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# Behind Civilization

Second Edition (English edition)

Written by: Gavin Huang

The following translators partially contributed to the translation of this edition:

Serene Ho BA (Media & communication)

Wayne Kuo BSc Hons (Environmental), MA (New Media)

Wendy Loo B.Comm

Mary Zhang BA (Philosophy)

Jenny Chu Bcom/BA

Sam Sherry Bcom/BA

Janine Hsu

Copyright 2015 by Gavin Huang

This book is copyrighted. All rights reserved. No part of this book can be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior written permission of the author/ publisher.

National Library of Australia

Cataloguing in Publication Data:

HUANG, Gavin

Behind Civilisation (Second Edition)

ISBN: 978-0-9808566-2-0

First print December 2015

## To the people who provided me with an education

# Introduction

Today while we are taking the luxurious lifestyle provided by the modern civilisation for granted, have you ever wondered what human civilisation is? Do you really understand its nature? These puzzling questions still remain unsolved although many attempts have been made to unlock their mysteries.

To understand the nature of human civilisation, we need to look into its mechanism that governs its whole process from its beginning, its journey and its destination.

Stemming from this way of thinking, we can undoubtedly conclude that civilisation is created by humans' behaviour and human behaviour is the product of decision making. Decision making is a process in the neural network which is influenced by the human nature and the knowledge imputed from the environment. This means that our nature and knowledge drive our behaviours to create civilisation. In other words, human nature and knowledge acquired are the driving forces of civilisation.

When the concept of force is applied to the study of civilisation, it means that the Newtonian mechanics is applied to the study of civilisation. Following Newtonian mechanics, the inquiry into the nature of civilisation can develop into the following thinking: force is a vector which not only has size, but direction as well. Then, what is the direction of civilisation? Furthermore, any moving object has its speed, so this concept can be translated into the concept of "the pace of civilisation". As the speed of a moving object is influenced by the driving force and the resistance, then the pace of civilisation is influenced by the driving force of civilisation and the resistance of civilisation.

By now, a new approach to the study of civilisation has begun. This approach is to examine the causes of human behaviours from the electrical activities in the brain to human social behaviour. These processes are further interpreted from the perspective of Newtonian mechanics. This study can be considered as "social mechanics", a part of the study of "physical sociology". The following issues are discussed in the book: the driving force of civilisation; the resistance of civilisation; the controlling forces of human behaviour and the relationship between human behaviour and social output which ultimately influences social development. This is an attempt to interpret civilisation from the perspective of physics. All these discussions arrive to the point that logical thinking is vital to decision making, which will have critical impacts on civilisation. Therefore, the subsequent inquiry is to look into the way of logical thinking.

From the above discussion, you may think that civilisation is the product of our intelligence and controlled in our own hand. However, upon further observation, you might notice that civilisation bears amazing similarities to the development of the human body and even cosmic phenomena: the body's controlling system and the social administration system; the immune system and the defence system; the birth of a celestial body and the rise of an empire; the collision of galaxies and conflict of civilisations, etc. These amazing similarities lead one to wonder: are processes controlled by intelligence ultimately governed by something else? Is there a common mechanism governing all existences in the universe?

We can understand this issue from the following perspective: since civilisation is the product of the interaction between human behaviour and the physical environment and the interaction is governed by the laws of physics, therefore, civilisation is fundamentally governed by the laws of physics.

Furthermore, we can also understand this issue from another perspective: as you can see the relationship on the book cover: protons, neutrons and electrons form atoms. Atoms build molecules, as symbolised by DNA. Specific molecules create life. A specific form of life on earth, human beings, gives birth to civilisation, symbolised by the female image. Beyond the earth, there are other celestial bodies in the space. From this relationship, we can understand that the human body and human civilisation are part of the process of physical transformation of energy/materials. Therefore civilisation must follow the laws of physics. As displayed on the book cover, the human body, society, atoms, molecules, planet, galaxy and space are all part of the universe. And given the fact that they display amazing similarities, there must be a set of laws of physics as the common mechanism fundamentally governing all existence in the universe. Then what are these laws of the common mechanism?

Through logical reasoning, a simple diagram/mathematical model has been proposed in this book to represent the fundamental relationships, the common mechanism governing the universe. Much of the work has been put into demonstrating that all existence, such as ice melting, social developments, technological developments, the human body, marriage and even beauty, follow the interrelationships represented by the model. In particular, the human body's internal structures and activities have been extensively used to explain social structures and activities as well as predict the future development of society (this is why a natural human body image is used on the book cover and it has nothing to do with nudism but the very nature of the body system and social system). This approach of using medical sciences (including anatomy, embryology, physiology, pathophysiology and biochemistry) and other biology studies such as evolutionary biology is an effective way to study sociology and can be termed "Biological Sociology". Apart from using the human body to analyse social development, the phenomenon of ice melting and the mathematical model are used to analyse social development (It sounds very weird indeed! However, the ice melting contains all the fundamental laws that govern social development.) The mathematical model is further used to analyse the rise of Western civilisation and the Chinese civilisation. This approach allows us to understand these two civilisations on a much deeper level. These studies are the examples of physical sociology. The mathematic model and its applications in this book belong to Scientific Philosophy.

Through all the discussion, finally a conclusion is reached: human civilisation is part of the evolution of the universe. The laws governing the whole universe also govern human civilisation.

#

Gavin Huang

# Chapter One: What is human civilization?

Surrounded by the enchantment of nature, its magnificent powers never cease to amaze us. We gaze, confused, at its forever dynamics, puzzled by the paradox of its display, astonished by its split second transformations. Out of the yearning to understand the environment upon which our survival depends, and dreaming of arriving at the utopia, mankind searches for the ultimate answers: what is human civilisation? How does it journey along the path of time? Where is it headed? All these puzzling issues lead to the ultimate question: What are the fundamental rules governing human civilisation? Urged by nature's quest, we begin our journey to explore this philosophical kingdom.

To begin our journey, let's compare various aspects of living between human beings and other animals. As civilization is generally considered something that is "exclusively" associated with the human race, we can compare "civilized" human beings with any "uncivilized" group of animals, for instance, other primates, who also happen to be our closest relatives from an evolutionary perspective. This approach employs the same principles as comparative anatomy, where inferences are proposed based on the outcomes of direct comparisons. Humans can be compared to other primates, such as chimpanzees, in terms of how we dress, what we eat, where we live and how we travel.

The most obvious difference between human beings and other primates is that we wear clothes and they don't. The only thing a chimpanzee wears is its furry coat, no pun intended! To most humans, the purpose of wearing clothes is no longer just to obtain warmth. Through the active pursuit of fashion, the clothing we wear also becomes an expression of social status. Just think about all the different styles of apparel that are available to us: formal dresses, casual outfits, swimwear, school uniforms, and even gorilla suits! Ever noticed the sheer abundance and diversity of clothing stores there are in the local shopping mall? In some cases, clothing has now become more or less an ornamental luxury and an embellishment of beauty. Fashion shows are one such example. Every year, these shows are held in places such as Paris, Milan and Tokyo where gorgeous models strut and pose on the catwalk flaunting the latest designer outfits with their beauty. In contrast, the only sense of "fashion" evident in chimpanzees is their nudity, something which is considered unacceptable and offensive in many human societies and cultures. A similar display of nudity by a human being is likely to result in an arrest where the person is charged with indecent exposure or taken to a psychiatric institution for assessment.

The broad range of food and styles of cooking available to humans seem endless, ranging from exotic delicacies such as oysters, caviar, snails and truffles, to international cuisines such as Chinese, French, Japanese, Thai, Italian, Mexican, and more. We also have a vast array of fast food, snacks, microwave dinners, health food, vegetarian meals and low fat diets to meet our individual demand for convenience or nutritional requirements. Even a simple family dinner may consist of an entrée, the main course and dessert. In contrast, no other animals have such an assortment of food to choose from, nor can they afford to have such elaborate eating habits. In the wild, chimpanzees rely mainly on fruit and nuts as staple food, while many animals must simply be content with whatever food is available.

Humans have many choices regarding where they live, including houses, apartments or even luxurious mansions, with access to electricity and drinking water. Most forms of housing are also adequately equipped with lighting, bathroom facilities, air-conditioning, and burglar alarms, all of which offer additional comfort and greater security. Wealthy individuals are able to purchase their own homes, and even most people with financial difficulties are still able to find affordable housing subsidised by government Housing Commission. In comparison, chimpanzees, along with all other wild animals, can only seek shelter amongst trees, caves or burrows for limited protection from the harsh elements and stalking predators. Even a desolate shack in the middle of a ruinous urban slum would be considered a five-star hotel to chimpanzees.

To travel from one place to another, humans have at their disposal various forms of transportation such as bicycles, automobiles, trains, ferries, aircrafts and even space shuttles. These forms of transportation offer greater efficiency, swiftness, comfort and reliability than travelling on foot. Our primate relatives do not have so many modes of transportation to choose from, having only their legs to rely on for travel, although swinging from branch to branch may be considered their equivalent to air travel.

We can clearly see that there are enormous lifestyle differences between human beings and other primates. This leads to the very question of why such differences do exist, particularly considering that humans and other primates are so closely related from an evolutionary perspective. The answer lies in the simple fact that human beings are able to invent and utilise various tools to compensate for the insufficiencies of the human body. These tools allow humans to enhance their capacity to satisfy more desires. Just think about the number of kitchen utensils we routinely use to prepare a meal; the variety of instruments used to tailor an outfit; and the diverse range of equipment associated with agricultural practices. In fact, the extent to which humans use vast quantities of tools to satisfy their every desire is unmatched by any other known life form on earth. From this we can propose the notion that civilisation is essentially the invention and utilisation of tools as an external aid to supplement the human body's insufficiency to satisfy desires. Looking back at the history, human civilisation has progressed from using bare hands to stone tools, from stone tools to metal tools, from metal tools to the invention of the steam engine, and then from steam engines to the emergence of computers. Therefore it is clear that the tools created by humans have become more and more sophisticated over time. More importantly, the availability of these tools continues to improve the productivity and efficiency of all human activities, which consequently improves our capacity to satisfy our desires. Such improvements are attributed to breakthroughs in technology that provide the impetus for the advancement of civilisation. When our ancestors first learned to make and use stone tools, human civilisation entered the period that is commonly known as the Stone Age. When people learned to manufacture and use metal objects, human civilisation progressed to the Bronze Age, and subsequently the Iron Age. The invention of the steam engine triggered the industrial revolution. Finally, the invention and proliferation of computers moved our civilisation into the age of information technology. Now, revolutionary breakthroughs in genetic engineering are set to thrust human civilisation into an age of biotechnological manipulation.

At this point, it is worth contemplating the reasons why civilisation is so exclusively associated with human beings and not any other life forms on earth. Why is it that only the human race is capable of making and using sophisticated tools to such a large extent that is unrivalled by any other animals?

This is because only human beings possess the higher level of intelligence required to invent and use tools. No other animals are known to possess comparable levels of intelligence. Such disparity in intelligence can be attributed to the histological, physiological and biochemical differences between human beings and all other animals. These differences are due to variations in the DNA sequences between all animals. Therefore, it is DNA that ultimately determines the levels of intelligence which subsequently determines the dominance of various organisms within the biological world.

# Chapter Two: What is the driving force behind human civilisation?

The first question that needs to be answered is whether there is evidence of the existence of any force responsible for driving human civilization. Or perhaps this notion of driving force is nothing more than an unsubstantiated speculation. Human civilization has undoubtedly achieved incredible progress over thousands of years, particularly in terms of technology. This verifies that the advancement of civilization is clearly a valid and realistic phenomenon. Therefore it is logical to assume that there is a driving force responsible for such advancement. In our daily life, we can notice that an object does not change its status, such as position, without external force acting on it. This phenomenon has been described in Newton's first law. If an object is changing its status, then there must be a driving force acting on it. Applying this concept to the progression of human civilization, we can conclude that there must be a force that is actively prompting its advancement. Therefore, we are faced with the challenge of determining the driving force behind human civilization.

The inherent desire is the primary driving force behind human civilisation. In order to confirm this, we must examine how desire acts as the underlying driving force. Whenever desire arises, the individual with the desire will attempt to satisfy it. Satisfying any desire typically requires undertaking a series of actions. For example, hunger induces the desire to eat. So in order to satisfy this desire, an individual is required to perform the act of finding and preparing a meal. However, when a particular desire demands actions that are beyond the natural physical capability of the individual, it is often necessary to resort to some extrinsic means, typically in the form of tools. Carving up the flesh of a killed animal was once an arduous task for prehistoric hunters, as humans did not possess sharp claws and teeth like most other predators. Consequently, sharpened stone cutting tools were invented to compensate for the hunter's apparent physical inadequacies. This initial utilisation of stone tools marked the beginning of the so-called Stone Ages. The very process through which unprocessed materials are for the first time transformed into practical tools typifies the process of invention.

It is quite a common custom to prepare elaborate feasts and banquets during times of festivities and celebrations. Over the years, people have perfected the art of cooking and developed various methods to enhance the flavours of food in order to maximise the gustatory sensation (taste). The meals we now enjoy in restaurants are undoubtedly more palatable and more appetising than anything our prehistoric ancestors once had. Obviously, the art of cooking is driven by our inherent desire to eat. It is this desire to eat and achieve the maximum gustatory sensation that encourages humans to enhance their cooking skills and this is a part of human civilisation.

As humans have a very limited visual range, telescopes and binoculars were invented to enhance our ability to see further away. As humans do not have acute night-vision like owls, oil lamps, gas lamps, electric lights and even night-vision goggles were invented to enhance our ability to see better in the dark. These examples demonstrate how inherent desire acts as the primary driving force behind the advancement of civilisation.

Upon further examination, we can see that the development of agriculture, animal husbandry, food processing and other related industries and trades were all triggered, either directly or indirectly, by our desire to eat. Our desire to learn prompted the start of educational institutions, the spreading of information and the growth of communication. Similarly, our desire to listen to pleasurable auditory sensations generated a great deal of musical culture. Singers, composers, conductors, musical instruments and symphony orchestras emerged. This was followed by the development of devices able to record and play back music, such as gramophones, record players, and tape and CD players. Ultimately, this leads to the birth of the music industry. Our pursuit for visual entertainment stimulated the flourish of visual arts and the acknowledgment of talented artists. Moreover, driven by our relentless demand for visual indulgence, visual arts have expanded from two-dimensional paintings to three-dimensional sculptures, and from inanimate portraits to motion pictures.

Inherent human desires have not only stimulated the invention of new technologies, but also the discovery of new hypotheses and theories. Beyond this, desires, once put into action, actually stimulate commercialism and mass production, where discoveries and inventions are transformed from abstract concepts into marketable products. It is desire that triggered the institutionalisation of commercial exchange of goods and services; investors' irrational behaviour on the stock market; and the fierce competition on the sports ground accompanied by the cheering, shouting and screaming from the fanatic supporters. Driven by desires, humans not only build up the glamorous physical environment that we live in but also set up invisible rules to run the society. It is our desire for health and longevity that instigate the invention of various life-saving technologies, even the creation of life to some extent, which brings joyful happiness to mankind. However, it is also our desire for power and dominance that instigates the development of life-exterminating technologies, which inflict horrible suffering on the victims. Just imagine: In a wild desolate terrain covered with lush vegetation painted in rich shades of green and tinted with a dozen beautiful hues, you may be overwhelmed by the infusion of fragrance that fill the sweet clean air amongst the overgrowth of thousands of swaying daffodils, poppies and hollyhocks that have taken root here. Within the peaceful tranquillity, a wandering lost soul breaks the silence, asking us to reflect through history: Can you imagine that this was once a scorched field where brutal slaughter once took place? Can you hear the agonising shrieks from despaired souls when lives were on the verge of the end? And in the eerie calm of the aftermath, take a peek: Can you see the corpses and the trickling blood when the gun smoke clears? Can you smell the stench stretch forth and strangle the air from the dead bodies that transpired after the tempestuous violence was over? Among the drumming of the triumphant march of Napoleon's army, can you hear the sobbing of grief and loss from widows and orphans overshadowed by the rapture of the conquerors?

The above scenario, in all its tragedy, illustrates how humans' instinctive desires are the driving force behind human behavior; and the consequence of human behavior is the birth of human civilization. The phenomenon of the civilization of the human race gives rise to a confusing conglomeration of joy and suffering; it creates a paradox of happiness and sadness; and it provides a complex combination of hope and despair.

# Chapter Three: What is the direction of human civilization?

In the previous chapter, the concept of "driving force" was applied to examine the advancement of civilisation. According to physics, force is a vector that not only has a size but a direction as well. Then it is logical to raise a question: What is the direction of human civilisation? We will examine it in the following discussion.

When an individual desires something, he is likely to take some sort of action in order to satisfy that particular desire. Whether or not the desire can be satisfied depends largely on two types of determining factors: natural factors and human factors.

Natural factors refer to influences exerted by the forces of nature. For example, humans have always had the desire to be able to fly. However, prior to the invention of the airplane in 1903,[1] human civilisation did not have the technological capability to successfully overcome the gravitational pull of the earth. This is a perfect example of how nature can impose certain boundaries upon the scope of human desire depending on the level of civilisation, particularly in terms of the available technology.

Human factors refer to influences exerted by humans themselves, generally in the form of social restraints. For example, people are free to cross the equator or travel across time zones at will, but for a citizen of one country to legally cross political boundaries and stay in another country, he or she must first acquire a visa. A visa represents the official authorisation for entry into another country yet physically it is nothing more than an ordinary piece of paper covered with writings and stamps. Nevertheless, any individual caught living in a foreign country without a visa is considered an illegal immigrant and faces possible detention and deportation. This is an example of a restriction imposed upon individuals by their fellow human beings.

From here we can see that the human's capacity to satisfy desire is not unlimited. This capacity falls within the confinement of natural and social restraints. This is the concept of "degree of freedom" that is frequently referred to in physics. The freedom of activity within the confinement of natural restraints is in the form of technological innovation as well as humans' natural power, while the freedom of activity within the confinement of human restraints is in the form of social tolerance.

We have all heard the story of the remarkable abdication of the throne by King Edward VIII to fulfil his desire to marry Lady Wallis Warfield Simpson in 1936. Considering that civilisation had already developed into a stage where even an ordinary citizen had the complete freedom to choose his or her spouse, it was quite unfortunate that as the Monarch of Great Britain, Edward VIII was denied such privilege. In response to many rigorous objections, he was forced to give up the throne in order to marry the woman he loved.[2] Although history has proven the genuine love between this couple, this historical event proves that not even an authoritative and much respected figure such as the King of Great Britain was exempt from the grasp of social restraints. In fact, as a king, in order to fulfil his responsibilities, he was actually subjected to even greater and more stringent social restraints than others in the society due to his inherited prominence.

As we browse through the pages of history, we can see that with the continuous advancement of civilization, human beings come to even greater degree of freedom. It wasn't all that long ago that people were still dreaming about being able to fly, and now we have actually made space exploration a practical reality. In the past, matrimonial decisions typically required parental consent and approval, but today such decisions are made on the basis of love and mutual understanding. The scope of desires and the degree of freedom are undoubtedly increasing synchronously with the advancement of civilization. The future holds enormous promise for the human race, as strict restraints imposed by nature and society upon human being are steadily reduced with the advancement of civilization. The journey undertaken by human civilization closely resembles the course of a small boat drifting along a torrential river. It suffers enormous hardships as it struggles between the urge to live and the adversity of death. It courageously defies formidable obstacles obstructing its path, risking the collision with an unpleasant fate, challenging the dangers it encounters and remaining determined to carry on until it arrives at its destination. After enduring a long and difficult ordeal, it finally approaches peaceful waters where the confinement of the riverbanks is left behind, and it is free to sail the vast exciting waters of the ocean. This is a rather simple portrayal of the course of human civilization. Nevertheless, both the course of human civilization and the boat have to endure the relentless test of time. Furthermore, such a portrayal highlights the symbolic importance of the riverbanks and levees (depicting the natural and social restraints for human civilization) in preventing the rampaging flow of water from flooding, as well as maintaining the course of the river.

It is true that modern civilisation now provides us with greater degrees of freedom, so that we can choose not to dwell in unfurnished caverns; or unwillingly endure the scorching heat of the unforgiving sun; or brave the bitter chill of the icy winter winds. Unlike our prehistoric ancestors, we no longer need to live in constant fear of unexpected attacks from predators. Today, we are blessed with the kind of material wealth and spiritual fulfilments that people in the past could barely dream of. However, human civilisation is yet to reach its absolute pinnacle. Judging by its potential, human civilisation is now only at a relatively infantile stage. The human race is still trying to consolidate a presence amidst the endless episodes of catastrophes that remain well beyond our control. Our lives are still at the mercy of the destructive forces of nature, and plagued by deadly diseases and illnesses. We are still unable to escape from the grasp of petty crimes; still unable to prevent human-induced mishaps; still burdened by the fear of unemployment; and we still cannot avoid death. Humans must endure some form of physical and/or spiritual hardship in order to acquire the various necessities for survival.

At its present level, modern human civilisation is still only capable of granting us with very limited capacity to satisfy our desires, thus restricting the degree of freedom of the human race to a relatively low level. Humans tend to have seemingly insatiable and at times, seemingly unrealistic desires. This is because the scope of human desires far exceeds our actual capacity to satisfy these desires. By reflecting upon past accomplishments, taking notice of our current achievements, and persisting with our objectives for the future, we can confidently arrive at the following conclusion: when human civilisation reaches its absolute peak, it will allow us to satisfy all our desires without any apparent difficulties. Or conversely, when we have the ability to effortlessly satisfy all of our desires, this will indicate that human civilisation has reached its maturity and realised its full potential. All of our present day achievements are the fulfilled aspirations of the past. Similarly, today's dreams will be tomorrow's reality. After walking through the agonising long journey and suffering enormous hardship there will come a day that humans will finally arrive to this utopia. This relates back to the notion that our inherent desires constitute the primary driving force of human civilisation, and that civilisation develops towards the direction that maximises our capacity to satisfy our desires, ultimately for survival.

# Chapter Four: How does civilization disseminate and proceed?

Is the dissemination of civilisation an objective existence or is it merely a speculative concept? The dissemination of civilisation is a substantiated process. Chinese civilisation originated in the fertile central valley of Huang He (the Yellow River) several thousands of years ago. However it is clearly no longer confined to that particular region of China. It has dispersed throughout the whole of China. In fact, it has dispersed far beyond the political boundaries of China and reached other regions of the world. The extent of the influence of this Chinese culture is clearly evident in many Asian nations today. Similarly, the ancient Greek civilisation that provided the blueprint for modern western civilisation has had a profound influence on nearly every nation on Earth. These are the two most obvious examples demonstrating that dissemination of civilisation is not just a speculative concept.

The dissemination of civilisation can also be viewed from a technological perspective. Discoveries and inventions are usually only achieved by very few individuals amongst communities of people, as not everyone is capable of making the same discoveries or inventions at the same time. For example, the first electric light was invented by an individual named Thomas Edison. Today, electric lights have become such an integral part of everyday life for almost every family and society, yet the majority of the people that benefit from the use of electric lights never actually took part in the original inventing process. This shows how the utilisation of a product of technology, such as the electric light, disseminated from one individual to the whole of human society. Similarly, the direction in which civilisation tends to disseminate is from a minority of individuals towards large groups of individuals.

In order to determine the process through which civilisation is disseminated, we need to look firstly at the process of invention. This generally involves two stages: firstly, the establishment of a theoretical concept, followed by the construction of an experimental model; or prototype.

The theoretical phase is the most vital stage, as the construction of a functional prototype is not possible without a sound and pragmatic theoretical basis. New concepts are actually the integration of existing concepts, or conversely, all concepts can be further dissected into a number of simpler concepts. For example, the functional principle behind both the flashlight and the spotlight is based on combining the basic concepts of the electric light with the light-bending properties of concave lenses.

Integrating existing concepts to develop a new concept is a logical thinking process that requires creativity. The development of every scientific theory or engineering design is somewhat comparable to the task of assembling items of furniture using processed raw materials. The only difference is that furniture is a definite object whereas a scientific theory is amorphous. A design is also amorphous until an experimental prototype is produced. Therefore, experimental prototypes and any subsequent final products are the end products and vindication of the concepts that exist in the minds of the designers. It is essential that a practicable concept precisely matches the corresponding objective reality.

Let's examine the process by which desires are fulfilled and lead to satisfaction in society. Driven by desire, Thomas Edison, one of the individuals in the society, invented the first electric light. Then came the large scale commercialised production, followed by the distribution of electric lights into every family through market exchange. Finally, the desire of the large number of individuals in society is satisfied. From this example, the process through which civilisation disseminates is illustrated in the following flow chart:

Desire > Logical thinking by a few individuals > New concept established > Experimental prototype constructed > Invention is acknowledged > Mass production of the newly invented product > Trading of product on the markets > Product becomes available to entire community > Desire of entire community is satisfied

This is the serial form of dissemination of civilisation. The other form of dissemination is through the dissemination of concepts. As a concept is passed from one individual to another, it is likely to trigger another similar but totally independent serial dissemination pathway of desire to desire satisfaction. Within a community, a concept can be simultaneously transferred from any one individual to many other individuals, thus initiating a multitude of independent but parallel pathways. This parallel form of dissemination is even more significant in terms of the dissemination of civilisation as this essentially leads to an exponential expansion, thus resulting in a more rapid and more expansive mode of dissemination. Furthermore, as a concept is passed from one individual to the next, it can be further modified and perfected into a more sophisticated concept that often leads to the discovery of new theories and new inventions.

The introduction of personal computers in the eighties is an example of parallel dissemination process. At the time, IBM's PC and Apple's Macintosh were the two types of personal computers on the market, and Macintosh computers were relatively more user friendly. In order to strengthen its position on the PC market, IBM adopted a more direct and aggressive marketing strategy to promote and encourage other computer manufacturers to base the design and manufacture of new computers on existing IBM architecture. As more and more IBM compatible computers were produced based on the IBM design, it resulted in the eventual domination of IBM architecture on the PC market in terms of conceptual design. This is a perfect example demonstrating the extent of the repercussion from the dissemination of just one simple concept.[3]

Every step along the dissemination pathway for both serial and parallel dissemination is driven by desire. The inventive process may be initiated by a simple but specific desire. For example, the invention of the electric light was primarily a direct response to the desire to see in the dark. However, the individuals participating in the subsequent commercialisation and mass production are typically driven by various desires such as the maximisation of profits, publicity, philanthropism, making a living, etc.

By its nature, the exchange of products is actually the exchange of desires. There are inherent physical and mental limitations imposed on all human beings. Therefore, any given individual is usually only capable of satisfying a limited amount of personal desires independently. For instance, Thomas Edison may have the brilliant mind to invent the electric light and many other useful gadgets, but he probably didn't have the right attributes and ability to be a farmer or a builder. Just like the rest of us, he also needed to find good food to eat and a place to live. In order to satisfy those desires, he needed to offer something that would satisfy the desires of other individuals in return. Therefore, trading becomes an effective and mutual means of satisfying the various desires of individuals within a community, where all kinds of commodities can be exchanged legitimately on the open market. Goods to be traded exist in the form of definite objects, such as food, clothes, and cars or alternatively, exist in a more abstract or conceptual form, such as knowledge and music. Irrespective of the form in which they exist, these commodities are traded because they can satisfy the desires of other individuals that are willingly and purposely participating in the exchange. The local butcher, the music industry, and even fortune-telling exist simply because there are persistent demands for the products they provide. Therefore, the nature of trading is essentially an exchange of desires.

Economists often use the term "market force" to describe the driving force behind economic development. However, desire is the actual driving force responsible for the day-to-day functioning of the society, the growth of economy, and consequently, the continuous advancement of civilisation. In fact, every human activity is somehow intimately associated with some form of exchange. Furthermore, exchanges are not solely limited to trading on the market. Exchanges can happen in any form and can take place at any given time, at any given place and between any given individuals of the society. Think about the exchange of vows between a bride and groom at their wedding; the exchange of physical and emotional fondness between lovers which is glorified by poets and romantic novelists; the exchange between two opposite sexes indulged in adultery which is condemned by moral and ethical principles; the exchange of trust between friends; and the exchange of ideas between intellectuals. Behind all of these exchanges lie desire.

Equal exchange is the undoubtedly the most important principle in any form of exchange. To ensure the equality of many exchanges, the use of currency offers a simple standardised medium for exchange. Since all exchange is essentially the exchange of desires, it follows that currency represents the universal unit of measurement for all human desires.

# Chapter Five: How can civilisation advance at the fastest possible pace?

Looking at the history, the rise and fall of any civilisation as well as the success and failure of any business have their reasons. The mechanism behind them governs the pace at which civilisation develops. When we contemplate this puzzle, it prompts the following question: How can the development of society advance at the fastest possible pace?

The pace at which civilisation develops depends on whether all individuals in society can collectively deliver the maximum output. We can understand this issue as a serial process. This serial process, firstly depends on the extent to which individuals can have their input. Secondly, it depends on whether individuals have the capability to process and its functioning state. Thirdly, it depends on to what extent the environment allows individuals to deliver their output. For example, if an individual wants to build a house, firstly, he needs to have the input of building materials. Secondly, he should have the capability to use the building materials to build the house. Thirdly, the environment must permit him to build the house. During this serial process, disruption at any step can obstruct the final output.

Furthermore, we can understand this issue from a parallel perspective. Theoretically, if each of the individuals is able to function at the highest level to deliver the maximum output, society may produce the maximum output. However, even if every individual delivers the maximum output, it does not guarantee a maximum collective social output because some individuals may deliver negative output. Consider the following analogy: if an individual builds a one-storey house and another individual builds a second storey on top of it, then the two of them have, in aggregate, provided their community with a two-storey house. The combined output is positive. However, if these two parallel individuals have a conflict of interest and the second individual works around the clock to deliver his maximum output to demolish the existing house, then not only does he destroy the existing asset, but wastes other resource as well. His social output is certainly negative. Conflicts between individuals constitute part of the resistance to the advancement of civilisation and result in social disorder. This will be further discussed in the following chapters.

We can further understand the pace of civilisation using another mechanism from physics. It is a common phenomenon that for an object to move faster the driving force must be increased and the resistance reduced. On the same principle, if a society increases the civilisation driving force and reduces the resistance, it will be able to deliver the maximum output to achieve the goal of advancing civilisation at the fastest possible pace.

The following chapters will further discuss the mechanism behind human behaviour and the driving force and resistance of civilisation. The discussion will focus on several issues: the importance of the orderly functioning of society in regards to social output, the forces controlling the output of individual and society, and how society manipulates the social output.

# Chapter Six: The importance of the orderly functioning of society in regards to social output

An orderly functioning state provides the necessary environment for society to deliver maximum output and ultimately survive. Since we live in a physical environment, physical collision may occur if there is no set of artificial rules imposed on our daily activities to guide our behaviour. Let's take a look at the transport system. Transport is an important component of the day to day functioning of any society as it facilitates the transfer and flow of material goods, information and people within society. The fluency of traffic relies on the availability of a comprehensive set of rules as well as a systematic means of enforcing them. Confusion and chaos are inevitable in the absence of such rules and the effective enforcement of these rules, resulting in prolonged traffic congestion, or even total paralysis of the transportation system. Blatant disregard for the traffic signals will result in collisions between pedestrians and vehicles, causing fatality, damages to vehicles, properties and other resources. If traffic incidents occur on the major roads, then they are certain to severely disrupt the routine functioning of the society, which will subsequently have extensive negative financial impacts. In order to avoid such occurrences, rules are a necessary device within a society to guide appropriate behaviour of the individuals. This in turn results in a society that functions in an orderly manner.

In fluid dynamics, the motion of fluid basically has two forms, laminar flow or turbulent flow. Laminar flow describes regular fluid motion in which different layers of the fluid body flow at different velocities but in the same direction. Turbulent flow refers to the irregular motion resulting from increased fluid velocity that disrupts the streamlined flow and forms small eddies. These eddies flow in different directions, colliding with each other and therefore causing enormous loss of kinetic energy.[4]

Fig-0

Similarly, a society consists of various groups and individuals with vastly different and sometimes highly conflicting interests. Therefore, excessive discordance between individuals or groups that emerges during the "flow" of society (i.e. the day to day social activities) can cause massive dissipation or loss of social energy. This is likely to decrease or interfere with the streamlined flow of society and may disrupt the absolute integrity of society, subsequently impeding the progressive advancement of civilisation. In relation to the group as a whole, some form of order must be maintained to minimise internal conflict, reduce loss of energy and prevent the collapse of the society's internal structure. If order is maintained, the civilisation of the group advances at a faster pace, ensuring its survival within a highly competitive environment. A society typically consists of many different individuals and sub-groups. The functioning of the society is essentially based on the exchanges of interests between individuals and sub-groups. These mutual exchanges (or "flows") operate on the principle of fair exchange. Conflicts within the society will often arise if an exchange is inequitable. Although it is possible for one party (whether it is an individual or a sub-group) to gain a temporary benefit or advantage at the early stages of an unfair exchange, it will ultimately jeopardise potential long-term benefits that may emerge from the exchange. For example, the extremely low pricing of a particular product may initially benefit the purchasers. However, as the price continues to plummet over a long period of time, the producer may be forced to cease production. The decrease in supply will inevitably cause an increase in the market value of the product, leading to buyers actually spending more in the long run. Interactions between individuals within a group are reciprocated and mutually complementary, so that a breakdown in one aspect will induce other breakdowns in other aspects. Furthermore, this breakdown in interactions between individuals and subgroups, and even between groups, may be long lasting or even permanent. Therefore, order in the functioning of a society is not only important to the group as a whole, but also to each individual within that group.

In real life, there are many situations where extreme measures are taken to maintain social order. For example, when an economy loses control of inflation, the government will implement tough measures such as price freezes. Likewise, when there is turmoil in society, martial law may be implemented. These measures prevent society from slipping into chaos.

When understanding the nature of order, one cannot simply regard it as a static, motionless system, but a dynamic one. For example, in the middle of the night, people are asleep, pedestrians are sparse, the shops are closed and factories have shut down production. At this time, the whole community is obviously in an orderly form, but the output is significantly smaller than the productivity of the daytime. This type of order is comparatively static, without vitality. A society should be dynamic, orderly and harmonious, with ample vitality, in order to achieve maximum output.

In summary, orderly functioning ensures that the internal structure of society will not be compromised, thereby preventing unnecessary dissipation of energy and allowing society to achieve its maximum output. Ultimately, this ensures the faster advancement of civilisation, which guarantees the long-term survival of the group as a whole, as well as the individuals within the group.

In real life, we can see that order is a vital component to ensure the successful functioning of any groups of individuals, from a small group such as a family, to a large aggregation of people such as a nation. A harmonious family environment is known to have a significant impact on the mental and emotional wellbeing of an individual. However, it is impossible to have harmony at home if members of the family are always in conflict. Another example is that when people go shopping, they are often required to form a queue to obtain particular goods or services. The act of queuing up is intrinsically a functional expression of order in terms of priority and subsequently, a fair system for the sequence of operation. In this instance, the order of operation is on the basis of "first come, first served". However, if order is disrupted, in this case, when people start pushing in to get to the front of the queue, some form of conflict is inevitable, and can often result in violent verbal and/or physical confrontations. When this occurs, the ordered operational practice of trading degenerates to total chaos.

# Chapter Seven: What are the forces controlling individuals' behavior to ensure an orderly society?

In the previous chapter, the importance of an orderly society has been discussed. The next question that arises is: what are the forces controlling individuals' behaviour to ensure an orderly society and ultimately for survival? In order for a society to function in an orderly fashion, individuals must follow a set of rules to control their social behavior. The objective of these rules is to protect the interest of the whole society and further guarantee its survival. However, humans' self-centered nature still influences individuals' behavior. If every individual's social behavior were wholly based on self-interest, which is similar to the direction of small eddies in turbulent flow circulating around its own center, then internal conflict within society would be inevitable. To minimize this internal conflict and maintain the orderly functioning of a society, it is important to control individuals' social behavior. At this point, questions logically arise: what are the forces controlling human behaviour, and how do these forces control each individual's social behavior?

Let's look into the process of an individual's behavior from desire to taking action, using the example of feeling hungry. When an individual's caloric condition is reduced to a certain level, it triggers a series of hormonal and neural responses. This activates appetite related regions in the CNS (central nervous system), generating the desire (appetite) to eat.[5] This is an instinctive nature. In response to this desire, the individual will decide whether or not to eat because this inherent desire is not the only factor contributing to the decision of eating. This is a logical thinking process based on neural activity in the cerebral cortex (more precisely, the executive function of the prefrontal cortex). The individual does not undertake any physical action related to eating until he has actually made the decision. At this stage, the neural activity regarding whether or not to eat is still confined to the brain. Once the decision to take action to eat has been made, electrical impulses are sent from the brain (more precisely, the motor cortex of the brain) through the nerve to the related muscles, generating the physical behavior. This is the process from the rising of desire to taking action. [6]

In some situations, an individual may not eat following the desire for food as the decision to eat is influenced by other factors apart from inherent desire. For example, influenced by courtesy, a professor would not eat in a lecture theatre whilst giving a lecture to students regardless of how hungry he may feel. Influenced by religious doctrines, a Buddhist monk should not eat meat despite how tempting the smell of the cooked meat may be. Influenced by scientific knowledge, a well-educated person will not eat contaminated food.

Based on these examples, we can draw the conclusion that religious doctrines, customs, moral and ethical principles, philosophies and scientific knowledge all play a role in modifying the influence of inherent desires in decision making. These factors do not come along with the birth of any individual's life. They are acquired concepts, the result of environment input during an individual's development. However inherent human desires are just that — desires that humans are born with. It does not matter whether an individual is educated or not; as long as their caloric level drops to a certain level, they will begin to feel hungry.

