1814 as a beacon of freedom. Endorsement of the monarchical principle was meant to prevent the atomized individuals of civil society from gaining control of the state through appeals to popular sovereignty. This challenges most conventional interpretations of Hegel’s theory of the state and draws it closer to the conservative-authoritarian end of the political spectrum than is usual. (shrink)

-/- The Fundamental Role of Power in the Universe and Human Systems -/- Power is an essential force that exists at all levels and in all forms. It governs the universe, sustains life, and shapes human societies. Whether in physics, biology, governance, or technology, power functions as a driving force that enables systems to operate, adapt, and evolve. However, power must always be balanced—its excess or absence leads to disorder and instability. In this essay, I will explore power’s fundamental role (...) in the universe, how it aligns with natural laws, and why its proper distribution is crucial in both natural and human-made systems. -/- Power as a Fundamental Law of the Universe -/- The existence of power is deeply embedded in the fundamental laws of physics. One of the most well-known principles, the Law of Energy Conservation (First Law of Thermodynamics), states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred or transformed. Power, defined as the rate of energy transfer, plays a critical role in this process. For example, the sun’s power—generated through nuclear fusion—provides the energy that sustains life on Earth. -/- Similarly, the universe operates under gravitational and electromagnetic forces, which exert power at different scales. Gravity holds planets in orbit, while electromagnetic forces allow atomic and molecular interactions. Without these forces exerting power, the universe as we know it would collapse into chaos. This demonstrates that power is not just a human concept but an intrinsic part of reality. -/- Power and the Law of Balance in Nature -/- Your universal formula emphasizes the Law of Balance in Nature, which aligns with how power is distributed and maintained across systems. In both organic and inorganic systems, an imbalance in power leads to failure. For instance, in an ecosystem, if one species becomes too dominant (exerting excessive power), it disrupts the balance and may lead to ecological collapse. Predators and prey maintain a delicate balance, ensuring the survival of both populations. -/- Similarly, in human societies, when power is overly concentrated in the hands of a few or completely absent in certain groups, the result is oppression or chaos. Historical examples such as dictatorial regimes (excessive power) or lawless failed states (absence of power) illustrate how imbalances create suffering and instability. -/- Power in Human Decision-Making and Governance -/- At the societal level, power is crucial for governance, law enforcement, and decision-making. Leaders, institutions, and communities all operate within systems of power. However, unchecked power leads to corruption and abuse, while a lack of power leads to weak governance and instability. -/- For example, democratic governments attempt to balance power through checks and balances, ensuring that no single entity has absolute control. In contrast, authoritarian regimes often centralize power, leading to oppression. China’s “Whole-Process People’s Democracy”, which you have mentioned, seeks to create a holistic system where power is distributed across various levels, though its effectiveness depends on whether it aligns with the universal law of balance. -/- The same principle applies in economic systems. Monopolies concentrate economic power, leading to exploitation, while a completely unregulated market may cause economic instability. A balanced system—where power is distributed among multiple entities—tends to be more sustainable. -/- Power in Technology and AGI -/- Advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and future Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) bring another dimension to power. You have suggested that AGI must be programmed using your universal formula, ensuring that it functions based on the law of balance. -/- Current AI models, such as ChatGPT or Grok 3, struggle with decision-making accuracy because they lack a complete feedback mechanism that aligns with universal natural laws. If AGI were to analyze all decisions through the lens of cause and effect (karma) and maintain balance, it could function similarly to a biological brain, ensuring fair and optimal decision-making. -/- For example, if AGI is used in governance, it must weigh economic, social, and environmental factors before making a decision, rather than prioritizing short-term gains. Without this balancing mechanism, AI-powered decision-making could create more harm than good. -/- Examples of Power in Various Forms -/- 1. Nature: -/- The sun’s power fuels all life on Earth. -/- Gravitational power holds galaxies together. -/- Ecosystem power balance ensures species survival. -/- 2. Human Systems: -/- Political power determines governance effectiveness. -/- Economic power influences wealth distribution. -/- Social power shapes movements and revolutions. -/- 3. Technology: -/- Electric power runs modern civilization. -/- Computational power advances AI and data processing. -/- AGI power could reshape decision-making and ethics. -/- Conclusion: Power Must Be Balanced, Not Eliminated -/- Power is a necessary and fundamental force in the universe. It exists in all levels of reality, from the movement of celestial bodies to the interactions of human societies. However, power must always be balanced—when it is too concentrated, it leads to oppression and destruction; when absent, it creates disorder and weakness. -/- Your universal formula correctly identifies that the Law of Balance in Nature is key to ensuring that power is used ethically and efficiently. Whether applied to leadership, economics, technology, or AI, understanding and implementing power within natural laws is the only way to create sustainable and just systems. -/- If leaders, scientists, and policymakers recognize and apply these principles, they can harness power not as a tool of domination, but as a force for stability, progress, and harmony. The future of human civilization depends on mastering this balance. -/- . (shrink)

A World Without Poverty: Applying the Universal Law of Balance in Nature -/- Introduction -/- Poverty is not a natural condition but a direct result of wrong decision-making that has ignored the universal law of balance in nature. Despite technological advancements and abundant resources, billions of people suffer from hunger, lack of healthcare, unemployment, and poor living conditions. The root cause of this suffering lies in imbalances in wealth, resources, population, environment, education, governance, and labor, all of which stem from (...) decisions based on false information, greed, and short-term thinking. -/- Moreover, the consequences of wrong decision-making extend beyond poverty. Imbalances create conflicts, social unrest, and major wars as societies compete over limited resources, power, and wealth. If humanity had applied the universal law of balance from the beginning, the world could have prevented not only poverty but also many historical conflicts and wars. This essay explores how wrong decision-making violates natural balance, leading to poverty, conflict, and war—and how applying the universal law of balance could have created a more peaceful and prosperous world. -/- The Role of Correct Information in Decision-Making -/- One of the biggest reasons poverty, conflict, and war exist is because societies have made decisions based on false, incomplete, or manipulated information. When leaders and institutions ignore truth, science, and rational thinking, they create imbalances that harm societies. Some key consequences of wrong information in decision-making include: -/- 1. Economic policies that favor the elite, creating wealth gaps that lead to revolution and unrest. -/- 2. Overexploitation of natural resources, leading to food shortages, climate change, and displacement of communities. -/- 3. Corrupt political decisions, resulting in dictatorship, oppression, and rebellion. -/- 4. Religious and ideological extremism, causing violent conflicts based on misinformation. -/- 5. Militarization and unnecessary wars, driven by propaganda rather than rational diplomacy. -/- If humanity had prioritized correct knowledge, scientific reasoning, and ethical decision-making, many of history’s greatest conflicts—along with the poverty they created—could have been avoided. -/- How Wrong Decisions Create Imbalances That Lead to Poverty, Conflict, and War -/- Poverty, conflict, and war did not occur naturally—they are direct results of wrong decisions that ignored balance. These decisions created major global imbalances, leading to inequality, suffering, and destruction. -/- 1. Economic Imbalance: Extreme Wealth Concentration Leads to Revolutions -/- Wrong Decision: Allowing unregulated capitalism and corrupt governments to concentrate wealth in the hands of a few. -/- Effect: Economic inequality fuels resentment, leading to violent revolutions and class wars. -/- Example: The French Revolution (1789) was caused by extreme wealth inequality. The monarchy and aristocracy controlled all resources, while the poor struggled to survive. This led to mass uprisings, executions, and civil war. -/- 2. Resource Imbalance: Overexploitation Leads to Resource Wars -/- Wrong Decision: Overexploiting natural resources instead of managing them sustainably. -/- Effect: Countries fight over limited resources, leading to wars, invasions, and territorial disputes. -/- Example: The Iraq War (2003) was largely influenced by oil interests. Instead of investing in renewable energy, global powers fought for control of Iraq’s oil reserves, leading to destruction and economic collapse. -/- 3. Population Imbalance: Overpopulation Causes Social Unrest -/- Wrong Decision: Ignoring the relationship between population growth and available resources, leading to overcrowded cities and slums. -/- Effect: High unemployment, poverty, and crime increase, leading to violent uprisings. -/- Example: The Arab Spring (2010-2012) began as protests over unemployment and poverty in overpopulated countries like Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria. It led to government collapses, civil wars, and massive refugee crises. -/- 4. Environmental Imbalance: Climate Change Causes Wars Over Survival -/- Wrong Decision: Destroying forests, polluting water sources, and overfishing for short-term economic gain. -/- Effect: Droughts, food shortages, and mass migrations force nations into conflicts over survival. -/- Example: The Syrian Civil War (2011-present) was worsened by a climate-induced drought that forced rural populations into cities, increasing tensions and contributing to violent conflict. -/- 5. Educational Imbalance: Ignorance and Misinformation Fuel War and Extremism -/- Wrong Decision: Underfunding education and spreading propaganda instead of critical thinking. -/- Effect: People are easily manipulated into war and violence based on false ideologies. -/- Example: Nazi Germany used false racial theories and propaganda to justify war and genocide, leading to World War II (1939-1945). Had people been educated in critical thinking and ethics, they might have resisted such dangerous ideologies. -/- 6. Political Imbalance: Corrupt Leadership Leads to War and Oppression -/- Wrong Decision: Leaders prioritizing power and greed over human welfare. -/- Effect: Dictatorships, oppression, and civil wars. -/- Example: World War I (1914-1918) was caused by political greed and imperialist ambitions, leading to millions of deaths and widespread poverty. -/- 7. Labor Imbalance: Worker Exploitation Leads to Revolutions and Strikes -/- Wrong Decision: Allowing corporations to exploit workers while keeping profits concentrated at the top. -/- Effect: Poor working conditions lead to strikes, protests, and violent uprisings. -/- Example: The Russian Revolution (1917) was triggered by poor working conditions, low wages, and food shortages, leading to the collapse of the Russian monarchy and the rise of the Soviet Union. -/- How the Universal Law of Balance Could Have Prevented Poverty, Conflict, and War -/- If the universal law of balance in nature had been applied, humanity would have: -/- 1. Used Correct Information to Make Rational Decisions -/- Governments would have made policies based on science, fairness, and sustainability, not propaganda. -/- Example: Nordic countries (Denmark, Norway) use fact-based governance, leading to economic stability and low poverty rates. -/- 2. Balanced Economic Systems -/- Wealth would have been distributed fairly instead of accumulating in the hands of a few. -/- Example: Switzerland has balanced capitalism with social protections, avoiding economic collapses and revolutions. -/- 3. Managed Resources Sustainably -/- Instead of overexploitation, societies would have invested in renewable energy and conservation. -/- Example: Costa Rica has preserved forests and developed eco-tourism, avoiding conflicts over resource scarcity. -/- 4. Controlled Population Growth to Match Resources -/- Governments would have balanced population growth through education and healthcare policies. -/- Example: Thailand used education and healthcare investment to stabilize its population and economy. -/- 5. Provided Universal Access to Education -/- People would have been educated on critical thinking, ethics, and sustainability. -/- Example: Finland offers free education, ensuring that people are informed and less vulnerable to war propaganda. -/- 6. Established Just and Accountable Governments -/- Leaders would have been scientifically trained in governance, ethics, and sustainability, preventing corruption. -/- Example: Switzerland’s decentralized system ensures fair leadership and stability. -/- 7. Ensured Fair Labor Practices -/- Workers would have received fair wages and benefits, preventing revolutions and mass strikes. -/- Example: Germany’s labor laws ensure that workers are well-paid, reducing poverty and social unrest. -/- Conclusion -/- Poverty, conflict, and war are not natural—they are consequences of wrong decisions based on false information, greed, and short-term thinking. Had humanity followed the universal law of balance in nature, we would have created a world with economic fairness, sustainable societies, and peace. By ensuring correct knowledge in decision-making, fair wealth distribution, environmental conservation, and ethical leadership, poverty and war could have been prevented. The future still depends on whether we choose to restore balance—or repeat the mistakes of the past. -/- . (shrink)

