Table of Contents
Introduction
In my post The 7 Philosophical Pillars for Peace in Humanity (7P3H) I explain the Philosophical Pillars so we can help to answer the question: How does Humanity live in a way that honors and respects our fundamental Interdependence not only with each other, but also with the entirety of existence?
If you have not read that post then please take the time to do so, because it will be important for the understanding of what I am talking about in this post where I would like to break this down a little more so you can understand how it all works together.
For your reference, here are the 7 Philosophical Pillars for Peace within Humanity:
- Interdependence
- Humanity
- Sustainability
- Education
- Equity
- Justice and Compassion
- Science and Technology
Spheres of Existence (SoE)
The Philosophical Pillars all help us deal with the various interdependent Spheres of Existence. I arrange our Interdependence via these 3 basic Spheres of Existence which are:
| Natural World | environment, ecosystems, plants, animals, water, earth, air, climate, etc |
|---|---|
| Humanity | social, economic, religious, legal, and political systems; nation states, etc |
| Artificial World | construction, manufacturing, farming, technology, etc |
Here is how I correlate the Spheres of Existence to the Philosophical Pillars:
- Interdependence
- Natural World
- Sustainability
- Humanity
- Education
- Equity
- Justice and Compassion
- Artificial World
- Science and Technology
- Natural World
… or like the infographic below for a more visually appealing arrangement:
As a way of stating the idea of this infographic:
Humanity will attempt to acknowledge and honor their Interdependence with the rest of Humanity, the Natural world, and the Artificial world through Sustainability, Education, Equity, Justice and Compassion, and through the use of Science and Technology.
Interdependence of the Pillars
Fundamentally, all 7 Pillars are are interdependent upon each other in one form or another. I organize the 7 Pillars into 3 tiers as you can kind of see above, and here we will explore the interdependence of these Pillars:
| tier | name | # | pillars |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Conceptual Tier | 1 | Interdependence |
| 2nd | Focusing Tier | 1 | Humanity |
| 3rd | Methodology Tier | 5 | Education, Equity, Justice and Compassion, Science and Technology, Sustainability |
Conceptual Tier
First, we must declare that Interdependence as a concept and ideal is of prime importance by putting it front and center, and on top.
We must acknowledge and work in all things realizing that what we do will affect many parts of our world, sometimes in ways that we could not imagine, but in all things we need to study, research, and try to understand the interdependent connections between Humanity and the Natural and Artificial worlds in order to help prevent damage or harm as well as we can, or to better honor and inform our relationship with them, and with respect to the other Pillars.
Just ensuring that the people understand the very basic and powerful concept of Interdependence in-and-of-itself can have far reaching consequences for far too many people still do not understand this concept at all, and the ignorance of this concept is a powerful core driver for the world’s many isms, as well as bigotry, exploitation, violence, and war.
Focusing Tier
Then we list the Spheres of Existence for this chain of Interdependence that we wish to live in harmony with. First is Humanity which is the focus and drive for our interdependence with the Natural World and Artificial World, because humans are a primary driver for environmental change from that fateful moment, over 12,000 years ago, when we developed the technology called farming.
Humanity is the core pillar that honors and acknowledges Humanity as a whole and our global interdependence with each other and the rest of existence. What happens in one part of the world or to one person will affect people everywhere directly or indirectly. The stain of a murder, rape, or even a single person living in poverty leaves an indelible mark on the psyche of each person in the world even if we do not know it or even if we refuse to recognize it.
This is especially powerful when we look at the plethora of regressions and divisions created with our artificial boundaries as set up through nation states and other such regressions such as racism, sexism, nationalism, elitism, etc because their very existence violates the very basic premise of Humanity’s intrinsic Interdependence with each other.
Methodology Tier
How do we accomplish the goal of Humanity acknowledging and honoring our Interdependence with the Natural World and Artificial Things? We accomplish this through the following methods:
- Sustainability Sustainability helps Humanity to honor our interdependence with the Natural World through such methods and recycling, preventing pollution, remediating natural spaces, preserving or preventing the destruction of ecologies, etc. This is powered greatly by Science and Technology and this Pillar should greatly inform how Science and Technology’s processes operate.
- Education: Learning more about the world and the people in it breaks down the barriers of ignorance and creates a compassionate, hopeful, innovative, and capable populace. Because it is easy to fear that which we do not understand, Education is the tool which can powerfully eliminate fear, tribalism, and bigotry, and it is also forms the cornerstone to progress, equity, science and technology, sustainability, justice and compassion, and everything else. It powers and enables all of the other pillars to exist.
- Equity: Without equity there is dominance, inequality, abuse, and exploitation. People are not truly free unless there is an extremely high level of equality and that cannot be done without also having equity in the other Pillars too. Equity is what will eliminate many of Humanity’s problems and will be a focus for the other Pillars.
- Justice and Compassion: Justice and compassion shall help not only society at large through moderating our interactions with compassion, conscience, justice, and a demand of equity for all, but also our interactions with the rest of the Natural World too. It should also guide the advancement of Science and Technology.
- Science and Technology: Science and Technology is the method by which we understand the Natural World and by which we create Artificial things. This is also the way that we can generate and record data about the Natural and Human World’s for use in monitoring, balancing, and informing the other Pillars. Science and Technology will be what will drive the other pillars by providing the physical and intellectual tools in order to empower and enact the other pillars.