Drawing on these facts and the above logical reasoning, we can further draw the conclusion that inherent desires are the primary driving force behind human behavior. On top of this basis, religious doctrines, customs, moral and ethical principles, philosophy and scientific knowledge modify human social behavior at a decision making level by interacting with inherent desires. This kind of self-control intervenes before any electrical impulses are sent from the brain's motor cortex to the related muscles that generate the physical action. Therefore this kind of control can be regarded as a force where human behavior is controlled internally - within the brain. Any knowledge that can modify behavior as the result of input from the environment is an "internal controlling force of human behavior".

The formation of "internal controlling forces" is a process in an individual's development in which the neural networks receive various information from the environment which is processed and stored as concepts in the brain. So when the individual participates in an activity, these concepts are used as a guide for appropriate social behaviour, acting as internal controlling force.

However, there are some situations in which an individual's "internal controlling force" is not sufficient in restraining his social behavior, as the inherent desire is too strong to be controlled. For example, when the feeling of hunger intensifies to a point that an individual can no longer control his desire, he may ignore the concepts controlling eating behavior and take action to eat. Such a situation can be seen when an individual is extremely hungry, he may eat whatever is available, perhaps even steal food, and neglect the influence of moral and ethical principles. There is another situation in which an individual's "internal controlling force" is too weak to overcome the inherent desire. For example, some people ignore traffic signals and violate traffic rules. In both situations, decision making is predominantly influenced by inherent desire. [7]

In order to control the social behavior of those individuals who do not obey general social rules and disrupt social order, an "external controlling force" must be applied to force these individuals to follow social rules. Anything that forces individuals to follow social rules is an "external controlling force of human behavior" such as the legal system and administrative systems in the society. In order to compare the "internal and external controlling forces", we can use the example of the legal system. The knowledge an individual possesses regarding the legal system of their society will influence their behavior and therefore can be regarded as an "internal controlling force". Law enforcement puts these rules into action, forcing individuals to follow these rules, therefore representing an "external controlling force". Therefore, it is clear that both "internal and external controlling forces" play a critical role in maintaining the orderly functioning of a society.

# Chapter Eight: How does society manipulate the social output?

We have discussed in previous chapters that inherent desire is the primary driving force behind an individual's behaviour. On top of this, "internal controlling forces" modify the influence of these desires on human behaviour at a decision making level and subsequently result in social behaviour. An individual's behaviour originates from a decision made by the individual's brain, which comes from the logical thinking process. Logical thinking is neural activity in which electrical signals are processed in the brain. During this process, an individual's inherent desire interacts with their acquired knowledge. The final result of this logical thinking process is arriving at a conclusion or making a decision. Putting this decision into practice then leads to social behaviour. The following diagram illustrates this process:

During this process, any elements that accelerate constructive social output are the driving force of human civilisation, and any elements that slow down constructive social output are the resistance of human civilisation. The elements involved in this process are:

1. Inherent desire

2. Internal and external controlling forces

Therefore it is logical to examine how these elements affect the process of the development of human civilisation.

I. The impact of inherent desire on group functioning

The desire to eat is again a good example. When an individual feels hungry, he may take action to search for food. This behaviour is driven by the desire to eat. As hunger becomes stronger, so too does the desire for food. The stronger the desire to eat, the more forceful the action of eating will be. This can be seen in gobbling or shoving food in the mouth when one is very hungry while one eats gently under normal conditions. From here we can draw the conclusion that the stronger the desire, the stronger the action will be. This applies to both individual and groups as groups are formed by many individuals and the behaviour of all individuals form the behaviour of a group.

The volume of desires of a group is the sum of the desires of each individual.

It is proportional to the number of individuals in the group and the volume of their individual desire; therefore, a larger number of individuals leads to a larger volume of desires of the group. As desire is the driving force of civilization, then a larger group has a stronger driving force and may advance faster in civilization. Support for this notion can be seen if it is likened to the movement of the economy. In economic theory, production is driven by market forces; greater market forces lead to greater production. Market force can also be interpreted as market demand. The demands of society are the sum of the demands of each individual, and the demand of each individual is based on their physiological needs. These physiological needs are expressed as human desire. Therefore, market forces could be more accurately interpreted as the force of desire. In modern societies, highly populated areas are commercially well developed. For example, many restaurants operate in areas that are densely populated. In contrast, less populated areas have fewer restaurants. If we examine this in terms of regional economy, highly populated areas generate enormous societal demands, thus driving regional economic development. Therefore we can see that the number of individuals that make up the group affects the volume of desires in a group, subsequently affecting the development of civilization.

The volume of a group's overall desires is also directly proportional to the volume of each individual's overall desires. However, individual desire is influenced by physiological condition. For example, appetite varies during a day, and is also influenced by external factors. For example, stress can reduce appetite while exciting news can initiate a feast. The "internal and external controlling forces" are used to control an individual's desire and further to control his and the group's output.

II. The impact of "internal and external controlling forces" on individual output

1 "Internal and external controlling forces" can control individual output by influencing desires.

We can notice that an individual has different output states under different circumstances. These states can be influenced by "internal and external controlling forces". For example, in hundred metre sprint, the temptation of money and fame activates athletes' desire to win. Further, all athletes on the track are in an intensively competitive environment where they compete closely. Stimulated by the deafening cheers of the spectators, for the dream of glory, for the honour of victory, for the goal of beating rivals, and for the temptation of money, the common unit of desire, at this very moment, athletes deliver their maximum output. Hypothetically speaking, if there were only one participant in the hundred metre sprint, we could imagine the participant humming a song while taking a pleasant walk on the track for half an hour before arriving at the finishing line. Nonetheless, he would still win the prize because he were the only participant. This example demonstrates that "internal and external controlling forces" can control individuals' output.

Competition is a common instinct of all living creatures, as described in Darwin's theory of evolution. Competition happens everywhere in society. It can take on different forms and vary in intensity. There are many examples of competition in society: for sexual partners in the biological world, for market shares between rival companies in business, for different theories in the academic arena, and for supremacy between different teams in a wide variety of sports. Sometimes competition between rivals is so intense that you can see the twisted face and bulging eyes of the competitors and hear them bitching and barking at one another. When competition intensifies, it becomes war, like open war, secret war, psychological war, economical war, guerrilla war and even holy war. After all, opponents, rivals, enemies and competitors are all essentially the same thing.

2 How do "internal and external controlling forces" influence the pace of civilisation?

There are some human instincts such as laziness, selfishness and hatred, which act as resistance to the advancement of human civilisation. In the following discussion, we will examine how they affect human behaviour, thus affecting the advancement of human civilisation.

As mentioned before, the desire to eat occurs when an individual feels hungry. Driven by this desire, the individual will perform actions such as cooking or shopping. This means that an individual will take action in order to satisfy the desire. This is working. However, unpleasant feelings will eventually arise, such as sore muscles and shortness of breath, particularly when an individual has long working hours or a heavy workload. In contrast, lying on the beach on a sunny day, listening to wonderful music and enjoying the view of the dream-like ocean allows people to relax, especially those who suffer psychological stress due to modern city life. What a wonderful and pleasant feeling!

Humans naturally react differently to different feelings caused by different stimuli. An individual will naturally embrace approach a pleasant stimulus (appetitive stimuli). For example, when an individual smells the fragrance of flowers, they are likely to approach the flowers and breathe in the fragrance. Conversely, an individual will avoid an unpleasant stimulus (aversive stimuli). For example, if an individual smells something unpleasant, he or she will turn around and walk away. These reactions are the result of the interaction between living creatures and the environment.[8] During the process of evolution, the body system has developed the instinct to chase pleasant stimuli and avoid unpleasant ones, which is in fact chasing stimuli that are beneficial while avoiding those that are harmful. For example, in the environment, a lot of foods with harmful substances taste bitter.[9] Therefore, it is very natural for an individual to spit food out when it tastes bitter, to prevent poisoning. Because the human body requires sugar as a source of energy and nutrition, a pleasant feeling, sweetness, is generated when stimulated by sugar. Thus, humans tend to enjoy food with sugar. When sweet food is eaten, the body absorbs the sugar to ensure it maintains the required levels of energy and nutrition.

Unpleasant feelings may occur when an individual is overworking. Since humans naturally avoid unpleasant feeling, we then avoid overworking. This is the natural response to protect the body from injuries, and it may be one of the physiological factors of laziness.

However, humans would simply not survive if individuals were all dominated by laziness. There is a folk story about a very lazy man. One day, his family was leaving the house for a few days. Since his family knew how lazy the man was, they baked many cookies and hung them on his neck for him to eat. But this man was so lazy that he did not even bother to use his mouth! When his family returned they found him dead. Although this story is fictional, it demonstrates the point: laziness will not lead to any achievement, which may even threaten an individual's survival. If an individual is too lazy to think, they will never invent anything no matter how clever they are. If an individual comes up with many good ideas and great discoveries, but never bothers to take action, then they will never turn their dreams into reality.

From the above discussion, we can see how laziness in human nature affects every step in the process of desiring something to taking action to satisfy this desire. It leads to a decrease in individual output. Therefore, laziness creates resistance to the development of human civilisation. However, laziness can also be part of the driving force for the advancement of human civilisation. Human beings want to satisfy their desires yet are reluctant to work hard, which inspires them to create different inventions. Therefore, laziness takes on two different roles in the development of human civilisation.

In addition to laziness creating resistance to civilisation on the level of individual output, selfishness is another factor that can cause resistance on the level of group output. Human nature, inherent human desire and physiological activities all differ in terms of their names, but essentially are all the same thing as they are based on neural activities and endocrine hormones. The objective of the nervous control and endocrine control is to protect the integrity of the body system and ultimately to ensure the survival of the body. We can use the example of spinal reflex to further explain this point.

When a mosquito bites an individual on the hand, the peripheral sensory receptors produce electrical impulses. These electrical impulses travel along the afferent nerve to the spinal cord and are then transmitted to a motor neuron. This motor neuron fires electrical impulses which are sent down to the muscle, causing the related muscles to contract. The limb that is being bitten then reacts, escaping from the mosquito's bite.[10] This reflex is one of the simplest nerve reflexes in the body. The action caused by this reflex aims at protecting the body from being harmed. Only if the integrity of a body system is protected can a living organism survive. Thus we can see the objective of this reflex is self-centred (egocentric) – towards the protection of the body system itself. In addition to this reflex, there are other human behaviours triggered by reflexes aimed at protecting the body itself. These include the coughing reflex and the vomiting reflex. All of these reflexes are part of human instinctive nature. Additionally, there are some human behaviours driven by inherent desires, demonstrating this self-centred nature. For example, the eating behaviour is driven by the desire for food. The desire for food leads to the ingestion of food, replenishing the body's energy to an adequate level. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that some inherent desires lead to self-centred behaviours. These processes from desire to behaviour are aimed at maintaining the orderly functioning and subsequently the integrity of the body system. Only once integrity is guaranteed can the ultimate goal of survival be achieved. The body control system, which is composed of nerve control and endocrine control, is vital to achieve this goal. In other words, the ultimate goal of this regulating system is to ensure the body's survival.

A part of this control system's function is expressed as human nature, of which some aspects are self-centred. The self-centred nature of an individual is expressed in a variety of ways, including self-protection, self-respect and self-interest. The expression of this self-centred nature in a group reflects the tendency to protect the group's self-interest. The presentation of this self-centred nature in a nation is referred to as patriotism or nationalism. This mechanism is vital for any system's survival as if it did not exist, a group of individuals would disintegrate.

Although self-centredness is a part of the nature of all living organisms and plays a crucial role in their survival, inadequate self-centred behaviours in some social conditions may lead to a series of conflicts between individuals. This causes damage in society, reducing social output and ultimately jeopardises the survival of a society. This behaviour is termed selfish behaviour.

Although self-centredness and selfishness are related in some social condition, they are not the same thing. For example, if a starving individual comes into a room and is given food to eat, his action of eating is self-centred but will not be considered selfish. However, if other equally starving individuals enter the room while he is eating and he is unwilling to share the food, it would cause conflict and he would be considered selfish. From this reasoning, the conclusion can be drawn that selfish act is a behaviour driven by self-centredness to the extent that it has negative impacts on other individuals. Self-centredness is a part of human nature but it does not inevitably cause negative impacts on others. Breathing and the beating of the heart are self-centred but would not be considered selfish. Self-centredness is only one of the factors that constitutes selfishness under a given social environment. Without a specific social factor, self-centredness does not constitute any behaviour that would be considered selfishness.

Since self-centredness can potentially cause social conflict, resulting in damage to a social groups, then how is it prevented from turning into a selfish act? Certainly, self-centeredness is a part of human nature. However, human beings, as a social animal, also develop another nature in evolution, which is antagonistic to the self-centred nature. This is selflessness. It is expressed as empathy, compassion and love for others. This human nature balances the effect of self-centeredness on the human instinct level and further guarantees the survival of society. Although empathy can balance self-centeredness to some extent, it may fail in some circumstances. If this human nature fails to control, and self-centredness dominates on the instinct level, then a higher level of control should step in. This is the executive function (cognitive function) from the cerebral cortex (from the prefrontal cortex). It is expressed as the customs, moral and ethical protocols which are termed in the previous chapter as the human behaviour "internal controlling forces". If these forces fail to control self-centredness and prevent it from turning into a selfish act, then the "external controlling forces", such as law enforcement, should intervene to maintain social order. These are the mechanisms to prevent self-centredness from damaging social groups and guarantee the survival of social groups. This, in turn, guarantees the survival of each individuals in the group.

The act of selfishness is the consequence of selflessness failing to overcome self-centeredness and further "internal controlling forces" failing to suppress self-centredness under a social environment. During this cognitive decision making process, the "internal controlling forces" play a critical role. If one's "internal controlling forces" fail to control self-centeredness or even promote self-centeredness, it will lead to a selfish decision and further turn into selfish act.

In addition to selfishness, hatred can also lead to conflicts between individuals, reducing social output and causing damage to society.

In summary, laziness in human nature is a form of resistance that affects an individual's constructive output. Selfishness and hatred are resistances that cause conflict between individuals within a group, thereby affecting the constructive output of the whole group.

The above discussion has analysed the resistances to civilisation. The following discussions will examine how "internal and external forces" reduce these resistances and act as the driving force.

Let us take a look at how "internal and external controlling forces" control different types of desires. As mentioned earlier there are some aspects of human nature that create resistance to human civilisation: laziness, selfishness and hated. Both internal and external controlling forces are used to suppress laziness, selfishness and hatred. Throughout history, despite the differences between religions, morals, ethics, customs and philosophy, all of them encourage hard work and rebuke laziness and hatred. There are many sayings that support this: "Hard work is the way to climb up the mountain of books and diligence is the boat to sail into the sea of knowledge"; "Indefatigable in hard work and braveness"; "Hard work can make up for lack of talent"; "Diligence leads to the birth of a genius"; "Where there is a will there is a way". The use of proverbs, mottos and fables aiming at reducing the influence of laziness in behaviour is the role of "internal behaviour controlling forces".

Similarly, "external controlling forces" also play an important part in controlling laziness. In order to suppress laziness in people, bonus systems or rewards are implemented. These systems are presented as an "external controlling force" to prevent laziness but they are in fact an expression of "internal controlling forces".

Apart from suppressing laziness, "internal and external controlling forces" also suppress selfishness and hatred, which create resistance to social output and cause internal structure damage.

Many words relating to "self" – selfishness, self-centered, egoism – imply negative meanings whereas being selfless, altruistic and putting others before one's self are encouraged and praised.

In addition to controlling types of desires, "internal and external controlling forces" also control the volume of the overall desires. By controlling the released volume of desires, these forces manage the driving force of civilization of the group.

Why should the total volume of desires be controlled? Because humans live in a physical environment where individuals are bound by natural and social restraints within the scope of the degree of freedom. When desire is greater than the supply of resources in the society, the supply of resources cannot meet the normal demand to satisfy ones desire, which may cause conflicts between individuals or sub-groups as they fight for resources. In other situations, when certain individuals within a group or sub-groups possess much greater desires than what can realistically be provided for them, it is possible that they will invade the resources of other individuals or sub-groups to satisfy their desires. However, since all parts of a group react to one another, the invasion from one side would of course cause a reaction from the other, thus inducing conflict within the group and damaging the internal structure. The functions of the group would decrease and subsequently the power of the group would be reduced. Ultimately this would jeopardize the survival of the group. When the group disintegrates, those individuals who rely on the group for their survival would struggle, and their lives too would come to an end.

This indicates the importance of controlling the volume of released desire as it can reduce and prevent conflict within a group if the volume of desire is maintained at a certain level. Looking from the perspective of physics, a greater force will lead to faster movement of an object. If we apply this concept to the process of civilization advancement, we would conclude that a greater volume of desire would lead to faster development in civilization. However, this is only true if the volume of desires is contained within a certain range. Exceeding this range would cause internal conflict within this group. It is similar to when an orderly laminar flow exceeds a critical velocity and becomes disordered turbulent flow.[11] In order to maintain the orderly state, there must be a mechanism in place. This is evident in the form of "internal and external controlling forces".

Looking back to the history of early societies, low productivity came along with regulations that suppressed humanities. These regulations, in the forms of religious doctrine, cultural customs, moral and ethical principles, philosophies, laws, and administration and legal systems, ensured that internal conflict would not be caused by unrealistically high desires. Therefore we can see how "internal and external controlling forces" help to maintain order and prevent chaos.

In summary, "internal and external controlling forces" play an important role in controlling desires' influence on behavior, and subsequently have an important impact on the advancement of civilisation. They control the primary driving force of civilisation by maintaining of the volume of the overall desires in a society. They strengthen the positive aspects of inherent desires to increase the driving force and weaken the negative aspects to reduce the resistance to advance civilisation. However, "internal and external controlling forces" may not always work in such an idealistic manner. They may also resist the advancement of human civilisation by inadequately influencing human behaviour in certain circumstances. There are many incidences in history that demonstrate this point, and such situations still occur in society today. Therefore "internal and external controlling forces" must be implemented rationally in managing a society. If adequately managed, "internal and external controlling forces" become the second driving force for civilization. If badly managed, they create resistance to civilization. Therefore it is crucial that we examine how "internal and external controlling forces" are able to manage and maintain the process of civilization.

# Chapter Nine: How do various "internal and external controlling forces" maintain social order?

This chapter will further discuss various "internal and external controlling forces" in maintaining social order.

The role of "internal controlling forces" in the maintenance of social order can be expressed in the following forms: customs, moral and ethical principles, religious doctrines, philosophy and scientific knowledge. External controlling forces come from outside of an individual and some of them are enforcing. These forces mainly consist of various legislative and administrative institutions that operate in society such as the legislative body in parliament and administrative departments, which play a part execution. Others include a board of directors in a company or an executive committee in an organization. Even within a family, the behavioral restrictions placed on children by their parents can also be considered a form of external controlling forces.

The distinction between the "internal" and "external" controlling forces is that the "internal controlling forces" is based on self-control. It does not embody actual enforcement. "External controlling force" is applied when an individual's social behaviour is no longer under the control of their "internal controlling forces". That is, an individual's behaviour has exceeded the allowed degree of freedom, especially under the authorisation of society's degree of freedom. The "external controlling force" is presented as some individuals taking actions to control other individuals. But this "external controlling force" is controlled by its "internal controlling forces". The distinction between the ruler and the ruled is in the criterion of the internal controlling force, just as the policeman's way of thinking is distinctive from the theft's way of thinking. In addition, "external controlling force", such as churches, universities, schools and media can install "internal controlling forces" in other individuals.

Let's examine the role of these "forces" in relation to group performance.

1. "Internal controlling forces"

Customs, morals and ethnics

The formation of customs, morals and ethics occurs gradually over a long period of time. They are established with the ultimate goal of achieving the survival of the group. These rules are constantly modified to adapt to changes in the environment in order to attain their goal. These rules are often not stated in written form, yet they are recognised and accepted by the group's members. Every individual who grows up within the group has had these rules instilled in them from a very early age. These, along with other rules such as religion and law, work to maintain social order. They uphold what other rules fail to accomplish. For example, civility between people is part of our customs. In everyday living, it is common for people to nod and greet each other when they meet; it would not be appropriate to greet someone with a repulsive expression. Regulations such as the law cannot enforce such behaviour. For example, parking violations can be dealt with by fines, but should the police come over to fine you $500 for not smiling? Or should they even force your mouth open wide to smile or laugh foolishly with dental tools?

Civility is part of our customs and traditions. When an individual gives thanks to the sales person after a purchase, or says "sorry" after accidentally stepping on someone's foot, or greets his neighbour in the early morning the moment he steps outside his front door, he is demonstrating civility. Why are these behaviours of civility required? If an individual walks away after a purchase, he will not be mistaken as a thief and locked away. So, is civility unnecessary? It is certainly not. Individuals living in the same space will have many interactions, which may inadvertently result in inconveniences, unpleasantness or damages to each other. In order to reduce this type of effect, rules such as civility are used to guide individuals' behaviour. These rules are used to prevent inappropriate interactions and to sustain the dignity of humanity. Thus civility is a set of rules expressed through speech, body language, or written words to illustrate respect for others. In a society, individuals that follow these rules prevent the conflicts with others and consequently improve social functioning. Let's suppose that if two people refuse to apologise after a minor crash at the main traffic intersection, and instead stare at each other angrily, viciously slander the other person, and further develop into a fight, this would eventually result in a major traffic jam and obstruct social functioning. Let's use an analogy, it is impossible to stir angled irons in a bottle, but if they are ground into steel balls and mixed with lubricating oil, then it becomes much easier to stir the steel balls in the bottle. If we use this as an analogy for civility, we can see that it acts as the lubricating oil between individuals within the society: it reduces friction between individuals and diminishes social loss. It enables the society to operate in a smoother, more effective and orderly manner.

Religion

Religion is a form of belief. Its core lies in the mystical, omnipotent and all-powerful supernatural force within the universe, dominating the whole world. Under the influence of this "spiritual pressure gradient", missionaries imbue other individuals with religious thoughts, including religious doctrine and rules, to maintain orderly social behaviour.

Although there are various religions, their roles in society are identical, with the exception of amoral cults. Every religion utilises its impact on the minds of the believers to control and maintain these particular individual's social behaviour. Christianity is the main representative of Western religion. Its primary doctrine is love and forgiveness, which are promoted through an enormous amount of emotional stories. Buddhism is the main representative of Eastern religion. Its primary doctrine is infinite mercy and liberation of all living creatures. Although different terminology is used, the implications of these two religions are identical, especially their impact on society. They both aim to teach believers about ideal behaviour through the concepts of love and goodness. As a result, this behaviour will reduce mutual conflicts between individuals within the society. Both of these religions encourage their believers to learn forgiveness; to resolve past grievances and consequently convert the interaction between individuals within the group into constructive output. In this way, religion acts as a positive accelerator and averts any conflicts that could result in deceleration. The expressions in these different religions might vary but their influence on the maintenance of social order is identical.

Since modern civilisation, the role of some elements of "internal controlling forces" in the maintenance of human behaviour has undergone profound changes. As a result of developments in astronomy, physics, biology and sociology, the influence of religion on individuals as "internal controlling forces" has decreased, as there is a decreasing proportion of religious believers in the population. What follows is of course the impact of negative influences on the society. Copernicus' heliocentric theory and Darwin's theory of evolution shook the credibility of religion. It damages the authority of religious doctrine over the people's mind and consequently affected the role of religion in controlling human behaviour. In fact if this issue is not resolved in one way or another, it will endanger social order. Although modern science has been a threat towards the credibility of religion, humans can never fully understood the universe. Therefore as long as uncertainties exist, religion can still play its role in society. Many famous scientists throughout history until the present day have been devoted religious believers.

Science

As the influence of religion as "internal controlling forces" has decreased, it is necessary to empower other behaviour controlling forces in order to maintain the orderly functioning of society. Since it is science, particularly natural sciences, that have weakened the power of religion, sciences should be able to fill the vacuum caused by the dwindling power of religion. Science will be able to develop its role in the maintenance of human behaviour in order to maintain social order. Science is a subject that studies the interrelationships between various existences. It allows humans to have a clear understanding of the interconnection between objects and develop a better view of the path of transformation between objects. It acts as a guide to human behaviour, to avoid collision between humans and other objects within their environment and avoid conflict between individuals. It is the pathway that will allow humans to reach their ideal state. Science, especially social science, has an important role in the maintenance of social order. Social science examines social activities and the interconnection between objects within the society. As humans develop a better understanding of the society, self-control can be achieved more consciously, more rationally and more objectively to maintain social order. In other words, upgrading every citizen's scientific knowledge and raising awareness of their social obligations is the way to secure social order. If this is unable to occur, the maintenance of social order will depend on "external controlling forces". Utilising an "external controlling force" will increase the group's internal loss as a side effect, but if it is not applied, the society will be disordered, leading to greater loss and further destruction of the internal structure of the society.

Hypothetically, if one day, humans discovered the existence of a supernatural force using scientific technology, then the use of religious power to maintain social order could once again be reinforced. Unfortunately, in the reality of modern society, some disorder is partly due to loss of religious control over some individuals. In the past, a priest's claiming, "God will punish you" could deter anti-social behaviour. Today, a person screaming through a loudspeaker at others would not do any good; in fact people would probably think this person was crazy.

Although "internal controlling forces" take different forms, such as customs, morals, ethnics, religion, philosophy and science, there is in fact an interrelationship between them that allows them to work together. Religious doctrine such as love and mercy can also be interpreted as morals such as "people all over the world are brothers". This concept of morals, ethics and customs can also be understood as infinite mercy in religious doctrine.

2 "External controlling forces"

Previously the role of "internal controlling forces" in the maintenance of social order was discussed. The following discussion will focus on the role of "external controlling forces" in the maintenance of social order. As discussed previously, if "internal controlling forces" lose their power to retain human social behaviour, then in order to restrain social behaviour and maintain social order, the power of the "external controlling force" would be required. The distinction between "external" and "internal" controlling forces is that the external controlling forces are of the power of enforcement. For example, vehicle drivers must obey traffic regulations. The administration of traffic control has the power to penalise or revoke an individual's driving license if he violates the traffic regulations. This external controlling force ensures that people obey traffic regulations and thereby traffic order is maintained.

Law enforcement is the most obvious form of an "external controlling force". It possesses a strong sense of enforcement, which effectively retains the social order. It is especially effective in situations when an individual's "internal controlling force" has become ineffective.

For example, we all saw some countries' spectacular "parliamentary wars" on the television. Certainly, the "internal controlling forces" were not working here and disorderly behaviour ensues. It was a real feast for the eyes with various kinds of "martial art" techniques as if they were practicing Chinese Kung-Fu, Korean Tae-Kwon-Do and Japanese Sumo. Moreover, "missiles" launching and even "venom" spitting were staged. It made viewers wonder whether it was happening in the Colosseum in ancient Rome. Being such talented fighters, perhaps they should have been dispatched to Spain for bullfighting, with the deafening cheers of live audiences, dancing to the tune of the Les Toreadors (my dear friends, if you have ever heard of this music, then please use your wonderful imagination to picture our bullfighters' performance), where men battle topless to show off their frightening hairy chests, and women battle the raging Spanish bull in bikinis as a lethal weapon of seduction. Since this is a proven technique in human politics then it should work in bullfighting because they are both from the same family, the mammal family, aren't they? So it must work! If it doesn't work, we feed the male creature with Viagra. In the end, the "external controlling force", security guards, came to the rescue to end the fiasco and restore parliamentary order. This case demonstrates how "external controlling forces" plays their role when "internal controlling forces" fail. If "internal controlling forces" are insufficient and "external controlling forces" are not in place, the social functioning will be thrown into disorder.

We can further look into how "internal and external controlling forces" maintain social order by examining social exchange.

Exchange is an important social activity. In this process, both parties want to maximise their gain, due to their self-centred nature. However, when one party gains more, the other party gains less and a conflict of interests may occur. In order to prevent this, "internal and external controlling forces" are needed to govern exchanges. Fair trading is the principle of these forces. To a large extent, the "internal and external controlling forces" are used to ensure that exchanges follow this principle. Based on this principle, exchanges are conducted on the base of equal value of traded items. The role of "internal controlling forces" is to minimise excessive self-centred desire to accomplish fairness in the exchange process. It is expressed through customs, morals and ethics such as fair trade, no deception of innocent individuals, or not claiming lost property as one's own. This is further represented by the regulation of law. All these are expressions of "internal controlling forces" in maintaining an orderly social activity.

However, both parties will not always be controlled by "internal controlling forces" during the process of interest exchange. Exchange is often governed by the power of both parties; in order words, it is power dependent. For example, a manual labourer's exchange for living depends on muscular power; an academic professional's exchange for living relies on his intellectual power. An attractive woman is more blessed than an ordinary woman because of the power of her charm. It is easier for her to fulfil her various desires. Thus these incredible creatures are keen to undergo various forms of self-reconstruction to build up their power, in order to get the lion's share of interest. They arm themselves to the teeth! When fighting with their enemy they apply colours to their face and lips to deceive the opposition, just like army personnel applying camouflage paint. Apart from using this conventional battle technique, they use deadly chemical agents. Seriously, you will know how deadly these chemical agents are, with such names as Poison and Opium, upon approaching the fragrance counter in any department store. Once you smell these chemical agents, you are guaranteed to lose your mind or even consciousness! If you still try to resist, they will launch an intense radiation weapon. Its victims will be completely shocked by the glaring radiation and the powerful shockwave. It is the most powerful form of all nuke weapons – nude weapon. At last, the most lethal biological weapon is launched. No kidding, it contains 100% biochemical and even massive micro-organisms. Be careful – this weapon of mass destruction will even attack your next generation. Once you are infected with their DNA, you are destined to be admitted to the hospital's labour ward where you are going to fight for lives. After defeating their enemies, the winners can capture their lion's share of interest. All of these arguments demonstrate the importance of power in exchange for interest.

However, if exchange only depends on power, it will create disorder. The party of greater power can manipulate the value by altering the relationship between supply and demand. It will favour the value towards the manipulator's interest. Therefore an "external controlling force" is essential for the regulation of exchange. Moreover, organisations that enforce these regulations are the main structures that operate in society to secure interest exchange. It has been discussed in previous chapter that "external controlling forces" are the representation of "internal controlling forces". To maintain fair trading, "internal controlling forces" in the form of customs, religion, morals, ethics and scientific knowledge are bound to present as mandatory and restraining "external controlling forces". For instance, the law is used to maintain and constitute fair-trading as legal and unfair trading as illegal. Thus the anti-manipulation and anti-monopolisation is put in place through the utilisation of legal and administrative measures to balance trading parties' power and maintain fairness in trading. Utilising legal and administrative measures to demolish the power that manipulates or monopolises the market can establish a system to sustain fair trade. For example, the enforcement of anti-trust and anti-commercial fraud is a representation of an "external controlling force" which controls monopolisation of the market and commercial fraud. This force is presented as legal and administrative measures to demolish the utilisation of power in exchange.

# Chapter Ten: Logical thinking

We have discussed the role of inherent desires, "internal and external controlling forces", human behaviour, and further, in relation to individual and group output. But how can we guarantee that we make correct decisions to achieve maximum output? In this chapter, we will make a simple analysis on logical thinking. The nature of thinking will be further discussed in other chapters.

Why is it necessary to analyse logical thinking? From previous discussion, a conclusion can be drawn: civilisation is a product of human behaviour, which is determined by decisions. Decisions are made through logical thinking, in which multiple determining factors including desires and various concepts are processed according to a set of rules. In other words, this process involves human instinct – intrinsic electrical activities – interacting with concepts, which are also electrical activities in the neural network. Decision is the outcome of this interaction and is electrical activity in itself, directing human behaviour to create civilisation.

In the history of human civilisation before the Information Age, no other invention can compare with the steam engine, which greatly advanced civilisation. Certainly, the invention needed great determination; however, working out the technical details in this project needed a great deal of logical thinking. Modern physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, medicine and other scientific subjects are all products of logical thinking. Without the correct approach of logical thinking, success will not be achieved, even if an individual has great determination to turn their desire into reality.

Let's use a simple example to analyse thinking process:

An individual feels hungry and spots food on the table. Seeing no colour changes on the food, he decides to eat it. This is a serial thinking (hunger seeing food seeing no colour changedeciding to eat). If the food were left overnight and became rotten and an individual's decision were only based on food colour, a single way of serial thinking, he could easily make a mistake because food can go bad without any colour change. Usually, people will use their eyes to check food colour, their nose to check for a strange odour, their tongue to check for an unusual taste, then decide whether or not to eat the food. This is a case of parallel thinking as the individual gathers information from three parallel sensory inputs – sight, smell and taste. From these three parallel channels, information is sent to the brain, resulting in parallel thinking. This process is illustrated in the following diagram:

This diagram represents a simple logical thought process. It consists of several elements:

1. Serial thinking

2. Parallel thinking

3. Thinking direction

4. Information input

5. Theoretical basis

6. Conclusion

7. Raising questions

1. Serial thinking

Appetite > food spotted > edibility check > edibility confirmed

The above sequence shows a step-by-step logical thought process, with a serial relationship between each step. It is similar to an electrical circuit that runs in series. The first step is the basis of the second step. The second step is the basis of the third step. The third step is the basis of the fourth step, and so on. During this process, if any step is incorrect, it will result in the next step being incorrect and further lead to an incorrect conclusion. For example, if the observation of food colour is wrong then the conclusion will be wrong.

2. Parallel Thinking

Diagram 2 indicates that parallel interrelationships are involved in deciding if the food is rotten. From the diagram, one can see that information input goes through three parallel channels. This is similar to a parallel electrical circuit. These parallel channels are independent to each other.

Obviously, any conclusion derived from following only one interrelationship has a higher possibility of being flawed and therefore unreliable. Determining the quality of food through multiple parallel senses is more accurate than examining the food with only one sense. If an individual were short-sighted or colour-blind, then the judgement of the food's quality by its appearance alone would be misleading. However, a parallel thinking approach can avoid this problem and offers better accuracy because if one channel goes wrong, it will not affect other channels. For this reason, this thinking approach is more accurate. From a biological perspective, the relationship between the human senses of touch, taste, smell, sound and sight are parallel to each other. Furthermore, each sensory system receives information through multitude of parallel afferent nerve fibres, thus avoiding the conduction block of one nerve fibre bringing down the whole system and subsequently the potential incorrect conclusion. Biological organisms evolved into this perfect system through an astronomical number of generations. There are plenty of examples of parallel processing in human social activities, such as multisampling in experimental studies. The accuracy of sampling is directly proportional to the sample numbers. One of the situations of incorrect sampling is an insufficient number in the sample, which has been studied in statistics. Even social research, consultation of congress representing different interest groups and many more processes use the principle of parallel input.

# Increase thought efficiency

When an individual tries to tackle a difficult problem, he may find it hard if he only follows one interrelationship. However, if he follows multiple interrelationships, he may bypass the obstacle and solve the problem more easily. This is similar to detouring a blocked road to arrive at the destination quicker. Multiple individuals who are thinking about the same issue at the same time may follow different parallel interrelationships in their thought. The independent thinking of multiple individuals forms a parallel thought process in the group, thus increasing the efficiency of dealing with issues.

3. Direction of thought

Event development follows a sequence. As thinking is a matter of following the development of these processes, it either follows event development or runs the other way, towards the origin of the event. For example, in the aforementioned case, an individual may wonder who left the food there and why it was left over. Thinking in another direction, he may think of what to do with the food. From this discussion, we can see that there are at least two directions of thought: forward and backward.

4. Information input

Information input is part of the thinking process. In the aforementioned case, visual, auditory, olfactory and gustatory sensations are information input from outside of the body. The feeling of hunger is information input from inside of the body. The awareness of the food being left over is the information input from the memory. All of these information inputs are used for logical thinking. Inventions and discoveries require information input, either from the natural environment or experimentation. Without information input from experiments there would not be the ground breaking development in modern science; neither would we have the sophisticated technology or advanced civilisation that we have today.

5. Theoretical basis

In the aforementioned case, logical thinking is based on the concept that rotten food will have changes in its features. This is used as the criterion to assess food. Different theoretical bases as criteria will result in different conclusions. Therefore, the theoretical basis is important for the right conclusion.

6. Conclusion

Diagram 2 indicates that logical thinking following different interrelationships will eventually come to a conclusion. The conclusion that the food is not rotten is drawn from the information of visual, olfactory and gustatory senses. This new concept is different to the three original concepts, "the food looks normal", "the food smells normal" and "the food tastes normal". The three previous concepts have a parallel relationship. The new concept converges from the three previous concepts and is serial to each of them.

7. Asking questions

Asking questions is the most important step as thinking is usually initiated by raising a question. The final outcome can be a decision, conclusion, invention, discovery or other. People usually admire those historical figures who have made brilliant contributions to civilisation. These individuals' achievements came from their logical thinking. Without raising questions, they would not have thought about those issues, let alone come up with great inventions and discoveries. For example, Newton raised the question, "Why do apples fall on the ground?" leading to the discovery of gravitation and laying down one of the milestones of Newtonian mechanics.[12] His thinking method awarded him with timeless prominent status in physics.

In the aforementioned case, raising questions lead to a series of thinking process and finally arrived a conclusion.

The above discussions demonstrate that the following elements are involved in thinking: serial thinking, parallel thinking, thinking direction, information input, theoretical basis, conclusion and asking questions.

Reasons for incorrect decisions

In real life, humans unavoidably make incorrect decisions. These decisions can lead to catastrophe, such as the Titanic disaster, the loss of billions of dollars in investments and many more. When wrong decisions are made, the fate of the victims is sealed and history is irreversibly changed. So why do humans make incorrect decisions?