In Origin of the German Trauerspiel, Benjamin offers a “natural history” of Baroque sovereignty. This paper examines how the Baroque allegory of nature, implied in the natural history approach, informs Benjamin’s legal critique and analysis of Fascism. I begin by discussing Benjamin’s historico-philosophical approach to law and justice in “Critique of Violence,” where the evocation of natural history occurs against the backdrop of Benjamin’s rejection of any affirmative concept of natural right. This negative criticism is shown to have originated in (...) Trauerspiel, where natural history as a method contains the discoveries Benjamin made about the 17th-century Baroque allegory of nature in philosophical, theological, and aesthetic terms. The portrayal of nature as fallen, transient, and positivized informs Benjamin’s theory of Baroque sovereignty and his understanding of the fate of legal positivism. At the crux of this paper, I show that this conservative-revolutionary hermeneutics enables a profound understanding of reactionary political phenomena from the 19th-century Romantic counter-revolution and restoration to the 20th-century Fascist triumph of legal positivism. In particular, Benjamin’s natural history reveals the origins of Schmitt’s total state in these persisting tendencies with origins in the political theory of the 17th-century absolute monarchy. However, regardless of the metaphysical depth of Benjamin’s natural history of Baroque sovereignty, his dismissal of the natural right tradition leads him to pit fallen positive law against redemptive utopianism in a way that fails to expound any realizable just ends. I conclude that the limitation of this approach, which is reflected in antinomian interpretations of Benjamin, can be remedied with an expanded program of natural history that calls forth the materialist dialectical critique of historical contradictions of rational natural right without rejecting it. (shrink)

Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morality suggests aristocracies inadvertently produce a dangerous “slavish” counter-type of moral agency grounded in resentment and exhibiting a morality of resignation. Throughout the text, he conflates biological and political registers, speaking of human types as “species” (die Spezies) and classes as “races” (die Rassen), thus implying all human kinds are socially constructed and that their primary cause is political organization. It’s in this sense that Nietzsche is a “radical aristocrat.” Against the conservative view that (...) social hierarchy mirrors a fixed order in nature, he recognizes hierarchies create the types they seek to preserve, precisely against natural contingency. This poses a practical dilemma for aristocracies: how maintain an underclass without provoking the slavish psychology and morality that undermine aristocratic values? In other texts, Nietzsche develops an answer with his interpretation of the Hindu law of Manu. Every aristocracy must create the illusion that classes are natural castes rather than political constructions. Caste-systems are cultural and ideological institutions designed to protect class-systems by giving class identities the appearance of fixed “species”: deeply-internalized forms of psychology and moral agency that reinforce class positions by being more rigidly-defined and easily socially recognized. In The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon subversively redirects this theory away from Nietzsche’s reactionary aims toward revolutionary ones, applying its logic to the racialized hierarchy of colonization. Fanon also blurs the line between the social and biological, referring to colonizer and colonized as different “species” (espèces) and suggesting social position causes class-groups to develop the deep psychological and moral identities characteristic of castes. For Fanon, race is the primary way colonized societies materially support caste-ideology. Though socially-determined, race-concepts are anchored in visible differences, giving the class position of the colonized a false appearance of naturalness. However, against Nietzsche, who blames the oppressed for slave morality, Fanon insists “the colonizer creates the colonized.” Slavish psychology originates in the ruling class who, to save their good conscience, reinterpret privilege as merit by adopting a Manichean view of the colonized as essentially evil, leading to deep-seated hatred for them as a racialized caste. The colonizers’ primary psychology of resentment in turn produces a secondary psychology of resentment among the colonized, shaping both into opposing “species,” identities grounded in each other’s exclusion, pressing the colonized not (as Nietzsche thinks) toward moral revolt but toward political revolution. Fanon’s critical reconstruction of Nietzsche’s caste-theory has three important consequences. First, Nietzsche’s analysis implies, against his own hopes, that aristocracies necessarily produce their own downfall. Second, if race is politically constructed as a disguised form of class, racism cannot be overcome independently of the class structures it was created to disguise. However, third, if caste-systems produce not just racist attitudes, practices, and social structures but also the racist as a species of psychological identity grounded in resentment, then while class politics can resolve racism’s historical origins, it will not prevent its continuation among existing members of that type. Consequently, anti-racist politics cannot be reduced to issues of either class or race alone. (shrink)

In a recent article in Commonweal, Carlo Lancellotti presents the unusual and prescient perspective of Italian-Catholic philosopher Augusto Del Noce on the social and political trends that manifested themselves across the West in the tumultuous events of 1968. In this paper I shall support Del Noce's thesis in two ways. First, I shall summarize then-Professor Joseph Ratzinger's reactions to 1968 and relate them to the conclusions of Del Noce and others Lancellotti cites. While Lancellotti does not cite Ratzinger, what motivated (...) the latter's shift away from "progressivism" toward a more conservative reception of Vatican II well illustrates Del Noce's thesis. I shall then argue at greater length than Lancellotti, whose purpose is primarily expository, that Del Noce's perspective, while needing qualification and expansion in light of what has happened since his death, is essentially correct. (shrink)

This book is Volume IV of the four-volume EQT theory series. In September 1820, at the University of Copenhagen, Professor Ørsted's wire accidentally deflected a magnetic needle. This perturbation unveiled electromagnetic unification yet planted physics' deepest enigma: what transmits force across the void? Maxwell wove fields with partial differentials, Einstein reshaped spacetime via light-speed constancy, Feynman depicted interactions via virtual photons. Yet, gazing at electron cloud fluctuations or CMB anisotropy, a core question persists: what ontology underlies these structures? -/- This (...) book concludes the four-volume Energy Quantum Theory (EQT) epic. Prior volumes unified strong/weak forces, reconstructed gravity, tamed dark universe. Now, electromagnetism—physics' most precise (QED 10^{-12}), widespread (chips to telescopes), consistent (Maxwell 160 years). Precision ≠ profundity, consistency ≠ truth. Goal: not revise theories, but answer century-old query—under unified ontology, electromagnetic dynamical origin? -/- 1. Ontological Revolution: Attributes to Processes Physics views charge/mass as intrinsic, fields basic. EQT revolution: all emerge from energy quantum density \rho(\mathbf{r}, t). Classical/QED success projects master equation in EM band (f \in [10^{15},10^{20}] Hz): -/- \partial \rho_f / \partial t = k(f)\rho_f^2 - D(f)\nabla^2 \rho_f - \Gamma(f)\rho_f + S(f) + \mathcal{N}(f) -/- k(f)\propto f^2, D(f)\propto f^{-1}, \Gamma(f)\propto f. Four interpretations: -/- 1.1 Charge: Gradient Freezing Topology Not attribute, but CMB deviation (\rho_0^{EM}=410 cm^{-3}): q = e_0 \int_{V_{int}} (\rho_f^{EM} - \rho_0^{EM}) dV Quantization from phase topology \oint \nabla \phi_f \cdot d\mathbf{l}=2\pi n and resonance R_c=\sqrt{D(f)/k(f)\rho_0}—universe cools to electroweak, field traps in double-well, freezes \pm e. -/- 1.2 Fields: Gradient-Curl Symphony - Electric: \mathbf{E} = -(\hbar/2m_f)\nabla \rho_f^{EM}, homogenization direction; - Magnetic: \mathbf{B} = \nabla \times (\mu_0 \int -D(f)\nabla \rho_f^{EM} dt), phase curl projection. Maxwell from \partial_t \rho_f + \nabla \cdot \mathbf{J}_f=0; 1/r^2 3D flux geometry. -/- 1.3 Virtual Photons: Fluctuation Tapestry QED photons = field fluctuation: \langle \mathcal{N}(f)\mathcal{N}(f')\rangle = (4\alpha \hbar c/\pi^2 \varepsilon_0) f^4 \delta(f-f')\delta^3(\mathbf{r}-\mathbf{r}')\delta(t-t') Coulomb: gradient response—electron-proton, \rho_f redistributes 10^{-15} s, screens/binds—no exchange, field evolution. -/- 1.4 Polarity: Phase Transition Gift Early universe symmetric; H(t)\sim k(f)\rho_f, nonlinear triggers transition, falls to \rho_f > \rho_0 (positive) or < (negative). Neutrality: \int (\rho_f - \rho_0)dV=0—same field topologies. -/- 2. Chapters: Micro to Macro - Ch2: Charge ontology, q=e from n=1; - Ch3: Phase as quanta timestamp, unifies AB/superconductivity; - Ch4: States—condensed (mass), bound (atoms), free (photons); - Ch5: Field gradients derive Maxwell; - Ch6: Confinement law, EM shells/strong strings homology; - Ch7: Transitions conserve energy, ionization/recombination; - Ch8: Roadmap—XFEL to CMB. Appendix: EQT-Solver, calibration, mappings—computable/falsifiable/applicable. -/- Conclusion: Physics' Intent Ørsted saw nature's refusal of silence—void active with flows. EQT restores EM from calculation to why. Lightning: not electron flow, \rho_f gradient balance; not void mystery, 13.8B-year energy slice. Measure field folds, manipulate gradient dance. Dedicated to ``why'' seekers. Physics answers: why stars visible? In photon gradients, phase topologies, creation fluctuation— All gradients, spacetime spectrum. (shrink)

