Abstracts

Francis Heylighen

Integrating Worldviews: a tool for making sense of life

In their 1994 book, “Worldviews: from fragmentation to integration”, Leo Apostel and collaborators outline a program to combat the on-going fragmentation of science and culture into ever more specialized perspectives and approaches. This fragmentation leads to confusion, alienation, and a loss of the guiding frameworks that previously were provided by religion. In the three decades since, this lack of meaning has only become worse, leading to the erosion of what Antonovsky has called people’s “sense of coherence”. Nevertheless, Apostel’s program has specified the components of a worldview needed to bring back coherence. In this talk, I will elaborate these components into a general scheme for the construction of meaning and sense-making. I will also report on the Human Energy project, in which CLEA is involved, which attempts to implement Apostel’s program by developing and disseminating an integrating worldview that we call “The Third Story of the Universe”. It goes beyond the religious (“First Story”) and mechanistic (“Second Story”) worldviews, by seeing the world as evolving towards greater complexity and consciousness, culminating in an encompassing “noosphere”.

References 

• Aerts, D., Apostel, L., De Moor, B., Hellemans, S., Maex, E., Van Belle, H., & Van der Veken, J. (1994). World Views. From fragmentation to integration. VUB Press. 
• Heylighen, F., Beigi, S., & Vidal, C. (2024). The Third Story of the Universe: An evolutionary worldview for the noosphere [CLEA Working paper]. CLEA/Human Energy. 

Deniz Sarikaya

World Views, Hinges, Pluralism, and the epistemic risk of AI tools.

The concept of worldviews has been prominently discussed by major philosophers, including Leo Apostel. This notion is closely related to the ideas of hinges and framework propositions, which were developed and popularized by Wittgenstein.

In this talk, we will explore how this concept can be applied in the context of the formal sciences. In particular, we will examine its relevance to questions of value alignment and artificial intelligence.

Building on this, we will argue for a pluralistic perspective, demonstrating that such an approach is both epistemologically and ethically valuable.

Clement Vidal

How to compare worldviews?

Leo Apostel set a worldview program that can be seen as an agenda for philosophy (Aerts et al. 1994). But how could we compare the merits and limitations of different worldviews? Inspired by criteria to compare scientific theories, I proposed in (Vidal 2012) nine criteria to compare worldviews, classified in three broad categories: objective criteria (objective consistency, scientificity, scope), subjective criteria (subjective consistency, personal utility, emotionality), and intersubjective criteria (intersubjective consistency, collective utility, narrativity). From the criteria, I derive assessment tests to compare and improve different worldviews. These include the is-ought, ought-act, and is-act first-order tests; the critical and dialectical second-order tests; the mixed-questions and first-second-order third-order tests; and the we-I, we-it, and it-I tests. I illustrate the criteria and tests with major philosophical movements and tensions, as well as with the dialogue between science and religion.

Karin Verelst

Building Integrated Worldviews: An endeavour doomed to fail?

Leo Apostel's fame among the general public stems largely from his philosophical project aimed at developing integrated worldviews. This project gained prominence toward the end of his life through the book that he devoted to it in the early 1990s, together with Jan Vanderveken.1 In that book and elsewhere, Apostel expressed concern about the paradoxical fact that globalization, which by then connected the most diverging cultures of the Earth, caused cultural fragmentation at the same time, as often contradictory visions on and methods of arriving at knowledge about the world collided. This constitutes a problem because, according to him, worldviews are the preeminent way for the knowing subject to bring order to the chaos of empirical reality, and make sense of existence.

Nevertheless, Apostel was also acutely aware of the profound problems encountered by this philosophical enterprise: it is impossible to simply bring together divergent and sometimes even contradictory, but in themselves valid viewpoints on some aspect of the world into one coherent worldview. At the same time, the imposition of one formal model of principles and modes of reasoning already in itself entails the failure of the stated goal: after all, logic too is context-sensitive. Apostel, however, bravely stuck to his worldview idea, hoping that uncovering depth structures common to intuition and reason as applied in various scientific disciplines and domains of knowledge - such as symmetry - would bring unity to the multiplicity. Apostel is, we can safely say, one of the first truly interdisciplinary thinkers. But a certain Gödelian twist is undeniably present in his whole enterprise. His views on which starting points could serve as grounds for a possibly conclusive worldview continued to shift throughout his life. His thinking on the intrinsic but problematic relationship between theory and practice, between abstraction and concreteness, between mind and body, mean that every, sometimes grandiose, attempt to arrive at a decisive formulation invariably ends up establishing a deficit and adopting a new point of view. Two epistemological and ontological instruments play a stabilising role: in an early phase of his life dialectics, in a later phase of his life ritual practice. Thus Apostel's metaphysical life journey unfolds before our eyes into a powerful but optimistic critique of our own epistemological and cultural identity, and a quest for how knowledge and experience can once again coincide. The aim of this contribution is to use texts by Apostel to reconstruct this quest to some extent, and to offer some insight into its achievements and failures, as well as to formulate a tentative hypothesis about the continuing relevance of Apostel's philosophy.