There are several reasons for making wrong decisions:

Problems of information input

Importing the wrong information can lead to the wrong decision. For example, coaches of sport teams often give misleading information aimed to make their rivals make a wrong decision. Incomplete information input can also lead to the wrong decision. For example, if the environmental factor is not considered in planning a project, it will cause ecological problems. If some unrelated factors are taken into consideration, the decision will be wrong too.

Rejecting all suggestions from others without careful thinking will result in neglecting some factors in decision making, leading to wrong decisions. This mentality can also reduce information input, consequently reducing output.

Using the wrong criteria

In the aforementioned case, if the criteria for assessing food quality are wrong, then the wrong decision will be made. For example, food features may not change even if it is not edible due to the level of chemical change.

Incorrectly interpreting the interrelationships

Putting the determining factors into the wrong places and misinterpreting their relationships can cause wrong decisions.

Lack of diversity of thinking

Lack of diverse thinking is one of the reasons for making wrong decisions. In the aforementioned case, leftover food may or may not still be edible. Without using diverse thinking, it is easy to go wrong, especially when there are many possibilities and it is not logical to think of only one possibility.

In short, the ultimate reason for making wrong decisions is failing to raise questions in the thinking process. Therefore, to avoid making wrong decisions, raising questions is important.

Thinking in a group

Although the above discussion is in regards to an individual's thinking, the principles also apply to group's thinking on a common issue.

Compared to an individual, the range of concepts of a group is far beyond what an individual can reach. Hence, the potential for a wider range of diverse thinking in a group is much higher. If every individual can perform independent thinking, the whole group can follow multiple interrelationships to form multiple thinking channels. This can increase the accuracy of decisions as well as thought efficiency. Generally, this potential is in proportion to the number of individuals who take part in this process. For example, diagnosis on a difficult case involving doctors with multiple specialties will be much easier than only one doctor trying to do it alone. This situation also happens in boardroom meetings, academic discussions, congressional debate and even arguments between couples because it can generate wider range of diverse thinking.

However, more individuals involved does not mean that the decision will necessarily be more accurate. It is the increased capacity to follow multiple interrelationships that enlarges the scale of diverse thinking, eventually increasing the accuracy of the conclusion. If only the number of participants increases without the increase of concepts in the group, it will not lead to increased accuracy. For example, one thousand computer illiterate individuals will not do better than a single one in programming.

It is by no means guaranteed that a group will not make a wrong decision. There are plenty of cases of financial fraud involving thousands of people. Why did those individuals make the wrong decision? Because those swindlers cunningly designed a trap which enticed the victims to follow one way of thinking and prevented them from asking questions. As a result, diverse thinking did not occur and the swindlers' objectives were not looked into.

History has proven that incorrect thinking methods cause incorrect decisions which can have disastrous consequences. Some are irreversible, in which a decision may ruin an individual's life. More importantly, if the decision affects the whole group it may seal the fate of the group and forever change history. The progression of human civilisation is dependent on how we think. The future of an individual and the rise or fall of a group is dependent on how accurate their decisions are made. These decisions depend on the methods and procedures of logical reasoning that are used by the people who made the decisions.

# Chapter Eleven: Concepts and the objective existences

It has been known that the Fifteenth Century's scientific revolution was due to the introduction of experimentation. But why does experimentation allow us to achieve breakthroughs in exploring nature? Can accurate concepts only be achieved through experiments? The theory and concept of Copernicus' heliocentric model was correct even though he had never conducted any experiments. Why is that so? These questions lead to the question of what concepts are and what logic is. Fundamentally, it is the question of what the so-called "inside world" and "outside world" is.

What are concepts?

Concepts are the representation of objective existences in the human brain. The interrelationship between objective existences is also represented in the form of a concept in the human brain. When mentioning the sun or the moon, a person can usually recall what these look like with their eyes closed. For a blind person, it is difficult to describe the characteristics of the sun and the moon; it is impossible for a blind and deaf person who has never seen or heard of the sun and moon to describe their characteristics as the two concepts simply do not exist in this individual's brain. Therefore to establish a concept in one's brain, input from the sensory systems such as visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory and tactile are required. During the process of engagement between humans and their external environment, the sensory nerve system produces electrical impulses after receiving stimulation from the environment. This electrical impulse is transmitted through the afferent nerve fibres of the sensory nerve in an orderly form to the neural network in the brain, where it creates corresponding orderly electrical activity. Concept formation is based on this orderly neural activity in the brain. [13]

What is the interrelationship between a concept and its corresponding objective existence?

When a light is cast on the retinas of the eyes, the shape of the area on the retinas is consistent with the physical shape of the light source. For example, if the shape of the light source is round then the lit area on the retinas is also round. If the shape of the light source is triangular, then the lit area on the retinas is also triangular. The area of the retina cells (photoreceptor cells) responds to the light, resulting in a series of electrical-biochemical changes on this specific area. Since the shape of this area is consistent with the physical shape of the light source, then the shape of the changed electrical-biochemical activity area is also consistent with the physical shape of the light source. In other words, the "order" of the electrical-biochemical activity on the retina is consistent with the "order" of the physical shape of the light source. Through other cells, this neural activity with the specific "order" will then trigger the orderly firing of the population of the neurons (ganglion cell) on the retina. In this way, visual information is under the low-level visual processing on the retinas. After the low-level visual processing, the processed information is sent to the higher levels (first, the intermediate-level visual processing and then the high-level visual processing) for progressive processing.[292] Finally, the processed information is saved in the memory cortex as concept. As the interconnection of the whole neural network including the visual pathway is in an orderly manner and the visual information processing in the visual pathway is orderly,[14] it is reasonable to believe that the order of the saved information (concept) in the visual memory cortex should be correspondingly consistent with the order of the electrical activity on the retina and further consistent with the order of the visual stimulus (the object). This reasonable belief can be supported by the consistency between the visual input (the object) and physical output of the brain. For example, anyone who has seen the moon can draw a round image of the moon. This is because the individual's brain contains the concept of the moon. This demonstrates that the shape of the moon is consistent with the individual's drawing since they are geometrically similar. As the brain is an information processing system, this demonstrates that the system's resulting output is consistent with the input. Based on this fact, we can further reason that the whole visual information process to form the concept of the moon should be consistent with the real moon. Thus, the saved information (the concept) of the moon should be consistent with the real moon. Furthermore, neural researches have demonstrated that the neural firing pattern in the visual memory cortex elicited by patients' recalling some specific items are highly consistent with the neural firing patterns evoked by directly seeing these specific items. As recalling is retrieving saved information (concept) from the memory, the same neuronal firing pattern when recalling an item strongly suggest that an accurate concept is consistent with its represented object. [15]

Therefore, a triangular light source generates a concept consistent with "triangle" in the brain. A round light source creates a concept consistent with "round" in the brain.

In the previous chapter on logical reasoning, the example of whether or not to eat the leftover food was used to demonstrate logical reasoning. The method of drawing a flow chart to explain the reasoning was also used. From this flow chart, a diagram of logical reasoning in the form of a geometric model was created. Since concepts are the representation of objective existences in the human brain, then in logical thinking the interrelationship between concepts should also be the representation of interrelationships between objective existences. That is to say, this model also represents the interrelationship between objects. The logical thinking process is to establish interrelationships between various concepts on the neural network in the brain, and these interrelationships match the corresponding interrelationships between objective existences. In fact, this process is to indirectly identify interrelationships between objects through concepts.

What are right and wrong concepts?

If a concept matches the corresponding object and the objective interrelationship, then this concept is a right concept. If it does not match then it is a wrong concept. When the order of the specific neural activity established in the brain matches the order of the object, the concept should correspond with the represented object. This is most likely an accurate concept. If the concept does not match the object, it is inaccurate. In the process of concept formation, some concepts cannot be directly constructed. They are constructed indirectly through other concepts. For example, the concept of an atom originally did not come from direct visualisation of the objective existence of an atom. It was a speculative concept, indirectly constructed on the basis of other concepts. These concepts that are indirectly constructed through other concepts may be accurate or inaccurate. The accuracy of a concept is determined by the degree of comparability between the "order" of the neural activity and the "order" of the corresponding objective existence. A greater degree of comparability means greater accuracy.

How can humans accurately construct a concept that matches the objective existence?

First, we need to create a speculative concept, or concepts, to represent the objective existence. The larger the spectrum of speculative concepts, the more likely they are to include the right concept. It is a matter of diverse thinking. The formation of concepts requires the input of information. More information input means that more concepts can be formed. The ancient Greeks emphasised observation, which in fact emphasised the importance of information input in the process of constructing concepts. For example, a few centuries ago, humans did not have the technology to take a photo of the earth from space directly, and a variety of speculative concepts about the shape of the earth were created. The ancient philosophers believed that the earth was flat.[16] Perhaps this was due to the level of civilisation at that period of time whereby the range that could be observed by human eyes, such as the land and the sea level, were all flat. Thus emerged the concept that earth was flat. Yet later some people believed that earth was spherical. This was due to their observation that the mast of a ship was first to appear on the sea, followed by the body of the ship.[17] This example demonstrates that observation of different facts lead to people following different interrelationships to think, which results in diverse thinking. Diverse thinking leads to a wider range of speculative concepts. The wider the range of speculative concepts, the more likely the right concept is included. In fact, in the ancient times, people made various speculations about the shape of earth. Apart from spherical and flat, it could also be speculated as any other shapes. As matter of fact, someone once believed that earth was located on top of a tortoise.[18] All of these were speculative concepts. Since speculative concepts have the possibility of being accurate or inaccurate, the challenge then was working out which of the concepts accurately corresponded with the objective shape of the earth. It started a process to seek objective existence in the real world to match the concepts in the brain.

Apart from broadening the spectrum of possibilities to include the accurate concept, the approach of diverse thinking is also used to narrow down the range of possible concepts in order to find out the accurate concept. Diverse thinking can generate more requirements to match the speculative concept. The more requirements that speculative concepts need to meet, the narrower the range of speculative concepts that will match the objective existence. Going back to the example of speculating the shape of the earth, once Magellan commanded his fleet around the Earth for the first time, it had been proved that the earth was spherical. In fact his exploration around the earth was an experiment. From this voyage, new evidence was found to support the speculative concept of the earth being spherical,[19] which excluded the speculative concept of it being flat. His sailing experiment has been recognised as proving that the earth is in fact spherical. This voyage was the product of diverse thinking, and narrowed the possibilities for the shape of the earth. However, it only indirectly proved the earth is round and did not exclusively reject other speculated concepts. Thinking back once again, Magellan's sailing experiment can only prove that the path he travelled was round. If it happened that other parts of the earth which he had not travelled were flat, then what would happen? In fact, this experiment does not eliminate the possibility that the earth is oval shaped.

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that thought diversity can introduce various concepts which allow logical thinking to develop in multiple directions and follow multiple interrelationships. It can increase the spectrum of speculative concepts. The more speculative concepts there are, the more likely the accurate concept is included. Diverse thinking can also exclude the possibility of speculative concepts that do not match the objective reality, thereby reaching a more accurate concept. The more facts that are available, the more requirements a concept needs to meet. This process narrows down the range of possible concepts. Therefore more inaccurate concepts are eliminated, and consequently a more accurate concept is obtained.

Previously these questions were raised: Why can experiments achieve great leaps in our understanding of nature? What is the role of experimentation in the process of accurate concept formation of the objective existence? After the discussion, these questions can now be answered. Experiments are the product of diverse thinking and also serve as the approach to achieve diversity in thinking. They allow logical thinking to develop in multiple directions and follow multiple interrelationships. They increase the scope of thoughts to include the accurate concept and also narrow down the range of the speculative concepts, consequently arriving at the right concept.

Experiments can accelerate the process of confirming speculative concepts through finding and creating corresponding objective existences. Some phenomena do not happen without artificial conditions, or only happen after a long time. Experiments can provide artificial conditions to allow these phenomena to happen, or happen in a shorter time. When an experiment finds or creates facts, these facts are used to match with speculative concepts, which are subsequently confirmed or eliminated. Therefore, experiments can shorten the time needed to confirm or reject speculative concepts.

As well as confirming speculative concepts, experiments can also create new evidence which leads to the generation of new concepts. When more new concepts are created, it further accelerates humans' understanding of nature. For example, by conducting experiments on animals, scientist can obtain evidence of a new drug, which allows scientists to further understand the drug.

The nature of experiments allows humans to investigate objects more efficiently, and they have become the tool for humans to more accurately understand nature. This is why European civilisation entered a new scientific era in the fifteenth century. Newton's law, Galileo's acceleration of free falling objects, and Maxwell's theory of electromagnetic fields are all the products of this method of research. Within a short period of time, the advancement achieved by humans has greatly increased.

Looking back, Copernicus' heliocentric theory took humans thousands of years to develop and was eventually completed by Copernicus. In this period of time, humans were not able to conduct any experiments relating to astronomy, but still managed to come up with an accurate set of concepts about astronomy, resulting in the heliocentric theory. Before this theory emerged countless individuals thought of various theories based on observation of enormous astronomical phenomena, or facts. Diverse thinking on this issue eventually led to the accurate concept. Observation of the astronomical phenomena prompted various questions. For example, why are some stars motionless while others wander? Why does the sun rise and set regularly? Why does the moon vary periodically? There are a vast amount of questions that can be raised from diverse thinking. Among the concepts about the solar system, some were inaccurate; some were accurate; some were relatively complete; some were incomplete. Finally, within the brain of the individual, Copernicus, this diverse thinking ultimately converged to form a huge concept about astronomy, resulting in the birth of Copernicus' heliocentric theory.

# Chapter Twelve: The fundamental interrelationships of nature

You may think that human civilisation is the product of our intelligence and controlled by our own hand. However, upon further observation, you might notice that our civilisation bears amazing similarities to cosmic phenomena: the birth and death of any celestial body and the rise and fall of any civilisation; the collision of galaxies and conflict of civilisations. It always seems confusing. In the universe, things often seem complicated, magical and incomprehensible. However, when observing the very nature of seemingly complicated phenomena, it is, in fact, strikingly simple. Through the mirror of illusion, objects magically display their order – as if every object's fate is controlled by a mysterious power. The destiny of all existence has been preordained. Besieged by confusion and uncertainty, human beings have been longing to understand the environment upon which our survival depends and the universe that cultivates every existence. Mankind asks an ultimate question: are our civilisation and all other existences in the universe governed by a FUNDAMENTAL mechanism? Are social structure, technological developments, the human body, marriage and even beauty all governed by this common mechanism? If yes, can we use a simple mathematical model to represent and unite the concepts of all fundamental interrelationships? Can this mathematical model be used as the foundation to unite social science and natural science and further bridge the gap between science and philosophy?

In the chapter on logical thinking, the example of whether or not to eat the leftover food is used to diagrammatically analyse the process of thinking. In this thinking process, several parallel thoughts converge to a conclusion – the food is edible. What would happen if the food were eaten? It would be broken down into nutrients, water and other substances – a divergent process. By using lines to represent these processes, a mathematical model is deducted to represent thinking. From the previous discussion about concepts, we realise that concepts are representations of objective existences in the brain. The accurate concept in the brain must logically match the objective existence that the concept represents. If this is so, the logical thinking model, which represents the interrelationships between concepts in the process of logical thinking, is also in fact the representation of the interrelationships of objective existence. The diagram below is a model that represents the interrelationships between objective existences, also known as the Interrelationships Model. The details of objective interrelationships will be dealt with in this chapter.

Before we begin this chapter, it is necessary to point out that the proposed Interrelationships Model is still a hypothesis put forward to encourage further discussion and critique.

This model represents several fundamental relationships:

Serial relationship

A serial relationship is one of the fundamental relationships. For example, the way that multiple components are linked in series in an electrical circuit is the most well-known serial relationship. In a family, grandmother, mother, daughter and granddaughter are examples of a serial relationship. The relationship between cause and effect that widely exists in nature is also a serial relationship. For example, the collision of cars on a highway is the expression of such a relationship. The first car triggers the second car's collision, the second car causes the third car's collision and the third car leads to the fourth car's collision and so on... These relationships can be represented with E1  E2  E3  E4 in which the events are in a serial relationship as illustrated in the following diagram (Fig-4). The first event is the cause of the second event and the second event is effect of the first event. The second event is the cause of the third event and the third event is the effect of the second event. The previous event is the cause of the following event and the following event is the result of the previous event. The law of conservation of energy is also an expression of a serial relationship. A Serial relationship can be represented with the following model which evolves from the Interrelationships Model.

Parallel Relationships

A Parallel Relationship is one of the fundamental relationships in the universe. For example, the components linked in parallel in an electrical circuit are in a parallel relationship. The relationship between brother and sister is a parallel relationship. Planets in the solar system are in a parallel relationship. There is no cause-effect in between parallel events. A Parallel Relationship can be based on an object's position in space or on a mechanism. For example, components in a car are in a parallel relationship in terms of their spatial position. Trees in a forest are not only spatially parallel but are parallel in terms of direction as well. However, the other form of a parallel relationship is based on a common mechanism. For example, all mammals are in a parallel relationship because they are all based on the common mechanism of mammal. The following diagram (Fig-5) represents the parallel relationship.

Parallel relationships based on spatial orientation and a common mechanism can coexist at the same time. For example, every tree in the forest is spatially parallel to all others. However, it is more important to understand that the existence of all these tangible spatially parallel trees is based on an intangible common mechanism. It is this common mechanism which leads to similarities in all trees.

Serial-parallel relationship

However, relationships are not either serial or parallel. On the contrary, serial and parallel relationships can coexist at the same time.

For example, the creation of many higher order multicellular organisms begins with just two cells: the male sperm cell (spermatozoa) and the female egg cell (ovum).[20] The relationship between these two cells is parallel. However, as the sperm cell fuses with the egg cell to become a zygote, the relationship between the sperm cell and the zygote becomes serial. The same serial relationship exists between the egg cell and the zygote. [21]

We have discussed interrelationships within an organic system. Now let's have a look at an example from the inorganic world. The periodic table arranges the various elements in a systematic manner according to their physical and chemical properties. Each element has its unique place on the periodic table and forms a parallel relationship with every other element. For example, the hydrogen atoms (H) that make up the hydrogen gas molecules (H2) relate to the oxygen atoms (O) that make up the oxygen gas molecules (O2) in an independent but parallel manner. However, when they combine, the hydrogen and oxygen atoms form two separate serial relationships with the resulting water molecule (H2O).

Similarly, in organic chemistry, the relationship between carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms that combine to form various carbohydrate compounds is strictly parallel, but each element also forms a separate serial relationship with the resulting compounds. Carbohydrates are the building blocks of life, since all organic life forms are basically conglomerates of carbohydrates. Therefore, the relationship between life and hydrogen atoms and the relationship between life and oxygen atoms are both serial in nature, whereas the relationships between the different types of atoms (i.e. the elements) are parallel.

The aforementioned concepts can be easily explained using the Interrelationships Model. But the big question is: to what extent can this model be applied? We have already discussed the parallel relationships amongst different elements that combine to form specific compounds, as well as cosmic examples of parallel relationships, such as those between constellations, and the relationship between Earth and all other planets of the solar system. From those examples, we can see that the Interrelationships Model is capable of deciphering considerably complex interrelationships amongst different objective existences.

From a taxonomic perspective, kingdoms, phyla, classes, orders, families, genera and species are all part of a systematic hierarchy. Therefore, each taxonomic level forms a serial relationship with any other levels above and/or below, while within each taxonomic level there are various organisms that exist in parallel.[22] For example, the cat family (Felidae) represents those carnivorous animals with retractile claws and is divided into parallel genera such as Felis, Panthera and Lynx. The genus Panthera can then be divided into several separate parallel species such as the tiger, lion, jaguar and leopard. Even the tiger can be further classified into parallel subspecies such as the Sumatran tiger, Bengal tiger and the Siberian tiger. [23]

If we use the same approach to analyse human society, we can see that Confucius and his many descendants are serially related. If we ignore the subject of temporal separation, every one of Confucius' descendants represents a unique and independent individual and a specific parallel existence. Therefore, if Confucius were still alive today, then the relationship between him and each of his descendants would be both serial and parallel in nature. Thus the interrelationships represented by this model can be interpreted as parallel-serial and serial-parallel.

Similarity

Similarity is a common phenomenon in the universe and is the product of commonality and difference. For example, domestic cats and tigers are both members of the cat family and share many similarities.[24] They share some common biological features as well as some obvious biological differences. In another example, potassium and sodium are both metallic elements, and although they share many of the common properties of metals, there are also many differences in terms of their chemical properties such as reactivity.

As discussed above, similarity is the expression of a parallel relationship based on a common mechanism. In other words, if things display similarity, then they must have a common mechanism. For example, the same group of organisms display similar features because they all have the same DNA sequence. Potassium and sodium display their metallic properties because they both have fewer electrons in the outer orbit, which is the common mechanism of metallic elements. Therefore, we can further conclude that all existences displaying similarity are linked through a common mechanism.

Similarity can be represented with the Interrelationships Model as shown in the diagram below.

In this diagram, C represents a common mechanism which is intangible. E, E1, E2, E-1, E-2 represent parallel existences with similarity. The dotted lines represent the intangible links between the parallel existences and their common mechanism. The distance between the parallel lines represents the relative similarity. Greater distance indicates a greater difference and less commonality, while a shorter distance translates to a greater commonality and less difference.

This model can be used to explain the phenomenon of similarity. For example, the same group of trees display similarity. All these parallel existences of trees are based on a common mechanism. Therefore, the seemingly independent parallel trees are all linked via a common point, the common mechanism. This mechanism is abstract but can be expressed in physical existence. For example, the common genetic coding of the same trees is a part of the abstract common mechanism while the arrangement of the molecules in this genetic coding is the physical expression of this abstract mechanism.

Any life form is essentially a unique form of biological expression. All living things, from bacteria, viruses, amoeba, plants or insects, to mammals, birds, fish or humans are parallel biological existences based on the common mechanism of life. They possess the common characteristic features of life, the commonality, as well as their own unique features, the difference. A unicellular organism and a colony of multicellular organisms both exhibit the universal features of life, such as reproduction, competition and metabolism, but they can also have vastly different features. For example, animals increase their numbers by engaging in sexual reproduction[25] while most bacteria and viruses multiply in a strictly asexual manner.[26] Most animals only breed during certain times of the year, whereas human beings are sexually receptive all year round. Sexual receptiveness can even be induced medically as humans are willing to invest a vast amount of resources to the development, mass manufacture and marketing of drugs such as Viagra. A single cell, an individual and a group of individuals all show similarity but none are exactly the same. Therefore, commonality and difference both exist.

Phase Transition and critical point

Phase Transition is a common phenomenon in the universe and it is an expression of a serial relationship.[27] For example, when ice is heated, it melts into water; when water is boiled, it evaporates into steam. After phase transition, the physical properties of the object correspondently change. For example, ice is in solid form and water is in liquid form while steam is in gaseous form. The point at which things start changing is referred to as the critical point.[28] For example, 00C is the critical point of ice melting into water and 1000C is the critical point of water evaporating into steam.

Phase transition can be expressed with the Interrelationships Model as shown in the following diagram (Fig-7). In the Model, the point at which all the lines converge and from which they then diverge is referred to as the critical point. It is also commonly recognised as a turning point. The left side of the model represents the phase before transition, while the right side represents the phase after transition. So, the model represents the whole process of phase transition. Using this model, ice melting into water can be expressed as such: the left side of the model represents ice, where water molecules (H2O) exist in a solid form; the point in the centre represents 0 0C, which is the critical point at which water molecules change state, from solid to liquid; the right side of the model represents water, where water molecules exist in a liquid form.

The region between two critical points depicts a particular form of existence, so that beyond this region, the same object can adopt different forms of existence.

Phase transition and critical point are manifested in many physical, chemical and biological phenomena, for example, the boiling of water. The boiling of water is determined by two factors: temperature and pressure. These two factors can be represented by any two lines to the left of the critical point. To the left of the critical point, water exists in liquid phase, while to the right of this point, water exists in gaseous phase so that the precise moment that water starts to boil represents a point of change (phase transition). Here the boiling point is the critical point. When the temperature reaches a critical value, the existing form starts to transform into another form. Similarly, when a nuclear substance reaches a critical point, in this case called critical mass,[29] it produces a nuclear reaction in which the existing energy transforms from one form, matter, to another, nuclear energy.

Phase transition and critical point also exist in human society. For example, a human individual will experience many critical points in his or her life where a change of phase takes place in a brief moment. The first critical point is the fusion of a sperm cell with an egg cell, which creates the person. This individual passes from their birth, to the moment they receive a testamur in their university graduation ceremony, to the critical moment of saying "I do" at their wedding, to the day their first child is born and they become someone's parent, until the critical moment of the last heart beat which marks the end of life.

There are many critical points in the history of human civilisation. Copernicus' heliocentric model, Newton's laws of physics and Einstein's theory of relativity, the invention of the steam engine and the invention of computers are all examples of major turning points throughout the history of human civilisation.

All these are turning points in life and human civilisation; they are the phase transitions and critical points existing in the physical world and can be represented by the Interrelationships Model.

Continuation-Discontinuation

From the above discussion, we can see that all forms of change are in continuation-discontinuation. When ice melts into water, the solid form of water molecules become discontinued; when water boils, the liquid form of water molecules become discontinued. However, these changes of existing state do not change the nature of water molecules. Molecules in these three existing forms continually remain water molecules. This process can be expressed with the Interrelationships Model as continuation-discontinuation.

Any process of development is by its very nature a continuous progression. However, it often appears disrupted due to the form in which the constituent elements of the process are manifested or perceived. Points of convergence and divergence represent specific turning points of changing forms along a continuous progression.

Convergence-Divergence

The old Chinese proverb, "extended togetherness leads to separation, while prolonged separation leads to togetherness", is a description of many common events in the objective world. It provides perhaps the simplest explanation of the basic principles of the fundamental model of interrelationships as the converging and diverging tendencies of the model coincide with those common events. For example, the fusion of a sperm cell with an egg cell to form a zygote is a convergent process, while subsequent zygotic cellular division is a divergent process. The process by which the zygote continues to divide and differentiate leads to the gradual stepwise progression during which the embryo develops into a foetus then a fully matured neonate, and from a neonate to an adult.[30] But from a strictly energetic perspective, this progression essentially represents the convergent process whereby energy accumulates progressively. However, as an individual ages over time and as "life" eventually expires due to old age, this becomes a divergent process as energy is lost, the body degenerates and ultimately disintegrates.

Bell was once the only telecommunication company in the USA until it was broken into several independent companies, which coincided with the emergence of many new telecommunication companies. This is an example of divergence. But after some time, in the competition between these phone companies, annexation occurred and resulted in several large telecommunication companies.[31] This is convergence. Similarly, in the beginning of the motor industry there were numerous motor production firms, but now there are only a few motor production firms in a country. The rest have all been annexed or eliminated. This is another example of convergence.

Singularity-Plurality

The dynamic changes of convergence-divergence may present as singularity-plurality. This can be seen as multiple existences, a state of plurality, which converge into a single existence, a state of singularity. For example, in sport competition, multiple competing teams eventually converge into only one champion. Or vice versa, a single existence diverges into multiple existences.

Contraction-Expansion

Contraction and expansion is a very common phenomenon. For example, when temperature increases, the size of an object expands. When temperature decreases, the size of an object contracts. Human body size expands with development and contracts with aging. Economic size expands with development and contracts with recession. All these phenomena can be represented with the Interrelationships Model.

Symmetry-Asymmetry

Symmetry-Asymmetry is a phenomenon that is observed in nearly every facet of existence. Symmetry exists in planets, the solar system and galaxies. It also exists in small objects such as crystal structures and atoms. For example, the arrangement of molecules in a crystal structure is symmetrical. The positive electrical charge in the nucleus and the negative electrical charge in the electrons express symmetry in an atom. Symmetry is also commonly observed in the biological realm. For instance, the human body is morphologically symmetrical. From a physiological perspective, the human sympathetic nerve system is functionally symmetrical to the parasympathetic nerve system. However, asymmetry is also widely present. For example, the two legs of a human body are not absolutely symmetrical. Although the human body has two legs which can be considered as an expression of symmetry, the human body only has one head which can be considered as an expression of asymmetry. [32]

The Interrelationships Model can adequately represent this fundamental phenomenon with its horizontally opposite lines exhibiting symmetry, with asymmetry above and below the horizontal axis.

In the above diagram, the lines are symmetrical as well as asymmetrical around the axis. E2 is symmetrical to E-2 and E1 is symmetrical to E-1. However, E2 is asymmetrical to E-1 and E1 is asymmetrical to E-2. Although these descriptions seem to be true, E1 and E-2 are also symmetrical to each other because they are on the opposite sides of the horizontal line. Therefore, they are symmetrical-asymmetrical. E2 and E-2 are symmetrical-asymmetrical too because they cannot be absolutely symmetrical. Symmetry-asymmetry is also presented in another form: if Fig-8 is turned 90 degree clockwise, it will be presented as an upright hierarchical system. In this system, the highest point, C, is in a state of singularity, which is a form of asymmetry. Below this point, the left side and right side of the system are symmetrical to each other. Therefore, a hierarchical system is symmetrical-asymmetrical. This topic will be further discussed in the next chapter.

The orientation and the configuration of the lines can be used to reflect the distribution of power within a system, as well as the distribution of power between composite systems. The symmetrical-asymmetrical lines can represent the balance of power distribution.

Order-Disorder and Interaction

From the Interrelationships Model, we can see that the distance between each individual line decreases as the lines get closer to a critical point. In objective phenomena, when the distance between independent events decreases, the interaction between these events will increase with greater intensity. In other words, within a confined space, the frequency and the magnitude of interactions between the occupants will proportionally increase with greater intensity when they get closer. Thus, as the distance between individuals is reduced, there is a greater potential for conflict.

In the Interrelationships Model, as long as two or more lines (events) proceeding in the same direction remain in parallel and maintain sufficiently spaced, they will not conflict with one another. However, within the critical zone, where all the individual lines begin to converge from different directions, these independent lines/events (each proceeding under an independent set of rules) are destined to collide. Since every line represents an independent event with its own unique order, conflict is inevitable when two or more sets of orders govern the same system, and a disordered system results.

A disordered system is due to the presence of more than two sets of conflicting orders within the same system. As we have discussed in previous chapters, this phenomenon is evident in fluid dynamics, where the disordered (and seemingly chaotic) turbulent flow is composed of numerous independent eddies of varying velocities and circulating directions. In each eddy, fluid circulates around its own center, so each eddy is "self-centric", and has its own order. This is contrary to the orderly laminar flow where all layers within the fluid are consistent in direction. Therefore, a more precise definition of disorder would be the presence of two or more sets of orders with conflicting directions within a system.

A disordered system gives the illusion that no rules govern the system but this is not the case. Difficulty arises in identifying the multiple underling sets of rules in a disordered system. This stems from our inability to recognize and establish a logical connection between the various forms of orders or rules within a particular system.

Order and disorder are the two processes in the universe. These two processes can interchange. Every kind of stable physical existence has to maintain an orderly form. When disorder occurs, this inevitably leads to clashes. It may lead to disintegration or merging. Eventually, a new set of orders will emerge. This new set of orders is the consequence of the interaction of the previous different determining orders, which is an integration of several different subsets of orders or rules. The characteristics of these new orders or rules will be defined by the constituent with the greatest power.

This Interrelationships Model can be used in another way to express the change from order to disorder. It is possible for any given line on the Interrelationships Model to subdivide into multiple parallel branches, and each branch can then further divide into even more parallel branches. This branching process can continue on indefinitely. However, as further branching occurs, the spaces between the resulting branches will be reduced accordingly, so that when two or more branches finally come into contact with one another, the branches will either clash or merge. Consequently, the orderly form is disturbed and then transformed into a disorderly form. Further clashes or merges may then create a new form of order. Therefore, the Interrelationships Model represents order, disorder and the transition between these two states.

Fig – 9

Periodicity

Periodic changes are very common phenomena. For example, the annual seasonal changes, the daily day-night cycles, the periodic directional oscillation in alternating current, the cycles of economic growth and economic depression, body circulation as well as neural command–feedback and also the female menstrual cycles are the expression of periodicity.

Periodicity can be represented with the Interrelationships Model as follows:

The area above the horizontal axis is referred to as the positive area while the area below is referred to as the negative area. a starts in the positive area. After passing the first turning point, a enters the negative area. With continuous progression, a reaches the second turning point and enters the positive area again. Viewed from the perspective of progression, periodicity is a special form of serial relationship. However, in relation to the horizontal axis, it also displays the characteristic of symmetry.

Dynamics-Stability

Dynamics, change and stability are common phenomena. For example, buildings are normally stable and changes are almost undetectable. When it is collapsing, the changes are dramatic and easily noticeable.

The Interrelationships Model can represent these phenomena. The diagram above illustrates the dynamic changes in a process which is composed of multiple stages, phase transition, critical points, and so on. The Interrelationships Model can also represent stability and change in the diagram below:

The stage from point a to point b displays little change while the stage from point b to point c shows obvious change. With continuous development, the event will dramatically change when it reaches the critical point.

Phase transition, periodicity, convergence and divergence are all different forms of dynamics.

Limitation-Without Limitation and Degree of Freedom

The far left hand side of the model symbolises convergence to a point along the central horizontal line. However if we proceed along the line to the right, a new divergence is seen. This divergence may continue on to form another convergence, which then may diverge, and so on. Convergence comes from previous divergence, and vice versa. This process, which moves in cycles, is continuous and never-ending. This never-ending process is the expression of Without Limitation, a term covering two situations, infinity and infinite decimal, in a serial form. However, a specific process between two adjacent critical points is limited which is marked by the starting point and the ending point.

Without Limitation is also expressed in a parallel fashion. The Interrelationships Model is a simplified illustration, with each individual line representing a particular event, or a particular course of events. Each line can continually branch out into multiple parallel lines, which demonstrates that each event can subsequently induce multiple events. Or each line can be broken into multiple smaller lines, which represents that the event can be subdivided into smaller events. This never-ending process is the expression of Without Limitation in a parallel fashion. However, each line can only branch out into a given number of parallel lines on a particular level, representing a parallel limitation in a system.

Therefore, the above discussion indicates that every system has its limitations. However, each system can never-endingly extend or expand in a serial or parallel fashion with other systems, which is the expression of Without Limitation.

Limitation in each system is expressed as its boundary. The boundary of a system can be expressed by the upper and lower lines that link the two adjacent critical points (such as C1 and C2 in Fig-4). Within the boundary of a system, an object is free to move. However, it is restrained by the system's boundary. For example, blood cells can move freely within the space of blood vessels but they cannot move outside the blood vessels. They are restrained by the wall of blood vessels. A train can move on the tracks of railway and it is restrained by the tracks. Without the restraint, a train would be derailed. Hence freedom and restraint in a system constitute degree of freedom.

Hierarchical structure

As discussed above, with continuous branching, the Interrelationships model will become a typical hierarchical structure. Hierarchical structure is a form of serial–parallel relationship. It is a very common phenomenon in the universe. For example, in the human body, multiple atoms form carbohydrates; carbohydrates form cells and interstitial substances. Cells and interstitial substances form organs. Organs form systems. Multiples systems form an individual's body system. This is a hierarchical structure. This structure not only exists in the body system, but in family, society and the biological realm as well. The taxonomic system in the biological realm is a hierarchical system.

Hierarchical structure not only exists in the organic world but in the inorganic world. For example, multiple basic particles form an atom. Multiple atoms form molecules. Multiple molecules form materials. Organic and inorganic materials form our planet. Multiple celestial bodies form the solar system. Furthermore, atoms can be divided into the nucleus and electrons. The nucleus can be divided into neutrons and protons which can be further divided into quarks.

From the minute quark to the gigantic cosmic system, a hierarchical system is present. Within this system, all subsystems display their hierarchical structures, including the human body, family, society and the biological system. Within this gigantic hierarchical system, a given portion may display a specific fundamental phenomenon at a given time, such as serial relationship, parallel relationship, serial-parallel relationship and on top of these relationships, they can be further presented as cause-effect relationship, dynamic, stability, phase transition, critical point, continuation, discontinuation, limitation-without limitation, degree of freedom, common mechanism, similarity, commonality, difference, symmetry, asymmetry, convergence, divergence, contraction, expansion, order, disorder, periodicity and hierarchical structure. Hierarchical structure is one of the fundamental expressions of the interrelationship represented by the Interrelationships Model. However, within the gigantic hierarchical structure of the universe, all these fundamental phenomena are included. And all these "independent" fundamental phenomena are linked together through the interrelationship represented by the Interrelationships Model. In other words, the Interrelationships Model represents the most fundamental relationship and all these fundamental phenomena are part of the gigantic hierarchical structure.

The above discussion is from a non dynamic perspective to understand the hierarchical structure of the universe. However, if we look at the formation of the universe, which is described by George Gamow's Big Bang theory, this process is a dynamic transformation of energy and is also expressed in a hierarchical way.

In 1947, George Gamow proposed the Big Bang theory. This theory claims that the universe was created between 13 to 15 billions of years ago.[33] In 1979, Alan Guth proposed a theory to further illustrate the process of energy transformation after the universe was created. During the process of transformation, released energy transformed into various forms of existence, in the form of particles or as celestial bodies.[34] Earth is merely one of the many celestial bodies in the universe. This celestial body is the physical environment on which human beings' survival relies. On this planet, energy exists in the form of inorganic and organic substances.

In organic substances, atoms form chemicals such as proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and other carbohydrates. These basic molecules make up cells and interstitial substances in living organisms. Massive cells and interstitial substances form tissues, such as muscle cells in muscular tissue. Tissues form organs. Organs form systems such as the endocrine system which consists primarily of the thyroid gland, adrenal glands and pituitary gland. Systems form an individual living organism. Multiple individuals form society. Organisms are grouped according to kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and further divided into different species, which means that whenever energy exists in the form of living organisms, it can also exist in the form of numerous different species. Humans are only a branch among the entire system of living organisms. From this discussion, we can see that this process is consistent with the principle of hierarchical structure.