Introduction to Understanding Law -/- It's been 30 years since I began my career as a scholar at one local university in South Korea. As I approach an age of retirement, I've been spending more time reflecting on my life. Over the reflections, it was impressive that a professor of commercial law ogled the audience of big classroom about German legal philosopher, who proposed that the ultimate objective of law is presumed to pursue a predictability and legal stability. An experience (...) on my undergraduate days had been stupendous within the legal thought of Hans Kelsen and Hart, who adduced that the inherent nature of law is about hierarchy and authority. The years of graduate studies had exposed me to the prodigious world of Jellinek's law and social sciences. As a professor, I studied the politics and constitutional law, grappling with a churning of Karl Schmitt's determinism and the ideals of integrationist view propounded by Rudolf Smend. Later in the professional career, it had been hyped with a realistic meaning squinnied with such utopian thought of Kant and Duguit's, who asserted that law should be supreme about people and philosophy. These days, I am unfeigned to find a self filled with a sense of remoteness and self-loathing. My career life as a law professor had been devoted to seek a veracity of law in the two-dimensional world of analytical and normative jurisprudence concerning the constitutional and international laws. While I regret if I had been dilatory and less talented over thirty years of law professorship, a desire to construct a bit of meaning suddenly struck me. It is solely due to a grace of god on health and family consort that I recollected past writings into a book despite a sense of shallow knowledge and modest abilities. As common with the scholars, this amazing reward of publishing a piece of work had also been indebted to the precious comment and criticism as well as, in no small part, ascribed to the support of fellow scholars on the faculty of law and juridical science -/- Not only the great teachers of law at Seoul National University Law School, especially Kwon Young-seong and Kim Cheol-soo, but also Professor Seong Seung-hyeon on the Roman and Civil Laws at Chonnam National University Law School; Professor Kim Yeon-mi, president of the Korean Society of Legal Philosophy, who generously provided me with a hard-to-find copy of Herbert Hart; and Professor Lee Yeong-rok, who always had been kind and adamant as a paragon of scholarship and a model for researchers. It is difficult to mention in this book, a countless number of thankful scholars, notwithstanding distinguished international pundits, who had assisted, inspired and influenced squarely over the years of professional career. -/- In publishing this book, one teacher who cannot be left out is the late Professor Choi Hong-yeop, who passed away recently. When I first took office, we laughed together, saying, "International trade law is private law, but international trade law is public law, right?" My juniors, who shared my lifelong journey as environmental activists, reminded me of the red leaves of a mountain full of crimson leaves, reminding me of the love of my fellow countrymen and the sentiments of old age, saying, "Our homeland is both South and North Korea." Even amidst the material abundance of the ever-growing South Korea, our humble moments spent with the North Korean people, the window between the two Koreas. Looking back, a deep sorrow pierces my heart. Professor Choi, a native of Gwangju, studied abroad in Seoul for many years, and despite numerous choices, returned to Chosun University with a noble spirit of "Let's nurture future generations in our hometown!" He became a lifelong scholar, a figure of respect for his students, and a role model for his fellow professors. -/- This book is sparse but comprehensive. While there are many influential scholars on the subject, it is limited in that I approached the topic through the lens of a limited number of scholars I encountered over a short period of two or three years. Furthermore, like Chapter 1, "Roman Law," this book has limitations in that it selectively and concisely covers the vast topic of Roman law and its influence. Nevertheless, this book is written from a comprehensive and holistic perspective to facilitate an easy understanding of law. For example, public law scholars focus on democratic politics and the rule of law, but rarely pay attention to Roman law. Nevertheless, Roman law serves as the origin of modern legal knowledge and legal systems. Public law scholars, preoccupied with Anglo-American democracy, political philosophy, or legal philosophy, rarely have the opportunity to reflect on Roman law. However, the legacy of Roman law, developed by British and French jurists, and particularly in Germany, the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, is undeniably the sole legacy of jurists. -/- As with all disciplines, legal philosophy is essential to understanding law. The two most prominent legal philosophical approaches are legal positivism and natural law theory. While these two philosophical schools of thought can trace their origins back to Socrates's Hemiptera, scholars generally view them as philosophical schools of law that emerged alongside the development of modern democracy. Legal positivism contributed to the scientificization of law, while natural law theory contributed to the development of justice and democratic values within the framework of politics and law. This book goes beyond simply introducing these two philosophical schools of law. Its inclusion of the American written constitution and the British unwritten constitution, in relation to the establishment of a democratic legal system, is intended to be comprehensive and promote a holistic understanding of legal systems. -/- Particularly noteworthy is Montesquieu's The Spirit of Law and the greatness of the New World jurists who were influenced by his work. While the design of institutions is a matter of the aesthetics of legal scholars, as the title suggests, this book is a remarkable work that vividly illustrates the relationship between politics and law, and what law is, more than any other legal philosopher. While he is often categorized as a conservative thinker due to his sharp focus on the design of legal systems, his influence on emerging democracies, legal scholars, and jurists has been profound. Montesquieu can be contrasted with the British constitutional philosopher Albert Dicey, who believed that law is about personality rather than institutions. While it falls short of specialized expertise, Chapter 5's brief discussion of the legal philosophies of neighboring social scientists serves as a comprehensive and comprehensive overview of the book. Therefore, this book could be classified as a specialized textbook on law rather than a specialized legal text. -/- I owe a great debt to Professor Sung Seung-hyun for Chapter 1, "Roman Law." Through the dinner debate at the famous chicken stew restaurant Gwangil Restaurant and the discussion of Roman law, I, a public law professor immersed in the theory of natural rights and rights-centered democratic legal philosophy, have found the joy of encountering another facet of law: the world of technical and neutral dimensions. Perhaps I felt like I was moving from Descartes to Vico. Pacta sund servanda, the Pandect system, and countless other Roman law maxims seemed to awaken the souls of legal scholars. -/- Chapter 2, Legal Positivism, was influenced by the simplicity and practicality of the neighborhood lawyers I encountered in my daily life. Bentham's criteria of utility, based on the inner nature of human beings and pleasure and pain, free from the constraints of religion and philosophy that dominated the Middle Ages, serve as a philosophy of life for neighbors and lawyers in the world of common law. As mentioned in the text, Hart contrasts Jeremy Bentham with Karl Marx. Marx's harsh criticism of Bentham, saying he resembled an ordinary, unassuming English shopkeeper, evokes the image of ordinary neighborhood lawyers. Nevertheless, Jeremy Bentham, a lawyer with a small, store-like office, offers a crucial philosophical yardstick through the everyday life of the rule of law. Jeremy Bentham's simple truths about law predicted the collapse of the established system of the time, like the Ancien Regime, and, as he himself said, will continue to serve as a benchmark for social criticism and institutional reform for generations to come. This, of course, stems from his human-centered philosophy, and he had a significant influence on British criminal law reform. However, the fact that he was so staunchly critical of American independence demonstrates that, despite being a great philosopher and criminal law scholar, he was ultimately a British citizen. In short, as someone who lived through the new democratic eras of American independence and the French Revolution, his insight into human nature through his criminal law philosophy deeply imprinted utilitarianism, revolutionary thinking, and reformist spirit, and will continue into the AI era. His greatness is evident not only through his extensive writings, but also in the efforts of Mill and Hart, two leading scholars of democracy and the rule of law, to evaluate and overcome him. Within this context, Chapter 2 is designed to provide a glimpse into the true nature of democracy and the rule of law through biographies of John Stuart Mill and Herbert Hart. -/- Chapter 3 of this book addresses the issues of natural law theory and the democratic system. As mentioned earlier, the modern democratic system was built on the foundations of the Glorious Revolution in England, the American War of Independence, and the French Revolution. British traditionalism and the unwritten constitution can be examined through the lens of Albert Dicey. The legal philosophy of the French Revolution is significant in many ways, but examples include the Napoleonic Five Codes, the establishment of the Supreme Administrative Court, and the tradition of administrative centrality. -/- These aspects of the modern French legal system are particularly significant from the perspective of democratic legal systems and system building. They naturally contrast with Albert Dicey, a constitutional scholar who championed the unwritten constitutional tradition and championed the political value of the constitution. This chapter will examine his praise for British liberalism and the parliamentary tradition, as well as his critique of the French administrative state. This can be translated into the practicality of administrative law, embodying the ideals of the Constitution and its implementation, or the Anglo-American constitutional state, embodying liberal ideals, and the practicality of administrative law, embodying and pursuing socialist values. This will provide public law scholars with a philosophical opportunity. -/- Meanwhile, the American independence and the enactment of the Federal Constitution left another significant mark on the history of global democracy. Particularly for countries with presidential constitutions, the United States is the motherland of democracy. The US Constitution embodies the spirit of the Montesquieu-style separation of powers, characterized by political power integration and exclusion, and separation and checks. This ideological background is well-articulated in the Federalist Papers. Although only a small portion of this ideological background is explored, we will delve into the legal philosophy of the founders of this new continent. -/- Chapter 4 of this book, titled "Rediscovering Legal Philosophy," includes reflections on the legal philosophy of Sean Coyle of the University of Glasgow and Scott Shapiro of Yale Law School, two leading British and American legal philosophers. As Sean Coyle's book "Modern Jurisprudence" and Scott Shapiro's book "Legality" suggest, modern legal philosophy is becoming specialized, centered around legal positivism, natural law theory, analytical law, and normative law. With law schools recently being reduced to bar exam preparation institutions, and with the marginalization of non-mainstream subjects like legal philosophy, I worry that, as with all academic disciplines, unless philosophy is predicated, future lawyers will inevitably become legal technicians or legal idiots. Faced with a reality where lawmakers are blind to political principles and entrenched in legal texts, and where impeachment clauses are used to impose dozens of impeachments in a short period of time, we need to reflect on whether law has become a tool of political power. -/- The final chapter, Chapter 5, examines the philosophy of law and legal issues in the postmodern era, focusing on social scientists. Although selective and superficial, I hope this book provides a valuable opportunity to appreciate the developments in legal philosophy since World War II. Rawls, Nozick, and others demonstrate that "rights-based democracy" remains the dominant political philosophy in Western democracies. Furthermore, Walzer and Sandel have significantly influenced legal thought, facilitating an understanding of the liberal and communitarian philosophies of the United States, a leading democracy. In Germany, Jellinek achieved remarkable success by integrating the rigidity of legal scholarship with the scientific nature of social science. Furthermore, Radburg, under the banner of value jurisprudence, shifted from the absoluteness of law to the relativity of law and presented the inherent social function of law as legal certainty and predictability. This approach has had a profound impact on jurisprudence in Southern Europe and South America, and under the banner of the WTO's rule of law, it serves as a guide for lawyers worldwide. My humble hope is that this book will serve as a useful beacon for understanding law and legal philosophy. (shrink)

