From Universal Evolution to Knowledge Evolution: A Study on the Epistemology of Evolution

Author: He Yunfeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-07-01
Features: The purpose of this book is to comprehensively review and analyze the history and fundamental views of the emerging epistemological school of evolutionary epistemology from the basic perspectives of Marxism, in order to find new references and provide materials for enriching and developing Marxist epistemology. The book adopts a method of first presenting a general overview and then delving into specific details. It first provides a general analysis of the basic theoretical views of evolutionary epistemology, giving readers a rough overall understanding, before then elaborating on various perspectives in detail. Given that few systematic studies and reviews of the history of evolutionary epistemology have been conducted previously, the book provides a detailed introduction to its emergence and historical development. The author dedicates a chapter to using Marxist materialist monism to analyze and critique the ontology of evolutionary epistemology—hypothetical realism. The book also compares and thoroughly examines evolutionary epistemology's theories on cognitive abilities with historical philosophical discussions and the views of Marxist classical thinkers. It analyzes the fundamental views of evolutionary epistemology on objective knowledge and its evolution, proposing the characteristics and laws of knowledge evolution from a Marxist perspective. Additionally, the book addresses the disciplinary nature of evolutionary epistemology and the "anti-human-centered epistemological research" it claims, emphasizing that this new epistemological school deserves serious attention.
Evolutionary epistemology first presumes the existence of the external world from the perspective of hypothetical realism (also known as scientific realism), then takes the universal evolution of the universe as an entry point to study the formation of cognitive abilities, the development of individual cognitive capacities, the constructive nature of knowledge, and the evolution of objective knowledge. Since evolutionary epistemology focuses on cognitive abilities, it bases its research on the methods of biological evolution, yet it addresses an ancient philosophical question: why can the cognitive structure of humans achieve consistency with the objective structure of the external world? In answering this question, evolutionary epistemology adopts a research perspective that examines human cognitive phenomena starting from the evolution of the universe. It argues that this perspective is anti-human-centered and has achieved a "true Copernican revolution." Furthermore, evolutionary epistemology extends evolutionary perspectives into the realm of objective knowledge, believing that the universal evolution of the universe inevitably leads to the evolution of objective knowledge. Since the evolution of objective knowledge primarily manifests as the evolution and replacement of scientific theories, a high degree of attention to the evolutionary patterns of scientific theoretical knowledge is a key characteristic of evolutionary epistemology. Due to its focus on selection and trial-and-error as the main thread in studying the evolution of objective knowledge, some refer to it as "knowledge Darwinism."
The book particularly emphasizes that research on objective knowledge itself in Marxist epistemology is still insufficient. It advocates adhering to Marxist practical materialism to seriously address the issues raised by evolutionary epistemology, thereby better upholding and developing Marxist epistemology. From the perspective of evolutionary epistemology, a particularly worthy new research topic for Marxist epistemology emerges: in the knowledge economy era, how can human knowledge be considered within the context of the universe's grand evolutionary chain to overcome the limitations of traditional human-centered epistemological perspectives?