From the above discussion, it can be perceived from the origin of the universe that human civilisation is a part of the evolution of the universe, which is the result of interaction between humans and the environment. Interaction also exists between living organisms, for example, the interaction between individuals' behaviour. Ultimately, all of these are physical interaction of energy in different forms. Interaction and interchange between various forms of energy obey the fundamental governing laws in physics.

In the process of civilisation, concepts that represent objects and objective interrelationships directly guide human behaviour, allowing humans to follow the objective interrelationships in the engagement of the physical environment. In other word, it is the objective interrelationships in universe indirectly guiding and restraining human behaviour through concepts. Since the fundamental rules of the objective interrelationships in the universe are the laws in physics, the objective interrelationships in the universe that indirectly guide and restrain human behaviour through concepts are in fact the laws of physics that govern human behaviour and human civilisation.

According to Darwin's theory of evolution, the living environment of an organism influences the organism's nature, thus in the process of evolution, human nature is influenced by the environment. The physical environment which humans live in influences the formation of human nature. The fundamental rules that govern this physical environment are the laws of physics. Thus these laws do not only govern human behaviour through concepts in the human mind, but further indirectly govern human behaviour through the development of human nature.

An organism is a specific form of integration of energy. The necessary condition for an organism to exist as an integrated form is orderly functioning of its various components. The fundamental intrinsic rules that frame orderly functioning of the human system are intrinsic human physiological and biochemical rules. These rules must obey the fundamental laws of physics. Thus the fundamental laws of physics directly govern human physiological and biochemical activities. These activities are human nature. Human nature constitutes the fundamental rules that guide human behaviour and set the direction of human civilisation.

From the above discussion we can see that an individual's body system and even the system of the entire society are part of the evolution of the universe. Therefore the fundamental laws of physics that govern everything in the universe also govern the internal functioning of an individual's system, the interactions between individuals within a group, the interactions between groups, and the interactions between human beings and the environment. Thus these laws, such as the laws of conservation of energy, causality and so forth, govern the origin of human civilisation, its journey and its final destination. Thus physical phenomena existing in inorganic matter, that is, the expression of energy in the forms of hierarchical structure, serial relationship, continuity, discontinuity, periodicity, phase transition, critical point, parallel relationship, similarity, commonality, difference, symmetry, convergence, divergence, order, disorder, degree of freedom, also exist in individual body systems, in groups, in society and in the process of human civilisation.

It can be further interpreted that all existences in the universe are energies existing in different forms and they are all based on an intangible common mechanism. Therefore, all the aforementioned fundamental phenomena displayed in inorganic objects are also displayed in the human body, society and the process of civilization.

The above discussions demonstrate that the fundamental laws governing the universe also govern the entire process of human civilisation. As the Interrelationships Model represents these fundamental laws, it can be used to explain human civilisation.

In the attempt to discover the fundamental mechanism of human civilisation in this book, some fundamental concepts in physics have been applied. Furthermore, the Interrelationships Model has been used to explain the process of human civilisation. The driving forces of civilisation, the resistances of civilisation, the direction of civilisation, "internal and external controlling forces", degree of freedom, order, disorder, serial relationship, parallel relationship, similarity, symmetry, critical point (turning point), and phase transition have been used to systematically explain complex social phenomena and reach a relatively satisfying answer. Moreover these answers can be used to sketch a picture of the future as clearly as possible, and to expose the complicated and confusing process of human civilisation. The following chapters of the book will further discuss how these laws govern the past of human civilisation and, more importantly, how these laws will govern the future.

Through the above discussion, we have come to a converging point, conclusion, where new definitions can be given to human civilisation:

I Human civilisation is a part of energy transformation in the evolution of the universe. It is the outcome of interaction between humans and the environment.

II In the process of satisfying desires to survive in the environment, humans are distinctive from other animals to a large extent in forming concepts to guide their behaviours. This allows humans to follow the objective interrelationships more precisely and extensively to satisfy desires, including setting up sophisticated rules, inventing and utilising tools to increase the capability to satisfy various desires, ultimately achieving the goal of survival. This is human civilisation.

# Chapter Thirteen: Body system and social system – two parallel expressions of energy in the universe

Firstly, the body system and the social system are two parallel branches based on the common mechanism of organisation. They express the commonalities of organisations and their own characteristics. Therefore, they have a great deal of similarities to the extent that it is absolutely amazing.

Secondly, the body system and social system are the specific expressions of energy in the universe. They and all other existences are the branches of a hierarchical system based on the same common mechanism in the universe. Therefore, the body system and the social system display the commonalities of all existences in the universe, which are the fundamental phenomena discussed in the previous chapter.

For these reasons, there are many similar subsystems in these two independent systems, which are the expression of similarity in these two parallel systems based on a common mechanism. Apart from expressing the similarity of parallel relationships, they also express the dynamics of serial relationships in the forms of continuity and discontinuity. For example, these two systems perform an intake of energy and materials, processing them and discharging them to the external environment. The repeating of this process is the expression of periodicity.

The hierarchical structure is the most important similarity of these two systems and also the expression of one of the most fundamental phenomena of the universe. All features, including different levels and branches of a hierarchical system, are expressed in different ways in these two independent systems. They not only display the similarity of anatomical structure and social structure but similarity of their functionalities as well.

In the following discussion, we will explore the similarities of these two systems and further look into how phenomena based on the most fundamental common mechanism are expressed in these two systems.

### The similarity of activities between the body system and the social system

The above discussion explores the similarity of activities between the body system and the social system through the philosophical and non-dynamic perspectives. In the following discussion, we will explore the similarities from a more dynamic perspective.

The objective of activities in body system and social system

The objective of activities in the body system is survival and this is not only dependent on the internal environment, but the external environment as well. In order to survive, the body system has to adapt to the external environment, that is, to respond to the change of the external environment. Likewise, the objective of social activity is also for the society to survive.

The process of body activity and social activity

The process of body activity is to obtain materials from the environment, and then through metabolism, materials are synthetised into various substances for constructing the body and providing energy for the body's activities. Meanwhile, the body also discharges materials and energy into the environment. All activities performed by the body are to maintain the integrity of its system and ultimately for its survival. In order to achieve this goal, there must be a mechanism in place to keep this process in order and this mechanism is the mechanism of body control.

Similarly, the process of social activity is also to obtain materials from the environment and, through various subsystems, to produce materials and energy for various social activities. When the subsystems perform their functions, they consume materials and energy. Like the body activity, social activity is also to maintain the integrity of the society and further its survival. For this reason, there must be a mechanism in place to keep society in order. This mechanism is the mechanism of social administration.

### The similarity of distributing resources in body system and social system

In distributing resources, the body system allocates a greater share to the vital organs such as the brain and the heart by supplying more blood to these organs. On the other hand, the body system provides fewer materials and less energy to the less vital organs such as skin. However, the blood supply to the subsystems or organs may change under different conditions. For example:

Under the condition of sport competition:

In this condition, an individual is in an environment of physical competition. The body system must function at its maximum level to win the competition. At this time, the sympathetic nervous system releases a large amount of adrenaline and nor-adrenaline to act on the circulatory system, increasing blood output from the heart. Furthermore, the metabolites created by the exercising muscles cause the blood vessels to dilate. As a result, blood supply to the exercising muscles increases. With a greater blood supply, muscles are given more substance and energy, which helps them to function at their maximum level, ultimately equipping the body system to survive in the competition environment. [35]

Under the condition of shock:

In this life threatening situation, the blood vessels supplying less important tissue and organs such as skin and muscle will contract, leading to reduced blood supply to these tissues in order to maintain the blood supply to important tissue and organs such as the brain and heart. All of these actions are ultimately for the survival of the body system. [36]

Under the condition of cold temperatures:

In this situation, the body may suffer from hypothermia which may cause a metabolic disorder, subsequently compromising the functioning of organs and ultimately threatening life. In response to this situation, the body will release a large amount of adrenaline and noradrenalin, leading to the contraction of blood vessels in some tissues and organs, such as skin, kidneys and intestines. This causes the reduction of blood supply to these tissues and organs. Meanwhile, the blood supply to other more important organs, such as the brain and the heart, is maintained. This is a rational distribution of resources to achieve a goal of survival. The reduction of blood supply to the skin also minimises heat loss. The increased release of adrenaline and noradrenalin generates muscle tremors to produce heat which increases the body temperature. [37]

Under the condition of thinking:

For example, the brain must function at its best when an individual is studying. The blood supply to the brain increases to support the higher brain activity. Studying to prepare for an exam is a form of intellectual competition. From this perspective, increasing the blood supply to the brain is to support the brain function and ultimately enables an individual to survive in the competition. [38]

Under the condition of pathogen invasion:

Pathogen invasion can result in body damage and may even be life threatening. Therefore, the immune system reacts and launches a direct battle with the invading pathogens. When the situation becomes severe, the body control system will fully support the immune system. White blood cells are dramatically produced and released into circulation. Immuno-active substances such as antibodies, compliments and other cytokines are produced in large amounts. All of these reactions are for the battle against the invasion of pathogens and ultimately for the body to survive. [39]

Under the condition of body development:

In childhood, the physical size and functions of the body are immature. The life of an individual during this time is fragile. Therefore, the development of the body system is important for its survival. Only when well developed can an individual survive in the challenging and competitive environment. For this sake, the body's metabolic rate is relatively high and body development accelerates when puberty arrives. During this period, the body's metabolism is quite active. This is expressed through increased food intake. Apart from maintaining the basic activities, part of the metabolism is for the development of the body. Through this high metabolism, the body accumulates the materials necessary to build the body structure. For example, calcium is accumulated in bone tissues and proteins (myosin) are accumulated in muscles. However, an individual's development is not only the body development, the accumulation of materials, but the development of thought as well, the accumulation of concepts. It is the process of learning and thinking. This process also consumes energy and substances (neurotransmitters). Therefore, when the brain thinks, the blood supply increases. So such a high metabolic state is required to support the body's physical and intellectual development, ultimately for an individual's survival. [40]

Through the above discussion, it is obvious that the distribution of "wealth" is based on the importance of subsystems' role to the body system's survival. This means that the distribution is "rationally" aimed at the body's survival.

Similarly, the distribution of social resources is also based on the same principle, which is for the survival of the society. Therefore, distribution of social resources is according to the current condition of a society, and allocates more resources to the subsystems that are more important to maintaining the survival of society. The social "neural" and "endocrine" systems control the allocation of resources to make sure that the important subsystems are given an adequate supply.

Distribution of social resources is not only a passive process but an active process as well. From the perspective of society's survival, the allocation of resources should be based on the importance of subsystems. However, the acquisition of resources is in fact based on their power. Because each subsystem's power is different to the others, the resources that it acquires are also different. There is thus a need for a social governing body to control the distribution of resources according to a subsystem's importance. This is presented as the government's management.

### The similarity of material exchanges in the body system and social system

a. The similarity between the body's circulatory system and the transport system in society

The circulatory system and transport system are for the exchange of material in the body and society respectively. Their similarities are not only expressed morphologically but functionally as well. Materials needed by the body, such as water, glucose, vitamins, proteins, etc. are transported to various parts of the body through the circulatory system. In society, materials and personnel are transported to various parts of society, and this is carried out by various vehicles, such as trains, cars, trucks, ships and airplanes. In the circulatory system, materials are carried in the form of proteins and cells, with some proteins even functioning as vehicles, such as transferin, the proteins for transporting iron. [41]

The heart provides the power to transport substances in the body and the blood vessels provide the channels to distribute substances all around the body. The neural and hormonal systems control the size of blood vessels which in turn control the volume of the blood flow. For example, the increase blood supply to exercising muscles is controlled by the neural and hormonal mechanisms. Similarly, material transport in society is not only affected by the traffic system but a controlling mechanism as well.

b. The similarities of material exchange in the human body and society

The body constantly exchanges materials and energy with the environment. The amount of material and energy that the body obtains should be equal to, or in some situations larger than the amount discharged. It is a serial relationship. This process must abide by the law of conservation of energy and is expressed as "equal value", which means an equal amount of energy obtained and discharged. If the body discharges more material and energy to the environment than it receives, then the body weight will be gradually reduced and life will eventually end.

Similarly, the amount of material and energy that a society obtains from the environment must be equal or larger than the amount consumed. This process also abides by the law of conservation of energy. If a society consumes more material and energy than it obtains from the environment, then the reserved material and energy will gradually reduce and the society will eventually cease its operation.

Material exchange between different parts also happens inside the body. However, this exchange does not follow the rule of "equal value". For example, the heart supplies blood to various parts of the body. What is of interest is whether other tissues or organs provide the heart with the "equal amount of value" in return. For example, the heart provides a certain amount of "value" of blood to muscle but it does not get the equal amount of "value" back from muscle. Sensory organs also do not return the equal amount of "value" to the heart. Obviously, these internal exchanges do not follow the rule of equal value exchange. Then, what is the mechanism of body's internal exchange?

Why don't the internal exchanges in the body adopt the rule of "equal value"? Because all subsystems are under a common system, their mutual exchange is internal exchange. Between different subsystems, there exists a parallel relationship. All of them ultimately function toward a common goal: the survival of the whole body. When an exchange occurs between two subsystems, they do not adopt the rule of "equal value" to deal with each other directly. In fact, the mechanism used to exchange between system and subsystems is also based on "equal value", but it is based on the value of the body's survival.

Society not only exchanges with the external environment but internal exchanges within society occur as well, which is a means of efficiently satisfying desires. Generally, social activities also abide by the law of conservation of energy. However, it is difficult to apply this law as the rule to regulate social exchange. For example, it is possible to use the basic unit of energy to evaluate coal but it is impossible to use the same unit to evaluate musical notes. Therefore, there is a need to find a common ground for exchanges between items with different natures – a common system of evaluation. Only with this mechanism can social exchange continue, and this system is commercial value.

As a consequence, commercial value is created. Unlike the law of conservation of energy, commercial value is the representation of desire. It can be created and destroyed. For example, demands for rice create its potential commercial value. Taking rice to the market for sale realises its commercial value. Fried rice in the market can sell at a higher price, which means cooking can increase rice's commercial value. However, if rice is burned while cooking then it will lose commercial value. An item's usefulness is its usable value. Using an item to create social impact is its social value; edibility is the usable value of rice, and maintaining life is the social value of rice. Social value is measured by its impact on social progress, and ultimately survival. The usefulness affects the item's commercial value and social value. However, commercial value is not only influenced by an item's usefulness but supply and demand as well. Therefore, commercial value may not be consistent with usable value. The social value may not be consistent with its commercial value.

As a result, there are exchanges based on different values within society. Because individuals and subgroups in a society are of an independent and self-centric nature, exchange between them becomes a direct external exchange. The rule of equal commercial value to exchange is used. During this commercial activity, a subsystem's income should be more than its spending. Otherwise, it will become bankrupt. Therefore in commercial exchange, subsystems deal with each other directly and widely use the rule of equal value exchange.

However, not all social activities can be evaluated with commercial value and conducted between subsystems' direct exchange. These are the social activities that are crucial to the society's survival. For example, the public security system provides service to the whole society. It is impossible to practice the rule of equal value to charge users a fee in return for a service. However, its operation does incur a financial cost. In order to keep the operation running, the government provides a budget. In fact, this exchange is another form of "equal value": the public security system provides a service to society and society in return provides a budget to the public security system via the social administration system. However, the value of the public security system is not commercial but social and this form of exchange is not a direct, but an indirect exchange through government. The public security system and the other social subsystems that it provides a service to are parallel to each other, and are all linked by the government.

This discussion demonstrates that subsystems' exchange is the internal exchange inside the social system. Therefore, there is a similarity to the subsystems' exchange in the body system, and it is based on social value. A good example of this is free public education. The educational system consumes a lot of the government's financial resources, but it does not get them back directly from students. This operation seems to be one of consumption; however, when this large number of individuals is well educated, they can deliver a large amount of output to the society and the contribution to society is enormous. At the end of the whole process, the government's investment on free public education will eventually be paid back. On the other hand, if individuals cannot receive a good education, they will not provide as much as those who are well educated, and will become consuming to society.

In fact, there are two sets of rules of "equal value" in social activities: one based on commercial value and the other based on social value. If an exchange happens in different systems, it uses commercial value. If it happens in the same system, the rule of commercial "equal value" can be disregarded. For example, if an exchange happens between the independent supplier and the producer, it uses the commercial value because it is an external exchange. If an exchange happens between two branches of the same company, the rule of commercial "equal value" can be disregarded because it is an internal exchange.

### The similarity of maintaining internal stability of the human body and society

Innate immune system

To maintain the stability of an internal environment, any organism will set up a barrier between its internal and external environments. This is seen in cells, an individual's body system and a group of individuals.

A cell consists of a nucleus, cytoplasm and cell membrane. The cell membrane is the barrier separating the cell and the external environment. It is an important part of the mechanism maintaining the stability of an independent internal environment. It plays an important role in maintaining the integrity and survival of the cell. If the cell membrane is damaged, the cell will die. A cell is an isolated-open system, as there are many channels on the cell membrane for the ion exchanges between the internal and external environment. These channels control the cellular ion concentration by controlling the exchange of ions. If the cell membrane is damaged, it will lead to excessive ions flushing in, or ion loss. This can result in dysfunction or even the death of the cell. This demonstrates that cell's opening to the environment is selective, as it controls the kind of substances and the amount of influx and outflow of substances. [42]

Skin and mucus are the body's barrier, separating the body and the external environment and forming an independent environment. This barrier is part of the mechanism stabilising the body system and plays an important role in maintaining the body's survival. If it is damaged, pathogens such as bacteria and viruses will invade the body, disrupting the body's function and possibly leading to death. The body system is also an isolated-open system, as it also has the channels to communicate with the external environment such as the mouth, nose, ears, eyes and other neural sensors. [43]

A group of individuals also has a barrier. A country's border is the barrier for the country, separating its internal environment from the external environment. It is an important part of the mechanism to stabilize the group and maintain the integrity for the group's survival. If this mechanism is damaged, the group may cease functioning. Likewise, a country is also an isolated-open system. A country also has its channels to communicate with the external environment. Customs of a country plays such a role in communicating with the external environment. If Customs loses its control, the influx and exodus of personnel and materials may disrupt the functioning of the country.

Having discussed the similarity between a cell, the body and a country, it can be reasonably concluded that any system has its border, even the earth, the solar system and the galaxy. It is the expression of the universal phenomenon of limitation in different systems.

Cells, bodies and groups are all organizations which are isolated-open systems. As isolated systems, they have their protecting mechanism. As open systems, they communicate with the external environment. These are the universal phenomena of continuity and dynamics.

Adaptive immune system

Specific immune system is an important part of the immune system. It plays an important role in maintaining the stability of the internal environment. When foreign bodies invade, it will identify and get rid of them. For example, when bacteria, viruses and parasites invade the body, the specific immune system will get rid of them. [44]

Similarly, when armed personnel invade a country, this country's defence system will identify them first and then attack to repel them. When individuals illegally enter a country, the immigration and public security systems will identify their identity. Having confirmed their identities, they will be detained and deported. When products are smuggled into a country, it will trigger Customs and the police to seize the products and arrest the smugglers.

The immune system also monitors the change of cells. If some normal cells become malignant, the immune system will launch an attack. When some individuals in society become "malignant", the public security system will also monitor their behaviour and stop their crime. [45]

These behaviours of the body system and social system are the protection mechanism of any organisation, which aims for the survival of the organisation. Although there are significant differences between these two systems, they do share an amazing similarity. The mechanism behind this phenomenon is that the body system and the social system are two parallel branches based on the same common mechanism.

### The similarities of the body's metabolism and society's "metabolism"

The objective of the body's metabolism is to provide energy and substances to maintain body function and ultimately ensure its survival. Similarly, the objective of "social metabolism" is also to provide energy and materials to social activities, and ultimately ensure the survival of society.

The body's metabolism can be divided into catabolism and anabolism. Anabolism provides substances needed for the body's functions and structures such as proteins, lipids, glycogens, etc, which are used as building materials and energy. Meanwhile, some body activities consume large amounts of the substances and energy provided by anabolism. For example, immune activities and the heart's pumping consume a lot of proteins and energy. Given the fact that these activities only consume rather than produce substances and energy, then what are these activities for? All these activities are to support those vital functions that are critical to the body's survival. These examples demonstrate that not all body activities are used to create energy, but are for survival. However, the consumption of energy and the generation of energy should reach its balance otherwise metabolism cannot continue.

In the body's metabolism, there is a normal range of the basal metabolic rate (BMR). If the body needs to perform a specific function, it needs to increase energy consumption and the blood supply to those related organs will correspondingly increase to support the increased metabolism rate. For example, under the condition of cold weather, intense thinking and reaction to pathogen invasion the body metabolism rate will increase. The increased metabolism rate is to support a specific function and this specific function is for the body's survival. [46]

In a normal situation, the body will not increase its metabolic rate for the sake of metabolism rather than for necessary functions. Otherwise it would only increase the consumption of energy and substances, without any benefit. However, this abnormal situation can occur when hyperthyroidism is present. In this case, the thyroid hormone, thyroxin, abnormally increases, leading to an abnormally increased metabolism. Such a hyper-metabolic condition does not perform any specific function for survival. It does not help the accumulation of useful substances for body development. It only increases consumption of energy and substances without any benefit to the body. [47]

In a normal situation, the body will not conduct any abnormal anabolism either. During the stage of body development, many useful substances produced in metabolism, such as proteins and minerals, are retained for the body's development, and only with the accumulation of these vital substances can the body develop. Only with the proper development of the body can it survive in the environment. However, there are conditions of excessive anabolism such as obesity where fats are excessively produced.

Similar to abnormal anabolism and catabolism in the body, an abnormal social "metabolism" can also occur, presenting as overproduction and overconsumption.

From the above discussion, it is evident that the system controlling the body allocates resources according to the importance of survival, in different circumstances giving more blood to the vital organs to support their more active metabolism and functions.

The relationships between these processes are: energy and substance supply to a subsystem increases  increased metabolism  supporting increased function  body survival.

The production activity is the "anabolism" in the society and the consumption is the "catabolism" in the society. Social production provides energy and materials. These energy and materials are used for building the hardware of our environment and carrying out various social functions, such as health care and education. The remaining social activities consume energy and materials to perform various social functions. Their functions are to maintain social integrity and for the survival of society.

Similar to the body system, the social "anabolism" and "catabolism" also need to be balanced, meaning that social production balances with the consumption. Economic theory states that consumption stimulates production. This process is similar to muscle exercises during which energy is consumed and catabolism in the muscles is increased. However, this also results in the anabolism of muscles, that is, increased synthesis of muscle protein. [48]

The key question is: what is the direction of social development? This should be assessed with the direction of civilisation. Scientific and technological development is an important criterion. If a society's science and technology in the information age remain at the level of the 18th century, it would be similar to a mentally disabled patient – the body is fully developed, but his/her level of intelligence is less developed.

Similar to body metabolism, "social metabolism" also has its "basic metabolism", which social activity operates in, under normal consumption conditions. The "social metabolism" varies under different conditions. For example, under the condition of social development, social production and consumption will increase due to the stimulation of increasing demand. However, different demands bring in different results. For example, the demand for high-tech products can stimulate the development of a high-tech industry, which will have more important ramifications for society. The demand for luxury products such as jewellery and handbags will stimulate the corresponding industries, however its social impact will never be parallel to the high-tech industry.

### The similarity between body control and social control

The administrative system in society greatly resembles the neural control in the human body. They are both hierarchical systems. The brain, particularly the prefrontal lobe, is at the top of the system.[49] From the top to the bottom, each level extends nerve fibres to connect to the others, and peripheral nerves connect to various organs. [50]

Similarly, the social administrative system is also a hierarchical system, from the central government, state government to suburban council. Such a hierarchical system is also found in other organizations.

Parallel to the neural control, the humoral control is another system in which the endocrine system plays a major role.[51] Since the human body and society are two parallel systems, there must be a corresponding system parallel to the endocrine system in the society, and this is the financial system. These two systems have great similarities. Hormones circulate in the blood. They are not structural proteins. They are not for constructing tissues and organs. Their function is to give instructions to cells by stimulating receptors in cells. In this way, hormones regulate the metabolic status of cells and their functions, such as the increase or decrease of biochemical production. For example, insulin stimulates glycogen synthesis, while glucagon suppresses glycogen synthesis. Growth hormone stimulates protein synthesis for body development. [52]

Similar to hormones, currency in the financial system does not construct any part of the physical environment in society. None of the buildings are physically built with currency. The role of currency is to regulate the functional performance of individuals and organizations. For example, currency can regulate the performance of companies, schools, hospitals and individuals. Injecting more currency to these organizations can increase their output. Giving more money to an individual can allow him and his family to have a more active consumption status. Reducing the money supply to individuals and organizations can suppress their activity. These examples demonstrate that the role of currency to control the society is similar to the hormonal control of the human body. The normal level of thyroid hormone plays a role in maintaining the normal level of body metabolism. The normal level of currency circulating in society plays a role in maintaining the normal level of "social metabolism", that is, social activity.

Hormones are stored in glands. They are released in an orderly fashion into the circulating blood under the neural control, endocrine control and other biochemical controls.[53] Similarly, currencies are stored in banks and investment institutions. They are released into and circulate in society in an orderly fashion under the control of government policies and other social factors.

One of the characteristics of neural control is rapid response. For example, neural reflexes respond rapidly to stimuli. The endocrine control is relatively slower but it lasts a longer time.[54] Similarly, instructions from administration take less time to have an effect. Financial measures take a long time to have an effect, but also last longer.

Through the comparison between the body controlling systems and the social management systems, it is evident that there are interesting similarities between the two. This not only demonstrates once again that the serial-parallel relationship exists in the universe, but can open a new horizon for us to explore our society with the knowledge of medical sciences. For example, the mechanism of body control can be used to study business management, just as the knowledge of endocrine system can be used for the research of financial study.

In order to further study the similarities between body control and social management, the following discussion will examine the hierarchical structure from the perspective of power as well as the basic mechanism of body control.

Asymmetrical power distribution between the higher level and lower level in a hierarchical system

The power distribution is asymmetrical between the top and bottom parts in a hierarchical system, with the top being greater than the bottom. This phenomenon exists widely in various hierarchical systems in the universe. For example, the sun is "on top" of the solar system, with its mass greater than any other planet. It has the dominant position. From this example, we can see that the power distribution is asymmetrical, with the higher level greater than the lower level. This phenomenon happens to the serial relationship between the higher and lower levels in a hierarchical system.

This phenomenon also exists in the motor system of the neural network in which the electrical impulses are sent from the higher level of neurons to the lower level of neurons. The higher level neurons have the dominant power, controlling the lower level neurons' discharge of electrical impulses, while the lower level neurons do not have the power to control the higher level. The electrical impulses running through the nerve fibres in the motor system are transmitted only from the higher level to lower level, preventing the collision that would occur if nerve fibres could conduct electrical impulses in both directions. [55]

This phenomenon also exists in the administration system, where the higher level officers have the power to give orders to the lower level officers, while the lower officers have to follow orders.

With such a "power gradient", the higher level is able to drive the lower level. For example, fluid flows only when a pressure gradient is applied to it. The greater the pressure gradient, the faster the fluid flows. Hence, the "power gradient" created by the asymmetry of power between the higher level and lower level in administration is necessary. A stronger administration can better push the whole system forward. To some extent, the greater the "power gradient", the faster the system will move forward. In business management this can be expressed as efficiency. On the other hand, if the lower level has greater power than the higher level, the "power gradient" is reduced and the system's "flowing speed" will decrease.

The necessity of a "power gradient" with regards to order can be understood from other physical phenomenon. For example, every iron atom has a small magnetic field with its north and south poles. However, a piece of iron does not display any magnetic properties because the directions of the magnetic fields of its atoms are arranged in a disorderly manner. Their magnetic fields cancel each other out. When an electrical current is applied to a piece of iron, it displays magnetism because the stronger electromagnetic field aligns every atom's north and south poles in the same direction—an orderly arrangement. From this perspective, a stronger "electromagnetic field" is needed to maintain the orderly functioning in any group of individuals. The more disordered the state, the more powerful the "electromagnetic field" that is needed. That is why administrators need authority to push their policies. [56]

This principle is true in company management. Every individual can be seen as a small magnetic field with its own power, for example, the power of the beautiful individual, the power of a physically strong individual and the power of a smart individual. With the power of beauty, physical strength and intelligence, these individuals can influence other individuals. If their power is "aligned" with the company's interests it will be helpful. But if they use their power to damage the company's interests to maximize their own gain, it will be detrimental. Therefore, the management's power should be able to overpower those disordered individuals who damage the company's interests.

The management's power is expressed as authority. Apart from its lawful authority, morality and credibility are also important factors for the authority. If the management personnel can set themselves as good examples they will have a strong authority to execute their policies.

It is interesting to notice the parallels between the development of the neural control system and a company's administration system. The central nerve system branches out through ganglions innervating on organs. The top management appoints the middle management to execute practical orders.

The symmetrical power distribution between left and right in the hierarchical system and the asymmetry on the very top

In the previous chapter, it has been shown that symmetry is a common phenomenon in the universe. In a hierarchical system this is expressed as "left-right" symmetry. The very top of a hierarchical system becomes a singularity, which is an expression of asymmetry. Symmetry becomes increasingly evident towards the bottom part of the hierarchical system. For example, the left and right sides of the human body are symmetrical. There are two legs on the bottom part while there is only one head, rather than two, on the top. The head has the power to control the legs and coordinate the opposite sides of the legs. This is a typical hierarchical system and it is the expression of the fundamental phenomenon of the universe in life. It is also expressed in society.

Symmetry exists widely in the human body. It is vital for the survival of the body. For example, insulin secreted from the islets of the pancreas can lower the blood sugar level and the process is to some extent autonomic. But why doesn't it lead to a life threatening level of low blood sugar in a normal body? Partly, it is because the pancreas can secrete another hormone, glucagon, to raise the blood sugar level if insulin creates a lower sugar state. Insulin and glucagon form a balancing system to regulate the blood sugar level. They work together in an antagonising way to maintain a normal blood sugar level and are the two symmetrical parts of a blood sugar controlling system. With this mechanism, the controlling system maintains the homogenous state of the body to ensure survival.[57] Not only does the insulin-glucagon form such a balancing system, the hunger-satiety mechanism regulating the intake of food,[58] the sympathetic-parasympathetic nerves regulating heart rate and other regulating systems do so as well.[59] The most outstanding example is the controlling mechanism of the legs. In this system, the brain on the top controls the symmetrical bottom parts, the left and right legs, keeping the body in balance. If one leg is missing the body will collapse. Even a leg consists of extensor muscles and flexor muscles[60] which antagonise each other. The brain is the top part of this hierarchical system. It gives instructions to the leg muscles and coordinates them to contract and relax in an orderly fashion so the body can move forward. It would be hard for a body to survive if there were two brains and only one leg.

In terms of "power", the neurons in the "higher position" are asymmetrical to the neurons in the "lower position" in the motor system, which is shown as the instructions (electrical impulses) are only conducted from the top to bottom. However, the instructions conducted in the sensory system are in the opposite direction. These two systems become the opposite sides of a larger hierarchical system, the somatic nervous system, which again displays symmetry. The motor cortex in the brain sends electric impulses to the muscles, causing contractions, and then the mechanical contractions stimulate the sensors, sending electric impulses to the sensory cortex in the brain further adjust its actions. [61]

From the above discussion we can see that functional subsystems often consist of two parts. They are antagonising but work together to form a balancing system. It is the expression of symmetry-asymmetry in the body's controlling mechanism. It is this mechanism that enables the functional subsystem to have "authorised power" while being unable to "abuse" it. It is the left-right symmetry that balances the higher-lower asymmetry. However, symmetry is only to some extent and there is no absolute symmetry. For example, the left and right arms are not absolutely the same length and strength. Neither are the legs.

These features of body's controlling mechanism are the expression of a hierarchical system's nature. The integrity of a hierarchical system relies on the power distribution within, which is asymmetrical at the very top (singularity) while the levels below this point display a relative symmetry between the left and right sides. The system is asymmetrical between the higher and lower levels, with the higher level greater than the lower level.

This symmetry-asymmetry mechanism prevents disorder in social management due to the higher level having absolute power. For example, commanders in a battlefield are given absolute power in order to effectively execute orders and ultimately for the survival of the whole group. However, will this absolute power lead to corruption? It is unlikely that a commander would abuse his power when he faces an external hostile force, otherwise the whole group, including himself, would not be able to survive. Although a commander has the absolute power, he can only exercise it for the interest of the whole group. Viewed from the perspective of the Interrelationships Model, an external symmetrical power balance keeps him from exercising power outside of the group's interests.

The symmetry of the command-feedback mechanism can be expressed in a specific form of the Interrelationships Model:

#

C represents the neural centre and E represents the organ. The neural centre gives commands to the organ and the sensors on the organ give feedback to the neural centre.

However, the command system and feedback system are not absolutely symmetrical. For example, the pituitary gland gives a "command" to the thyroid gland through the secretion of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) to stimulate the thyroid gland to secrete thyroid hormone (T4). When blood T4 level increases, it suppresses the pituitary gland from secreting TSH. This is a feedback process. However, these two processes are not absolutely symmetrical because the pituitary gland is also influenced by a higher level — the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus secretes a hormone – thyroid releasing hormone (TRH) to influence the pituitary gland to secrete TSH. In this sense, the feedback from the thyroid hormone on the pituitary gland can be weakened by the TRH from the higher level. This example demonstrates that the left and right sides in the lower part of a hierarchical system are not absolutely symmetrical. [62]

This non-absolute symmetrical feature also appears in the motor system's control over the muscular system. The relationship between the motor neurons and muscles in the hierarchical body system is a higher level to a lower level relationship. As discussed previously, the higher level has greater power over the lower level. Therefore, the motor neurons can directly influence a muscle's contraction, while the muscle does not directly influence the motor neurons. This demonstrates the power asymmetry between the higher level and the lower level. If the muscle had the capability to directly influence the motor neurons, then it would create conflict between the two and the motor neurons would lose control of the muscle. The influence from the muscle on the motor neurons is indirect, through the feedback from another part of the neural system, the sensory system as illustrated in Fig-15a. In this way, the motor neuron and the sensory neuron are symmetrical. This relationship can be seen in spinal reflex.

Even so, the sensory neurons and the motor neurons are not absolutely symmetrical in spinal reflex because the sensory neurons have to go through interneurons to influence some motor neurons. This is illustrated in Fig-15b. In a spinal reflex such as the flexion-withdrawal reflex, the roles of sensory neurons in relation to different groups of motor neuron are not the same. On the one hand, sensory neurons directly stimulate the motor neurons that cause the flexor muscles to contract. One the other, they stimulate some interneurons to inhibit other motor neurons that would cause extensor muscles to contract. As a result, the flexor muscles contract and the extensor muscles relax. Then the withdrawal action can be achieved. Only with such a symmetry–asymmetry mechanism can the neural system function normally. [63]

As discussed previously, the higher level has greater power over the lower level in a hierarchical system. If that is true, then why in some situations can feedback from the lower level stop the higher level's command? For example, the motor cortex gives the command to the arm muscle to pick up an object on the stove and the sensors innervated on the skin of the fingers send electrical signals back the sensory cortex when touching the object. If the object's temperature is around 300C it causes no significant alarm. The brain will continually send signals to complete the whole planned action. If the object's temperature is more than 1000C, the body will immediately react, rapidly withdrawing the hand and the planned action is stopped. The underlying mechanism is that when the temperature exceeds a threshold, the sensors on the skin will discharge a large amount of signals. When these electrical signals exceed a threshold, they will trigger the motor neurons in the spinal cord to discharge electrical signals, causing muscles to contract and withdraw contact from the object. The planned action is stopped. This example demonstrates that whether the body reacts or not depends on the intensity of the feedback. If the stimulation exceeds the threshold, neurons in the lower levels of the hierarchical system can stop the higher level motor system's action by going through a parallel system – the sensory system. In this situation, the lower levels' feedback seems more dominant than the higher levels'. This is a protecting mechanism developed through biological evolution and it serves for the body's survival. [64]

This example demonstrates the relationship between the higher and lower levels in the hierarchical system under a specific circumstance in which the lower levels' feedback is more dominant. However, as in the whole hierarchal system, the very top of the neural system is still the most powerful one. The signals from the sensors also go through other pathways, via different levels of neurons and ultimately to the sensory cortex. This information along with other information will be used for logical reasoning in the prefrontal cortex to make a decision. After a process of logical reasoning, a decision will be made. Once the decision is made, the motor center in the cortex will execute the decision, which may override the commanding procedure from the spinal cord to the arm muscle. For example, if the decision is "to continue picking up the object on the oven" then corresponding actions will be executed by using tools. This example demonstrates that the rational thinking on the cortex level has the power to override the instinct on the spinal level, again demonstrating that the power on the higher level is greater than the lower level in a hierarchical system.

The dominant role of rational thinking in the decision making system can also be seen in other situations where the body can restrain itself while experiencing severe pain. For example, some people can endure severe pain and restrain themselves with strong will for the sake of others. This strong will is the outcome of rational thinking.

The pain reflex can be compared with the thyroid hormone's feedback on the pituitary gland in which the role of strong will is similar to the role of TRH on the pituitary gland. This example demonstrates that the neural commanding system has greater power over the feedback system and further demonstrates that the higher level's power is greater than that of the lower level.