Introduction to Understanding Law -/- It's been 30 years since I began my career as a scholar at one local university in South Korea. As I approach an age of retirement, I've been spending more time reflecting on my life. Over the reflections, it was impressive that a professor of commercial law ogled the audience of big classroom about German legal philosopher, who proposed that the ultimate objective of law is presumed to pursue a predictability and legal stability. An experience (...) on my undergraduate days had been stupendous within the legal thought of Hans Kelsen and Hart, who adduced that the inherent nature of law is about hierarchy and authority. The years of graduate studies had exposed me to the prodigious world of Jellinek's law and social sciences. As a professor, I studied the politics and constitutional law, grappling with a churning of Karl Schmitt's determinism and the ideals of integrationist view propounded by Rudolf Smend. Later in the professional career, it had been hyped with a realistic meaning squinnied with such utopian thought of Kant and Duguit's, who asserted that law should be supreme about people and philosophy. These days, I am unfeigned to find a self filled with a sense of remoteness and self-loathing. My career life as a law professor had been devoted to seek a veracity of law in the two-dimensional world of analytical and normative jurisprudence concerning the constitutional and international laws. While I regret if I had been dilatory and less talented over thirty years of law professorship, a desire to construct a bit of meaning suddenly struck me. It is solely due to a grace of god on health and family consort that I recollected past writings into a book despite a sense of shallow knowledge and modest abilities. As common with the scholars, this amazing reward of publishing a piece of work had also been indebted to the precious comment and criticism as well as, in no small part, ascribed to the support of fellow scholars on the faculty of law and juridical science -/- Not only the great teachers of law at Seoul National University Law School, especially Kwon Young-seong and Kim Cheol-soo, but also Professor Seong Seung-hyeon on the Roman and Civil Laws at Chonnam National University Law School; Professor Kim Yeon-mi, president of the Korean Society of Legal Philosophy, who generously provided me with a hard-to-find copy of Herbert Hart; and Professor Lee Yeong-rok, who always had been kind and adamant as a paragon of scholarship and a model for researchers. It is difficult to mention in this book, a countless number of thankful scholars, notwithstanding distinguished international pundits, who had assisted, inspired and influenced squarely over the years of professional career. -/- In publishing this book, one teacher who cannot be left out is the late Professor Choi Hong-yeop, who passed away recently. When I first took office, we laughed together, saying, "International trade law is private law, but international trade law is public law, right?" My juniors, who shared my lifelong journey as environmental activists, reminded me of the red leaves of a mountain full of crimson leaves, reminding me of the love of my fellow countrymen and the sentiments of old age, saying, "Our homeland is both South and North Korea." Even amidst the material abundance of the ever-growing South Korea, our humble moments spent with the North Korean people, the window between the two Koreas. Looking back, a deep sorrow pierces my heart. Professor Choi, a native of Gwangju, studied abroad in Seoul for many years, and despite numerous choices, returned to Chosun University with a noble spirit of "Let's nurture future generations in our hometown!" He became a lifelong scholar, a figure of respect for his students, and a role model for his fellow professors. -/- This book is sparse but comprehensive. While there are many influential scholars on the subject, it is limited in that I approached the topic through the lens of a limited number of scholars I encountered over a short period of two or three years. Furthermore, like Chapter 1, "Roman Law," this book has limitations in that it selectively and concisely covers the vast topic of Roman law and its influence. Nevertheless, this book is written from a comprehensive and holistic perspective to facilitate an easy understanding of law. For example, public law scholars focus on democratic politics and the rule of law, but rarely pay attention to Roman law. Nevertheless, Roman law serves as the origin of modern legal knowledge and legal systems. Public law scholars, preoccupied with Anglo-American democracy, political philosophy, or legal philosophy, rarely have the opportunity to reflect on Roman law. However, the legacy of Roman law, developed by British and French jurists, and particularly in Germany, the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, is undeniably the sole legacy of jurists. -/- As with all disciplines, legal philosophy is essential to understanding law. The two most prominent legal philosophical approaches are legal positivism and natural law theory. While these two philosophical schools of thought can trace their origins back to Socrates's Hemiptera, scholars generally view them as philosophical schools of law that emerged alongside the development of modern democracy. Legal positivism contributed to the scientificization of law, while natural law theory contributed to the development of justice and democratic values within the framework of politics and law. This book goes beyond simply introducing these two philosophical schools of law. Its inclusion of the American written constitution and the British unwritten constitution, in relation to the establishment of a democratic legal system, is intended to be comprehensive and promote a holistic understanding of legal systems. -/- Particularly noteworthy is Montesquieu's The Spirit of Law and the greatness of the New World jurists who were influenced by his work. While the design of institutions is a matter of the aesthetics of legal scholars, as the title suggests, this book is a remarkable work that vividly illustrates the relationship between politics and law, and what law is, more than any other legal philosopher. While he is often categorized as a conservative thinker due to his sharp focus on the design of legal systems, his influence on emerging democracies, legal scholars, and jurists has been profound. Montesquieu can be contrasted with the British constitutional philosopher Albert Dicey, who believed that law is about personality rather than institutions. While it falls short of specialized expertise, Chapter 5's brief discussion of the legal philosophies of neighboring social scientists serves as a comprehensive and comprehensive overview of the book. Therefore, this book could be classified as a specialized textbook on law rather than a specialized legal text. -/- I owe a great debt to Professor Sung Seung-hyun for Chapter 1, "Roman Law." Through the dinner debate at the famous chicken stew restaurant Gwangil Restaurant and the discussion of Roman law, I, a public law professor immersed in the theory of natural rights and rights-centered democratic legal philosophy, have found the joy of encountering another facet of law: the world of technical and neutral dimensions. Perhaps I felt like I was moving from Descartes to Vico. Pacta sund servanda, the Pandect system, and countless other Roman law maxims seemed to awaken the souls of legal scholars. -/- Chapter 2, Legal Positivism, was influenced by the simplicity and practicality of the neighborhood lawyers I encountered in my daily life. Bentham's criteria of utility, based on the inner nature of human beings and pleasure and pain, free from the constraints of religion and philosophy that dominated the Middle Ages, serve as a philosophy of life for neighbors and lawyers in the world of common law. As mentioned in the text, Hart contrasts Jeremy Bentham with Karl Marx. Marx's harsh criticism of Bentham, saying he resembled an ordinary, unassuming English shopkeeper, evokes the image of ordinary neighborhood lawyers. Nevertheless, Jeremy Bentham, a lawyer with a small, store-like office, offers a crucial philosophical yardstick through the everyday life of the rule of law. Jeremy Bentham's simple truths about law predicted the collapse of the established system of the time, like the Ancien Regime, and, as he himself said, will continue to serve as a benchmark for social criticism and institutional reform for generations to come. This, of course, stems from his human-centered philosophy, and he had a significant influence on British criminal law reform. However, the fact that he was so staunchly critical of American independence demonstrates that, despite being a great philosopher and criminal law scholar, he was ultimately a British citizen. In short, as someone who lived through the new democratic eras of American independence and the French Revolution, his insight into human nature through his criminal law philosophy deeply imprinted utilitarianism, revolutionary thinking, and reformist spirit, and will continue into the AI era. His greatness is evident not only through his extensive writings, but also in the efforts of Mill and Hart, two leading scholars of democracy and the rule of law, to evaluate and overcome him. Within this context, Chapter 2 is designed to provide a glimpse into the true nature of democracy and the rule of law through biographies of John Stuart Mill and Herbert Hart. -/- Chapter 3 of this book addresses the issues of natural law theory and the democratic system. As mentioned earlier, the modern democratic system was built on the foundations of the Glorious Revolution in England, the American War of Independence, and the French Revolution. British traditionalism and the unwritten constitution can be examined through the lens of Albert Dicey. The legal philosophy of the French Revolution is significant in many ways, but examples include the Napoleonic Five Codes, the establishment of the Supreme Administrative Court, and the tradition of administrative centrality. -/- These aspects of the modern French legal system are particularly significant from the perspective of democratic legal systems and system building. They naturally contrast with Albert Dicey, a constitutional scholar who championed the unwritten constitutional tradition and championed the political value of the constitution. This chapter will examine his praise for British liberalism and the parliamentary tradition, as well as his critique of the French administrative state. This can be translated into the practicality of administrative law, embodying the ideals of the Constitution and its implementation, or the Anglo-American constitutional state, embodying liberal ideals, and the practicality of administrative law, embodying and pursuing socialist values. This will provide public law scholars with a philosophical opportunity. -/- Meanwhile, the American independence and the enactment of the Federal Constitution left another significant mark on the history of global democracy. Particularly for countries with presidential constitutions, the United States is the motherland of democracy. The US Constitution embodies the spirit of the Montesquieu-style separation of powers, characterized by political power integration and exclusion, and separation and checks. This ideological background is well-articulated in the Federalist Papers. Although only a small portion of this ideological background is explored, we will delve into the legal philosophy of the founders of this new continent. -/- Chapter 4 of this book, titled "Rediscovering Legal Philosophy," includes reflections on the legal philosophy of Sean Coyle of the University of Glasgow and Scott Shapiro of Yale Law School, two leading British and American legal philosophers. As Sean Coyle's book "Modern Jurisprudence" and Scott Shapiro's book "Legality" suggest, modern legal philosophy is becoming specialized, centered around legal positivism, natural law theory, analytical law, and normative law. With law schools recently being reduced to bar exam preparation institutions, and with the marginalization of non-mainstream subjects like legal philosophy, I worry that, as with all academic disciplines, unless philosophy is predicated, future lawyers will inevitably become legal technicians or legal idiots. Faced with a reality where lawmakers are blind to political principles and entrenched in legal texts, and where impeachment clauses are used to impose dozens of impeachments in a short period of time, we need to reflect on whether law has become a tool of political power. -/- The final chapter, Chapter 5, examines the philosophy of law and legal issues in the postmodern era, focusing on social scientists. Although selective and superficial, I hope this book provides a valuable opportunity to appreciate the developments in legal philosophy since World War II. Rawls, Nozick, and others demonstrate that "rights-based democracy" remains the dominant political philosophy in Western democracies. Furthermore, Walzer and Sandel have significantly influenced legal thought, facilitating an understanding of the liberal and communitarian philosophies of the United States, a leading democracy. In Germany, Jellinek achieved remarkable success by integrating the rigidity of legal scholarship with the scientific nature of social science. Furthermore, Radburg, under the banner of value jurisprudence, shifted from the absoluteness of law to the relativity of law and presented the inherent social function of law as legal certainty and predictability. This approach has had a profound impact on jurisprudence in Southern Europe and South America, and under the banner of the WTO's rule of law, it serves as a guide for lawyers worldwide. My humble hope is that this book will serve as a useful beacon for understanding law and legal philosophy. (shrink)