References

1. Apostel, Matière et Forme: introduction à une épistemologie realiste, Communication & Cognition, Gent, 1974
2. Apostel, Logique et Dialectique, Communication & Cognition, Gent, 1979
3. Apostel, “Theory and Practice in Marxism”, Philosophica 34, 1984,(2), pp. 3-21
4. Apostel, “Is Pragmatics or Praxeology the Foundation of Logic”, Philosophica 28, 1981 (2), pp. 3-45
5. Apostel, “Mysticisme, ritueel en atheïsme”, In L. Apostel, H. Pinxten, F. Vandamme, & R. Thibau (Eds.), Atheïstische religiositeit? Communication and Cognition, Gent, 1981, pp. 9-57
6. Apostel en J. Van der Veken: Wereldbeelden: van fragmentering naar integratie, Kapellen: DNB/Pelckmans, 1991
7. Apostel, Waarde en zin van de cultuurwetenschappen in de twintigste eeuw, VVC, 1993
8. Apostel, Wereldbeelden: ontologie en ethiek, Humanistisch Verbond, Antwerpen, 1994
9. Apostel, “Symmetry and symmetry-breaking: ontology in science (An Outline of a whole)”, in: The Worldviews Group, Perspectives on the world, Brussels, VUBPRESS, 1995, pp. 175–217.
10. Apostel, Eenheid in Verscheidenheid. Zes opstellen over metafysica, R. Loos & W. Christiaens (eds.), VUBPRESS, 2002

Bart Van Kerkhove

Between interdisciplinary science and pluralistic ethics: The worldviews concept reconsidered

We humans are perpetually torn between totality and particularity, both spatially and temporally. Indeed, survival in its narrowest sense cannot ever be accommodated without being embedded, to a certain extent, in an image of our past and present communities and surroundings.

In this respect, worldviews are considered to be what prevents people and cultures from lapsing into existential crisis, no longer being able to reproduce themselves in a more or less stable manner. They do this by offering a hard-fought, non-trivial, heterogeneous and incomplete theoretical and practical unification of factual and normative convictions about human nature, society, history, life, planet and universe.

We revisit this central concept in Leo Apostel's late philosophy, looking into aspects of its present-day potential (e.g. for and through interdisciplinarity and pluralism), in a world the complexity of which has spectacularly grown in the thirty years since his death.

Ann Wyverkens

A philosophical stance Leo Apostel shared with Albert Einstein: ‘Cosmic Spiritual Feeling’

In his foreword to Leo Apostel's Atheistic Spirituality, Diderik Batens writes that he became despondent about the reactions he received after Apostel's death in August 1995. Both, atheists and theists concluded from Atheistic Spirituality that Apostel had reconciled himself with a conception of God and had renounced atheism (9, my translation). However, according to Batens, Apostel's atheism is an ontological atheism: there is no God in or outside reality (13, my translation).

On June 22, 2022 in Ostend, Jean Paul Van Bendegem presented life and work of Leo Apostel. Van Bendegem, a former student and friend of Apostel, also indicated that he did not fully understand Apostel’s atheistic spirituality. In this regard he mentioned that Apostel tried to imagine what it is like to be a star (celestial body) during meditation. Although this is rather anecdotal, it suggests that Apostel's atheistic spirituality needs to be understood in a certain relation to the universe. As a philosopher and logician, Apostel also immersed himself in cosmology and (theoretical) physics, this comes forward in posthumously published works such as Natural Philosophy. Preparatory work for a physics-based ontology.

It is common knowledge that Albert Einstein was one of the greatest physicist of the 20^th century. However, Einstein interests went far beyond physics. He played the violin and in his early twenties he established with friends the ‘Akademie Olympia’. As sole members they met regularly to discuss philosophy, physics, and literature, from Plato to Dickens (Pais, 47). Later on, Einstein wrote essays, articles and letters on various topics such as scientific methods, politics, freedom, education, .... A number of these are bundled in Ideas and Opinions. This collection contains five texts about religion and its relationship with science. One is "Religion and Science" in which Einstein explains how, according to him, there is a third stage of religion: cosmic religious feeling. “It is very difficult to elucidate this feeling to anyone who is entirely without it, especially as there is no anthropomorphic conception of God corresponding to it. The individual feels the futility of human desires and aims and the sublimity and marvelous order which reveal themselves both in nature and in the world of thought. Individual existence impresses him as a sort of prison and he wants to experience the universe as a single significant whole. […] How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one person to another, if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God and no theology? In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are receptive to it (Einstein, 38-39)”.

As Apostel’s ‘atheistic spirituality’ was confronted with incomprehension and opposition, so was Eintein’s 'cosmic religious feeling'. An example is, “[…] Cardinal O'Connell, Archbishop of Boston, admonished the members of the New England Catholic Club of America not to read anything about the theory of relativity, because it is a “befogged speculation producing universal doubt about God and his Creation … cloaking the ghastly apparition of atheism” (Jammer, 48)”. However, Einstein indicated that he was not an atheist nor a pantheist (Jammer, 48).