This control mechanism also demonstrates that the middle level of the whole control system is not only influenced by the higher level's command but feedback from the lower level as well. Its functional performance is influenced by the higher and lower levels. Both the higher and lower levels partially influence the middle level's performance and it is this parallel control which prevents one absolute dominant role. [65]

The peripheral reflex is based on the intensity of presented stimulation. The intensity of stimulation is related to the severity of the impact to the body. The stronger the stimulation, the more severe the damage it may cause. If the damage exceeds the limit, the body must react; otherwise life will be in jeopardy. Therefore, when stimulation exceeds the threshold, the feedback system will initiate the instinct procedure, which has developed through evolution, to trigger the command system to react. The threshold is the critical point at which the feedback system triggers the command system. The setting of the threshold is important because if it were too high the body would not react even if damage from the stimulation had been done; if it were too low, however, the body would overreact.

Although this mechanism can protect the body under certain circumstances, it is not rational thinking, as rational thinking is directly based on the goal of survival. The relationship between threshold and survival developed through evolution, and is appropriate under most conditions. However, it may not be appropriate under some conditions and therefore cannot protect the body in all situations. For example, when an amputation is needed to save a life, the severe pain caused by the operation will exceed the limit of tolerance and drive the patient to escape from the operation, but in order to save the patient's life the operation must be carried out. Therefore the feedback of pain must be suppressed – the procedure of anesthesia is used. This example demonstrates that the higher level of rational thinking has the power to dominate the lower level of instinct in the hierarchical neural system.

Rational thinking is at the highest point of the hierarchical commanding system. But it is the lowest point of another inverted hierachical system, the sensory system. This relationship is expressed by the Interrelationships Model:

The commanding hierarchical system and sensory hierarchical system are linked to each other in an inverted fashion. If the commanding system stands upward then the sensory system is linked upside down. The highest point of the upward hierarchical system is also the lowest point of the inverted hierarchical system. In the inverted hierarchical system, the higher level drives the lower level, which is still consistent with the rule that the higher level has greater power than the lower level. Therefore, the highest level of the upward hierarchical system is driven by the lowest level of an inverted hierarchical system.

This interrelationship can also be expressed as the following model (Fig-18):

From this perspective, rational thinking is the starting point of the commanding system and has the most powerful position. However, it is the end of another information collecting system. It is influenced and driven by the levels prior to it. The whole process is as follows: the commanding signals travel through the motor system to reach the muscles causing muscle contraction. The sensors innervated on the muscles sense the changes, convert the stimulations to electric signals and send them back through the hierarchical sensory system to the sensory cortex.

The sensory system is part of the command-feedback system. It can be expressed with the following model:

In the above diagram, the dotted lines represent the convergent process which is the sensory system in the human body. The solid lines represent the divergent process which is the commanding system in the human body. C1、C2、C3、C4 represent the same center in the neural system in different period of time.

This relationship can also be seen in other situations, such as in the circulatory system where blood from the heart goes through the hierarchical arterial system divergently to the body and then convergently returns to the heart through the hierarchical venous system.

Whether a divergent hierarchical system or convergent hierarchical system, it is always the prior level driving the following one. It is the expression of serial relationships. It is the specific expression of periodicity in organisms. It is the expression of continuation-discontinuation. It is the expression of dynamics. It is the expression of stability and change.

In both the upwards and inverted hierarchical systems the higher level dominates the lower level. In the upwards hierarchical system a single point drives multiple points. However, in the inverted hierarchical system, multiple points drive a single point. For example, in a neuron, multiple inputs from dendrites and the cell body influence a single axon's output. However, a single axon passes output to multiple points.

In rational thinking, all information has to go through a hierarchical system for processing. Information is filtered through this system. For example, sensors on the skin filter information. If the intensity of stimulation does not exceed the threshold of sensors, their information is filtered out. Some structures such as reticular formation in the neural network also play a role in filtering information.[66] When rational thinking is conducted, a set of criteria such as moral, ethical, religious and scientific are used to assess the information from the native instincts. All of these processes ultimately aim at survival.

After being processed, the useful information is stored in the memory system for use in logical reasoning.

On the lower level of a neural network, reflexes are relatively simple and direct. They depend on the intensity of stimulation that is happening at the time. Rational thinking is more complicated. It depends on the importance of factors that are happening, happened in the past and may potentially happen in the future.

The command-feedback system functions as a whole. Without the command system the body cannot survive. The same is true for the feedback system. They are parallel and opposite to each other in a hierarchical system. They can also be represented by the left and right sides of the Interrelationships Model.

The compromise of integrity of a hierarchical system

In the following situations the integrity of a hierarchical system will be compromised: A, the absence of a top level; B, the weakening of the top level; C, the power on the lower level exceeding the higher level; D, the absence of symmetry on the lower level; E, the asymmetry on the top level being compromised.

If the integrity of a hierarchical system is compromised, it will lead to conflict and disorder. For example, if the top level is absent or its power is lesser than that of the lower level, the orderly functioning of the system cannot be maintained. For example, when an animal's brain stem is transacted, the activities below the severed level of the CNS can be preserved but they are in disordered.[282] If there were not a governing system to oversee business activities, it would run into disorder. Therefore, the Department of Fair Trading, an arbitrary system, is imposed to govern trading. This governing body is given power to regulate and execute orders. Had it not been given this power, the trading system would run into disorder.

In the universe, hierarchical structure exists widely in various systems. Every part of society is a hierarchical system. Hierarchical systems not only exist in managing systems, but in various social activities as well. For example, in sport, the umpire is on the top of a hierarchical system while the two sides of the game are the two sides of the lower part of the hierarchical system. All judiciary systems, including commercial, legal and executive, are hierarchical system. The judge is on the very top of this system, as he has much more power than any parties of the dispute.

The disorder caused by excessive power on the lower level can be seen in a family where teenage children are growing up. With their physical and mental power increasing, their parent will find it hard to control their behaviour and things can get out of control and become disordered.

In the body, if symmetry is absent on the lower level, it can result in the lower level having excessive power. For example, if the immune system is hyperactive without adequate immune suppression, then the immune system will attack even its own body's cells.[67] It is similar to the abuse of authorized power. This is due to the absence of a balancing force.

The absence of feedback can cause a functional absence of the higher level. Although the top level exists, it does not function. For example, if a sensory nerve is paralyzed it cannot feedback information to the neural center and the center will not respond to stimulation. A similar situation can also happen to groups of individuals. When the management loses its information feedback channel, mismanagement and disorder result.

There are plenty of cases where fair trading can be done without the intervention of a governing body or supervision of a visible higher level. However, there is in fact an invisible higher level governing both parties to genuinely work together. It is business ethics, the common value enabling both parties to work together. This value is even above the arbiter. It is the highest level in the system and the rule of running the whole system. In sports, the level above the umpire is the rules of the game. The umpire is the person who executes the rules, which govern the behaviour of all game participants. Even the umpire, the highest authority in the game, is also governed by the rules, and if he violates the rules he will be punished by the committee. In every game there is only one umpire and one set of rules. If there were two umpires or two sets of rules, it would inevitably cause conflict. This phenomenon is the asymmetrical nature of the highest level in a hierarchical system. Although a set of rules is the highest point of a hierarchical system in the game, it is the lowest point of another inverted hierarchical system. Through this system, rules are established from a collection of individuals' inputs. These are the convergent and divergent processes represented by the Interrelationships Model. This dynamic structure is not only seen in sport but judiciary and business arbitrary systems as well. The highest level of these systems is their respective laws. In fact, the whole of society is also such a dynamic system. The moral and ethical protocols, customs, laws and scientific concepts constitute the highest level of the hierarchical society. These rules define individuals' behaviour. The ultimate highest level in the universe is the fundamental rules governing every existence, which are the fundamental relationships. They are intangible. For example, the sun is on the highest level of the solar system that we can see. However, the laws of physics are the true highest level of the solar system. They govern every celestial body in the system.

Certainly, things without intelligence are controlled by the laws of physics, such as objects falling and ice melting. But the complicated behaviour of highly intelligent organisms such as humans is ultimately controlled by the laws of physics too. This can be seen in business conflicts and academic feuds. There are many similar cases: two parties worked together to complete a project. They were parallel to each other and had parallel interests. With the effort from the two parties, the project continuously made progress and finally succeeded. This was a critical point in the project and they also came to a critical point in their lives. They had their honour and fame. From this critical point, their relationship also changed from partner to competitor for being credited as the major contributor; then conflict started. This process is completely consistent with the relationships represented by the Interrelationships Model: the parallel relationship, the critical point and the phase transition. When one side attacked before the other side fought back, it was evident as asymmetry. When the other side fought back, it became symmetrical. This was symmetry-asymmetry presented in a specific case. When both sides repeatedly attacked each other, it was one of the fundamental phenomena of the universe, periodicity, presented in human behaviour. All of these events can be represented by the Interrelationships Model. The lack of a supervising body to closely monitor and document every discussion led to the conflict later on. Although it seemed that this conflict was due to the absence of a visible highest level in this minute system, the deeper mechanism was the lack of honesty from one side, resulting in the absence of an invisible highest level, the moral and ethical protocol, to govern this minute hierarchical system. Therefore, the integrity of the system was compromised and conflict was inevitable. This feud lasted for a long time – several decades – and it is an expression of continuation-discontinuation. To resolve this dispute, the key approach was to recover the integrity of the hierarchical system by reinstalling a powerful higher level on top of both parties. Finally, both parties' claims caught the public attention. When public opinion emerged, the dispute subsided because the public had made their "verdict". Public opinion is indeed the top of this hierarchical system and played its role in recovering the integrity of the system, consequently ensuring justice. Finally, the dispute came to an end because any process has to follow one of the fundamental relationships, limitation. In this case, if there had not been the powerful higher level – the authority of public opinion – and symmetry on the lower level – both parties' claims with evidence – then justice would never been done. This case demonstrated that the fundamental laws of the universe do govern human behaviour, including those who are highly intelligent.

Having discussed the hierarchical structure and the characteristics of body control, the following discussion will compare social management with body control.

The aim of body control and social management

It is important to understand what the goals of body control and social management are and then choose the approaches to achieve the goal. The goal of body control is the body's survival. Likewise, the goal of social management is the survival of a society.

The approaches of body control and social management

Neural control and endocrine control are the two major approaches to manage the body's activities. But the neural system can also control the endocrine system's activities, through which the neural system controls body's activities. In social management, executive administration and financial management are the two major approaches. Similar to body control, executive administration can also control social activities by influencing the financial system.

Body activity's neural control and the social activity's "neural control"

The neural system is a hierarchical structure. It consists of the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system.[68] The central nervous system can be considered as the higher level in the hierarchical structure and the peripheral nervous system can be considered as the lower level in the system. The regional networks manage the local organs and tissues. The central nervous system also plays a role in coordinating different subsystems. The social administration system is also a hierarchical structure. It has its "central nervous system" and "peripheral nervous system". Within this system, different departments are in charge of different areas. They give instructions and execute orders much as the neural system manages the body's activities.

The role of the regional plexus in controlling local activities

The regional plexuses are in the lower level of the hierarchical system and manage the local organs' activities. They have a certain level of autonomy so they can promptly respond to local stimulation, making the control activity efficient and effective. For example, when a foreign body is inhaled into the trachea, the coughing reflex will immediately respond to it without thinking by initiating coughing to expel the foreign body. Other regional plexuses also function in an autonomic way, allowing them to efficiently and effectively manage local organs' activities.[69] For example, the cognitive function of the cortex can control breathing. However, if breathing were controlled by this mechanism only, it would cause disorder as one might forget to breathe when focusing on other issues. In general, it is impossible for the highest level of the CNS, which is the cognitive function of the cortex, to manage the vast amount of detailed activities at the same time. Therefore, the higher level has to "authorise" the power to the lower levels to deal with the local activities. This "authorisation" is expressed as lower levels' autonomic function. Interestingly, this "authorisation" also follows one of the fundamental interrelationship, symmetry-asymmetry. Symmetry is expressed as two functionally opposite subsystems on the lower level performing the autonomic function. For example, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve systems function autonomously and play opposite roles in managing local activities. Asymmetry is expressed as these two subsystems' activities are not absolutely equal at the same time. Asymmetry is also expressed as the singularity of the highest level of the CNS and its dominance over these two subsystems. These two subsystems together with the higher level of the CNS constitute the mechanism of the unity of opposites. Under this mechanism, vast amounts of local activities are primarily controlled in normal physiological conditions.

The role of social "regional plexuses" in controlling local activities

The local administration is similar to the regional plexuses in the neural system, directly responding to changes in the social environment. It has a certain degree of autonomy, to manage the local activities more efficiently and effectively. For example, local government or a specific department can directly deal with matters within their duties.

This role can also be seen in companies' responses to the social environment. For example, company management's response to the market changes is prompt, much like the quick sucking reflex in response to the stimulation of an infant's lips.[70] Such a similarity is not a coincidence but because both are the lower part of their respective hierarchical systems. The sucking reflex is the lower part of the hierarchical neural system and a company management is the lower part of the hierarchical social "neural system". These two systems are two parallel systems based on a common mechanism of organisation, therefore they display similarities. Under this mechanism, the subsystems in the social network such as companies quickly respond to the stimulation of profit in the market, supplying commodities to meet social demands. This reaction enables society to promptly reach a demand-supply balance, maintaining a social "homeostasis" – social stability. It is similar to the sucking reflex taking in milk to meet the body needs to maintain the balance of blood sugar and further to maintain the body's homeostasis. Such autonomic control mechanism is reflected in the description of economics: If the demand is higher and the supply is lower, then the price will increase. If demand is lower and the supply is higher, then the price will decrease. Price increase will stimulate production which will subsequently increase supply and in turn result in a price decrease. Eventually, demand and supply will reach a balance and price will stabilise. This is a part of the autonomic control mechanism of social "regional plexuses" in controlling local activities such as production.

In the aforementioned commercial activity, profit serves as a stimulus and pursuing profit is a natural part of a company – an instinct. Why is the pursuit of profit a company's instinct? The reason is simple: under the mechanism of exchange based on equal value, if a company wants to survive then its revenue must be equal or greater than its expense. It is similar to the body's energy intake having to be equal to the energy discharged. If the body is developing then its material and energy intake must be greater than its discharge. The material remaining in the body is the basis of body development. Similarly, the accumulation of profit is the base of company development.

The central nervous system's role in controlling the body

The central nervous system (CNS) has the capability to control organs' functions which are mainly controlled by the autonomic nervous system. The higher level of the CNS can intervene with the lower level's performance particularly the vital organs. For example, respiration is controlled by the respiration centre in the brain stem. However the cerebral cortex, which is on a higher level, also has the capability to control respiration. [71]

The CNS has the dominant controlling capability and this capability can be expressed as the coordination of different subsystems. For example, during exercise, the CNS sends commanding signals to various parts of the muscles, controlling their contractions and relaxation in a coordinated fashion. The sensory system sends feedback to the CNS for further processing to adjust the action. As a result, the precision of an action can be achieved.[72]

Apart from coordinating related muscles to perform precise exercise actions, the CNS also coordinates metabolism to meet the increased energy demand from the muscles: when exercising, intense muscle contractions send signals to the CNS. In response to the stress produced from exercise, the CNS mediates several subsystems to support the body's energy demands. Through the mediation of the hypothalamus (a part of the CNS), the activity of the sympathetic nervous system intensifies,[73] leading to the increased release of adrenaline and noradrenaline. These hormones stimulate cells to convert glycogens to glucose, leading to an increase of the blood glucose level. [74] Meanwhile, the increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system and the decreased activity of the parasympathetic nervous system result in the inhibition of insulin release, leading to a lower blood insulin level. As a result, the blood glucose level increases.[75] The increased blood glucose provides more energy to the exercising muscles. The adrenalin and noradrenalin also stimulate the breakdown of lipids (lipolysis, in which triglycerides are broken down to glycerol and free fatty acids) in adipose tissue (fat).[76] These substrates are then further processed to provide energy to exercised muscles. [77]

The hypothalamus also mediates the pituitary gland to release a hormone, ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone) to stimulate adrenal cortex to release cortisol. Cortisol stimulates lipolysis in adipose tissue and the breakdown of proteins into amino acids (proteolysis) to provide more substrates for the energy demand of the exercising muscles.[78]

The increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system stimulates the heart to deliver higher output by pumping more blood out to the body as well as the contraction of blood vessels in non-exercising muscles and organs such as the kidneys and the intestines. Meanwhile, the blood vessels in exercising muscles become dilated under other mechanisms. These cause blood redistribution: more blood is delivered to the exercising muscles, providing more oxygen and glucose to support the higher energy demand from the exercising muscles.[79] Therefore, exercising muscles get more energy supply. This is only a part of the mechanism of the body's regulation during exercise but it demonstrates the importance of the CNS in coordinating such a delicate and complex process.

From the above discussion, it has been demonstrated that the CNS's control over the endocrine system is an important part of its coordinating function. This process is via the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is part of the CNS but it can also release hormones. It receives electrical signals from other parts of the CNS which influence its release of hormones. The hormones from the hypothalamus influence hormone release from the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland controls hormone release from the thyroid gland, adrenal glands, testes and ovaries.[80] This is the role played by the neural system, through the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, indirectly controlling the endocrine system and further controlling the body's metabolism. For example, CRH from the hypothalamus influences the release of ACTH from pituitary gland. ACTH influences the release of cortisone from the adrenal gland.[81] Cortisols influences the metabolism of sugar, resulting in an increase in blood sugar level.[82] Furthermore, the neural system can directly influence hormone release from the endocrine system. For example, through the sympathetic nerves, the neural system influences the adrenal gland to release adrenalin and noradrenalin.[83] Nerve endings of the autonomic nervous system can release noradrenalin to directly influence Beta cells, inhibiting insulin release.[84]

Through the above discussion, one can notice that the CNS sends signals to command muscles' orderly contraction. At the same time it also commands the endocrine system through the hypothalamus-pituitary gland to adjust the body's metabolism to support the exercise state, that is, to raise the blood sugar level to support muscles' exercise. These processes are procedures set in humans' evolution. This whole process involves the CNS as the highest controlling level to adjust the various related systems in the body in a coordinated fashion.

Although the endocrine system plays a major role in influencing body metabolism, this example demonstrates that the CNS can control the body's metabolism by influencing the endocrine system, subsequently supporting various activities controlled by the CNS. Interestingly, this process is similar to the government's influence on the financial system to support various social activities including economic activity.

Why can the CNS coordinate the whole body system? The reason is that it is at the diverging and converging point of the whole body system, represented by the Interrelationships Model. This allows the CNS to naturally link to all other subsystems in the body in a converging and diverging fashion.

As discussed above, although the lower levels of the hierarchical neural system have the autonomic function, it does not mean that they are independent of the higher levels' control. The higher levels of the CNS play an important part in maintaining orderly functioning of the body. As the higher levels of CNS can coordinate multiple subsystems to complete the task, they are more powerful and precise. As rational thinking in the cortex can take multiple factors into consideration, it provides better planning. For example, the subcortical structures are an important mechanism of controlling eating. However, this mechanism alone may not be able to maintain a healthy condition because it may lead to overeating and multiple subsequent disorders. Rational thinking to control the desire of eating (such as selectively choosing the amount and variety of food) allows human to achieve a healthier life.

Rational thinking is the highest level in the neural control. Its ultimate goal is survival, towards which all of the body's subsystems' activities are directed in an orderly fashion. For example, the training of an athlete is for the goal of survival in athletic competition. The training of a soldier is for the goal of survival in the future battle. A student's study plan is to survive in intellectual competition. All of these are rational behaviour and their common goal is survival. All these behaviours involve intense physical and mental activities, consuming large amounts of energy. If they can achieve their goal, they can bring in a positive reward and be transformed into the needed material and energy to support their survival. This is rational behaviour in which consequences are considered in decision making.

However, irrational behaviour does not consider the consequences in decision making. Such behaviour cannot bring in positive return after consuming material and energy, such as patients with mental disorders.

In evolution, the more advanced the species, the higher the intelligence and the stronger the capability of rational thinking. Human beings are the most advanced species of primate.[85] The neural control's influence over body activities is the strongest, as expressed in the way of rational thinking. It is not only due to a congenitally well-developed cerebral cortex but more useful concepts stored in the memory and the technologies based on these concepts as well. With an increasing number of accumulated concepts, the role of rational thinking in direct intervention with body activities continually increases. This is expressed as medical intervention.

The role of the social "central nervous system"— the government's role on social management

Through the above discussion, we can understand the basics of the CNS's role in managing the body system. This will be used as reference in the following discussion of the government's role.

Why does a society need a government? The reason is: in order to avoid conflict and ensure orderly function, any organisation needs to form a hierarchical system with a controlling body on the top to coordinate subsystems' activities. This is not only a natural process in biological evolution but a universal phenomenon in stable hierarchical systems as well. This controlling body appears as the CNS in the human body, and the government in society.

As discussed previously, subsystems play a direct role in social activities. They are similar to regional nerve plexuses and have a certain level of autonomy, making their work efficient. However, subsystems' autonomy may not be sufficient without a higher level's governing. Also, their self-centred nature can cause subsystems to clash. The underlying philosophical principle is that the absence of the top part of a hierarchical system will compromise the system's integrity and lead to disorder. In response to this situation, the human controlling mechanism evolved with the CNS on top of the hierarchical controlling system to coordinate the regional nerve plexuses, which play a direct role in controlling local activities. In this way, the body's controlling mechanism avoids the incompetence of subsystem functioning only because this mechanism maintains the integrity of the hierarchical controlling system and subsequently maintains the body system's orderly functioning. This mechanism does not occur only in the body control system. It also occurs in social management – that is, the government's coordinating role on various subsystems – for the survival of the system. This is natural – an expression of self-centred nature. There are "social CNS" and "social peripheral nerve systems", which are federal government and local governments or various industries. Under this mechanism, the "social CNS" coordinates multiple subsystems including the "social endocrine system", while subsystems also function in an autonomic fashion. This allows the subsystems to exercise their rapid response to environment changes and at the same time serve the whole social system.

Companies have the instinct of pursuing profit. As long as there is commercial value, a company will chase it. It has been discussed that this is parallel to infant's sucking reflex: as long as an object touches the lips of an infant, it will trigger the sucking reflex. The commonality of these two cases is that they do not consider an action's consequence. In infants, this is due to the immaturity of the higher level of the neural system for rational thinking and the reaction to stimulation is strongly influenced by the lower level in the neural system – instinct. Companies' instinctive reaction towards commercial value is due to them being the lower part of the hierarchical social system and the need to chase profit for survival in a commercial environment. With the continued development of an infant's neural system, an individual will not only react from instinct. He will consider multiple factors including consequences rather than acting on the sucking reflex because the rational thinking has gradually matured and is able to intervene with the lower level's neural activities. At this time, decisions are made in the cortex – the higher level of the neural system. From this perspective, we can see the parallel between the human body's development and social development – that the social governing mechanism gradually developed along with the historical development of society. Nowadays, there are many governing bodies in society to supervise social activities such as the Department of Fair Trading to supervise business activities. Again, this is due to society and the human body being two parallel systems based on the common mechanism of organism.

Why can a government coordinate multiple subsystems?

The social system consists of multiple subsystems. Any social activity involves multiple subsystems. For this reason, decision making always involves multiple social factors, including the impacts on multiple subsystems. A government's coordinating capability is due to its unique position. This position is the convergent-divergent point represented by the Interrelationships Model as illustrated in Fig-18. It links two hierarchical systems, the convergent and divergent systems. Because a government is on the very end of the convergent hierarchical system, this position enables it to have a congenital connection with various subsystems, therefore allowing the government the capability of comprehensively collecting information from related subsystems when it comes to decision making. This is one of the reasons why a government can coordinate subsystems' activities for the survival of the society. Furthermore, from the perspective of the Interrelationships Model, government is at the very beginning point of a divergent hierarchical system which enables it to naturally connect to multiple subsystems, allowing a government to command related subsystems in a coordinated fashion when it comes to executing orders. Furthermore, a government has greater power than any other subsystem. This is similar to the CNS's motor system having greater power over the peripheral nerves, because CNS and a government are parallel and both of them are at the very top of the commanding hierarchical system. This is the important basis for a government's coordination of social activities.

The government's commanding power is similar to the commanding signals from the neural system. As discussed before, the top level of body control is rational thinking in the cerebral cortex. In the biological world, the more evolutionally advanced an organism is, the more powerful its rational thinking capability. This is expressed as actions on different subsystems directly from rational thinking. For example, humans use antibiotics against the invasion of pathogens; drugs or surgical approaches to treat endocrine disorders, hormones to simulate growth; a surgical approach to improve blood supply to tissues. All these approaches are rational thinking from the cortex of CNS directly acting on subsystems in the body. This is a human-specific approach because we are the top species in the biological realm. Survival is the only assessment to see whether this approach is right or wrong and the facts have proven that this intervention allows humans to better survive.

Government to drive activities important to social development

The government's coordination can also be seen in other social activities such as those important to social development. Of course, the autonomic mechanism of demand-supply driven by commercial value can drive social activities. However, there are many social activities not driven by this mechanism but by government. This is part of the government's role in social coordination. But why does a government need to do so?

There is a limitation of the autonomic demand-supply mechanism in driving social activities. For example, some products may be highly valuable in commercial terms. However, from the perspective of driving civilisation forward, they do not have much value. Although investing huge amounts of money and particularly time on those products may get lucrative financial return, it does not help civilisation. For example, the entertainment industry can generate huge commercial value. But it consumes a large amount of wealth from society and its role in driving civilisation forward is not as large as that of scientific research and technological development. On the other hand, some social activities may be highly valuable in terms of moving civilisation forward but they don't have a large demand on the commercial market. For example, a mathematical formula that explains a particular interrelationship in physics can hardly match the highly inflated commercial value of an art product.

Moreover, from a broader social perspective, within a society the demand for daily consumer products from the general public is huge, while the demand for highly academic knowledge is much smaller. Therefore, there is not much commercial value in taking highly academic knowledge to the consumer market to sell. However, this knowledge is the key for us to understand the universe. It is the roadmap to guide our way in civilisation. It has a profound impact on civilisation. Therefore, there is a need to drive these activities; however, it is difficult to do so in an environment in which activities are basically based on commercial value. For example, some scientific research and technological developments cost an enormous amount of money and it is impossible to get the money back immediately. It is hard to conduct such social activities based on a direct commercial exchange because no one would want to make such a financial risk. However, they are important to social development. For this reason, the government's role is needed to coordinate activities with social value and activities with commercial value.

For example, a government will provide financial support to those activities with high social value from government budget while collect tax from activities generating commercial values. The government will allocate funding to scientific research and technological development, education, subsidies and financial benefits such as tax concession. This situation is similar to body control in which the cerebral cortex will intervene when the regional plexus' autonomic function is insufficient to cope with the needs. For example, muscle tremor is part of the autonomic mechanism reacting to low temperatures, but this mechanism is insufficient to deal with extremely low temperatures. As a result, rational thinking will intervene, such as intentionally exercising to produce more heat and keep the body warm, or putting on more clothes. When pathogen invasion occurs, the immune system will autonomously launch an attack. However, if the immune system cannot cope with this, medication is needed – a result of the intervention of the CNS.

The objective of all these government interventions is the survival of the society.

The government's coordination in production and consumption

The above discussion demonstrates that the government plays a similar role to the CNS. It can use administrative force to promote activities with positive social value and suppress activities with negative social value to move society forwards.

Apart from these, a government also plays its coordinating role to control the "social metabolism" in which production and consumption are two related processes in society and similar to anabolism and catabolism. They are important to economy and the orderly functioning of a society. Although these two processes are regulated by their autonomic mechanism, demand-supply, the government also plays an important role in regulating these two processes because there are situations in which the supply-demand mechanism may not work. For example, if consumption fails to stimulate production due to total lack of production capability, government's direct intervention is needed.

The balance between these two is important to maintain social stability. If the demand from society is high but social production is low, social need will not be satisfied. The imbalance will drive a government to take action. Then a government will play its coordination role. It will set policies favourable to the development of related production industry including interest rates, loans, taxes, benefits to professionals etc. All these measures are aimed at increasing production to meet the social need. And in some extreme situations, a government may even impose rationalisation and price control.

The above discussion demonstrates the social control mechanism. It is very similar to the body controlling mechanism. The social impacts' feedback to a governing body is similar to the information feedback to a higher level of CNS and the CNS's coordination to the regional plexus is similar to the government coordination of the social subsystems.

One of the important ways in which a government controls "social metabolism" is through its administrative department, such as the treasury and finance departments, to influence the financial system. The mechanism behind governmental control over the financial system is very interesting. The government's influence on the financial system is an important part of its social coordination. As the endocrine system and financial system are two parallel systems based on a common mechanism, there are interesting similarities between the government's influence on the financial system and the neural system's influence on the endocrine system. By comparing these two parallel systems, we can better understand how a government coordinates related subsystems in social activities through the financial system. These relationships are illustrated in the following diagram, Fig – 20:

It has been discussed previously that in social management, the role of the financial system is very similar to the endocrine system. The role of currency is similar to that of hormones. A government can inject or withdraw currency, the "social hormone", to stimulate or suppress the "metabolism" of certain subsystems and further control its role in society. By using those "endocrine control" approaches such as raising money, controlling money supply, interest rate, tax and even price control, the government can manage social activities. This process is similar to the neural system's influence on the endocrine system to further control the body's activities.

More interestingly, the hypothalamus is a part of the neural system but it can release hormones to influence the endocrine system, the pituitary gland – an important gland in the endocrine system. Meanwhile, the treasury in a government is very similar to the hypothalamus. It is part of the governmental system but it can set financial policies and indirectly influence the interest rate in the reserve bank. The pituitary gland can release hormones to influence multiple endocrine glands such as the thyroid gland, adrenal glands, ovaries and testes.[86] The reserve bank's role is similar to the pituitary gland in the endocrine system. It has an influence on the commercial banks' interest rate. Similar to the endocrine glands releasing hormones to influence the body's activities, commercial banks release currency, the "social hormone", into social circulation to influence the "social metabolism" and the function of "social organs".

The amount of currency circulating in the economy is similar to the amount of hormones circulating in the body. The amount of currency circulating at a given time can influence the social metabolic state. The total amount of currency in society is similar to the total amount of hormones, such as thyroxin, in the body. If there is excessive currency circulating in society, it is similar to excessive thyroxin circulating in the blood. It is the disorder of hyperthyroidism, an abnormal hyper-metabolic state. If there are excessive products without enough currency released into the society, it is similar to hypothyroidism – insufficient thyroxin in the blood, a hypo-metabolic state. [87]

From the perspective of the importance of endocrine control on the body, it is almost parallel to neural control. If the government is parallel to neural control, than the financial system's role on society is almost parallel to that of a government. The role of big banks and investment funds on society is similar to those of the major endocrine glands on the body. Their roles are almost as important as those important departments in administration. If thyroxin is insufficient in a body, it will suffer from hypothyroidism. If there is insufficient money circulating in society, "social hypothyroidism" will present and cause social disorder. If the government does not provide "medical intervention", the situation will deteriorate leading to severe "social metabolic disorder". For this reason, we can see government intervention on these social disorders. This is not only presented as similar to the CNS through the hypothalamus to control the endocrine system but rational thinking directly intervening through a medical approach as well. The government will execute policies and legislations to control the social disorder. Throughout history, there are plenty of examples demonstrating governments acting like the neural cortex and "medically intervening" in "social endocrine disorders".

If over consumption happens, a government will take measures to control it in order to maintain "social homeostasis". Overconsumption is similar to hyperthyroidism. In normal conditions, organs' activities are to meet the body's demand. For example, metabolic rate decreases when the body is at rest, such as while sleeping. On the other hand, metabolic rate increases when the body is working. However, in hyperthyroidism, the thyroid gland releases excessive hormone, leading to an abnormally increased metabolic rate which the body does not need. This results in increased heart rate, increased blood circulation, increased excitability of the neural system and increased food intake, while body weight is reduced. This increases body consumption and organs' workload may lead to organ failure. Similarly, excessive currency circulating in society may unnecessarily increase demand, causing an overheated economy. Overstimulating social consumption to create an overheated economy may lead to exhaustion. That is why economy begins with overheating and ends with recession.

In order to prevent this happen, a government will play its coordinating role. The government's approach to deal with this social disorder is similar to the administration of medication in endocrine disorders. For example, in hyperthyroidism, medication stopping the release of thyroxin is used. Thyroxin synthesis suppressing drugs are also used. Similarly, a government will apply strict monetary policy to reduce currency circulating in society by raising interest rates, tightening loans and reduce money supply. On the other hand, in hypothyroidism, synthetic thyroid hormone is used to stimulate body's metabolism. In economic recession, a government will lower the interest rate and release more currency into the society, encouraging spending. In some cases, simply printing more money is used. These are the similarities between how society deals with economic disorders and how the human body deals with endocrine disorders.

Government coordination can be seen in some situations such as price setting. In economic theory, price is set by demand and supply. This can be noted in commercial activities. However, there are some situations in which price is not only set by demand and supply but by the government. Why does a government need to set prices?

The reason is that the autonomic mechanism of demand-supply to set price may not be sufficient enough to maintain the "homeostasis" of society. The "tension" due to the imbalance of demand-supply drives the feedback mechanism in society to trigger the government to coordinate the supply and demand. For example, when famine occurs, the demand for food greatly exceeds supply. If the food price is only decided by supply and demand then the price will skyrocket. Indeed, there have been cases where hoarding and profiteering have occurred to profit by damaging society. Secondly, there are situations in which a price increase does not necessarily bring a production increase and subsequently a resulting price drop. In order to maintain the maximum profit, a producer may not be willing to increase production. Besides, there is a time gap between the price drop and increased production. Within this period of time the damage has already been done. Thirdly, since buyers and sellers link to their supplies and users in a hierarchical fashion, prices set by these two parties not only have impacts on themselves, but on society as well. These social impacts will go through the social feedback system to trigger government action and coordination, which is similar to the body feedback system to influence the motor system.

Why does the human body have the most perfect controlling mechanism? Because development is not equal in the evolution of the universe, evident in developed countries and developing countries. Human beings, one of the best-developed species in biological evolution, have gone a long way to acquire this mechanism. During this process, individuals with imperfect controlling mechanisms have been eliminated while only those with perfect controlling mechanisms survive. However, the history of social management is much shorter compared to the history of human evolution.

The above discussion aims at understanding the mechanism of social activities by comparing the two parallel systems, the human controlling system and the social controlling system from the perspectives of anatomy, biochemistry and physiology. With parallel thinking, we can further explore social mechanisms from the perspective of evolutionary biology:

In evolution, there is a tendency that the more evolutionarily advanced organisms have a more sophisticated and powerful controlling system. For example, unicellular organisms (started 4.3 billion years ago) such as bacteria only have a very simple controlling system, consisting of receptors, mini-memory and limited processing capability. After a very lengthy period till 600 million years ago, unicellular organisms evolved into multicellular organisms which is more evolutionarily advanced. Multicellular organisms have more advantages over unicellular organism. These advantages allow them to climb to the higher levels of the biological hierarchy and lead to better survival in a competitive environment. As the number of cells increase in multicellular organisms, the controlling system also evolves towards a more powerful one because a more powerful top, which is the controlling system, is needed to maintain the integrity of the organism. This phenomenon is consistent with one of the fundamental interrelationships: the power at the top of a hierarchical system should be greater than the power below it. Such a controlling mechanism gives more power to that organism itself. The evolution of nervous system is a good example to demonstrate this point: in metazoa (animal), primitive nervous system emerges in cnidarians, such as jellyfish. This system gives cnidarians more power in their mobility compared with organisms without it, such as algaes. However, the neurons in cnidarians are evenly distributed without a central nervous system. It is not in a form of hierarchical structure. As evolution progress, hierarchical nervous system emerges due to the formation of CNS resulted from centralization of neurons. It is the CNS, the top of the hierarchical system, enables organisms to have a more powerful controlling system. CNS is thought to emerge from a hypothetical organism believed to be the common ancestry of all bilateral symmetry organisms (bilaterians) such as worms, insects, vertebrates and etc. Although, bilaterians have CNS, the power of their CNS are different. The evolutionarily more advanced organisms have more powerful CNS due to the higher level of complexity which is related to the brain volume (in general), the cortex volume, the number of neurons packed in the cortex, the interconnection between neurons and different parts of the brain, the electrical impulse conduction speed and the processing capability of the neurons. Packing more neurons in the cortex is a process of further cephalization. All of these contribute to the power at the top of the hierarchical controlling system. A more powerful top of a controlling system allows an organism to better coordinate various factors of its internal and external environment. This power can be expressed as organisms' intelligence. The higher intelligence allows an organism to better react to environmental changes, resulting in better survival. This can be demonstrated by the fact that more evolutionarily advanced organisms generally stay on the higher level of the biological hierarchy of which humans stay on the top because humans have the most powerful cerebral cortex of the human neural system.[88]

As social development is parallel to the evolution of organisms, the development of a social system and its controlling system also experiences a similar process. The increased power of the social managing system has allowed government to manage a much larger population with precision and detail. The development of information revolution is also similar to the evolution of the nervous system. Centralization also happen in information revolution. "Cephalization" is expressed as more powerful computer chipsets and increasing number of chipsets "packed" into servers in networks resulting in a more powerful server and further a more powerful network. Not only do biological evolution, social development and information revolution development display similarities, they also have similarities to the development of a human individual from the embryonic stage onwards. All of these similarities are the expressions of parallel relationship of these four existences.[291]

# Chapter Fourteen: The nature and rules of technological development

I: What is the nature of the Industrial Revolution with regard to human body?