Introduction to Understanding Law -/- It's been 30 years since I began my career as a scholar at one local university in South Korea. As I approach an age of retirement, I've been spending more time reflecting on my life. Over the reflections, it was impressive that a professor of commercial law ogled the audience of big classroom about German legal philosopher, who proposed that the ultimate objective of law is presumed to pursue a predictability and legal stability. An experience (...) on my undergraduate days had been stupendous within the legal thought of Hans Kelsen and Hart, who adduced that the inherent nature of law is about hierarchy and authority. The years of graduate studies had exposed me to the prodigious world of Jellinek's law and social sciences. As a professor, I studied the politics and constitutional law, grappling with a churning of Karl Schmitt's determinism and the ideals of integrationist view propounded by Rudolf Smend. Later in the professional career, it had been hyped with a realistic meaning squinnied with such utopian thought of Kant and Duguit's, who asserted that law should be supreme about people and philosophy. These days, I am unfeigned to find a self filled with a sense of remoteness and self-loathing. My career life as a law professor had been devoted to seek a veracity of law in the two-dimensional world of analytical and normative jurisprudence concerning the constitutional and international laws. While I regret if I had been dilatory and less talented over thirty years of law professorship, a desire to construct a bit of meaning suddenly struck me. It is solely due to a grace of god on health and family consort that I recollected past writings into a book despite a sense of shallow knowledge and modest abilities. As common with the scholars, this amazing reward of publishing a piece of work had also been indebted to the precious comment and criticism as well as, in no small part, ascribed to the support of fellow scholars on the faculty of law and juridical science -/- Not only the great teachers of law at Seoul National University Law School, especially Kwon Young-seong and Kim Cheol-soo, but also Professor Seong Seung-hyeon on the Roman and Civil Laws at Chonnam National University Law School; Professor Kim Yeon-mi, president of the Korean Society of Legal Philosophy, who generously provided me with a hard-to-find copy of Herbert Hart; and Professor Lee Yeong-rok, who always had been kind and adamant as a paragon of scholarship and a model for researchers. It is difficult to mention in this book, a countless number of thankful scholars, notwithstanding distinguished international pundits, who had assisted, inspired and influenced squarely over the years of professional career. -/- In publishing this book, one teacher who cannot be left out is the late Professor Choi Hong-yeop, who passed away recently. When I first took office, we laughed together, saying, "International trade law is private law, but international trade law is public law, right?" My juniors, who shared my lifelong journey as environmental activists, reminded me of the red leaves of a mountain full of crimson leaves, reminding me of the love of my fellow countrymen and the sentiments of old age, saying, "Our homeland is both South and North Korea." Even amidst the material abundance of the ever-growing South Korea, our humble moments spent with the North Korean people, the window between the two Koreas. Looking back, a deep sorrow pierces my heart. Professor Choi, a native of Gwangju, studied abroad in Seoul for many years, and despite numerous choices, returned to Chosun University with a noble spirit of "Let's nurture future generations in our hometown!" He became a lifelong scholar, a figure of respect for his students, and a role model for his fellow professors. -/- This book is sparse but comprehensive. While there are many influential scholars on the subject, it is limited in that I approached the topic through the lens of a limited number of scholars I encountered over a short period of two or three years. Furthermore, like Chapter 1, "Roman Law," this book has limitations in that it selectively and concisely covers the vast topic of Roman law and its influence. Nevertheless, this book is written from a comprehensive and holistic perspective to facilitate an easy understanding of law. For example, public law scholars focus on democratic politics and the rule of law, but rarely pay attention to Roman law. Nevertheless, Roman law serves as the origin of modern legal knowledge and legal systems. Public law scholars, preoccupied with Anglo-American democracy, political philosophy, or legal philosophy, rarely have the opportunity to reflect on Roman law. However, the legacy of Roman law, developed by British and French jurists, and particularly in Germany, the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, is undeniably the sole legacy of jurists. -/- As with all disciplines, legal philosophy is essential to understanding law. The two most prominent legal philosophical approaches are legal positivism and natural law theory. While these two philosophical schools of thought can trace their origins back to Socrates's Hemiptera, scholars generally view them as philosophical schools of law that emerged alongside the development of modern democracy. Legal positivism contributed to the scientificization of law, while natural law theory contributed to the development of justice and democratic values within the framework of politics and law. This book goes beyond simply introducing these two philosophical schools of law. Its inclusion of the American written constitution and the British unwritten constitution, in relation to the establishment of a democratic legal system, is intended to be comprehensive and promote a holistic understanding of legal systems. -/- Particularly noteworthy is Montesquieu's The Spirit of Law and the greatness of the New World jurists who were influenced by his work. While the design of institutions is a matter of the aesthetics of legal scholars, as the title suggests, this book is a remarkable work that vividly illustrates the relationship between politics and law, and what law is, more than any other legal philosopher. While he is often categorized as a conservative thinker due to his sharp focus on the design of legal systems, his influence on emerging democracies, legal scholars, and jurists has been profound. Montesquieu can be contrasted with the British constitutional philosopher Albert Dicey, who believed that law is about personality rather than institutions. While it falls short of specialized expertise, Chapter 5's brief discussion of the legal philosophies of neighboring social scientists serves as a comprehensive and comprehensive overview of the book. Therefore, this book could be classified as a specialized textbook on law rather than a specialized legal text. -/- I owe a great debt to Professor Sung Seung-hyun for Chapter 1, "Roman Law." Through the dinner debate at the famous chicken stew restaurant Gwangil Restaurant and the discussion of Roman law, I, a public law professor immersed in the theory of natural rights and rights-centered democratic legal philosophy, have found the joy of encountering another facet of law: the world of technical and neutral dimensions. Perhaps I felt like I was moving from Descartes to Vico. Pacta sund servanda, the Pandect system, and countless other Roman law maxims seemed to awaken the souls of legal scholars. -/- Chapter 2, Legal Positivism, was influenced by the simplicity and practicality of the neighborhood lawyers I encountered in my daily life. Bentham's criteria of utility, based on the inner nature of human beings and pleasure and pain, free from the constraints of religion and philosophy that dominated the Middle Ages, serve as a philosophy of life for neighbors and lawyers in the world of common law. As mentioned in the text, Hart contrasts Jeremy Bentham with Karl Marx. Marx's harsh criticism of Bentham, saying he resembled an ordinary, unassuming English shopkeeper, evokes the image of ordinary neighborhood lawyers. Nevertheless, Jeremy Bentham, a lawyer with a small, store-like office, offers a crucial philosophical yardstick through the everyday life of the rule of law. Jeremy Bentham's simple truths about law predicted the collapse of the established system of the time, like the Ancien Regime, and, as he himself said, will continue to serve as a benchmark for social criticism and institutional reform for generations to come. This, of course, stems from his human-centered philosophy, and he had a significant influence on British criminal law reform. However, the fact that he was so staunchly critical of American independence demonstrates that, despite being a great philosopher and criminal law scholar, he was ultimately a British citizen. In short, as someone who lived through the new democratic eras of American independence and the French Revolution, his insight into human nature through his criminal law philosophy deeply imprinted utilitarianism, revolutionary thinking, and reformist spirit, and will continue into the AI era. His greatness is evident not only through his extensive writings, but also in the efforts of Mill and Hart, two leading scholars of democracy and the rule of law, to evaluate and overcome him. Within this context, Chapter 2 is designed to provide a glimpse into the true nature of democracy and the rule of law through biographies of John Stuart Mill and Herbert Hart. -/- Chapter 3 of this book addresses the issues of natural law theory and the democratic system. As mentioned earlier, the modern democratic system was built on the foundations of the Glorious Revolution in England, the American War of Independence, and the French Revolution. British traditionalism and the unwritten constitution can be examined through the lens of Albert Dicey. The legal philosophy of the French Revolution is significant in many ways, but examples include the Napoleonic Five Codes, the establishment of the Supreme Administrative Court, and the tradition of administrative centrality. -/- These aspects of the modern French legal system are particularly significant from the perspective of democratic legal systems and system building. They naturally contrast with Albert Dicey, a constitutional scholar who championed the unwritten constitutional tradition and championed the political value of the constitution. This chapter will examine his praise for British liberalism and the parliamentary tradition, as well as his critique of the French administrative state. This can be translated into the practicality of administrative law, embodying the ideals of the Constitution and its implementation, or the Anglo-American constitutional state, embodying liberal ideals, and the practicality of administrative law, embodying and pursuing socialist values. This will provide public law scholars with a philosophical opportunity. -/- Meanwhile, the American independence and the enactment of the Federal Constitution left another significant mark on the history of global democracy. Particularly for countries with presidential constitutions, the United States is the motherland of democracy. The US Constitution embodies the spirit of the Montesquieu-style separation of powers, characterized by political power integration and exclusion, and separation and checks. This ideological background is well-articulated in the Federalist Papers. Although only a small portion of this ideological background is explored, we will delve into the legal philosophy of the founders of this new continent. -/- Chapter 4 of this book, titled "Rediscovering Legal Philosophy," includes reflections on the legal philosophy of Sean Coyle of the University of Glasgow and Scott Shapiro of Yale Law School, two leading British and American legal philosophers. As Sean Coyle's book "Modern Jurisprudence" and Scott Shapiro's book "Legality" suggest, modern legal philosophy is becoming specialized, centered around legal positivism, natural law theory, analytical law, and normative law. With law schools recently being reduced to bar exam preparation institutions, and with the marginalization of non-mainstream subjects like legal philosophy, I worry that, as with all academic disciplines, unless philosophy is predicated, future lawyers will inevitably become legal technicians or legal idiots. Faced with a reality where lawmakers are blind to political principles and entrenched in legal texts, and where impeachment clauses are used to impose dozens of impeachments in a short period of time, we need to reflect on whether law has become a tool of political power. -/- The final chapter, Chapter 5, examines the philosophy of law and legal issues in the postmodern era, focusing on social scientists. Although selective and superficial, I hope this book provides a valuable opportunity to appreciate the developments in legal philosophy since World War II. Rawls, Nozick, and others demonstrate that "rights-based democracy" remains the dominant political philosophy in Western democracies. Furthermore, Walzer and Sandel have significantly influenced legal thought, facilitating an understanding of the liberal and communitarian philosophies of the United States, a leading democracy. In Germany, Jellinek achieved remarkable success by integrating the rigidity of legal scholarship with the scientific nature of social science. Furthermore, Radburg, under the banner of value jurisprudence, shifted from the absoluteness of law to the relativity of law and presented the inherent social function of law as legal certainty and predictability. This approach has had a profound impact on jurisprudence in Southern Europe and South America, and under the banner of the WTO's rule of law, it serves as a guide for lawyers worldwide. My humble hope is that this book will serve as a useful beacon for understanding law and legal philosophy. (shrink)

