The Existential Limits of Reason. Vladislav Pedder
proceed directly to the fourth section of the first chapter – The Existential Limit of Forecasting.
For many centuries, humanity has sought to understand the origin of the world and life. Early concepts often explained everything that exists as the result of the design of a higher power. In ancient times, philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle sought order and purpose in nature, suggesting that the world was structured for some rational reason. The Middle Ages brought with it ideas of divine creation, where life and the entire universe were seen as the result of God’s creative act.
However, with the advancement of science in the modern era, these views began to be challenged. In the 19th century, Charles Darwin proposed his theory of evolution through natural selection, which overturned previous conceptions of the world and life. Darwin demonstrated that the diversity of life forms is not the result of any specific design, but rather a consequence of random mutations and selection, which ensures the survival of the most adapted individuals. Evolution, as he argued, has no ultimate goal and does not move toward perfection; it is a continuous process of change, where each generation adapts to changing conditions.
However, despite scientific explanations, many continued to search for purpose and meaning in the process of evolution. Science, armed with Occam’s razor, not only eliminated the idea of a divine design from the equation but also the very concept of a final goal. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, further developing this approach, uses the metaphor of the “blind watchmaker” to explain that evolution is not a purposeful process, but rather a random and unconscious mechanism that has no preordained goal or design, yet still results in complex and organized outcomes. He wrote:
Evolution has no long-term goal. There is no long-distance target, no final perfection to serve as a criterion for selection, although human vanity cherishes the absurd notion that our species is the final goal of evolution. In real life, the criterion for selection is always short-term – simple survival; or more strictly speaking, reproductive success. What, after geological epochs, appears retrospectively as a movement toward some distant goal is, in reality, always a byproduct of many generations of short-term selection. Our “watchmaker” – the accumulating natural selection – is blind to the future and has no long-term goals.
This is what we will discuss next.
1. The Emergence of the Complex World
1.1 Self-organization and the Absence of Purpose
The modern scientific understanding of the structure of the Universe rejects the idea of purposefulness or an initial design. Instead, the world as we know it is the result of self-organization and gradual complexity arising within the framework of physical laws. These processes were not caused by an external goal, but developed through the interactions of numerous elements over vast timescales.
Fundamental discoveries in physics and cosmology have shown that the Universe emerged as a result of the Big Bang around 13.8 billion years ago. The concept of the Big Bang was first proposed by Belgian scientist Georges Lemaître in 1927 and was confirmed in 1965 when Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered cosmic microwave background radiation.
In the early stages of the Universe’s existence, matter and energy were distributed chaotically and homogeneously. Over time, as a result of density fluctuations and the action of gravity, the first structures began to form: clusters of gas, stars, and galaxies. These processes were a natural consequence of physical laws, such as thermodynamics and gravity, rather than the result of any design.
1.2 The Role of Entropy and the Complication of Systems
A key concept explaining the increasing complexity of the Universe is entropy. According to the second law of thermodynamics, formulated in the 1850s by Rudolf Clausius, entropy (a measure of disorder) tends to increase in isolated systems. However, this does not mean that order is impossible. Organized structures can emerge locally, as long as it is accompanied by an increase in entropy in the surrounding environment. For example, the formation of stars and planets is accompanied by the release of energy and an increase in entropy in the surrounding space.
Thus, complex systems arise as a byproduct of the Universe’s tendency toward a state of equilibrium and maximum disorder. From simple interactions and processes of self-organization, more complex structures and patterns gradually emerge.
1.3 Chaos and Nonlinear Dynamic Systems
Further understanding of the emergence of complexity is tied to the study of nonlinear dynamic systems and chaos theory. In 1963, American mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz discovered that small changes in initial conditions could lead to significant and unpredictable consequences (the butterfly effect). This explains how, from simple physical laws, extremely complex phenomena could arise, such as climate systems, galactic structures, and ultimately, chemical processes leading to life.
Chaotic systems, despite their apparent unpredictability, follow certain rules and can demonstrate self-organizing patterns. Examples include snowflakes, lightning, fractals, and turbulent flows. These processes show that complexity can arise spontaneously, without external control or purpose.
1.4 The Universe as a Chemical Complication
After the formation of the first stars, the process of synthesizing heavier elements from hydrogen and helium began. As a result of nuclear fusion reactions within the stars, elements necessary for the emergence of life – such as carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and others – were created. This process, known as stellar nucleosynthesis, was explained in the mid-20th century by Fred Hoyle and his colleagues.
When massive stars exploded as supernovae, these elements were scattered across the Universe, becoming the building blocks for new stars, planets, and, ultimately, living organisms.
Thus, the complexity of the Universe unfolded in several stages:
– Physical complication – the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets from primordial gas.
– Chemical complication – the synthesis of more complex chemical elements and compounds.
– Structural complication – the formation of complex molecules and, ultimately, conditions for the emergence of life.
These stages were not directed toward a specific goal but created the conditions for further processes, including biological evolution.
1.5 Conclusion
The emergence of the complex world is a story of self-organization based on physical laws. From chaotic and simple states, through billions of years of interactions and increasing entropy, the Universe emerged, rich in a diversity of structures and processes. This laid the foundation for the next stage – the emergence of life.
2. The Emergence of Life
2.1 Spontaneous Origin of Life and the Absence of Purpose
Modern science asserts that life originated as a result of natural chemical processes, rather than through purposeful action or a higher design. Approximately 3.5 to 4 billion years ago, the first signs of life appeared on Earth, and the process that led to this is known as abiogenesis – the spontaneous emergence of living systems from non-living matter.
The “primordial soup” hypothesis, proposed by Alexander Oparin and John Haldane, became the foundation for studying the conditions of early Earth that could have facilitated the emergence of organic molecules. The Miller-Urey experiment (1953) demonstrated that when electric discharges were applied to a mixture of gases containing ammonia, methane, and hydrogen, amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins, were formed.
These chemical reactions were not directed toward achieving any specific goal but occurred as a result of molecular interactions, governed by natural physical laws. Gradually, from these simple molecules, more complex structures began to form, such as RNA, capable of self-replication. This led