It is now widely agreed that the Industrial Revolution was a mechanical revolution represented by the steam engine. Let us examine the process of human behaviour from its beginnings as neural activity in the brain to the end when desire is satisfied. When instinctive desires arise, the brain begins the logical reasoning process to make decisions, with various determining factors taken into consideration. During this neural activity, human instinctive desires and various concepts are the determinants of the final decision. Before any action is taken, the electrical activities related to this decision making are still confined to the brain. Once the brain decides to take action, electrical impulses are sent down along the nerves to the muscles where the impulses trigger the contraction of the muscles, leading to action.[89] The most common situation is that the impulses are sent to the arms or legs. If an individual is holding an electric drill in their hands or operating an electric saw then these tools are the objects that ultimately complete the desire-driven action. These tools supplement the individual's arms and legs. Today, human beings no longer need to walk to get to a place thousands of kilometres away; all we need to do is drive a car. In this case, the car's wheels replace the human's legs. What then drives the car's wheels? It is the engine. What drives the human's legs? It is their muscles. This means that the engine replaces human muscle; it becomes the external muscular aid. Human muscles are part of the musculoskeletal system that is formed by muscles, bones, cartilage, tendons, ligaments, joints and connective tissue.[90] Since the invention of the steam engine, mechanical devices have supplemented various parts of the musculoskeletal system. For example, cranes and bulldozers have taken the place of humans' arms; cars and ships have taken the place of humans' legs. However, these are not simply ordinary supplements, but the external revolution of the musculoskeletal system. This revolution has enabled humans to unprecedentedly gain tremendous power in the desire-satisfaction process. Today, a group of engines can move a 300,000 ton oil tanker. The scale of this power cannot be matched by the intrinsic power of the human body.

As humans gained a huge amount of power through the external revolution of the musculoskeletal system, a series of changes began in human society. These include changes in daily life, work, learning, relationships, political systems and more. As many of these changes are already known, they will not be discussed here. However, there is one addition to the previous conclusion. The Industrial Revolution was not just an external revolution of the musculoskeletal system; it was also an external energy supply revolution. Hence, it was an external revolution with components from two different systems. The machine on its own is an external revolution of the musculoskeletal system, but machines with any engine device are products of both the external revolution of the musculoskeletal system and the external energy supply revolution.

II: What is the next revolution after the Industrial Revolution?

A computer does not possess any mechanical functions. Obviously, it is not a mechanical product and thus, does not belong to the Industrial Revolution. The computer's function is to compute. It acts as an external aid to the human brain. The brain is part of the neural system, which runs in parallel to the separate musculoskeletal system. Hence, it can be concluded that the technological revolution, symbolised by computers, is a revolution completely different to the Industrial Revolution. It is an external revolution of the neural system.

III: The Biotechnological Revolution

If you look into the common nature of the two abovementioned revolutions, you will find that they both were external revolutions of the human body and not internal revolutions. Since these are external revolutions, then what are the internal revolutions? The technological revolution, brought about by genetic engineering, alters the biological structure of humans at the most fundamental level. Hence it is an internal revolution. From the present point of view, genetic engineering no longer just involves humans but all other living organisms as well. For this reason, the term, 'Biological Revolution', is used to describe this revolution. However, the Biological Revolution is not parallel to the information revolution and the industrial revolution on the same level. The major change that parallels the Biological Revolution is the lengthy process of biological evolution, beginning with the origins of life, especially the evolution of human beings. This change allowed human beings to gain intelligence superior to other living creatures. It is this superior intelligence that empowers human beings with absolute dominance as the ruler of the animal kingdom. It is also this superior intelligence that reduces other living species to extinction in the competition for survival. It is this intelligence that allows civilisation to flourish in human society. This change broke the power balance in the biological world, bringing profound ramifications and irreversibly changing the power structure in the animal kingdom. There is a humorous saying that the creator of all things, God, returned to Earth one day. He asked all the living creatures, "What would you like me to do, if I were to do everything all over again?" All the animals that suffered from human beings replied, "Please kill all the monkeys." This humour illustrates the effects of human intelligence on other species. Yet, the possession of this intelligence was induced by the environment and not something that the various species could decide on their own. However, genetic engineering empowers humans to improve intelligence as desired. Thus humans have entered an age of evolution controlled by desire. If we say that God created all things, then human beings have entered the age of being the creator of life on Earth, becoming the holders of a fearsome power that is second only to God's. Strictly speaking, "humans" that evolve from mankind through genetic engineering are no longer human but "human derivatives". Hence, we can see that this revolution has the fundamental impact.

Actually, the development of human civilisation has its rules. It is easy to predict the future development if these rules are followed. Computer technology already emerged in the 1940s; DNA was discovered in the 1960s. However, it was not until the 1990s that most futurologists started saying that the next technological revolution would be the information revolution, even though Alvin Tofler had already proposed the theory of "The Third Wave" in the 1980s. Only a handful of people accurately predicted the biological era in the 1970s, most futurologists started to cry out in alarm at the arrival of the biological era with the birth of the cloned sheep, Dolly, in 1997. [91] However, the technological developments could be predicted earlier and more systematically by using parallel thinking to compare human body and society.

IV: What are the rules governing the development of the information

revolution?

As the developments of the information network and the human neural network are two parallel processes based on the common mechanism, there are many similarities between them. In this way, we can use knowledge about anatomy, histology, embryology and physiology of the neural system to analyse the development of information revolution. Let us take a simple look at the anatomical structure, embryonic development and physiological functions of the neural system.

1. The anatomical structure, embryonic development and physiological

functions of the neurological system

During the embryonic development, neurons are "produced" from cell division of the glial cells. They later migrate to their destined locations. Later on, neurons start to form a neural network by connecting themselves to each other with nerve fibres (axons and dendrites).[92] With the innervation of nerve fibres on target cells, the neural network links various parts of the body system together. [93] This neural network performs many functions, including logical thinking, which guides human behaviours, and memory function, which aids in the storage of information. Through the conduction of electrical impulses, the neural network senses stimulation from the environment and also passes commanding signals to the target cells to respond. The ultimate goal of these functions is to maintain the orderly functioning of the body system. During this process, the neural system controls and coordinates various parts of the body. For example, when an individual's caloric level drops, it stimulates the feeding mechanism in the brain, which leads to an eating response. When food is eaten, the caloric level returns to normal, which leads to the activation of the satiety mechanism in the neural system, resulting in suspension of the eating. [94] Through this nerve control, blood sugar level is maintained within a normal range to guarantee the normal functioning of the body.

2. The "embryonic" development and "anatomy" of the External

Neural System

A simple description of the neural system was given above. Looking from the perspective of the parallel relationship between the human neural system and the external neural system, you may wonder, what would happen to the corresponding "anatomical structure", "embryonic development" and "physiological functions" in the external neural revolution?

The "embryonic development" and "anatomical structure" of the "external neural system"

What are the "external neurons"? The electronic chipsets which are integrated circuits are the external neurons. They form the external neural system and deal with information input, processing and output. This electronic network and the neural network share many similar characteristics. The neural network has the functions of performing logical thinking, storing information in the memory and passing on information in the form of electrical impulses. The electronic information network has the functions of logical calculation, information storage and transmission. How similar these two systems are!

The "synapsing" of the "external neurons" in the formation of the "external neural network"

These external neurons will "extend" their "nerve fibres" to interconnect to each other. This is the networking process through which electronic devices get connected to form a network. Now, we have already seen computers, large and small, connected to each other. Small networks are local area networks; the larger one is the Internet. They are similar to the regional nerve plexus and the entire neural network of the human body.

The innervation of the "external neural network" to society

In the development of the neural system, the neurones extend their nerve fibres to the various parts of the body such as muscles, organs, skin, glands and so forth. We are now watching as the Internet creeps into almost every household in society and computer networks connect every functioning part of society, such as employment services, medical practices, retail, government departments and more. The connections of computers in these areas form a large information network.

The above discussion is based on comparing the two parallel systems, the human neural system and the information system in society based on human anatomy, histology, physiology and embryology. This approach of parallel thinking can be extended to comparing the information system with the evolution of organisms' controlling systems. Through this approach we can predict the development of the information system. For example, the cephalisation process in organisms' evolution is also happening in the development of the Information Revolution. This is presented by the increasingly powerful supercomputers used in networks by the social administration.

# Chapter Fifteen The mechanism of social evolution and the social impacts of the information revolution and the biological revolution

What is the cause of changes in society?

The increased power of human beings is the cause of social change. With the progress of civilisation, human beings increasingly gain more power resulting in the changes of social activities. For example, nomadic activity was replaced by farming with the use of tools in agriculture. The invention of the steam engine brought enormous power to human beings and triggered the industrial revolution, transforming agricultural society into industrial society with profound social ramifications. All this evidence demonstrates that the increase of human power is the fundamental cause of changes in society.

This phenomenon is not alone in human society but a common phenomenon in the universe. For example, the energy of an ice cube increases when it is heated. It is transformed from solid form into liquid form when temperature increases to the critical point of 0°C. With continuous heating, the liquid form of water will transform into a gaseous form of steam when temperature reaches the critical point of 100°C. The mechanism behind these phenomena is that an object's existing form will change with its power change.

Human being's power increase leads to the change in social activities. The increase of an ice cube's energy results in the change of its existing form. Why do these two seemingly independent events have such a similarity? Because they are two specific existing forms of energy expressed as two parallel processes based on a common mechanism. Therefore they express similarity and this is exactly what is represented by the Interrelationships Model: parallel existences based on a common mechanism express their similarity.

As social development and ice melting are both physical processes, they must obey the fundamental relationships of the universe. As the Interrelationships Model represents the fundamental relationships, these two processes will follow the relationships represented by this model and these phenomena/properties will happen to these two processes such as serial relationship, critical point, phase transition, expansion-contraction, order-disorder, symmetry-asymmetry, parallel relationship, similarity, dynamics etc.

Let's take a look at an ice cube melting. The water molecules in ice are arranged in an orderly manner, forming a stable crystal structure [95] when the temperature is under 0°C. The kinetic energy of water molecules increases, expressed as their vibration increases, when the temperature increases. When the temperature reaches the critical point of 0°C, the water molecules' kinetic energy exceeds the binding force that maintains the molecules in an orderly arrangement. Then the binding force can no longer maintain the water molecules' orderly arrangement and leads to the disintegration of the stable crystal structure.[96] The ice cube will transform from the stable solid form into the unstable liquid form. This is phase transition. After the crystal structure disintegrates, water molecules are no longer locked in their respective locations within the ice cube and begin to disseminate in all directions when ice melts. Water molecules' movement is restricted by the binding force within the crystal structure of ice.[97] But their movement is no longer restricted by the binding force and dramatically increases in flowing water.[98] This demonstrates the increase in the water molecules' degree of freedom with the increase of its energy. With the continuous increase of temperature, the liquid form of water transforms into the gaseous form of steam. Its volume increases dramatically. This represents the expansion with increased energy. Water molecules' orderly arrangement in the crystal structure of ice transforms into a disorderly form in liquid water and they collide with each other, creating interaction.

With society's energy increase, what will happen to the social activities?

1. Individuals' power increase

If one compares civilisation with ice melting, one notices this: with a temperature increase, the energy of the basic unit of ice, a water molecule, increases; with civilisation, the power of the basic unit of society, an individual, increases. From the perspective of the Interrelationships Model, the nature of these two processes is the energy increase of the basic unit in a system.

With the utilization of tools, individuals gain more power externally and this process continues with the advancement of tools. Progressing from using stone tools, bronze tools, to iron tools, the steam engine and the computer, each technological advancement has brought more power to individuals. These phenomena demonstrate an individual's power increase with the development of civilisation.

2. The critical point due to technological breakthrough

0°C is the critical point of ice melting into water. Likewise, there are certain critical points along the way of civilisation when human beings' power accumulates to a certain level which then triggers "social phase transitions". When new technologies are invented, humans' power reaches a critical point. For example, the invention of stone tools, bronze tools, iron tools and steam engines represented that human beings' power had reached the critical points of the corresponding ages. The invention of the computer triggered the information age. The dawn of genetic engineering triggered the biological age. These technological critical points triggering the fundamental changes in society are the major critical points that subsequently trigger multiple subcritical points in a serial-parallel fashion in religions, customs, ethics and laws.

3. Social phase transition due to human beings' power increase

Ice melting is a phase transition. With the use of new technologies, society experiences the corresponding "phase transition". When stone tools were invented, society entered the "phase transition" of the Stone Age. When bronze tools were invented, society entered the "phase transition" of the Bronze Age. When the steam engine was invented, society entered the "phase transition" of the Industrial Age. When the computer was invented, society entered the "phase transition" of the Information Age. During different "phases" of society, there are different "properties" which are similar to the different properties between ice cubes and water. Nowadays, human beings are experiencing the "phase transition" of the information and biological revolutions. These two bring us tremendous power and create profound social ramifications.

4. Social disintegration due to an individual's power increase

With the increase of individual power, society will begin to disintegrate, similar to the disintegration of the crystal structure of ice into water.

Let us examine the fundamentals of social activity. As each individual's power is limited, humans rely on multiple individuals working together, as well as exchange, to maximise the efficiency and scope of satisfying desires, giving rise to groups or organisations – an expression of centralisation. Consider each individual as one unit of power; then the centralisation of individuals is a collection of power. Centralisation increases the power level and facilitates exchange, enabling humans to more practically satisfy their desires. Exchange is the binding force between individuals within an organisation. All organisations rely on exchanging desires to maintain their operations. Commercial exchange arose for this reason. For example, in a company, the labour force provides physical labour as merchandise to exchange with other subgroups. The technical professionals provide technical expertise and the owners provide monetary capital for exchange. As a return, they satisfy their overall desires. It is precisely this exchange that draws these subgroups together into a larger group with greater power to accomplish the goal of creating products. Without the drive of desire this exchange in the form of a company would not exist.

However, as an individual's power increases, he becomes less reliant on other individuals to satisfy his desires. As a result, the need to exchange and work together to satisfy desires is reduced, resulting in disintegration, which is expressed in the form of the shrinking of some industries, subsequently causing job loss. If absolutely no exchange is required to satisfy certain desires, organisations formed by various individuals to satisfy these desires would disintegrate. The shift towards disintegration develops with each improvement in technology. For instance, as society shifted towards industrialisation, machines took over human work. Farms that had previously employed large numbers of labour began to cut down on employment to the point that a single family is sufficient to run an entire farm today. When the operation of a farm does not require a large labour force, the exchange between labourer and capital-owner ceases, resulting in job loss.

These disintegration and dissemination phenomena happen not only to some specific social groups but the whole of society as well. With the increase of individual power, the exchanges between individuals to satisfy desires will reduce. The binding force for maintaining social activities will be weakened. When tremendous power from technological advancements enables humans to reach a critical point, the current forms of social activity will disintegrate.

5. Increased independence due to individuals' power increase

It has been mentioned that farm owners no longer need to rely on a large amount of labour due to the use of farming machines. Their independence has increased. This situation did not only arise in farming but was widely seen in other industries during industrialization.

Increased degree of freedom

When temperature increases to 0°C, water molecules break free from restriction as their kinetic energy exceeds the intermolecular binding force.[99] They are no longer locked into a specific place. The space that they can move around in water dramatically increases. This means their degree of freedom increases. Similarly, when an individual's power increases, the territory that he can move around in also increases. For example, motor vehicles externally aid human muscles with extra power, enabling individuals to move around in a larger area. This means an increased degree of freedom for individuals. Additionally, an individual's power increase allows him to reduce his reliance on other individuals, subsequently reducing restriction and increasing the degree of freedom. Currently, human inhabitants are concentrated in certain areas. This form of inhabitation creates villages, towns, cities and metropolises. Why do humans live in this way? It is due to individuals' limited power. In order to satisfy desires, individuals rely on exchange. One of the obstacles affecting exchange is distance. The closer they live, the easier exchange becomes. As the Industrial Revolution provided individuals with extra power for human muscles, especially with the proliferation of motor vehicles, car owners gained much greater external muscle power. Hence, these individuals began to move further away from the cities, where land was cheaper and the environment was better. Despite the obvious distance from the cities, and between individuals, the power provided by the motor car, a product of the Industrial Revolution, was sufficient for individuals to maintain their exchange. It is an expression of the increased degree of freedom of an individual.

Devaluation

As previously discussed, exchange creates commercial value. Without the governing from a higher level, price is largely determined by supply and demand. Prices will rise if demand exceeds supply. Vice versa, if supply exceeds demand, prices will drop. The increase of individual power can be translated into providing products to the market. When more individuals do so, supply will increase and subsequently prices will drop. Furthermore, with the power increase, individuals become more capable of satisfying their own desires. These two factors contribute to the price drop causing commodity devaluation.

When commercial price decline involves production equipment, it will cause capital devaluation. After all, devaluation can involve capital, technology and labour force. It is the consequence of individual power increase in civilisation.

6. Expansion due to individual power increase

With the power increase, individuals and groups of individuals will create expansion. This is similar to the volumetric expansion of steam when the water temperature reaches 100°C.

With the power increase, some social activities create expansion. During the Industrial Revolution, the use of machinery increased farm owners' power resulting in the expansion of their farming area and production scale. Industrial production also expanded due to the use of machinery.

7. Stronger interaction

With the increase of water temperature, molecules gain more kinetic energy. Their collisions with each other become more intensified and create strong interaction. Similarly, with the dramatic increase of an individual's power, particularly due to new technologies, the interaction between individuals becomes more intensified. For example, the power of individuals engaging in industrial production rapidly expanded and collided with individuals who ran small workshops, labourers and farm owners during the Industrial Revolution.

8. Symmetry–asymmetry

Individuals' power increase also follows one of the fundamental relationships represented in the Interrelationships Model— symmetry-asymmetry.

Each individual's power increase is not equal. Some individuals' power increases more and other individuals' power increases less. This is the expression of asymmetry. There is another situation where some individuals' power increases while other individuals' power is symmetrically reduced. It is normally said: one person's gain is another's loss. All of these are the expression of symmetry–asymmetry in specific forms. For example, farm owners gained more power by using machinery. They became less independent and gained an increased degree of freedom. This was a positive outcome of the Industrial Revolution. Meanwhile, those individuals who worked for farm owners lost their power. They became more dependent and their degree of freedom was reduced. This was a negative outcome of the Revolution.

9. The tendency to social disorder

It has been discussed previously: with the power increase on the lower level in a hierarchical system, the power balance between the higher level and the lower level may change and destabilise the system, particularly when the lower level's power exceeds that of the higher level. So, if the lower level's individual power increases without a corresponding power increase on the higher level, then it becomes harder to control individuals' behaviour. If control is lost, society will run into disorder. It is similar to the ice cube melting. When the temperature rises, water molecules' kinetic energy increases. When it exceeds a critical point, the "higher level", the binding force, will lose control. Subsequently, the crystal structure of the ice cube will disintegrate. If this hypothesis is valid then it is a serious problem that society has to face.

With individuals' power increase, the power territory will also increase. Strong interaction may happen between individuals and may cause conflict leading to disorder. This is similar to water molecules' strong interaction, colliding with each other in boiling water. Within the limitation of a "social space", the "expansion" of some individuals may squeeze other individuals' space. It may cause strong conflict. If not adequately handled the system may run into disorder.

Individual power increase may also conflict with the rules that maintain social order such as laws, morals, ethics, religion and even the "external controlling force".

The power increase due to the Information Revolution and the Biological Revolution

The above discussion is based on history and the fundamental relationships. It demonstrates the interrelationships between the power increase due to the Industrial Revolution and the fundamental impact on society. In the following discussion, these fundamental interrelationships will continually be used to discuss the Information Revolution and the Biological Revolution and their impacts on society.

### I. Power increase due to the information revolution

As the information revolution is the external revolution of the neural system, it provides tremendous information processing power to aid the human neural system, including information conduction (transmission), memory (storage) and thinking (artificial intelligence).

1. The changes brought about by the external information conduction system

The increase in external information conduction power includes information input power and information output power.

Increased information input in an individual leads to an increase of stored concepts. As a result an individual's acquired intellectual power increases, leading to an increase in overall power and becoming more influential in society. In the dissemination of civilisation, this individual can increase contributions to society by disseminating concepts to other individuals; or by dissecting, reorganising and integrating to create new concepts in the forms of new theories and inventions. Through commercial exchange, the return for this individual increases. Thus this individual's financial power increases. Furthermore, this financial power can be transformed into other forms of power, such as purchasing manufacturing tools to engage in commerce or upgrading knowledge or even "upgrading" the "hardware" of the physical body.

The "External Neural System" also increases the individual's information output. Over the last few decades, most individuals have increased stored concepts in their brains; hence they can convey more information to other individuals, but the power of one individual to disseminate concepts to a larger scale of individuals has not increased by much. However, this situation is changing in the form of personal websites or homepages. Now, individuals can disseminate their information to the whole network of Internet users, but these homepages are just one of the forms of the individual's increased output power. As civilisation progresses, more effective ways to disseminate information are sure to emerge, which will lead to further increased output of an individual to disseminate concepts to society and accelerate the dissemination of civilisation.

The power increase of an individual to disseminate information to society has important ramifications. In the previous chapter, the importance of concept dissemination in Ancient Greek Civilisation has been discussed, especially the role of the Agora as a place for concept dissemination. It led to a large scale of concept dissection, reorganisation, integration and ultimately concept creation. The current Information Revolution plays a similar role to the Agora. However, the power of the Internet to disseminate concepts is unparalleled by any historical approaches. It can break through the distance barrier and rapidly disseminate concepts at a low cost. The scale and speed are unprecedented. Not only does it overcome the physical barriers, but the boundary between information and an individual as well with the use of multimedia.

The Internet enables concepts to be rapidly disseminated, during which they are dissected, reorganised and integrated to form new concepts, leading to new inventions and discoveries. This is very important because it can accelerate civilisation on an unprecedented scale and speed. The Internet's information transmission power releases the intellectual power of society! Look back at history: even the intellectual power of a single individual has had significant impacts on society. Edison, Einstein, Newton and James Watt have already forever changed our world. It is beyond our imagination how much the world will be changed when the intellectual power of the whole society is released. But one can imagine: if the release of Einstein's intellectual power on society is likened to the way in which lightning's energy is released on the night sky, then the release of a society's intellectual power would be like the nuclear reaction in the sun.

However, this information conduction function has not fully matured. Conduction blocks and sensing-defects still exist. The conduction block appears in the form of bandwidth restrictions that limit the transmission of data. Eventually, it will become mature. When it happens, it should be able to transmit comprehensive information. Although it is being developed, it has brought tremendous changes to society. The future is foreseeable if one compares the neural system with the Information Revolution.

2. The changes brought about by the external memory system

An individual receives a huge amount of information in his lifetime. Yet, the brain cannot keep them all, but only those that are useful. Even then, the brain still cannot retain some important information. In order to keep information, our ancient ancestors used symbols to record information on certain materials such as animals' bones. Here came the beginning of the earliest external memory system. Later on came animal skins and bamboo scrolls until the invention of paper. Paper provided a much larger storage capacity and portability. This special memory system had been used for thousands of years without any fundamental changes until an electronic system, the computer, came into our lives. The computer revolutionised the external memory system. Its memory capacity far exceeds the paper system. The information required can be easily retrieved from the vast amount of information. The enormous capacity for information storage and high-speed information retrieval are the revolutionary characteristics of this new external memory system.

In the past, most of the retained information was in text form. This started to change after the invention of photographic technologies, especially motion-picture technologies. However, it needs a large system to store and retrieving information is time consuming. With the use of computer systems, multimedia information can be easily stored and retrieved. This is very helpful to information intense activities such as the healthcare industry, social administration, academic research, etc. Again, the important role of this system is that the huge amount of stored concepts can accelerate civilisation because the more information that is kept, the more information that is available for producing new concepts. It becomes easier for new inventions and the creation of new theories.

3. Power increase due to the external thinking system— Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence in information technology is the function corresponding to logical thinking in human brains. This revolution is the most important part of the Information Revolution. Its influence will far exceed all other breakthroughs in the Information Revolution. Even the changes created by the Internet (of which the main function is the transmission function of the external neural system) cannot compare to Artificial Intelligence. So far, in terms of creative thinking, a computer is not comparable to the human brain. However, looking back in history, the power of a steam engine exceeded humans' muscle power. A computer's storage exceeds humans' memory. A computer's processing speed exceeds the brain's processing speed in some ways. These suggest that artificial intelligence will eventually surpass human intelligence. In the future, comparing human intelligence with a computer will be similar to comparing the muscle of a human body with the power of the engine of a 300,000-tonne oil tanker.

When the artificial intelligent system is fully mature, the "artificial brain" can automatically input information from the "external sensory system" and retrieve information from the "external memory system" for various thinking processes, including analytical thinking, problem solving and decision making. As a result, the "artificial brain" will output new concepts of invention and discovery. It will automatically instruct various "social organs" to perform social functions and will be able to adjust its instructions according to the feedback given. Social management will be under the control of such an intelligent network. Its tasks will include automatically and precisely managing every aspect of social activities ranging from personal to the whole society. When such an Independent system is developed, it indicates the Information Revolution has come to its maturity.

The scale of this system can vary from an independent robot to a large intelligent social managing network. Human intelligence still plays the major role in managing society before artificial intelligence matures. Once the AI matures, it can independently function. The integration of The External Neural System, External Musculoskeletal System/mechanical devices and products of The Biological Revolution will create artificial humans and they are the product of human desires. They can independently function, performing self-maintenance and upgrading. Their powerful capability of information collection, storage, and analysis are unparalleled to the corresponding human functions.

II. Power increase due to the biological revolution

1. Biological revolution increases the power to control the human body

The Biological Revolution has given humans the power to control lives on the most fundamental level. Since the 1960s, humans have stepped into the era of genetic engineering. This technology can change the human structure and functioning at the most fundamental level. Thus, it provides an approach to increase humans' power. Through genetic engineering, many diseases can be treated and lives can be saved. Genetic engineering can improve humans' performance by increasing some systems' function. For example, if the muscle system can be genetically improved, an individual's physical output will be increased. If the neural system's intelligence can be genetically improved, an individual's intellectual output can be increased. More inventions and discoveries will happen. Nowadays, drugs capable of improving sexuality are available. Although these do not function on the genetic level, they have created significant outcomes. Since humans can successfully invent Viagra, a drug capable of letting humans indulge in primitive pleasure, the invention of a brain-enhancing drug is highly plausible.

In fact, substances that increase the brain's functions (including memory) were discovered a long time ago. Now, some peptides have been discovered to enhance the brain's functions as well. Once there is a breakthrough in this area, the profound ramifications on human civilisation will far exceed that of Viagra. This drug, boosting the capability of the male reproductive organ, brings only short-term stimulation, but the brain-enhancing drug will have profound ramifications, like the forbidden fruit that man ate in the Garden of Eden. Biological technology will result in increased individual creativity. Humans will enter a genius-age of inventions and discovery. When humans acquire this power, it will be easier for individuals to reach critical points. Therefore, more individuals will be able to accomplish great achievements, just like Einstein in physics, Edison in invention and Bill Gates in business.

When "human beings" with super functions are created with genetic engineering, a new breed of creature – a "human derivative" – will emerge in our world. They will have new biological features, of which the most important is their natural power far exceeding humans.

2. Biological revolution increases humans' power to improve the biological environment

Human beings' survival depends on the surrounding biological environment, and the biological revolution empowers humans to improve this environment. For example, by improving other organisms in the food chain, humans can increase the quantity and quality of their own food. These technologies can also reduce threats and increase benefits from other organisms and provide a better environment for survival.

III. Power increase due to the combination of the Industrial Revolution, Information Revolution and Biological Revolution

With continual development, artificial humans, the integration of mechanical devices, information systems and biological materials will emerge. They are the convergence of the products of the Industrial, Information and Biological Revolutions.

For the best interest of human beings, the artificial human should serve humans' interests. However, when the artificial humans' power far exceeds the humans', they may become a potential competitor and threat. Human society will have to deal with the existence of the artificial human and human derivatives. It may not be an easy task because both of them are highly intelligent. On the journey of evolution, human beings have come all the way and are now about to reach a critical point and enter a new phase—human derivative. This is the inevitable step set for us in evolution. The only question is who is going to start first? During this transition, there should be a mechanism to guarantee that those transformed individuals would not turn back to threaten humans' survival. Meanwhile there should a mechanism to guarantee that artificial humans' formidable power will not be used by them or any human individual to threaten human society.

The impacts of the Information Revolution and Biological Revolution on society

The power increase due to the Information Revolution and Biological Revolution has already been discussed. Their social impacts will be discussed in the following sections.

### I. The impacts of "external conduction system" on society

#### 1. Information Revolution resulting in the increase of an individual's intellectual power and the subsequent critical points

As a power increase has resulted from every technological revolution, the Information Revolution externally increases the intellectual power of individuals and triggers a series of "social phase transitions". This has been mentioned in the above discussion.

2. The increased individual power from the Information Revolution resulting in increased social dynamics.

As the external conduction system accelerates concept dissection, reorganisation and integration, the process of civilisation becomes more dynamic. There are more inventions and discoveries emerging within the same time frame. Product cycles are reduced and technology updates quicker. For example, CPU development cycles are shortened. That is why Moore's law is being broken.

3. Convergence-divergence due to the power increase from the Information Revolution

Divergence

Information divergence: The external neural system's conduction function increases information transmission, allowing a much larger scale of concept dissemination in society. As a result, more individuals acquire a large amount of concepts. This is the divergence caused by the Information Revolution.

Technology dissemination is one of the expressions of divergence. In the past, only big companies had computers. Nowadays, most families own a computer. This is the dissemination of using computers in society since the 1980s. Meanwhile, technology dissemination also happens in the telecommunication industry. In the past, only big telcos could compete in this business. With the dissemination of technical knowledge and the price drop of hardware and software, small companies can also join the game. Based on the same mechanism, with programming languages becoming more and more powerful and easy to learn, programming will become easier and easier. More individuals can do the programming work. All of these are the expression of divergence.

Divergence in habitation: In the age of the Information Revolution, the external neural system's information conduction function gives individuals new power. It further accelerates the trend of divergence in living location. One of the reasons that people live together is for the convenience of information exchange. After the telephone became available in households, individuals could still communicate from greater distances. However, information exchange only by voice is not comprehensive and during the last several decades, the cost of long distance calls has been very expensive. These factors restricted human beings' living area. But things are changing. The external neural system has provided an approach to comprehensively exchange information at a low cost. So, the distance between individuals is no longer a problem for exchanging information. So people living far away, such as in rural areas, can receive education, healthcare, legal and financial services. As a consequence, habitation area will further diverge.

Divergence in working: Divergence not only happens in human habitation but in working conditions as well. So far, the way people work is still mainly within buildings such as skyscrapers where they are used in the headquarters of big companies, financial institutions, etc. These buildings serve as a place to exchange information. This way of concentrated working conditions in an already concentrated habitation area forms a CBD in a city. Although the CBD facilitates information exchange, the expense of this working condition is costly because it includes building maintenance, rent, transport infrastructure, lands used for roads, traffic expenses, time on the road, pollution and inconvenient traffic jams. However, when the external neural system's information conduction function matures, information exchange will become efficient and low cost. People will not need to work together inside a building. Home offices and mobile offices will replace the highly concentrated building office. This is the result of divergence due to the Information Revolution.

Divergence in education in terms of geographic area: Divergence also occurs in the way of attending school. Attending school is the traditional way for individuals to receive education, including primary school, high school and university. As the external neural system's information conduction function matures, students do not need to be concentrated on campus to study. Individuals can receive education within a much larger geographic area. This is divergence in education.

From these discussions, it is clear that groups involved in information processing in a concentrated space will start disintegrating, because of the increased individual power from the information conduction function of the external neural system. It is the expression of divergence.

Convergence

Information networks not only result in divergence, but convergence as well. A network can converge all information from primary schools, high schools and universities into its information storage. This network allows huge amounts of information converging from a large geographic area to a platform for people to share. This information includes news, knowledge, thoughts, etc. They are concepts — a specific form of power. Therefore, information convergence is power convergence. It starts by converging information from the society to the network and then diverging information from the network to the society. This cycle is repeated again and again as the expression of the Interrelationships Model.

1. The change of independence due to individuals' power increase

Information transmission becomes more efficient due to the functioning of the external neural system. This will result in the shrinking of the information "middle man" businesses such as the stock brokage, real estate agency and introduction service. Nowadays, these expensive services are being replaced by corresponding websites. In fact, not only are these services affected, but the whole sales system in society as well, because this system is the medium between the producers and consumers. The creation of a sales system is due to the limited power of producers, who are not able to directly sell their products to consumers. The system helps producers to sell their products. However, it also consumes a large amount of money. With the increased power of individuals due to the Information Revolution, producers are able to disseminate information to consumers directly. They can then bypass the sales system to sell their products. This approach to sales is taking part of the market share from the traditional sales system. Once a direct delivery system to consumers is in place, the sales system will start to shrink.

Increase of degree of freedom

Similar to the Industrial Revolution, the Information Revolution also increases an individual's degree of freedom. Although it occurs in a different way, the mechanism is the same. That is, individuals are more capable to satisfy themselves rather than relying on others. In this regard, they are given a larger degree of freedom. For example, the Internet provides individuals with a self-publishing avenue which reduces their reliance on publishers. Therefore individuals can enjoy a larger degree of freedom in publishing their works such as books, music, videos, etc.

Depreciation of commodity

Skyscrapers in cities have long been the symbol of modernisation and wealth. With the increasing use of multimedia technology, VOIP and mobile devices, a new working environment, the "virtual office", is emerging. Individuals can stay at home or carry a mobile device to do office work. In fact, this trend is already occurring. When it develops to a certain level, the usage of office buildings will be reduced. This will trigger the drop in their commercial value. For those countries which have and are still keen on investing a lot of capital in constructing these buildings, this may not be good news.

2. Symmetry-Asymmetry

The depreciation of commercial office buildings is not good news to the owners; however, this change in working conditions may save many resources and a lot of time. It is beneficial to society. Both the positive and negative impacts are the expression of symmetry, one of the fundamental phenomena of the universe.

3. Expansion-Contraction due to the power increase from the Information Revolution

It has been discussed that the power increase gained from the Industrial Revolution exponentially expanded the territory of human activity. The power of the individuals who adopted the new technology increased, leading to an increase in and expansion of their influence. Those individuals who did not adopt the new technology went the opposite way—their power contracted and influence shrank.

The power from the Information Revolution inevitably drives further expansion. The information conduction function from the external neural system allows individuals to acquire concepts and understand those objective interrelationships more easily. This results in an increase in acquired intellectual power. If the Industrial Revolution resulted in the expansion of humans' physical activity then the Information Revolution results in the expansion of humans' thinking. When individuals have a better understanding of the world, they will have better independent thinking. When more individuals have independent thinking, the influence from other individuals who are considered as the authority will contract.

The Information Revolution allows individuals to expand their personal contacts. For example, social networking websites allow people to expand their contacts around the globe.

Individual influence: the Information Revolution results in an increase in individual influence. This is due to the external neural system's information conduction function, which is expressed as the Internet information dissemination capability. Through the Internet, individuals can disseminate information on a large scale which used to belong only to traditional media such as newspapers, television networks and radio stations. Hence, individuals' influence expands while the traditional media's influence contracts.

4. The power increase from the Information Revolution results in more intense interaction

The power increase from the Information Revolution leads to the power expansion of an individual and individuals. This will result in more intense interactions between individuals.

The Industrial Revolution enabled those individuals with machines to have great power. Their territory expanded rapidly. Within the same system, this created strong interactions between this group and other groups. For example, clashes started between the labour group and the owner group, and between the industrial group and the farmer group. The clash between the industrial group and the agricultural group even led to war.

Likewise, the enormous power increase from the Information Revolution will inevitably create rapid expansion and potentially create stronger interaction between individuals and even clashes.

With concepts increasingly accumulated, individuals can translate them into action. This is expressed as individual power expansion in design and production. When this expansion gets into big companies' territory, it is expressed as a small company challenging a large company.

1. Power increase from the Information Revolution further accelerates the tendency toward disorder

The increased individual power from the Information Revolution will further accelerate social disorder. For example, some high-tech professionals have already used their expertise to steal money from banks, gather personal information from others and even launch attacks on networks.

### II. The impacts of artificial intelligence and biotechnology on society

The above discussion mainly focussed on the impacts of the conduction function of the external neural system. However, the external logical thinking system will create more profound impacts. It is the most central part of the external revolution of the neural system and exponentially enhances humans' intellectual power. So far, this technology has displayed a certain level of intelligence but it is not mature yet. With the continual maturing, it will gradually replace human's intelligence in working.

1. Critical point

The integration of the products of the Information Revolution and the Industrial Revolution is an important critical point in technological development. Robots are the outcome of this integration. This integration is similar to the cooperation of the neural system and the muscle system in the human body, which enables the thought from the neural system to be executed and the body actions to be coordinated for a goal. Robots have a profound ramification on society, as they challenge the "brainlessness" of a mechanical device and "quadriplegia" of a computer. From this critical point, technological development enters a new "phase transition" and this critical point started from the convergence of the two revolutions.

Robots exponentially increase individuals' power. Their impacts far exceed the Internet revolution. They will accelerate the evolution of society with fundamental changes. Just imagine: if a giant mining excavator not only had mechanical power but a super intelligent thinking capability, it would be an awesome force.

With the continual development of the external neural system, external musculoskeletal system and biological materials, a biological robot will be created. It is the outcome of the convergence of these three Revolutions. Because biological robots are highly similar to human beings, they can be well accepted and extensively involved in human activities, and will further accelerate the changes in society.

2. Convergence and Divergence

The integration of all parts of the hardware and software to create a robot is a convergent process. The outcome is a robot with much stronger power than a human individual. Hence, human beings in the workforce can be replaced, particularly in labour intensive production. There is no longer a need to organise large numbers of individuals to work. Robots with highly concentrated power will lead to the disintegration of organisations in society. It is a divergent process.