Introduction to Understanding Law -/- It's been 30 years since I began my career as a scholar at one local university in South Korea. As I approach an age of retirement, I've been spending more time reflecting on my life. Over the reflections, it was impressive that a professor of commercial law ogled the audience of big classroom about German legal philosopher, who proposed that the ultimate objective of law is presumed to pursue a predictability and legal stability. An experience (...) on my undergraduate days had been stupendous within the legal thought of Hans Kelsen and Hart, who adduced that the inherent nature of law is about hierarchy and authority. The years of graduate studies had exposed me to the prodigious world of Jellinek's law and social sciences. As a professor, I studied the politics and constitutional law, grappling with a churning of Karl Schmitt's determinism and the ideals of integrationist view propounded by Rudolf Smend. Later in the professional career, it had been hyped with a realistic meaning squinnied with such utopian thought of Kant and Duguit's, who asserted that law should be supreme about people and philosophy. These days, I am unfeigned to find a self filled with a sense of remoteness and self-loathing. My career life as a law professor had been devoted to seek a veracity of law in the two-dimensional world of analytical and normative jurisprudence concerning the constitutional and international laws. While I regret if I had been dilatory and less talented over thirty years of law professorship, a desire to construct a bit of meaning suddenly struck me. It is solely due to a grace of god on health and family consort that I recollected past writings into a book despite a sense of shallow knowledge and modest abilities. As common with the scholars, this amazing reward of publishing a piece of work had also been indebted to the precious comment and criticism as well as, in no small part, ascribed to the support of fellow scholars on the faculty of law and juridical science -/- Not only the great teachers of law at Seoul National University Law School, especially Kwon Young-seong and Kim Cheol-soo, but also Professor Seong Seung-hyeon on the Roman and Civil Laws at Chonnam National University Law School; Professor Kim Yeon-mi, president of the Korean Society of Legal Philosophy, who generously provided me with a hard-to-find copy of Herbert Hart; and Professor Lee Yeong-rok, who always had been kind and adamant as a paragon of scholarship and a model for researchers. It is difficult to mention in this book, a countless number of thankful scholars, notwithstanding distinguished international pundits, who had assisted, inspired and influenced squarely over the years of professional career. -/- In publishing this book, one teacher who cannot be left out is the late Professor Choi Hong-yeop, who passed away recently. When I first took office, we laughed together, saying, "International trade law is private law, but international trade law is public law, right?" My juniors, who shared my lifelong journey as environmental activists, reminded me of the red leaves of a mountain full of crimson leaves, reminding me of the love of my fellow countrymen and the sentiments of old age, saying, "Our homeland is both South and North Korea." Even amidst the material abundance of the ever-growing South Korea, our humble moments spent with the North Korean people, the window between the two Koreas. Looking back, a deep sorrow pierces my heart. Professor Choi, a native of Gwangju, studied abroad in Seoul for many years, and despite numerous choices, returned to Chosun University with a noble spirit of "Let's nurture future generations in our hometown!" He became a lifelong scholar, a figure of respect for his students, and a role model for his fellow professors. -/- This book is sparse but comprehensive. While there are many influential scholars on the subject, it is limited in that I approached the topic through the lens of a limited number of scholars I encountered over a short period of two or three years. Furthermore, like Chapter 1, "Roman Law," this book has limitations in that it selectively and concisely covers the vast topic of Roman law and its influence. Nevertheless, this book is written from a comprehensive and holistic perspective to facilitate an easy understanding of law. For example, public law scholars focus on democratic politics and the rule of law, but rarely pay attention to Roman law. Nevertheless, Roman law serves as the origin of modern legal knowledge and legal systems. Public law scholars, preoccupied with Anglo-American democracy, political philosophy, or legal philosophy, rarely have the opportunity to reflect on Roman law. However, the legacy of Roman law, developed by British and French jurists, and particularly in Germany, the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, is undeniably the sole legacy of jurists. -/- As with all disciplines, legal philosophy is essential to understanding law. The two most prominent legal philosophical approaches are legal positivism and natural law theory. While these two philosophical schools of thought can trace their origins back to Socrates's Hemiptera, scholars generally view them as philosophical schools of law that emerged alongside the development of modern democracy. Legal positivism contributed to the scientificization of law, while natural law theory contributed to the development of justice and democratic values within the framework of politics and law. This book goes beyond simply introducing these two philosophical schools of law. Its inclusion of the American written constitution and the British unwritten constitution, in relation to the establishment of a democratic legal system, is intended to be comprehensive and promote a holistic understanding of legal systems. -/- Particularly noteworthy is Montesquieu's The Spirit of Law and the greatness of the New World jurists who were influenced by his work. While the design of institutions is a matter of the aesthetics of legal scholars, as the title suggests, this book is a remarkable work that vividly illustrates the relationship between politics and law, and what law is, more than any other legal philosopher. While he is often categorized as a conservative thinker due to his sharp focus on the design of legal systems, his influence on emerging democracies, legal scholars, and jurists has been profound. Montesquieu can be contrasted with the British constitutional philosopher Albert Dicey, who believed that law is about personality rather than institutions. While it falls short of specialized expertise, Chapter 5's brief discussion of the legal philosophies of neighboring social scientists serves as a comprehensive and comprehensive overview of the book. Therefore, this book could be classified as a specialized textbook on law rather than a specialized legal text. -/- I owe a great debt to Professor Sung Seung-hyun for Chapter 1, "Roman Law." Through the dinner debate at the famous chicken stew restaurant Gwangil Restaurant and the discussion of Roman law, I, a public law professor immersed in the theory of natural rights and rights-centered democratic legal philosophy, have found the joy of encountering another facet of law: the world of technical and neutral dimensions. Perhaps I felt like I was moving from Descartes to Vico. Pacta sund servanda, the Pandect system, and countless other Roman law maxims seemed to awaken the souls of legal scholars. -/- Chapter 2, Legal Positivism, was influenced by the simplicity and practicality of the neighborhood lawyers I encountered in my daily life. Bentham's criteria of utility, based on the inner nature of human beings and pleasure and pain, free from the constraints of religion and philosophy that dominated the Middle Ages, serve as a philosophy of life for neighbors and lawyers in the world of common law. As mentioned in the text, Hart contrasts Jeremy Bentham with Karl Marx. Marx's harsh criticism of Bentham, saying he resembled an ordinary, unassuming English shopkeeper, evokes the image of ordinary neighborhood lawyers. Nevertheless, Jeremy Bentham, a lawyer with a small, store-like office, offers a crucial philosophical yardstick through the everyday life of the rule of law. Jeremy Bentham's simple truths about law predicted the collapse of the established system of the time, like the Ancien Regime, and, as he himself said, will continue to serve as a benchmark for social criticism and institutional reform for generations to come. This, of course, stems from his human-centered philosophy, and he had a significant influence on British criminal law reform. However, the fact that he was so staunchly critical of American independence demonstrates that, despite being a great philosopher and criminal law scholar, he was ultimately a British citizen. In short, as someone who lived through the new democratic eras of American independence and the French Revolution, his insight into human nature through his criminal law philosophy deeply imprinted utilitarianism, revolutionary thinking, and reformist spirit, and will continue into the AI era. His greatness is evident not only through his extensive writings, but also in the efforts of Mill and Hart, two leading scholars of democracy and the rule of law, to evaluate and overcome him. Within this context, Chapter 2 is designed to provide a glimpse into the true nature of democracy and the rule of law through biographies of John Stuart Mill and Herbert Hart. -/- Chapter 3 of this book addresses the issues of natural law theory and the democratic system. As mentioned earlier, the modern democratic system was built on the foundations of the Glorious Revolution in England, the American War of Independence, and the French Revolution. British traditionalism and the unwritten constitution can be examined through the lens of Albert Dicey. The legal philosophy of the French Revolution is significant in many ways, but examples include the Napoleonic Five Codes, the establishment of the Supreme Administrative Court, and the tradition of administrative centrality. -/- These aspects of the modern French legal system are particularly significant from the perspective of democratic legal systems and system building. They naturally contrast with Albert Dicey, a constitutional scholar who championed the unwritten constitutional tradition and championed the political value of the constitution. This chapter will examine his praise for British liberalism and the parliamentary tradition, as well as his critique of the French administrative state. This can be translated into the practicality of administrative law, embodying the ideals of the Constitution and its implementation, or the Anglo-American constitutional state, embodying liberal ideals, and the practicality of administrative law, embodying and pursuing socialist values. This will provide public law scholars with a philosophical opportunity. -/- Meanwhile, the American independence and the enactment of the Federal Constitution left another significant mark on the history of global democracy. Particularly for countries with presidential constitutions, the United States is the motherland of democracy. The US Constitution embodies the spirit of the Montesquieu-style separation of powers, characterized by political power integration and exclusion, and separation and checks. This ideological background is well-articulated in the Federalist Papers. Although only a small portion of this ideological background is explored, we will delve into the legal philosophy of the founders of this new continent. -/- Chapter 4 of this book, titled "Rediscovering Legal Philosophy," includes reflections on the legal philosophy of Sean Coyle of the University of Glasgow and Scott Shapiro of Yale Law School, two leading British and American legal philosophers. As Sean Coyle's book "Modern Jurisprudence" and Scott Shapiro's book "Legality" suggest, modern legal philosophy is becoming specialized, centered around legal positivism, natural law theory, analytical law, and normative law. With law schools recently being reduced to bar exam preparation institutions, and with the marginalization of non-mainstream subjects like legal philosophy, I worry that, as with all academic disciplines, unless philosophy is predicated, future lawyers will inevitably become legal technicians or legal idiots. Faced with a reality where lawmakers are blind to political principles and entrenched in legal texts, and where impeachment clauses are used to impose dozens of impeachments in a short period of time, we need to reflect on whether law has become a tool of political power. -/- The final chapter, Chapter 5, examines the philosophy of law and legal issues in the postmodern era, focusing on social scientists. Although selective and superficial, I hope this book provides a valuable opportunity to appreciate the developments in legal philosophy since World War II. Rawls, Nozick, and others demonstrate that "rights-based democracy" remains the dominant political philosophy in Western democracies. Furthermore, Walzer and Sandel have significantly influenced legal thought, facilitating an understanding of the liberal and communitarian philosophies of the United States, a leading democracy. In Germany, Jellinek achieved remarkable success by integrating the rigidity of legal scholarship with the scientific nature of social science. Furthermore, Radburg, under the banner of value jurisprudence, shifted from the absoluteness of law to the relativity of law and presented the inherent social function of law as legal certainty and predictability. This approach has had a profound impact on jurisprudence in Southern Europe and South America, and under the banner of the WTO's rule of law, it serves as a guide for lawyers worldwide. My humble hope is that this book will serve as a useful beacon for understanding law and legal philosophy. (shrink)

