Can philosophy help us change the world?

Question from the Internet:

“How does philosophy define the person’s relationship with the environment?”

With all due respect to philosophy, it does not define anything at all. Philosophy is, after all, philosophy. It is a theory that might have practical implications or might not have any.

We can relate to reality through 4 levels, trying to grasp and comprehend some essence that is totally impossible, we can engage with abstract form, which is still airy and lacking foundations, or we can deal with abstract form clothed into matter or with the matter directly.

If we want to actually understand life and what we need to do, we have to restrict our engagement in the latter two abstract form clothed into the matter and the matter itself.

As unique, empirical, natural scientists explain, our “matter”, the driving force that makes us experience life, is a desire; it is the desire to exist and receive fulfilment for ourselves. And the “abstract form” is in what way we use this desire.

By default, we all use our original desire for existence and fulfilment in a 100% egocentric, subjective, self-serving and self-justifying manner. This is why human relationships, human civilizations throughout history and our present society look and behave the way they do.

Obviously, there are myriads of ways and forms this expresses itself in our lives, but the basic formula always remains: we are driven to exist by the all-encompassing desire to exist and receive fulfilment, and inherently we use this desire only for our own sake, mostly at the expense of others.

In order to change things and to build better, safer, more equal and sustainable human societies — and to safeguard our collective survival in Nature’s finely balanced and mutually integrated system — we need to change the way we use our core desire.

We need to clothe into a different form, which is the form of altruism, selfless and unconditional service of others and Nature’s system. We have to learn and copy the form we observe in Nature, which form — altruism, unconditional mutual integration, and mutually complementing cooperation — that creates and sustains life.

Our Human advantage is that what is instinctive and “natural” to any other part of Nature, we have to learn and implement consciously, proactively, against and above our inherent form.

This will make us “truly Human” — beings that become similar to Nature above and against their instincts.

As a result, we will deserve our unparalleled, evolutionary Human reward: to become Nature’s only conscious, seamlessly integrated and at the same time independent observers and equal partners.

This we cannot achieve through philosophy, nor can we use any of our arbitrary ideologies, religions or sciences that remain within the realm of our inherent nature. Instead, we need a unique, empirical natural science that is based purely on the most fundamental laws and principles of Nature.