The development of Artificial Intelligence and its application will be a divergent process. At the beginning, it will be used in activities with lower intelligence requirements. With increasing intelligence, robots will extensively participate in social activities including industrial production, agricultural production, transport and sales services. They will not only provide physical labour services but intellectual services such as education, healthcare and legal service. They will participate in social management to maintain social order, scientific research, product development and human marriage.

Biotechnology will also present convergence-divergence. With continuing development, multiple genes from other organisms can be integrated into the human body. This is convergence resulting from biotechnology. If a leopard's muscle gene were integrated into a human, Olympic records would be smashed. If a hawk's visual gene were integrated into a human, humans would have sharper eyesight. If some of marine animals' genes were integrated into humans, humans' living space could expand to the ocean. This is expansion of convergence due to the Biological Revolution.

Such convergence of genes from other organisms to a specific organism will not only be limited to human beings. It will happen to other organisms as well, thus creating more new organisms. It is an outcome of divergence resulting from the Biological Revolution.

3. Expansion-Contraction

With the continuing development of robotic technology, its application is expanding. The labour market will subsequently contract. The Industrial Revolution resulted in a high rate of job loss in the labour market. Likewise, the Information Revolution will inevitably result in even larger scale job loss. Because robots can not only replace the physical labour but the intellectual work as well, this time, the position loss will not only happen to labour positions but intellectual positions too. In the past several decades, a large number of positions have been squeezed out of the market by efficient equipment. Individuals are driven to an aged industry—the service industry. However, with the use of robots, positions in the service industry also face replacement by robots. And this process will not stop here. More intellectual positions from other industries will significantly contract, leading to significant unemployment. Although robot with artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to massive unemployment, it can address the problem of aging human population. Therefore, there will be no need to worry about the reduced productivity due to aging population and this problem can also be addressed by biotechnology too. The increasing use of AI robots will lead to the diminishing role of human force in productivity whilst natural resources will become the most important factor in productivity.

Not only robots but human derivatives become competitors for humans. Human derivatives can replace humans' role because their power is stronger. Thus their "social territory" will continually expand while that of humans contracts.

4. Individuals' independence changes with power increase

Robots further increase individuals' power. When some individuals gain this power, they gain more independence and reduce reliance on other individuals. For example, when individuals' education, healthcare, legal services and homework can be provided by robots, their independence will increase.

Not only does information technology lead to increased individual independence, but biotechnology also results in an increase of individual independence. When crop production is significantly increased by biotech, individuals will be able to independently provide food for themselves. Hence, individuals' social independence will fundamentally change. This means that individuals can independently sustain their survival on the fundamental level.

5. Increased degree of freedom

With the maturing of artificial intelligence and its increasing use, those individuals who can benefit from this technology will increase their degree of freedom. For example, the degree of freedom of those individuals who can benefit from a robot's physical and intellectual power will be significantly increased. Robots will dramatically increase humans' independence.

At the same time, biotechnology will also increase individuals' independence. Pets' physical and intellectual capabilities can be improved with biotech. They can be more intelligent and communicate with humans and even do homework. Individuals will become less reliant on others' physical work and companionship.

6. Commodity depreciation

Production efficiency will be greatly increased due to highly intelligent robots, resulting in increased commodity supply. This will accelerate commodity depreciation. Meanwhile, the commercial value of physical labour and intellectual labour will depreciate due to the use of robots. The depreciation of a product's commercial value is in fact the contraction of a product's power. It is due to the expansion of individuals' self-satisfying power, the expansion of new technology and production power. The invention of three dimensional (3D) printing technology dramatically increases the production power of an individual, leading to a larger scale of self-production. With this technology, a robot can provide more products at a cheaper price for people. Commodity depreciation is also due to another technological revolution - solar power. This technology allows individuals the capability of energy self-production and result in commodity depreciation. All of these technologies increases the individuals' power and results in commodity depreciation. These processes are specific expressions of contraction-expansion.

7. Symmetry-Asymmetry

Not all individuals can benefit from the power of artificial intelligence. Some individuals' power expands while others' contracts. Because wealth distribution is related to power, some individuals can get a larger share of the wealth while others lose more. Some individuals' degree of freedom is increased while others' is reduced. These are expressions of asymmetry. However, from the perspective of the absolute number on both sides, the increase and reduction are symmetrical.

Similarly, biotechnology can create positive impacts as well as negative impacts. This is also the expression of symmetry-asymmetry. For example, biotech can increase crops' production output as well as the potential damage to the human body. It can give some organisms greater power, creating an asymmetrical distribution of power in the biological world. The living space of those disadvantaged organisms will be reduced.

8. Periodicity

After some individuals evolve into human derivatives, their power will greatly exceed those that remain unchanged. This will create a large power difference between these two groups. Such a large power difference may repeat the extreme circumstances in the early stage of human society, resulting in one group enslaving the other. This may be the potential periodicity.

9. Stronger interaction

The Information Revolution will allow humans much greater power compared to the Industrial Revolution, because it not only increases the power to process information but integrate information processing devices with mechanical devices as well. It will create much stronger interactions, leading to more intensive conflict. Power increase will lead to expansion. Within a limited space, such individuals' expansion will create strong interactions; for example, the use of robots will replace a human workforce. This will create massive unemployment.

10. Accelerating the tendency towards disorder in society

It has been discussed that the tendency towards disorder increases when the power difference between the higher level and the lower level is reduced. This may lead to the higher level losing control over the lower level. Furthermore, individuals' power increase also increases the tendency towards disorder. Currently, humans have acquired enormous power from the Industrial, Information and Biological Revolutions. This may further accelerate the tendency towards social disorder. For example, when some individuals gain power from these Revolutions while others do not, it will create an asymmetrical power imbalance. When such an imbalance develops to a critical point, it will lead to one party squeezing the living space of the other, causing conflict and leading to disorder. Moreover, individual power increase may even challenge the forces that maintain social order, including not only morals, ethics and religion, but also the law. For example, increased individual power from modern sciences challenged religion's authority; the moral rule of "no work, no food" may be challenged when robots are widely used, and even the "External Controlling Force" may face the same pressure. This may result in serious social disorder.

Whether or not the current technological revolutions will lead to social conflict is partially dependent on whether the power expansion can create a larger living space for society. If it fails to do so, conflict will occur.

When genes from other organisms are integrated into humans, it may create biodiversity. Human derivatives will have different functions and features, which may potentially raise identity issues. Because human derivatives will have more power, interactions may become more intense. If some human derivative had the venomous gene from a snake, or the gene from an electric eel, then they would have a chemical weapon and an electrical weapon. One would have to be careful when shaking hands with them in case of getting an electric shock. One would also have to be careful not to be poisoned by micro drops of saliva when they are talking.

If some pets are integrated with human genes to help them better engage in human activities, it may cause conflict with some individuals. For example, if some pets become better companions to some individuals than other humans themselves, it may cause jealousy. If humans' intelligence genes are integrated into other animals, then their intelligence may increase. This may threaten humans' survival, because humans' survival is based on our intelligence. Compared with tigers, humans do not have powerful muscles. Compared with rodents such as rabbits, humans do not have a strong reproductive capability. Our survival is totally based on our superior intelligence. If rats had humans' intelligence genes, then this species of creature with large individual numbers could not only engage in a tunnel war with humans, but build up their civilisation and launch a full-scale war on humans. Therefore, those "mad scientists" implanting human intelligence genes into mice is, in fact, an act of suicide.

11. Disintegration of the current society

Individuals will gain enormous power after integrating the products of the external muscle system, external neural system and biotechnology, and this will trigger social phase transition. As a consequence, disintegration is inevitable. It will not be limited to some organisations but will affect the whole society. Society will be transformed.

With the increase of individual power, individuals' capability to self-satisfy desires also increases. As a consequence, exchanges between individuals to satisfy desires will be reduced. This is of fundamental impact on society because exchange is the basis of social activities. It is the binding force, the link between individuals who are the basic units that form the society. Once this binding force is weakened, the gigantic "social building" will start to collapse. Looking back to history: with the arrival of the Industrial Revolution, the structure of society started its transformation. Modern society was born from these astonishing transitions. Today, with the development of the Information and Biological Revolutions, a new phase transition has already begun. When these technological revolutions develop to a certain level, society will arrive at a critical point to start a new social phase transition. It will be marked by humans being able to largely satisfy desires by themselves without relying on exchange with others. Its impacts will be profound and unprecedented, as exchange has been the foundation of all societies for thousands of years. Now, we can feel the ground is shaking as the footsteps of a new civilisation are approaching. We can hear the thunder as the storm of transformation is looming. And no organisation can escape from this smashing tsunami because all of their integrity and orderly functioning is maintained by this binding force. It will affect every aspect of society, including marriage. In the following paragraphs, it will be discussed how marriage is "smashed" into "disintegration" by the power increase in civilisation.

Marriage, as a specific relationship between the two opposite sexes of individuals, has existed for thousands of years. One of the key factors of its foundation comes from the love between the two parties due to the influence of sexual hormones. When puberty starts, sexual desire is generated by the influence of sexual hormones, leading to the behaviour to find an individual of the opposite sex to satisfy this desire. Based on this instinct, a specific relationship governed by the customs, laws and even religious doctrines is established as "marriage". By nature, marriage is a form of exchange. Those based on genuine love are exchanges of these true feelings; however, there are also marriages based on the exchange of other items such as a better material lifestyle or purely for the sake of survival.

It has been discussed previously, with an increase in power, individuals can more independently satisfy desires and reduce reliance on others. Hence there will be impacts on marriage. In the agrarian society before the Industrial Revolution, heavy physical work needed physically strong individuals to be carried out. It was difficult for women to take on this task because of their physical strength. Therefore, most of the heavy farm work was undertaken by men due to their physical advantage. Thus, an agrarian family's income was largely dependent on the husband. The social norm that resulted from this was a culture of male dominance and female subservience. The low economic status of females brought about the low social status of women, inequality between husband and wife and a low degree of freedom for women.

However, with the arrival of the Industrial Revolution, machines externally increased humans' muscle power. By using machines, women started to take on physically heavy works and participate in social production. They were able to gain financial independence, followed gradually by their social independence, creating the rise of the Feminist Movement. The degree of social freedom for women rose as a result of the advancement in human civilisation. This was certainly a positive outcome of individuals' power increase in civilisation. Symmetrically, the negative outcome, the divorce rate, started to rise. This was due to the increase of individual power, which gives women a greater capability to independently satisfy their desires. In the relationship between husband and wife, the binding power of the wife's reliance on her husband for survival weakened; this is undoubtedly one of the grounds for the increase in divorce rates. Those with a pessimistic mindset feel that this destroys the basic structure of society. On the other hand, those who are optimistic believe that this entails progress.

It is certainly regrettable to see couples who start off happily married but end up bitterly separating. Unfortunately, marriage cannot escape from the grip of the fundamental rules that govern the universe. It is impossible to remain unchanged with the increase of individuals' power. Marriage has changed from an "ownership" style in the agrarian society to a "partnership" style in modern society. This is the expression of divergence, as is divorce. The Information and Biological Revolutions will accelerate this process that the Industrial Revolution initiated, because they will allow individuals to have greater power. As a consequence, divergence, expansion, disorder, interaction, dynamics and increase of degree of freedom will inevitably follow.

The phenomenon of expansion due to the increase of individual power is expressed in the relationship of two individuals of the opposite sex. Resulting from the power increase, individuals can expand their choice. The number of the opposite sex individuals as the potential choice is limited by the individual's limited contact in his or her social circle. As a result, matchmakers and introduction services seize the opportunity, allowing individuals to have more contact. This change started with the arrival of Information Revolution, particularly the use of the Internet. Individuals can get more information on individuals of the opposite sex and have the chance to contact each other. Particularly with the use of multimedia, more information becomes available. Then, individuals can have more choices and become more efficient in making the choice. This may help to choose the right partner because there is a larger number of choices.

In this process, the increase of individual power results in the enhancement of degree of freedom in their choice. The "monopoly" or "manipulation" from any parties, including matchmakers, is reduced.

With the expansion of contact circles due to the use of the Internet, more interactions between individuals occur. It becomes easier for individuals to engage in adultery and to contact individuals of the opposite sex outside their marriage, subsequently causing conflicts. This is the result of expansion due to individual power increase in marriage. Power increase also changes marital dynamics. More contacts in daily life may result in instability in marriage. This is due to individuals' power expansion and will ultimately conflict with the forces that maintain the integrity of marriage such as morals, ethics, religion and law.

With the use of the Internet and multimedia, the expensive introduction services will lose their clients. Their business will contract. This is consistent with the rule of expansion-contraction.

The love due to sexual desire is not the only binding force of marriage. The integrity of marriage, as in all interpersonal relationships, is maintained by the binding force – exchange. As an individual gets older, appearances change from youthful beauty to a less appealing agedness, resulting in the gradual weakening of physical attraction between individuals. The decline in an individual's sexual desire may also have an effect on a family's stability. On this account, what power keeps the relationship intact?

Apart from sexual desire, the friendship and genuine feeling developed in their relationship is one of the important binding forces. These come from sharing their lives, pursuing a common goal, contributing to the family from both parties and sticking together in joyful times as well as in hardship. This is another binding force of marriage and is seen in those long lasting loving couples. However, this is in fact an exchange — the exchange of genuine feeling.

Even marriage with such firm basis will still be impacted by the Information and Biological Revolutions, because with the development of technology, it is only a matter of time before robots get involved in social activities. In the past, robots were only a mechanical device and the products of the Industrial Revolution. Nowadays, artificial intelligence has been used in robots. Eventually, robots' intelligence will exceed humans' intelligence. With the development of new materials and biotechnology, a new generation of robots with computer technology as its controlling system and biomaterials as the body will emerge in human society. These bio-robots will be the products for serving human desires, and will create a series of social impacts. They will inevitably get involved in family life although they cannot totally replace humans in the early stages. Driven by human desires, their capabilities will be gradually be improved and eventually have mechanical function, intelligence and body features like or even exceeding ours. They will be capable of independently completing housework like cooking, cleaning or looking after children, as well as providing home security. They will also be able to work as secretaries to organise work. They will be highly intelligent and very knowledgeable due to their superb artificial intelligence and ability to access the network databases because they are the terminals of the global information network. Therefore, they can provide education, medical consultation, legal services and financial services such as investment.

As they are highly intelligent, they can communicate with humans, including emotional exchange. They can be understanding, caring, thoughtful, considerate and loving. They respect your privacy, never asking how much money is in your account, but hacking into it already; never asking whether you have an affair outside marriage. In this way, they become enlightening teachers, close friends, strategic partners and even the best companion! Goodness! They may even have an affair with you! Fortunately, the invasion of this third party is not imminent yet, so there is no reason to panic. They might be unquestioningly faithful to you, single-minded in their adoration; are you going to fall in love (indeed, fall in a trap)? If yes, then marriage would be dealt a blow. Moreover, the physical appearance of the "bio-robot" can be designed to cater your tastes and remains forever young and sexy. The personality can be altered to guarantee your happiness. So why not call and give an order? Then we will deliver! You name it, we have it. An angel? Something more flirty or coy? A bitch? Congratulations, you want it and you get it! With such irresistible temptation, do your dare to bring one home? That would be the end of your marriage, because it would create conflict with your human partner. For those marriages based on convenience, disintegration is an inevitable outcome. But things will not be all that bad, as symmetry is one of the fundamental rules. Bio-robots can play some positive roles in society. They are suitable for those who have lost their beloved one. They can also be very suitable for playboys as they are natural strategic partners. So for women, there is no need to worry about marrying the wrong man. Perhaps this is the effect that the Information Revolution and Biological Revolution may have on marriages and humans may have to face the competition from their products in the future.

These discussions once again demonstrate that the changes of society are consistent with the fundamental relationships represented by the Interrelationships Model, such as serial relationship, critical point, phase transition, continuation-discontinuation, symmetry-asymmetry, convergence-divergence, expansion-contraction, order-disorder, parallel relationship, similarity, dynamics and degree of freedom. Furthermore, it can be reasonably concluded that the laws governing the universe also govern civilisation.

# Chapter Sixteen: Beauty and Interrelationships

Throughout human history, the enchantment of beauty constantly wields its power to bewitch us. Driven by its irresistible temptation, we have been drawn to the endless pursuit for its forever phantom illusion, giving rise to the inspiration of various spectacular phenomena in our civilisation: the resonance of Beethoven symphony in conservatorium, the graceful ballet of Swan Lake performed in theatres, the emotive arias echoing in opera house and the splendid art exhibited in national galleries. These are testimonies to the pursuit of beauty which enriches humans' mundane lives.

Whilst admiring the arts created by humans, we marvel at the miracles of beauty that nature displays to us: the fluffy clouds drifting in an azure sky; a colourful rainbow accompanied by sunshine; birds singing and flowers blossoming in the wild. Even more miraculous: mirrored in an artistic picture's depiction, a voluptuous body displays its attraction. It radiates charm and seduction, arousing the beholder's imagination. We cannot help but wonder whether it is fantasy or illusion, yet we have to admire that this is the masterpiece of nature's creation. However, no matter how glamorous beauty can be, blossoming is followed by wilting; as time goes by, no trace of the previous charm can be found in stars whose beauty once shone.

So, what is beauty? Axioms such as "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" have traditionally been used to explain the nature of beauty. Currently, the most popular explanation is the notion of symmetry. This theory suggests that a symmetrical body displays beauty whereas an asymmetrical body does not. Indeed, this hypothesis does explain some phenomena, but fails to explain many beautiful phenomena which lack symmetry. The most powerful argument against this hypothesis is that if symmetry is the basis of beauty, then changing an asymmetrical part of a human body such as one foot or one hand to be symmetrical would enhance its beauty. This, however, is untrue; it is unlikely one would alter one's foot to attain symmetry like the foot of a cloven-hoofed animal, such as a pig. In addition, the beauty of logic, music, and many asymmetrical objects cannot be explained by the notion of symmetry. Despite various hypotheses of numerous people, the nature of beauty remains as elusive as ever.

Again, what is beauty? Let's do some interesting experiments. Firstly, play Beethoven's symphony No.6. This masterpiece is well-known for its finesse and elegance; you will be aroused by its spectacular melodies. Then, play another masterpiece, "The Blue Danube" of Strauss. Again, you will be overwhelmed by the beauty of this piece. However, when these two pieces of music are played simultaneously, there is no beauty at all. If Beethoven's symphonies No.1 to No.9 are played all together, they will only create noise. Let us do another experiment. Collect a number of toothpicks then spread them on a table without any specific order or arrangement, then collect another bunch of toothpicks, but this time arrange them carefully into patterns such as squares, triangles, rows, etc. You will notice that the orderly patterned toothpicks are more pleasing to the eye than the disordered ones, as we perceive beauty in orderly, structured patterns, but not in disarray. Based on this, we may state that humans favour ordered patterns, and tend to perceive orderly objects as beautiful, and consider disorder ugly. In other words, order is one of the basic factors enabling human brains to perceive beauty. Similarly, "Symphony No.6" is an ordered composition of sounds played by a variety of instruments, or a symphony with a particular order, which results in a pleasant and beautiful aural experience. If two symphonies with different orders are played simultaneously, the ordered composition of sounds will be disturbed and thus discordant. Therefore order is one of the basic factors which determines whether we perceive beauty.

A phenomenal display of beauty in our current times is the Miss World Competition. This annual event captures the attention of millions of people all over the world. Once the verdict is announced, the winner appears overwhelmed and bursts into tears of joy. Not only is she guaranteed a glittering future, but now creates so many commercial opportunities for others to share. What a job well done! Congratulations! Of course, the glamorous crown on her head is far more prestigious than the "square" hat on the head of a PhD graduate. No doubt the finalists are all physically stunning, with the irresistible charm of their angelic faces and seductive figures, but why did nature shine beauty on this lucky few? Does this have anything to do with order?

Let's look at the relationship between facial features and beauty, as the geometrical shape of the eyes, nose, ears, mouth, and cheeks define the beauty of a face. Generally noses have to be straight, and of a certain length; a short nose is not considered beautiful. If this concept is correct, one's beauty can be enhanced by increasing the length of one's nose. Indeed, this works on some individuals, but if the length of a nose is increased to touch the ground like that of an elephant, then it can only be counterproductive. To address this problem, surgical intervention can reduce the nose to only one millimetre, like a short nosed monkey. This will not restore beauty either. Therefore we can now state that the length of "beautiful" noses is within a certain range, and anything over or under this range will not be considered beautiful. Similarly, the size of eyes also influences the beauty of a face, and generally, bigger eyes are considered prettier. But if the eyes are bigger than oranges occupying most of the face to the extent of popping out, then the person truly is a "terrorist"! Here again, surgical intervention comes to the rescue and shrinks those eyes to sesame size. One would then look like a funny creature indeed. This once again suggests that the size of the eyes needs to be within a certain range, as anything outside this range is not beautiful. It can be reasonably concluded that any human facial feature needs to be within a certain range in order to look beautiful.

Why would it be considered ugly if someone's facial features were not within a certain range? The hypothesis is that individuals encounter many other people in the living environment, most of whom's facial features fall within certain parameters of shape and size. Through continued observation, the memory system has registered the range of shapes and sizes of facial features, forming a set of "patterns" or "orders" for human facial features within the brain. When the visual sensory system is being stimulated by an individual's facial features, it generates corresponding electrical activity within the viewer's neural network. If the order of this electrical activity coincides with the "order" that the viewer has already registered, an orderly electrical activity is generated which presents as a harmonious feeling. If the concept and object are not consistent, it will create conflict and disorder, and the sense of beauty will not be produced. We can now say that whether or not a set of facial features is beautiful depends on whether the order possessed by this set of facial features coincides or conflicts with the registered "order" of facial features inside the viewer's brain.

The order of facial features not only depends on the size, but the shape, skin and the relationships between different parts (distance, ratio and position). Smooth skin is in fact an orderly presentation in two dimensions. When wrinkles occur, the orderly surface of skin becomes disordered. Subcutaneous fatty tissue, muscles, other soft tissues and bones construct the geometrical shape of the face. Their orderly arrangement defines the orderly presentation of the face, which in turn determines the beauty of the face. A specific part of the face in relation to the whole face is also an important factor. For example, a longer nose with a longer face is better looking than a long nose with a round face. If some specific lines of the nose are parallel to some other lines of the face, it will be more appealing. The relationship between the different parts themselves is also a factor. For example, if the left side and right side of the face are symmetrical to each other, it is an orderly arrangement; otherwise, it is disordered. Having one eye bigger than the other is disordered, and creates no sense of beauty. After all, different parts of the face, the distance between them, the skin, muscles and bones are arranged in an orderly manner to form a beautiful face.

Of course, individual beauty does not depend only on the face, but also on the harmony and order of the body overall. Body lines, body surface, the size of each part, the length of each part, and the relationships between them, such as symmetry, proportion, distance and position as a whole, all contribute to the beauty of an individual. For example, having the upper part of a face wider than the lower part looks prettier than those presented in the opposite way, because similarly in the human body, the shoulders are wider than the two feet. The connective tissues, fatty tissues, muscles and bone structures constitute the orderly arrangement of body parts and further determine the physical beauty of an individual. It is evident that order is the key for an individual to display beauty.

The physical orderly arrangement of a body serves as a stimulus to generate a sense of beauty in its viewers. However, whether viewers can sense the beauty depends on whether the stimulus generates an orderly electrical activity in viewers' brains. If the order of electrical activity created by the stimulus coincides with the order of previously registered electrical activity, then orderly electrical activity is produced and the sense of beauty is created. Therefore there may be some truth to the belief that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder".

By using this hypothesis, some interesting phenomena can be explained. For example, gorillas are normally furry and humans are not, so if you see either a hairless gorilla or a furry human being, you will most likely feel that it is ugly. This is because through repeated visual contacts, the features of gorillas and human beings have been registered as concepts with the specific order of "furry gorilla" and "hairless human being" in humans' brains. When a hairless gorilla and a furry human being are presented to viewers, the corresponding electrical activities in the brain will be generated and their orders will be in conflict with the orders of the already registered concepts, subsequently creating disorder. This is why a hairless gorilla or a furry human being appears ugly. The same mechanism can also explain the following cases: many people find rainbows beautiful, but would find someone with rainbow coloured hair unattractive. Hypothetically, if everyone was born with rainbow coloured hair, then mono-coloured blonde hair would be considered strange. An azure sky is relaxing, but someone with blue skin would appear frightening, particularly at night – like a ghost.

However, subjective order does not depend only on the environment in which an individual develops, but also the whole evolution process for a given species. These evolved orders are engraved in our biological genes. For example, sugar generates a sweet taste.

Order is not only the basis for beauty in individuals, but also in groups. We can see, for example, that the group performances at an Olympic opening ceremony are all based on the same order, and hence display spectacular beauty. Even in some cases, when an individual's disorder is converted into the order of the whole group, beauty is displayed. For example, when you see one soldier with his beret slanted to one side, he looks asymmetrical from the front and may appear untidy. When you see a group of soldiers all with their berets slanted to the same side, however, the "untidiness" vanishes, and the slant of the berets will then become an ordered pattern within the group, and hence stimulate a sense of beauty. Once again this example demonstrates that order among objects, or within a group of objects, is one of the elements behind human aesthetic perceptions.

Order is very important for various art forms to attain beauty. For example, in a symphony, while each instrument produces a different sound frequency, they are brought into harmony under the conductor's direction as he follows the rhythm of the musical score, resulting in a beautiful performance. If some performers were to become too assertive and decide to follow their own rhythm rather than the conductor's, the order would then be ruined, and the collective symphony would instantly become discordant babble. Overall order is vital in artistic performances; it is the essential element of success. For example, in figure skating, the rhythm of the skaters' movements must be consistent with the rhythm of the music, in order to appeal to the audience's and judges' sense of beauty. This can be seen in the superb performances of Russian figure skaters, especially when figure skating in pairs, notably in the correspondence of movements between the two artists, and the way in which their movement coincides with the music. The facial expressions and other body language of the performers, coincides with the emotional effect of the music; such coherence is what constitutes a harmonic, orderly performance, delivering a strong sense of beauty and elegance, and resulting in frequent medals and other awards. The artistic effect of their performances comes not only from the high degree of difficulty in their movements, but also from the coaches' and skaters' understanding of the music. Therefore a superb artistic performance is achieved through the combined interaction between a perfect harmony of body language, facial expressions and movements between the pair.

These artistic performances seem to be controlled by the conductor or coach; however, they are ultimately controlled by the fundamental relationships. A symphony orchestra is a hierarchical system with the conductor at the top: he has the power to direct all the members of the team. This is consistent with the power structure in a hierarchical system, in which the higher level is more powerful than the lower level. Otherwise, the performance would be in disarray and produce noise rather than music. In fact, the very top of this system is not the conductor but an invisible part – the music score. The score "directs" the conductor, subsequently organizing every member to produce sounds in an orderly fashion, that is, to play music. To achieve an orderly performance and convey the beauty of music, the score itself has to be in order. You would not expect the team to convey the beauty of music if the music score were written in a disorderly manner. Likewise, figure skating in pairs is also a hierarchical system. Although the visible top is absent, as each partner plays an equal role in the performance, in fact, the very top is present– the "invisible" score. Under the music, performers artistically direct their movements in accordance with the melody and finally present beauty and grace to the audience. In these artistic performances, the music score is similar to the social values governing social activities and is also similar to the fundamental relationships governing the universe.

The above discussion demonstrates that the beauty of an artistic performance is in fact ultimately controlled by the fundamental interrelationships. These relationships also govern the transition from beauty to ugliness in the human body. Individuals are usually considered most beautiful in their youth. As an individual grows older, each part of their body undergoes the process of ageing, causing a gradual decline in youthful attractiveness. This has given rise to expressions like "the young and the beautiful". But why is a youthful appearance beautiful? When an individual is young, their bodily systems and features are in good order. The cells which constitute the body as a whole are in good condition, and properly arranged. As ageing takes place, cell function changes and collagen fibres rupture, resulting in flabby tissue and wrinkles. It is this histological change which causes facial tissues to change from "ordered" to "disordered", so skin changes from smooth and silky to rough and flaccid, muscles become weak, eyelids swell, necks lengthen, and the body increasingly loses symmetry. All of these "undesirable" features destroy the originally orderly physical appearance. Now, if the ageing of skin can be considered as disorder on a small scale, then the ageing of the whole body can be seen as disorder on a larger scale. This process is due to changes in cell function during ageing, which then leads to changes in the body as a whole. So localised, specific disorders will eventually lead to an overall sense of disorder, thus transforming the individual from a state of grace, elegance and beauty to a state of disorder or ugliness. As mentioned above, the order within an object is the main factor which creates our perception of beauty; ageing thus includes a loss of attractiveness in the shift from order to disorder. You can observe this trend by comparing the glamorous youthful days of many Hollywood stars with their later years, and recognising how many beautiful stars lose their gorgeous appearances as time goes by.

In the previous discussion, a mathematical model is put forward to represent the fundamental interrelationships. Further discussion is made to demonstrate that these interrelationships not only govern inanimate objects but human civilisation as well, including technological revolutions and social changes. Through the discussion of beauty in this chapter, a further conclusion is drawn: the transition from beauty to ugliness is in fact the transition from order to disorder, one of the fundamental phenomena in the universe; that is, the fading of beauty in the human body is in fact governed by the fundamental interrelationships,

The passionate pursuit of beauty is an innate part of human nature and will never cease. It is this pursuit that enables great poetry by renowned poets still treasured by countless people, generation after generation. Out of this humanity, the tragic beauty of the fairy tale of "the match girl" by Andersen still remains so emotionally powerful that even more than a century after publication, millions of readers and TV viewers cannot hold back their tears. In the fairy tale of Cinderella, it is the power of her beauty that conquers the heart of the prince and ensures her the happy ending. This is the pursuit yearned for by many dreamers. Surely, beautiful women are seen as luckier than plain women, and may thus attain happiness more easily. "Beautiful" individuals are likely to command greater power and influence others. Some may even be able to create "storms" or "earthquakes".

Since the power of beauty can bestow some people with such advantages, the pursuit of beauty is not only instinctive, but is a means of survival as well. If they have it, they want to keep it. If they have lost it, they want to recover it. If they never had it, they want to create it. As a result, a variety of approaches are used, ranging from simple make up to extreme cosmetic surgery. All of them are aimed at keeping the body in order. In doubt? Take a look at how many people are cutting off and sucking away their body parts for just one word: beauty, seen as a means of power and, ultimately, survival.

Although beauty can be artificially created, it is still subject to the fundamental interrelationships that govern everything in the universe. Surgical procedures that change the face are in fact a special form of physical phase transition in the human body which can be represented by the Interrelationships Model. The moment of undergoing cosmetic surgery is a "critical point". Before this "critical point", the old "phase" is the old face. Afterwards, the new "phase" is the new face. After surgery, the individual thus gains a new face and enters into a new phase in his/her life with increased power – this is an expression of expansion! Have we not heard stories about individuals becoming beautiful Barbie dolls after cosmetic surgery, and finding millionaire partners? Surely, this represents a totally new phase in one's social life. So the physical term, "phase transition" can apply to human lives as "face transition", and the critical point in physics can become a "face transition point"! "Face transition" may appear to have obvious benefits, but don't rush to have cosmetic surgery, as the outcome of cosmetic surgery is itself subject to the law of symmetry. If cosmetic surgery goes well, the individual's face will change in a "positive" way, becoming more "beautiful". But also, symmetrically, it may turn out badly, resulting in disfigurement! Luckily, a fundamental interrelationship comes to the rescue: as things are not absolutely symmetrical, a positive outcome is much more likely than a negative outcome under modern technology. That sounds encouraging, right? Unfortunately, the law of expansion-contraction also rules: as time goes by, the artificially created beauty will gradually diminish and things will go back to where they started. Then, a new surgical procedure is once again necessary. This is the expression of continuity-discontinuity in a serial relationship. Such repeated cosmetic procedures are the expression of periodicity. However, this repetition will not continue forever and there will come a day that the procedure is no longer wanted. This is the end, an expression of one of the fundamental rules, limitation. All of these match the Interrelationships Model!

In the end, beauty is the human brain's special reaction to order. Furthermore, it is the fundamental foundation of existence in the universe. Disorder can lead only to extinction, whether for living creatures or celestial bodies.

# Chapter Seventeen: The mechanism behind the rise of Western Civilization

### The ancient Greek civilization

Modern European civilization has in many ways represented a great leap forward in human history, achieving much theoretical and practical advancement in fields such as physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, medical science and others. The invention and application of new technologies, symbolized by breakthroughs such as the steam engine, has acted as a revolutionary force, bringing human society into a new era. As a result, human civilization has been in a state of acceleration outstripping that of civilizations in ancient times. This chapter attempts to examine the mechanism behind this phenomenon. Why did "modern" civilization arise in Europe and not elsewhere? Conversely, why did other civilizations not make an equivalent progression from "ancient" to "modern"?

In order to analyze this question, we need to look into one of the sources of European civilization, the ancient Greek civilization, because it has had immense influence on other European civilizations and continues to do so today. The cultural heritage left behind by famous philosophers like Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle still remains as a tool through which humans explore nature.

We cannot help but ask why is it that the ancient Greeks were able to create such a brilliant civilization? Why was ancient Greece able to produce such a large number of thinkers? In short, what was the mechanism that created the brilliant Greek civilization?

As civilization is ultimately governed by the fundamental mechanism of the universe, the ancient Geek civilization was inevitably subject to those fundamental laws. Therefore, to use the Interrelationships Model to analyze the Greek civilization is one of the approaches. Furthermore, this matter should be investigated from the perspective of human behavior because human civilization is the product of human behavior. Tracing back further, human behavior is the product of human decision which goes through a process of logical thinking involving inherent desires and "Internal Controlling Forces." Since all humans have the same inherent desires and the difference is only the "Internal Controlling Forces," hence, it must be the Greeks' distinctive "Internal Controlling Forces", formed from a specific environment, which played a critical role in large scale of concept production as seen in their philosophy, sciences and technologies. Therefore, the focus should be placed on how their "Internal Controlling Forces" directly and through "External Controlling Forces" influenced the Greeks' behavior in creating their civilization; and furthermore, how the environment influenced the development of their "Internal Controlling Forces".

The first Greek speaking Indo-European tribes came to the mainland Greece region around 2100 B.C. from north and east. Their civilisation, Mycenaean civilisation, took shape around 1600 B.C. Later, they expanded to the Aegean region and reached Crete where Minoan civilisation had existed since 2600 BC. However, the Mycenaean civilization was ended around 1100 B.C., presumably by the Dorian invasion and the region entered into a period of "Dark Age", characterised by depopulation and de-urbanisation. This period lasted from 1100 to 900 BC. [100] After the "Dark Age", came the Archaic period.

"In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages.*1"The archaic period in Greece (800 BC – 480 BC) was a period of ancient Greek history that followed the Greek dark ages" – Archaic Greece, Wikipedia

The archaic period can be understood as the orientalising period, when Greece was at the fringe, but not under the sway, of the budding Neo-Assyrian Empire. Greece adopted significant amounts of cultural elements from the Orient, in art as well as in religion and mythology. Archaeologically, Archaic Greece is marked by Geometric pottery". – History of Greece, Wikipedia

"The termini of Archaic period are defined as the "structural revolution", meaning a sudden upsurge of population and material goods that occurred c. 750 BC, and the "intellectual revolution" of classical Greece". – Archaic Greece, Wikipedia

"The sharp rise in population at the start of the Archaic period brought with it the settlement of new towns and the expansion of the older population centers. The Archaic period is also characterized by the spread of colonization along the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts that began about 800 BC. The reason for this phenomenon is described by Greek authors as Stenochoria, or "the lack of land", but in practice it was caused by a great number of reasons, such as rivalry between political groups, a desire for adventure, expatriation, the search for trade opportunities, etc". –Archaic Greece, Wikipedia

Actually, all these aforementioned phenomena were due to the power increase as this period is consistent with the Iron Age in Greece history. The use of iron tools increased productivity. In addition to the use of iron tools, the gradual settlement of different groups ended the unstable period of the "Greek Dark Age." This transition was the expression of the law of order-disorder. All of these brought the increased population. However, the increased population was restrained by resources. Subsequently, it caused internal tension. As the results of increased power and internal pressure, the population started to expand its territory. This phenomenon is consistent with the law that power increases will lead to its expansion. This turned out to be the Greeks' colonization of the Mediterranean coasts. As the Greeks' territory expanded, they acquired more resource. Coupled with the use of iron tools, the productivity increased. Hence came the period of prosperity.

"In this period, there was huge economic development on Greece, and also in its overseas colonies which experienced a growth in commerce and manufacturing. There was a great improvement in the living standards of the population. Some studies estimate that the average size of the Greek household, in the period from 800 BC to 300 BC, increased five times, which indicates a large increase in the average income of the population". –Ancient Greece, Wikipedia

This prosperity provided the basis for the Greeks to pursue a higher level of activity – intellectual activity. Hence, the period of intellectual pursuit marked as the character in Greek civilization started. This is not only the mechanism behind the thriving of Greek classical culture, but the mechanism behind the thriving of intellectual activities of all civilizations when they entered the Iron Age roughly around the same time, for example, in China.

Indeed, this characterized activities started on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Ionia, which was one of the Greeks' colonies. All Greek colonies can be viewed as parallel developments of the Greek nation. As all parallel branches have commonality and difference, the Ionia branch had its distinctive character – starting intellectual pursuit. Why didn't this activity start from other Greek branches, but Ionia? This was due to Greece's geographical location – one of the factors of the mechanism that allowed Greeks to develop their brilliant civilization.