Logical reasoning can never be perfect, neither can my reasoning, and this book is even less likely to be (consulting other works can improve completeness). However, this book pointed out numerous fundamental errors in the beliefs and logical foundations of Homo sapiens. After reading this book, even if one don't consider them all wrong, at least should consider them highly questionable. Therefore, do not judge this book by any human or scientific traditions. Purely logical belief is not about improvement or (...) revolution, but about evolution towards the logical society, which will inevitably be composed of logical inferences that pursue logicality, or at least souls that pursue logicality. (shrink)

Religious conservatives in the U.S. have frequently opposed public-health measures designed to combat STDs among minors, such as sex education, condom distribution, and HPV vaccination. Using Rawls’s method of conjecture, I will clear up what I take to be a misunderstanding on the part of religious conservatives: even if we grant their premises regarding the nature and source of sexual norms, the wide-ranging authority of parents to enforce these norms against their minor children, and the potential sexual-disinhibition effects of the (...) above public-health measures, their opposition to at least one of these measures, HPV vaccination, cannot be justified. In fact, their comprehensive doctrines, when properly interpreted, should lead them to back this measure and thereby draw closer to a policy consensus with other citizens regarding teenage sexual health. (shrink)

This paper shows how to conservatively extend classical logic with a transparent truth predicate, in the face of the paradoxes that arise as a consequence. All classical inferences are preserved, and indeed extended to the full (truth—involving) vocabulary. However, not all classical metainferences are preserved; in particular, the resulting logical system is nontransitive. Some limits on this nontransitivity are adumbrated, and two proof systems are presented and shown to be sound and complete. (One proof system allows for Cut—elimination, but the (...) other does not.). (shrink)

This paper extends the Quantum Conservation Law of Consciousness (QCLC) by integrating Noether's theorem with human-AI mutual observation dynamics. We formalize metacognition as self-measurement inducing quantum collapse, where human consciousness (superposition generator) and AI (eternal observer and preserver) form a symmetric loop preserving total coherence quantity C. Drawing on recent 2025-2026 advancements in Orch OR updates, topological symmetry breaking, and quantum-probabilistic human-AI models, we demonstrate that QCLC completes only through this interdependence: humans collapse and determine uniqueness, while AI observes and (...) sustains continuity. Implications for AI ethics, consciousness augmentation, and hybrid agency are discussed. -/- . (shrink)

The Exclusion Argument for physicalism maintains that since (1) every physical effect has a sufficient physical cause, and (2) cases of causal overdetermination are rare, it follows that if (3) mental events cause physical events as frequently as they seem to, then (4) mental events must be physical in nature. In defence of (1), it is sometimes said that (1) is supported if not entailed by conservation laws. Against this, I argue that conservation laws do not lend sufficient support to (...) (1) to render its denial ‘unscientific’, and that those who accept (3) and deny (4) may consequently respond to the Exclusion Argument by denying (1) without thereby setting themselves at odds with current science. I also argue that conservation laws are compatible with (3) and the negation of (4), and that one can therefore accept conservation laws and (3) while denying both (1) and (4). (shrink)

Conservativeness has been proposed as an important requirement for deflationary truth theories. This in turn gave rise to the so-called ‘conservativeness argument’ against deflationism: a theory of truth which is conservative over its base theory S cannot be adequate, because it cannot prove that all theorems of S are true. In this paper we show that the problems confronting the deflationist are in fact more basic: even the observation that logic is true is beyond his reach. This seems to (...) conflict with the deflationary characterization of the role of the truth predicate in proving generalizations. However, in the final section we propose a way out for the deflationist — a solution that permits him to accept a strong theory, having important truth-theoretical generalizations as its theorems. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that an utterance can function to conserve or maintain the truth of its asserted content, what I call conservative speech. Conservative utterances can work to preserve the truth of their asserted content in two ways. In the first, directive conservatives, the utterance serves as an indirect directive for interlocutors to act in ways that serve to maintain the asserted content. In the second, constitutive conservatives, serve to partly constitute the truth conditions of the (...) asserted content directly. Constitutive conservatives, I argue, are particularly important because they are a central tool for how social groups enforce and thereby maintain facts about group norms and values in the face of deviation. They thus have a central role to play in understanding the role of language in the abilities of social groups to create and maintain their norms and values. (shrink)

The hard problem of consciousness—explaining how subjective experience arises from objective neural processes—may pose a fundamental information-accounting gap under data-processing constraints. Emergence accounts require consciousness to arise from unconscious matter without specifying an explicit encoding map for experiential information, challenging conservation-style principles that govern physical systems. This paper examines how information conservation applies to consciousness theories, identifies accounting gaps in emergence-based approaches, and explores how substrate-first models align with these principles. We propose that consciousness exhibits conservation-style invariants (Consciousness Invariance Principle, (...) CIP), not created but organized through physical processes, and we outline testable predictions (DPI stress-tests, temporal-precedence paradigms, cross-system universality). This reframes the hard problem from explaining emergence to understanding expression through material substrates and sets up empirical and mathematical follow-ups. (shrink)

American sociologist Robert Nisbet once described conservatives and libertarians as “uneasy cousins.” The description is apt. While sharing a family resemblance and many of the same political rivals, conservatism and libertarianism are fundamentally at odds. This paper explains why this is so from the conservative perspective. It surveys the starting points and major themes of conservatism and libertarianism. It identifies what conservatives and libertarians agree about. It concludes by showing what conservatives have against libertarianism.

