期刊名称：Drustvena istrazivanja. Journal for General Social Issues
印刷版ISSN：1330-0288
出版年度：2003
卷号：12
期号：3-4 (65-66)
页码：379-402
出版社：Institute of Social Sciences IVO PILAR
摘要：In the article some arguments for an affirmative answer to the question whether science can come close to understanding the nature of life are analysed. Commencing from the fact that life in late modernity (and not only there) occurs in the shadow of different threats, the author finds that in the centre of all this uneasiness stands the fear for life itself (in the individual but also in a derived, more general sense). Considering the philosophical (and theological) precepts on this "issue", the author also establishes a simple truth – that fear can truly be overcome only as the awakening of love for life. Activating biophilia could no doubt provide significant support to the well- -known concept of "sustainable development". However, the love of life could also become – although in a utopian perspective – a "gravitational centre" of an "improved", axiologically and ethically sensitised (post)modernity. Since in modern conditions the arbitration of science cannot and should not be avoided with regard to any issue, the author wonders how much science can do in the sphere of advocating life. Analysing recent concepts of the American scientist Fritjof Capra, i.e. some of the most important precepts of his brave attempt towards a general synthesis of the new scientific understanding of life on all levels of living systems (from the 1990s), the author finds reason for renewing faith in science – even when life is concerned. Clearly, science can in this matter help only by understanding the nature of life better. Science is here established as a symbol of a new, environmental paradigm, which – in contrast to the centuries old Cartesian division of the world (image) into the spiritual and material – equally draws on the greatest achievements of twentieth-century western science as well as on the abundant non-western sources of knowledge.