What I will show in my presentation is that, although Einstein and Apostel have different backgrounds, Apostel's ‘atheistic spirituality' and Einstein's 'cosmic religious feeling' are grounded in the same philosophical stance that relates to the universe: 'cosmic spiritual feeling'. To explain this philosophical stance and avoid confusion, no God concept is required. It also means that concepts such as atheism, theism, deism, pantheism, ... that refer to a God concept are also not required to understand this philosophical stance.

It is a non-dogmatic philosophical stance that goes hand in hand with a healthy trust in scientific research methods to acquire knowledge about life, the world, and ultimately the universe. It starts from humility and awe, is driven by a sense of wonder about the universe and the life in it. This spiritual appreciation of the universe is mediated by mathematics, science and art. The fact that references to God concepts are not required to explain this philosophical stance does not mean pluralism in society is not embraced.

References

Apostel, Leo, Atheïstische Spiritualiteit, samenstelling en eindredactie Jan H. Mysjkin, woord vooraf door Diderik Batens, Brussel: ASP, 2013, derde druk (eerste druk: 1998), 215p.

Apostel, Leo, Natuurfilosofie. Voorbereidend werk voor een op de fysica gebaseerde ontologie, bezorgd en van aantekeningen voorzien door Wim Christiaens, Universiteit Gent -VUBPress, 2000b, 287p.

Einstein, Albert, Ideas and Opinions, based on Mein Weltbild and edited by Cal Seelig, New York : Three Rivers Press, 1982 (originally published by Crown Publishers 1954), 377p.

Jammer, Max, Einstein and Religion, Princeton University Press, 2002 (first edition 1999), 279p.

Pais, Abraham, Subtle is the lord … The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, twelfth edition (first edition 1982), 552p.

Van Bendegem, Jean Paul, De vrolijke atheïst, Antwerpen, Houtekiet, 2012, 198p.

Raymonda Verdyck

A personal testimony on logic, fallacies, and practical wisdom

Raymonda Verdyck provide a personal testimony about her experience as a student of Leo Apostel. She will share her appreciation for his teachings, particularly on fallacies and logic, and how these concepts can be applied in practical situations and everyday life.

Sandro Sozzo

Quantum Statistical Structures in Human Language and Physics

We discuss a theoretical and empirical study on the statistical behaviour of the words contained in a text produced by human language. To this aim, we analyse the word distribution of various texts of Italian language selected from a specific literary corpus. We firstly generalise a theoretical framework elaborated in earlier work to identify ‘quantum mechanical statistics’ in large-size texts. Then, we show that, in all analysed texts, words distribute according to ‘Bose-Einstein statistics’ and entail significant deviations from ‘Maxwell--Boltzmann statistics’. Next, we introduce an effect of ‘word randomization’ which instead indicates that the difference between the two statistical models is not as pronounced as in the original cases. These results confirm the empirical patterns obtained in texts of English language and strongly indicate that identical words tend to ‘bundle together’ as a consequence of their meaning, which can be explained as an effect of ‘quantum entanglement’ produced through a phenomenon of ‘contextual updating’. More, word randomization can be seen as the linguistic-conceptual equivalent of an increase of temperature which destroys ‘coherence’ and makes classical statistics prevail over quantum statistics. These results support Einstein's view in the early discussions before the advent of quantum mechanics that, a ‘mysterious force’ is at play in a gas of identical bosons which determines the violation of statistical independence and the appearance of Bose-Einstein statistics. Such a force would explain the tendency of bosons to bundle together (in modern terms, to entangle). In this regard, some insights on the aspects of identity, indistinguishability and statistical independence in physics are finally provided.

References

Aerts, D., Aerts Arguëlles, J., Beltran, L., Sassoli de Bianchi, M. and Sozzo, S. (2025). Identifying quantum mechanical statistics in Italian corpora. Accepted for publication in International Journal of Theoretical Physics, ArXiv:2412.07919.

Aerts, D. and Beltran, L. (2020). Quantum structure in cognition: Human language as a Boson gas of entangled words. Foundations of Science 25, 755--802.

Aerts, D., Aerts Arguëlles J., Beltran, L., Geriente, S. and Sozzo, S. (2023). Development of a thermodynamics of human cognition and human culture. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 381, 20220378.

Aerts, D., Aerts Arguëlles, J., Beltran, L., Sassoli de Bianchi, M. and Sozzo, S. (2024). The origin of quantum mechanical statistics: Some insights from research on human language. In print in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 10.1098/rsta.2023-0285.

Aerts, D. and Beltran, L. (2022a). Are words the quanta of human language? Extending the domain of quantum cognition. Entropy 24, 6.

Aerts, D. and Beltran, L. (2022b). A Planck radiation and quantization scheme for human cognition and language. Frontiers in Psychology 13, 8507255.

Aerts, D., Aerts Arguëlles, J., Beltran, L., Geriente, S. and Sozzo, S. (2023). Entanglement as a method to reduce uncertainty. International Journal of Theoretical Physics 62}, 145.