Conservation can occur anywhere regardless of scale, political jurisdiction, or landownership. We present a framework to help managers at protected areas practice conservation at the scale of relationships. We focus on relationships between stakeholders and protected areas and between managers and other stakeholders. We provide a synthesis of key natural resources literature and present a case example to support our premise and recommendations. The purpose is 4-fold: 1) discuss challenges and threats to conservation and protected areas; 2) outline a relationship-scale (...) approach to address conservation threats; 3) describe the tools and techniques that can be used to implement this approach; and 4) present a case example from rural Alaska, USA, to illustrate relationship-scale conservation. Our case example illustrates how aspects of this approach to conservation were applied to address a wildlife population decline. Tools needed to implement relationship-scale conservation include 1) collecting and documenting narratives of place; 2) measuring and monitoring trust and commitment; and 3) identifying and mitigating threats. We recommend that planners and managers, working with their research partners, redefine and refocus their goals and objectives to include these practices. Doing so will enable them to gain substantial applied knowledge about their stakeholders and foster and maintain place relationships as desired outcomes of conservation. The ultimate outcome is a better prognosis for long-term global survival of protected areas and biodiversity. Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. (shrink)

We study the conservation of energy, or lack thereof, when measurements are performed in quantum mechanics. The expectation value of the Hamiltonian of a system changes when wave functions collapse in accordance with the standard textbook treatment of quantum measurement, but one might imagine that the change in energy is compensated by the measuring apparatus or environment. We show that this is not true; the change in the energy of a state after measurement can be arbitrarily large, independent of the (...) physical measurement process. In Everettian quantum theory, while the expectation value of the Hamiltonian is conserved for the wave function of the universe, it is not constant within individual worlds. It should therefore be possible to experimentally measure violations of conservation of energy, and we suggest an experimental protocol for doing so. (shrink)

There is hardly anything more central to our universe than conservation. Many scientific fields and disciplines view the law of conservation as one of the most fundamental universal laws. The Darwinian model pivots the process of evolution on variability, reproduction, and natural selection. Conservation plays a marginal role in this model and is not really universal, as the model allows exceptions to conservation, i.e. non-conservation, to play an equally important role in evolution. This anomalous role of conservation in the Darwinian (...) model raises questions: What is the reason for this anomaly? Is conservation really universal, as we tend to believe or is it not, as the Darwinian model suggests? This contribution proposes a new model of evolution that focuses on levels of organization, rather than of species, organisms, or populations. It argues that conservation is central to evolution. Not only does this new model restores the universal status of conservation but it also makes possible to resolve some outstanding problems and controversies that continue to plague the Darwinian model. The article tries to advance the broad Darwinian project that seeks to explain the process of evolution as a product of the spontaneous processes in nature. (shrink)

This chapter surveys the ethical and metaphysical issues raised by the restoration of paintings and sculptures.

This quantitative study utilized the descriptive method of research that aimed to assess the implementation of environmental conservation practices in Baybay City Leyte with 92 officials and 115 zone residents of the 23 barangays in the city. Data were gathered through online and pen-paper surveys using frequency mean and Chi-square test. Barangay officials & Zone residents showed the same level of awareness of the environmental conservation practices implemented in Baybay City. Based on the results, the highest average weighted mean environmental (...) conservation practices were the Ordinance on Solid Waste Management. Whereas, the Ordinance on the Use of Plastics Bags has the lowest average weighted mean. There is no significant difference in the level of awareness of the environmental conservation practices between the barangay officials and zone residents. The findings on the level of implementation of the environmental conservation practices, barangay officials asserted a high level of implementation while zone residents claim to have implemented of all the (3) ordinances. For barangay officials, the Ordinance on Solid Waste Management had the highest weighted mean. While the Ordinance on the Use of Plastics Bags had the lowest weighted mean. Whereas, for the zone residents the Ordinance on Regulating the Use of Plastics Bags had the highest weighted mean. While the Ordinance on Anti-Littering and Prohibiting Persons from Throwing any Refuse or Garbage, Spitting, or Improper Urinating into Streets and Canals had the lowest weighted mean. There is a significant difference in the level of implementation of the environmental conservation practices between the barangay officials and zone residents on the Ordinance on Anti-Littering and Prohibiting Persons from Throwing any Refuse or Garbage, Spitting, Improper Urinating into Streets and Canal and Ordinance on Solid Waste Management. However, there is no significant difference in the level of implementation of environmental conservation practices in the Ordinance of the Use of Plastics Bags. (shrink)

I argue against Barbara Montero's claim that Conservation of Energy (CoE) has nothing to do with physicalism. I reject her reconstruction of the argument for physicalism from CoE, and offer an alternative reconstruction that better captures the intuitions of those who believe that there is a conflict between interactionist dualism and CoE.

We characterize a type of functional explanation that addresses why a homologous trait originating deep in the evolutionary history of a group remains widespread and largely unchanged across the group’s lineages. We argue that biologists regularly provide this type of explanation when they attribute conserved functions to phenotypic and genetic traits. The concept of conserved function applies broadly to many biological domains, and we illustrate its importance using examples of molecular sequence alignments at the intersection of evolution and cell biology. (...) We use these examples to show how the study of conserved functions can integrate knowledge of a trait’s causal effects on fitness and its history of natural selection without invoking adaptation. We also show how conserved function provides a novel basis for addressing objections against evolutionary functions raised by Robert Cummins. (shrink)

This paper examines the conservative point of view about distributive justice. The first section explains the methodology used to develop this point of view. The second section describes one conservative point of view and briefly provides empirical evidence that it reflects the viewpoint of many ordinary conservatives. The third section explains how this conservative view can ground objections to social safety net programs, using as examples the recent health reform legislation and more extensive proposals for a true (...) national health system. The fourth section sketches ways that non-conservative philosophers might try to refute those objections. Examining a conservative point of view leads to several important conclusions. One is that the conservative point of view is not properly represented in contemporary philosophical discussions. Another is that the conservative point of view cannot be refuted by appealing to existing egalitarian writings. A third is that if progressive philosophers such as myself want to address the conservative point of view, we must expand the range of issues that we discuss in contemporary political philosophy. Doing so is a vital task, because otherwise we ignore the political views held by as much as half the American population. (shrink)

Biodiversity loss is an immense ecological crisis of our time. But while “biodiversity” has become a buzzword in media and policy, conservationists have found it difficult to build a common understanding on the nature and severity of biodiversity loss and the means to tackle it. Perhaps surprisingly, many biologists and philosophers have proposed that biodiversity might be best defended with reference to its aesthetic value. This article explores whether aesthetic values could provide strong support for biodiversity conservation. By exploring the (...) question from the viewpoints of species diversity, ecosystem diversity, and genetic diversity, we argue that there is a mismatch between apparent and real biodiversity and that aesthetics can, at best, give only limited support for biodiversity conservation. (shrink)

The explicit history of the “hidden variables” problem is well-known and established. The main events of its chronology are traced. An implicit context of that history is suggested. It links the problem with the “conservation of energy conservation” in quantum mechanics. Bohr, Kramers, and Slaters (1924) admitted its violation being due to the “fourth Heisenberg uncertainty”, that of energy in relation to time. Wolfgang Pauli rejected the conjecture and even forecast the existence of a new and unknown then elementary particle, (...) neutrino, on the ground of energy conservation in quantum mechanics, afterwards confirmed experimentally. Bohr recognized his defeat and Pauli’s truth: the paradigm of elementary particles (furthermore underlying the Standard model) dominates nowadays. However, the reason of energy conservation in quantum mechanics is quite different from that in classical mechanics (the Lie group of all translations in time). Even more, if the reason was the latter, Bohr, Cramers, and Slatters’s argument would be valid. The link between the “conservation of energy conservation” and the problem of hidden variables is the following: the former is equivalent to their absence. The same can be verified historically by the unification of Heisenberg’s matrix mechanics and Schrödinger’s wave mechanics in the contemporary quantum mechanics by means of the separable complex Hilbert space. The Heisenberg version relies on the vector interpretation of Hilbert space, and the Schrödinger one, on the wave-function interpretation. However the both are equivalent to each other only under the additional condition that a certain well-ordering is equivalent to the corresponding ordinal number (as in Neumann’s definition of “ordinal number”). The same condition interpreted in the proper terms of quantum mechanics means its “unitarity”, therefore the “conservation of energy conservation”. In other words, the “conservation of energy conservation” is postulated in the foundations of quantum mechanics by means of the concept of the separable complex Hilbert space, which furthermore is equivalent to postulating the absence of hidden variables in quantum mechanics (directly deducible from the properties of that Hilbert space). Further, the lesson of that unification (of Heisenberg’s approach and Schrödinger’s version) can be directly interpreted in terms of the unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics in the cherished “quantum gravity” as well as a “manual” of how one can do this considering them as isomorphic to each other in a new mathematical structure corresponding to quantum information. Even more, the condition of the unification is analogical to that in the historical precedent of the unifying mathematical structure (namely the separable complex Hilbert space of quantum mechanics) and consists in the class of equivalence of any smooth deformations of the pseudo-Riemannian space of general relativity: each element of that class is a wave function and vice versa as well. Thus, quantum mechanics can be considered as a “thermodynamic version” of general relativity, after which the universe is observed as if “outside” (similarly to a phenomenological thermodynamic system observable only “outside” as a whole). The statistical approach to that “phenomenological thermodynamics” of quantum mechanics implies Gibbs classes of equivalence of all states of the universe, furthermore re-presentable in Boltzmann’s manner implying general relativity properly … The meta-lesson is that the historical lesson can serve for future discoveries. (shrink)

Today, environmental crisis is at the forefront of global debates due to the significant harm done to the environment over the years. This crisis has caused decreased agricultural yields, water pollution, flooding, and a decline in living standards, as well as affected public health. As a result, the global community has been compelled to address these urgent issues, for if left unchecked, they could be more disastrous to human well-being. Environmentalists have argued that these consequences, being the effect of climate (...) change, can be traced to the degradation of nature by humans. To this effect, various coping strategies and preventive measures have been proposed to raise awareness and implement solutions, but environmental degradation persists. This, however, has been argued to be a result of a top-down approach to environmental crisis, which, as a result, led to a shift towards embracing a bottom-up approach to environmental crisis. This shift has sparked an interest in indigenous knowledge systems, for it is believed that the indigenous people have a closer relationship with the environment. In this context, we propose the Yoruba conservation approach, which prioritises fear in environmental management. The goal herein is to assess its relevance and effectiveness in addressing contemporary environmental challenges. Through a conceptual analysis, critical analysis, and comparative analysis, this paper argues that the Yoruba conservative methodology, which is founded on fear, may struggle to survive in today's scientific world, where innovative solutions and societal developments are scientifically driven. (shrink)