Located in the Eastern Mediterranean, Greece was easily able to come into contact with other civilizations of the Mediterranean basin, including (at different times) Ancient Egypt. Its neighbors along the Mediterranean coast include present-day Syria, Jordan and Israel. Besides being connected to the above-mentioned areas by land, contact could also be made with other regions of the Mediterranean by crossing the sea. Although the sea represented a barrier between civilizations, geographical features such as islands and peninsulas, and the development of shipping and navigation as means of transport, allowed widespread contacts and exchanges. Apart from its proximity to areas surrounding the Mediterranean, ancient Greece was also connected by land to the east, and was thus able to come into contact with eastern civilizations like Mesopotamia, Persia and India. The geographical location of ancient Greece made it easier for its people to access other ancient civilizations in other areas.

Benefited from this geographical advantage in the earlier time was the Greek colony in Ionia. It is located on the western coast of present-day Turkey. It was in contact with the region of Mesopotamia which had entered the Bronze Age and Iron Age earlier than Greece and hence their development including intellectual development entered a more advanced stage than Greece did at that time. The contact with Mesopotamia brought the first wave of Greek intellectual pursuit.

"Classical antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark ages (c. 1200 – c. 800 BC), archaeologically characterized by the protogeometric and geometric styles of designs on pottery. This period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the orientalizing period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent. Traditionally, the archaic period of ancient Greece is considered to begin with orientalizing influence, which among other things brought the alphabetic script to Greece, marking the beginning of Greek literature (Homer, Hesiod). – Ancient Greece, wiki

"The origins of philosophy can be traced back to early Mesopotamian wisdom, which embodied certain philosophies of life, particularly ethics, in the forms of dialectic, dialogs, epic poetry, folklore, hymns, lyrics, prose works, and proverbs. Babylonian reasoning and rationality developed beyond empirical observation". – Mesopotamia, Wikipedia

"The earliest form of logic was developed by the Babylonians, notably in the rigorous nonergodic nature of their social systems. Babylonian thought was axiomatic and is comparable to the "ordinary logic" described by John Mayard Keynes. Babylonian thought was also based on an open-systems ontology which is compatible with ergodic axioms. Logic was employed to some extent in Babylonian astronomy and medicine. – Mesopotamia, Wikipedia

"Babylonian thought had a considerable influence on early Greek and Hellenistic philosophy. In particular, the Babylonian text dialogue of Pessimism contains similarities to the agonistic thought of the sophists, the Heraclitean doctrine of contrasts, and the dialectic and dialogs of Plato, as well as a precursor to the maieutic method of Socrates. The Ionian philosopher Thales was influenced by Babylonian cosmological ideas". – Mesopotamia, Wikipedia

Archaeological discoveries have demonstrated that Babylonian from 1800 to 1600 B.C. had developed mathematics covering fractions, algebra, quadratic and cubic equations as well as the Pythagorean theorem.[284] Their development was made much earlier than the Pythagoreans in the ancient Greece.

From the above descriptions, it is evident that the geographical proximity to Mesopotamia, a more advanced civilization at that time, did contribute to the early development of Greek civilization.

In addition to the factor of geographical location, another factor was that the Greeks were enjoying an economic prosperity at that time.

The expansion of territory allowed the Greeks to acquire more resources. This resource abundance was translated into wealth and prosperity which in turn allowed the Greeks to live in an environment where there was a relatively large degree of social freedom, at least for citizens. This equated to a comparatively large degree of freedom in thought and action: if a person is wholly concerned with survival, they are unlikely to have the time or inclination to ponder matters not directly related to survival. Idle pondering is far more likely to take place once basic material desires have been satisfied: we can more easily imagine somebody going out to gaze at the stars after dinner, asking themselves why some stars move while others don't, and thus giving rise to astronomy. Conversely, a person struggling to feed him or herself is unlikely to have time to wonder about the stars in the sky, as it is probably more practical to count the grains of rice in one's bowl, or the coins in one's pocket. In this way, a less restrictive environment allowed the ancient Greeks a larger degree of freedom to think, and it is only in this sort of environment that individual and group thought can flourish. Thus, a higher ratio of resources to population allowed a higher degree of freedom, and an enhanced level and diversity of thinking.

"In this period, there was huge economic development in Greece, and also in her overseas colonies which experienced a growth in commerce and manufacturing. There was a great improvement in the living standards of the population. Some studies estimate that the average size of the Greek household, in the period from 800 BC to 300 BC, increased five times, which indicates a large increase in the average income of the population". – Ancient Greece, Wikipedia

"These states and their colonies reached great levels of prosperity that resulted in an unprecedented cultural boom, that of classical Greece, expressed in architecture, drama, science, mathematics and philosophy". – Greece history, Wikipedia

"With the advantage of a peculiarly fine climate, for which this part of Asia Minor has been famous in all ages, Ionia enjoyed the reputation in ancient times of being the most fertile of all the rich provinces of Asia Minor; and even in modern times, though very imperfectly cultivated," – Ionia, Wikipedia

"The colonies naturally became prosperous. Miletus especially was at an early period one of the most important commercial cities of Greece; and in its turn became the parent of numerous other colonies, which extended all around the shores of the Euxine Sea and the Propontis from Abydus and Cyzicus to Trapezus and Panticapaeum. Phocaea was one of the first Greek cities whose mariners explored the shores of the western Mediterranean. Ephesus, though it did not send out any colonies of importance, from an early period became a flourishing city and attained to a position corresponding in some measure to that of Smyrna at the present day". – Ionia, Wikipedia

"The most important city was Miletus (the Milawanta of Hittites). Several centuries later Ionia was the place where western philosophy began and was the homeland of Heraclitus, Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes. They were natural philosophers of the Ionian school of philosophy and tried to explain the phenomena according to no-supernatural laws. They also searched a simple material-forma behind the appearances of things (origin) and this conception had a great influence on the early archaic art in Greece". – Ionia, Wikipedia

The Archaic Period of Greece began with a sudden and brilliant flash of art and philosophy on the coast of Anatolia. In the 6th century BC, Miletus was the site of origin of the Greek philosophical (and scientific) tradition, when Thales, followed by Anaximander and Anaximenes (known collectively, to modern scholars, as the Milesian School) began to speculate about the material constitution of the world, and to propose speculative naturalistic (as opposed to traditional, supernatural) explanations for various natural phenomena". – Miletus, Wikipedia

"In classical antiquity the island was a center of Ionian culture and luxury... Samos became one of the twelve members of the Ionian league. By the 7th century BC it had become one of the leading commercial centers of Greece. This early prosperity of the Samians seems largely due to the island's position near trade-routes, which facilitated the importation of textiles from inner Asia Minor, but the Samians also developed and extensive oversea commerce. They helped to open up trade with the population that lived around the black sea as well as with Egypt, Cyrne (Libya), Corinth, and Chalcis. This caused them to become bitter rivals with Miletus. Samos was able to become so prominent despite the growing power of the Persian Empire because of the alliance they had with the Egyptians and their powerful fleet.... About 535 BC, when the existing oligarchy was overturned by the tyrant Polycrates, Samos reached the height of its prosperity". – Samos Island, Wikipedia

"In ancient times Samos was particularly rich and powerful city-state. It is home to Pythagoreion and the Heraion of Samos... Samos is the birthplace of the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, after whom the Pythagorean theorem is named, the philosopher Epicurus, and the astronomer Aristarchus of Samos, the first known individual to propose that the Earth revolves around the sun". – Samos Island, Wikipedia

The mechanism behind the first wave of the Greek intellectual pursuit was: with the use of iron tools, the Greeks' power increased. As the result of this power increase, the Greeks started their expansion – migration and colonization around the Mediterranean coast. This allowed them to expand their territory and acquire a strategic position – Anatolia. The position of Anatolia allowed them to engage in exchange with Asia. This exchange brought them fortune and new ideas. The expended territory brought them more resources. More resource and fortune lay down the economic basis for them to pursue higher level of human activity – intellectual pursuit. The new ideas imported from Asia opened the door to the new horizon of their intellectual pursuit.

Enlightened by the Mesopotamian civilization, on the soil of Ionia where prosperity provided a degree of freedom, the Greeks started their intellectual pursuit. As such, an Ionian school of philosophy was borne and came the philosophers such as Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Hippo and Diogenes of Apollonia. This was the first wave of intellectual pursuit by the Greeks to look into nature to explain natural phenomena rather than using superstitious ideas.

Along with individual contacts, these new concepts of interpreting the world were disseminated from Ionia to other parts of the Greek world, such as Greece proper and other colonies. On a fundamental level, this concept dissemination is simply the expression of the fundamental laws of dynamics, expansion and divergence. From the perspective of human behavior, the dissemination of these new concepts was driven by the driving force of civilization: desire; more specifically, by the desire of understanding the world. Under a specific mechanism, various concepts were dissected, reorganized and integrated, leading to large scale production of new concepts. It was through this mechanism that the Greeks civilization flourished. Yet, how did this mechanism cultivate the Greek civilization?

As most of the civilization developed, humans went through a period from migration to settlement. Settlement gradually evolved from small groups to larger groups, developing from villages to towns and some even to cities. The Greeks were not exceptional in this process. But the specific geographical landscape of Greece shaped the formation and organization of this settlement, contributing to the development of Greek civilisation.

The landscape of Greece was, and still is, mountainous. It created an environment that separated inhabitants in different regions into different groups. Apart from the situation in the mainland, the ancient Greeks, who lived on islands and peninsulas, were separated by seawater. This natural factor contributed to the development of what is termed the "City State", the basic political unit in Ancient Greece. Also, the power of civilization at that time was not enough to break these natural barriers to converge all these small City-States to a large hierarchical system until the rise in power of Macedonia. Hence, there existed multiple small and parallel City-States in the region of ancient Greece. Each City-State possessed a relative independence from its neighbours.

This geographical isolation allowed each city state to be independent and evolve its own culture. As a result, each city state developed its own way of thinking, encompassing ways of understanding the world, methods of analysis and approaches to problem solving.

However, mountains and seas can only separate people to a certain degree. Using boats and ships, the sea became a medium for contact; using donkeys, people could cross mountains. Thus, people living in different regions with different cultures could still communicate with each other to exchange ideas while remaining relatively independent from each other. This made for an overall diversity of thinking, while contact and exchanges between city-states encouraged a process of dissecting, reorganizing and integrating received concepts, leading to a large amount of new concepts. For example, those novel philosophical concepts from Ionia were transmitted to Athens by Anaxagoras, triggering the dissemination of new concepts in Athens, a major city-state in Greek proper.

The evolution of Greek city-states was very important to the development of higher level civilization as it allowed a larger population than seen in tribal or nomadic societies to engage in exchange. Humans engage in exchange in order to increase the efficiency and scale of desire satisfaction. The concentration of settlement can achieve these goals. As the Greeks settlement developed into concentrated populations, city-states, therefore, they were able to achieve these goals. The large population in city-states provided a potentially large scale of concept dissemination, such as in Athens. Furthermore, they developed a mechanism for exchange such as transactions of commercial goods, public speaking, and drama performances, as well as the teaching of knowledge in those City-States. Examined from another perspective, they actually were exchanges of concepts. These large-scale exchanges led to the large-scale dissemination of concepts. As discussed in the previous chapter, concept dissemination is critical in civilization. The exponential scale of increase through concept dissemination can be understood through this reasoning: for example, if a concept is passed on from one individual to 5, it can then be passed from these 5 to 25 others, then to 125 individuals, and so on. The scale and speed of this type of dissemination is massive. Another important impact of concept dissemination is that, once a concept is passed on from one individual to another, the second individual is likely to "refine" or modify the received concept and so come up with a new concept. This depends on the second individual's ability to modify concepts, in other words, his logical thinking ability. Through this reasoning, one can understand part of the mechanism behind the flourish of Greek civilization.

As previously discussed, the prosperity in Greece proper also provided the degree of freedom for individuals to pursue these intellectual activities. Some of these intellectual activities in Athens may not have been commercially driven, but purely the desire of understanding the world, as seen in the cases of Socrates (there is controversy on this), Plato and Aristotle. But in the later development, these activities were also driven commercially.

With the desire to acquire knowledge, to understand the world or to achieve other practical ends, knowledge became a commercial product that was exchanged to satisfy people's desires. In this commercial society, thinkers – producers and distributors of concepts – put their thinking power into top gear, and thus became particularly productive in their output of intellectual products. They fully exploited the advantage of their exceptionally abundant source of concepts absorbed from other regions, and combined them with their thinking to dissect, reorganize and integrate new concepts into the market. These intellectual products came either in the form of abstract concepts like theories, theorems and formulae, or in the form of physical goods such as architectures, sculptures and others. The producers in this "knowledge production industry" included those schools such as Plato's Academy, Isocrates' Rhetorical School and Aristotle's Peripatetic school. Knowledge producers were not restricted to such famous and often exclusive schools, but also occurred in the public domain generally, for example within the Agora (marketplace). The Agora was an important part of the ancient Greek city-state, usually located in the centre of the city, and functioned as the centre of commercial exchange. Citizens could engage in the exchange of physical goods, but the Agora was also home to two other important public activities. Firstly, speeches given by orators, in the role of established or would-be politicians, discussed issues of public interest, and thus acted to disseminate concepts. The second intriguing activity involved thinkers known as "Stoics" giving lectures in the colonnades surrounding the Agora.[101] Again, this activity was a form of concept dissemination in the Agora.

Another movement playing a crucial role in the development of Greek civilization, especially in the creation and dissemination of concepts, was that of the Sophists. It is important to examine what this movement meant, and what role it played in Greek civilization.

In "A History of Western Education", Professor James Bowen gives the following description:

"So a new occupation appeared Athens, that of the 'professor' of higher learning. These new teachers were the sophists (sophistai), their name being derived from the word sophia which can mean wisdom, skill or even cleverness. The sophists were not a single group; on the contrary they exhibited a wide variety of educational approaches and taught a range of studies. Most of them were foreigners who travelled from place to place, and probably found better audiences at Athens than elsewhere; a few were Athenians, and often these teachers, foreign and local, charged reasonable sums –one-half to four drachmae—for admission to their popular lectures (epideixeis). Generally, however, these lectures were given in the spirit of entertainment rather than education. Included among the sophists were also the sceptics, who doubted or denied the possibility of knowledge and so professed to teach only practical skills, especially the art of persuasion which had a ready application to public life. In this group also were the rhetoricians who were concerned with the use of words and not with values." "The sophists brought higher learning to Athens, offering a wide variety of subjects of instruction, not only those that led to social and vocational success, but also the more abstruse and scholarly studies of grammar and mathematics. By the fourth century Athens had become the undisputed centre of Hellenic culture and learning". "The schools of the sophists continued to grow, offering instruction beyond that given by the elementary teachers".

This description suggests a considerable demand for knowledge in ancient Athens, arising from popular interest in the nature of the surrounding world. This demand hastened the knowledge production and impartation industry of which the Sophists formed a part, selling knowledge to interested individuals, which in fact disseminated various concepts to the population. Not only did the presence of such a demand or market for knowledge in centres such as Athens hasten the emergence of the Sophists, it also attracted increasing numbers of them from other parts of Greece. It has been suggested earlier that due to the geographical landscape of ancient Greece, groups from different regions formed their own unique cultures, including different ways of looking at things and solving problems. Hence, travelling Sophists and other thinkers brought various cultures to Athens, creating diversity of thinking in the population. They brought methods of teaching, knowledge of various topics and provided education on a number of subjects. It can be said that they brought higher education to Athens. If we examine this process, we can say that it brought together different concepts invented by different groups regarding the same objective world. Importantly, the Sophists' work was a commercial activity – they charged fees. These support the idea of a 'market' for knowledge, 'manufactured' and 'retailed' in response to the demand. The thriving of this profession for higher education demonstrates that there was considerable demand from the public for knowledge in ancient Greece. The activities that the Sophists engaged in were commercial activities driven by desire for wealth, and the public demand for knowledge was driven by the desire for understanding the unknown world or for other practical uses. The diversity of concepts brought by the Sophists to Athens, including the ways of understanding nature, problem-solving methods and areas of study, created a diversity of thinking, resulting in a large-scale dissection, re-organisation and integration of concepts.

These phenomena show us that the Agora was a place of exchange for the ancient Greeks. The exchange of goods, impartation of knowledge, public speaking, discussions and so on, all were exchanges of concepts between individuals. A product with a new design is the physical representation of a new concept. The teaching of knowledge and public speeches are even more obvious examples; apart from these, the dissemination of knowledge also took place in theatres in the form of drama. The numbers of people involved in such activities also shows the large scale of this concept dissemination process.

Market demand encouraged more people to take up the occupation of knowledge production and sale which in turn made for more intense competition. This included competition between rival schools, and importantly, between individual scholars. This may be seen as a basis for the development of independent thinking amongst the ancient Greeks. Market competition pushed knowledge producers to speed up the production and perfect their intellectual products. Competition also caused knowledge producers to work on discovering weaknesses in their rivals' theories in order to attack them. This environment generated constant questions, debates, refutes, rebuttals and arguments, leading to an overall increased diversity of thought. Hence in the process of serial thinking, it led to looking deeper and deeper into nature in a serial sequence. Not only confined to serial thinking, it also induced parallel thinking on a large scale, causing diversity of thinking. In this way, large quantities of concept dissection, re-organisation and integration occurred in the process of humans' understanding of the objective world.

In addition, social demand is a factor to the development of intellectual diversity. If the demand is a wider range of interested subjects, it is likely to induce the knowledge producers to deliver a wider range of intellectual products. This is an important factor in encouraging diversity of thinking. If the demand is only from a small proportion of the society then the effect on encouraging diversity of thinking would be smaller; if the demand is from the entire society then the effect would be greater. Economic prosperity allowed the Greek society to generate a wider range of interests. Hence, it induced knowledge producers to produce a wider range of subjects, such as philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, geography, metaphysics, logic, dialectic, rhetoric, literature, morals and ethics and so on.

The above discussion on diversity is on the level of human behaviour. However, the thriving of multiple schools of thought in ancient Greece was actually governed by the fundamental relationships. Interpreted from the Interrelationships Model, the breakthrough of seeking truth from nature led by Thales of Miletus (ca 624 BEC – 546 BEC) was a critical point. This was a phase transition which entered into a whole new "space". Although Thales made the first attempt to propose the novel hypothesis, it was not a well established theory because it could not well explain what constitute the world. Therefore, there wasn't a dominant force in this domain. As the result, there was plenty of empty space (a large degree of freedom) for competitive new theories to develop. So, the process of development presented as divergence. As we can see from the very beginning, this trend had already happened when the Ionian schools started to seek truth from nature. This fundamental mechanism is not only expressed in the Ionian schools but other cases as well. For example, when motor vehicle technology made its breakthrough, there wasn't a dominant manufacturer. A large number of manufacturers emerged – a process of divergence. As things progressed, the market became saturated and a few companies evolved into the dominant force in the industry – a convergent process. Then it is hard for other new comers to develop because there isn't space for newcomers to develop. In the history of science, after Newton proposed his theory in mechanics, his theory was well established on the scientific basis and became the dominant force. Then no other competitive theory could exist in the same domain. As Thales' hypothesis, "the world originated from water",*2 could not be well established on scientific basis, it couldn't dominate the whole domain. Hence it left the space for other competitors to propose their hypotheses. As such, his student Anaximander proposed that there was "an endless, unlimited mass (apeiron), subject to neither old age nor decay, which perpetually yields fresh materials from which everything we can perceive is derived";*3 Heraclitus believed that fire was the ultimate thing to construct the world. [102] All these alternative hypotheses were still based on a single element which was the interpretation of singularity – a common phenomenon in the world. However, Empedocles proposed his theory of water, earth, air and fire which was an interpretation of plurality. Heraclitus believed "that change is real, and stability illusory",*4 which is the interpretation of dynamics. The divergent trend continued...

Behind this phenomenon was the capability of independent thinking of the Greeks. Competition may be one of the reasons for this capacity: for individuals engaged in producing and selling knowledge, the ability to think independently was vital to survive. If an individual was only able to repeat others' theories, then no one would want to listen to his lecture. Hence, these knowledge producers developed theories with their own personal "trademark". This can be seen in the Milesian School in which Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes all proposed their own "trademark" theories on the same topic. To have the capability of independent thinking, raising questions is crucial. Not only is it important to skepticism, in which the basic technique is raising doubt on any assumption, but it is the first step to initiate the whole logical thinking process. When the ancient Greeks acted as a group and many individuals in this group were capable of independent thought, then diversity developed and the chances of discovering the truth about nature became much higher. As the result of independent thinking, the Greeks started a divergent process on their journey to seek truth.

The outcome of such a development was a large amount of new concepts. As discussed in the previous chapter, the more speculative concepts are proposed, the more likely it is that the right one is included. In the search for the answer to the question "What is this world made of?", ancient Greek philosophers proposed many theories. Of all the numerous speculative concepts, the atom theory proposed by Leucippus and Democritus in the 4th century BC hit the target.

The above discussion is an attempt to decode the mechanism by which the ancient Greeks created their brilliant civilization. It was with this specific mechanism that the ancient Greeks were able to produce so many new concepts. The geographical location, the specific landscape, the way they lived by which they exchanged concepts and etc. all contributed to the diversity of intellectual development within the ancient Greek world. Under this mechanism, the final result was that large quantities of intellectual product appeared in forms such as new theories and concepts. The abundance of schools of thought can be seen in Pythogorianism, Platonism, Peripateticism, Sophism, Cyrenaicism, Pluralism, Atomism, Empiricism, Cynicism, Stoicism, Epicureanism, Eclecticism, Skepticism, Socratic Method, Dialectics, logic and many more...

This enabled the ancient Greeks to broaden their search for answers, from mythology expanding into philosophy, then from philosophy expanding even further into astronomy, mathematics, logic, metaphysics, medicine, biology and many other scientific disciplines. Hence came the flourish of Greek civilization, laying down the foundations for subsequent and modern civilizations. Accompanying this process is the emergence of a large number of ancient Greek philosophers.

Of all these achievements, the Greeks' contribution to the "way of seek truth" is of most importance to civilization. First, it diversified from seeking truth from mythology to from nature. With so many speculative concepts proposed, the intellectual inquiry further developed into the truthfulness of these concepts and what was the right approach to interpret the world. As a result of seeking the right approach, mathematics was adopted to interpret the world; there were various approaches of interpretation such as nominalism, dogmatism, empiricism, ontology and others. Of all these approaches, apart from the approach of seeking truth from nature, the thinking method as the methodology to seek truth is most important. One may argue that humans can naturally think without the need of training; it is an innate ability. Even a 4 year old child can present the right logic. This is partially right. But with the proper training, one can more efficiently think and accurately arrive at the correct answer. The Greeks contributed a great deal to the development of thinking methods. The level that they developed was not merely some individual cases mentioned in conversation but the principles extracted from common cases, and these principles can be applied to various cases. These principles were the thinking methods and were taught in their training or curricula.

At this point, let us review some specific details of the ancient Greeks' contribution to methods of thinking. This method or methodology was born out of the commercially competitive environment discussed above: out of a desire for personal pride, money and fame, in an environment where one stood to gain much from it.

Rhetoric

One of the major studied subjects was rhetoric. The aim of rhetoric is to convince audiences to believe someone's points. Therefore, it employs a tactic that is not entirely based on the true interrelationships but may be based on twisted concepts and the twisted links between concepts, as well as other non fact-based factors such as emotion, to influence audiences' thinking. It is a peculiar form of thinking.

The possibility of gain was brought about by the citizens' desire for knowledge/skill to deliver a convincing public speech and in court debates. As with the excitement of modern day televised debates and competitions of physical prowess, one can imagine that the ancient Greeks were attracted by the public speeches and debates that showed off a person's intellect. Audiences could feel the competitors' thoughts expressed through the art of their words and body language, and could also sense their ability to shift emotions, and the beauty of their "logic": this equated to a popular appreciation of the art of debate. People also participated in public debate in order to raise their public profile, to get a position in a public office, or to defend cases in court; these needs also helped to further the growth of the knowledge market, and particularly the knowledge of how to think. In response to this sort of market demand, the discipline of Rhetoric, a technique of speaking aimed at convincing the audience, was established, and subsequently gained popularity.

"Rhetoric was probably brought to Athens by Gorgias from his native Sicily. Its origins there are credited to two teachers, Tisias and Corax, who undertook to teach courtroom speaking to those who needed it and lacked previous training". "According to Aristotle, Gorgias made his pupils learn by heart rhetorical speeches and questions and answers on both sides of prepared arguments." – A History of Western Education by James Bowen

Rhetoric, then, can be seen as a means of training individuals to think in a peculiar way. The technique ultimately aims to convince the audience of a particular point and might inject some 'illogical' elements like emotion into its discourse. Hence, it can be considered a form of sophistry. In the present day, texts or speeches that exhibit exaggerated argumentation and literary flair, and especially those which work on an emotional level, can also be considered 'rhetorical'. Recent technological advancements have also allowed modern-day rhetorical techniques such as sound and lighting effects to influence an audience's thinking. In ancient Greece, the Rhetoric was considered to be an art form by those who taught it, at the core of education. Since it is an art form, Rhetoric naturally has its appreciators and followers, particularly for its effectiveness in court cases and public debate.

Dialectic

At the time when sophists taught rhetoric, another school of thought – dialectic was taught by Socrates and Plato. Unlike rhetoric, this school of thought considered truth as the highest value. To discover the truth, their technique was to follow the interrelationships through logical reasoning. This technique is in contrast to the technique used by rhetoric, which was not fully based on logical reasoning. In some sense, rhetoric stimulated the development of an opposite school of thought – dialectic. "Socrates opposed the sophists and their teaching of rhetoric as art and as emotional oratory requiring neither logic nor proof". – Dialectic, Wikipedia

According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, dialectic was:

"Originally a form of logical argumentation.... Among the classical Greek thinkers, the meanings of dialectic ranged from a technique of refutation in debate, through a method for systematic evaluation of definitions, to the investigation and classification of the relationships between specific and general concepts. From the time of the Stoic philosophers until the end of the European Middle Ages, dialectic was more or less closely identified with the discipline of formal logic".

Of the Greek classical development of dialectic, Socratic Method was an approach to seek truth. It was a form of logical thinking based on a set of extracted principles. These principles are actually part of the interrelationships. This approach was used and further developed by Socrates and Plato. From the following writing, one can see the contribution by Socrates to logical thinking:

"Usually the respondent in these dialogues...would be forced, after a number of fruitless attempts, to confess his own ignorance. Thereupon Socrates would try to lead him to a better understanding of the problem, usually by suggesting particular instances and showing what common characteristic they shared. This, expressed in word, was the definition. His two great contribution to the development of logic, then, were induction and definition...." "Socrates insisted that his art consisted in bringing into the open, by skilful questioning, concepts and understandings that are already in another's mind".... "The great feature of my art, however, he said, is that I can test whether the young man is laboring with a mere phantom birth or bringing forth a real and genuine offspring". – A History of Western Education

From the aforementioned, one can see Socrates' contribution to the developing of thinking method and how he trained students to master this art in which the key point was "by skilful questioning". This reaffirms the conclusion made in the previous discussion that the most important step in logical thinking is raising questions, for this initiates the whole thinking process.

Logic

One of the important studies contributed by the Greeks was logic. In a social environment like ancient Greece which supported a large range of intellectual disputes, debates, attacks, defences, rebuttals and persuasions, a broad basis for logical studies was formed. Once this culture developed to a certain level of maturity, the debate-loving ancient Greeks then proceeded to clarify and organize it to formally establish the study of logic as a discipline. The pioneer of this process, Aristotle, is hence acknowledged by historians as the founder of logic.

"Valid reasoning has been employed in all periods of human history. However, logic studies the principles of valid reasoning, inference and demonstration". – History of logic, Wikipedia.

Valid reasoning is commonly termed logical thinking. The very nature of logical thinking is the brain working out the corresponding interrelationships between existences and the concepts representing the existences. Therefore, this neural activity must be based on the objective interrelationships. In other words, logical thinking must be based on interrelationships. From this perspective, it is easy to understand that Egyptians, Babylonians and Pythagoreans dealt with logic in geometry, medicine and astronomy well before the time of Aristotle. [103]

Before the time of Aristotle, dialectic had already been used by Zeno of Elea, Socrates and Plato to deal with more general relationships to find truth.[104] There are some views that dialectic is some form of logic.[105] Indeed, they both share a common mechanism: they are both based on the fundamental interrelationships, although they stem from different perspectives.

From the above description, we can see that Dialectic includes elements of logical thinking. It is used in discussion, debate and argument. In many books about logic, it is often noted that many of Socrates' and Plato's works in some way involved the study of logic even though Aristotle is the historically acknowledged founder of logic as a discipline. In fact, in any debate between individuals, the individual's thought is bound to involve some form of logical thinking. Any dispute among adults can be thought of as a form of logical thinking. Rhetoric and Dialectic may both be considered ways of thinking.

The stoics also developed their logic. Although their logic was in some way different to the Aristotelians', fundamentally they both dealt with interrelationships. [106]

The development of logic showed that the thinking method of the ancient Greeks had reached a new level. Building upon the foundations laid by Socrates and Plato, Aristotelian thinking represented a further development and perfection of the Greeks' exploration of thinking methods. His Prior Analytics and Posterior Analytics outline some of the principles of logical thinking. These legacies paved the way for medieval thinkers to continue the development of the way to seek truth: the scientific method, which led to the scientific revolution and laid down the foundation of modern civilization.

Empiricism

Another important contribution by the Greeks was empiricism. It is an important part of the way to seek truth. This approach emphasizes the necessity of using human senses to explore nature and reject the idea that knowledge is innate. Aristotle contributed to this development. Although he was a student of Plato, Aristotle held different views on knowledge. This made his thinking method distinct from Plato's. In the context of Greek intellectual development, this can be seen as an enrichment of methods of thinking, providing a new approach distinct from Plato's use of mathematical methods to prove theories. As the way to seek truth, empiricism had important impact on the development of scientific method. Experimentation as a scientific method, adopted in the Middle Ages, can be viewed as an extension of empiricism. [107]

Skepticism

Out of the search for the way of seeking truth arose a school of thought – skepticism. These skeptics raised doubts on whether humans could get true knowledge. Some questioned whether human sense and reasoning ability could get true knowledge. Some doubted whether humans could assure the certainty of knowledge. Their belief was based on further looking into the way of thinking: all assumptions are based on their premises, which are further based on other premises, and so on. However, when one kept questioning the certainty of premises in a serial way, one could only arrive at uncertainty. Therefore, they concluded that it was impossible to get knowledge with certainty and one should suspend their judgment. Regardless how they dealt with uncertainty, their technique of continual questioning contributed to the development of thinking method. [108]

Skepticism was contributed to the enrichment of Greeks' thinking method. It was a product of diversity of thoughts in the ancient Greece, where there were intensive intellectual disputes over the topic of the way to seek truth. This view can be seen from the following description:

"In ancient times, skeptics challenged the claims of Plato and Aristotle and their followers, as well as those of the Stoics". – Scepticism, Encyclopaedia Britannica

"Starting from the skeptical doctrines of Socrates, its leaders, Arcesilaus and Carneades, set forth a series of epistemological arguments to show that nothing could be known, challenging primarily what were then the two foremost schools, stoicism and Epicureanism". – Britanica.com

"The school of thought developed primarily in opposition to what it saw as the dogmatism or ultimately unfounded assertions of the stoics". – Philosophical scepticism, Wikipedia

It can be understood that to survive this intellectual competition, rival schools needed to pick out the faults in their rivals' theory. Therefore, they had to question all aspects of that theory. The following describes how a skeptical Socrates questioned his rivals' claim in the intellectual competition.

"A more developed form of skepticism appeared in some of the views attributed to Socrates and in the views of certain Sophists... Socrates, as portrayed in the early dialogues of his pupil Plato, was always questioning the knowledge claims of others;" – Britanica.com

The above dissuasions suggest that Skepticism was related to the intensive competition among Greek thinkers, who aimed to discover the way to seek truth. It was developed into part of the way to seek truth and had a profound impact on the development of scientific method as it influenced many medieval thinkers such as Michel de Montaigne, who is considered to be the "father of modern scepticism",*5 and Descartes, who was influential in scientific revolution.

All these school of thoughts are the methodology of thinking and they are the "tools" to dissect, reorganize and integrate concepts. With these "tools" and driven by various desires, particularly the desire of understanding the world, the Greeks produced a vast amount of new concepts. Thus the Greeks created their brilliant ancient civilization. As the development of thinking method is governed by the fundament interrelationships, it began with the divergent process in which multiple thinking methods were created. Then it would be followed by a convergent process. This process was presented as the further development in the Middle Ages – that is, finally, these diversified approaches converged to form the only way to seek truth – the scientific method. With this method, a whole new era, the scientific revolution, dawned.

Due to the geographical proximity, the advanced Greek civilizations could easily spread to other part of the European continent. The superiority of ancient Greek culture in particular, made it more easily accepted by other European groups. The exchange of concepts between the Greeks and other cultural groups was facilitated by communication between various contacts, including visiting scholars, lectures, overseas study and commercial trade. For example, the Roman senator and philosopher Cicero went to Greece to study.[109] The dissemination of Greek culture was facilitated by Alexander the Great's expansion of his empire. This can be seen in the case of the Library of Alexandria in Egypt, which was built by one of Alexander's generals, Ptolemy.[110] But the dissemination of Greek classical culture was greatly facilitated by the expansion of the Roman Empire in Europe.

### The adoption of Christianity as the state church and its social consequences

Rome started from a village and grew into a city.[111] "The city was founded on 21 April 753 BC by twin brothers Romulus and Remus".*6 As the Romans' power grew, they started the expansion process and many towns, cities and empires were incorporated into the Roman system. All these processes were through a series of wars on the neighbouring towns and cities; it was a converging process of civilization as the result of an increase of power. When the empire reached its height, it covered the Mediterranean region, a large part of Europe and part of Asia. In the process of Roman expansion, Greece was incorporated to the Roman system in 146 BC[112] Many Greek cultures were adopted and disseminated within the empire and beyond. However, the classical Greek studies started to decline in the 3th AD. Why?

The adoption of Christianity as the state church

As the Roman Empire expanded, the whole hierarchical system became bigger and bigger. The territory expanded and the population increased. More ethnic groups were included in the system. These changing factors increased the power of the lower part of the hierarchical system and the tendency towards disorder, resulting in increased instability of the system. Therefore, there was a need to increase the power of the top of the hierarchical system to maintain the stability. It was impossible to resort only to the "External Controlling Force" without an "Internal Controlling Force" to maintain social stability. This can be demonstrated from the short lifespan of Alexander's Empire, which collapsed soon after his death. For this reason, a powerful "Internal Controlling Force" was needed. Indeed, such an attempt was initiated at the time of Julius Caesar. An imperial cult was formed among many religious groups in Roman society [113] and the Roman emperor was the head of the religious sect [114]

"The imperial cult of ancient Rome identified emperors and some members of their families with the divinely sanctioned authority of the roman state. The framework for the imperial cult was formulated during the early Principate of Augustus, and was rapidly established throughout the Empire and its provinces" – Imperial cult (ancient Rome) Wikipedia.

Through the belief that the emperor was of divine power, the governing power of the top was strengthened and the system's stability could be improved.

While the Roman Empire was expanding in the 1st century, Christianity, a religion rose from the Middle East. Soon it spread to the Roman Empire. [115] As it had a different order, conflict with the Roman Empire was inevitable, and as a result, it was persecuted by the Roman Empire.

"Christians suffered from sporadic and localized persecutions over a period of two and a half centuries. Their refusal to participate in imperial cult was considered an act of treason and was thus punishable by execution. The most widespread official persecution was carried out by Diocletian. During the Great Persecution (303-311), the emperor ordered Christian buildings and the homes of Christians torn down and their sacred books collected and burned. Christians were arrested, tortured, mutilated, burned, starved, and condemned to gladiatorial contests to amuse spectators." – Constantine the Great and Christianity, Wikipedia

However, Christianity's fortune changed in 313 AD when the Roman emperor Constantine legalized Christianity. Furthermore, it was granted the power of State Church of the Roman Empire in 380 by the emperor, Theodosius I. [116] After Constantine's legalization, Christianity functioned as an "Internal Controlling Force" in the empire, but the emperor imposed himself as the head of the church.

The consequences of adoption of Christianity as the state church

After the adoption of Christianity as the state church, a powerful government-church alliance force was formed. The conflict of Christian and non-Christian ideals was destined to happen. With the strong influence on the Roman emperors, the church had the support of a powerful "External Controlling Force" to control the society. Then, the church started to stem out non Christian ideals. This came as the persecution of pagans by the Christian Roman Empire.[117] As this force was so powerful, it left no space for any idea of seeking truth from nature to develop. This was contrary to the condition of the social environment of ancient Greece. In retrospective thinking, if the Roman Empire had allied with the natural philosophers, what would have happened? This hypothesis can be seen in the historical event that King Henry VIII intervened with the curriculum of Cambridge University, which greatly accelerated the development of science.

This persecution has long been explained by the monotheism of Christianity, which believes that there is only one god. Before the Christianity was adopted as the Roman State Church, multiple religious sects existed in the Roman Empire, including the imperial cult. They played a role in maintaining the social order of Roman Empire. As multiple religions existed in the same system – the Roman Empire, clash between them was inevitable, given the philosophical principle that multiple subsystems with different orders within a system will inevitably create conflict and result in disorder. As this proceeded, convergence started: multiple religions transformed into one religion. Since Christianity obtained the status of the State Church, it had the backing of the emperors. This meant that Christianity as the "Internal Controlling Force" controlling the Roman government, the "External Controlling Force", had the upper hand over its rivals. The outcome was the persecution of other religious sects which were labelled as paganism by the Christian Church.

The persecution of paganism was started by the Roman emperor, Constantine the Great. "He ordered the pillaging and the tearing down of some temples." *7 Subsequently, the persecution gradually escalated in terms of scale and harshness of punishment. Constantine's son, emperor Constantius II, legislated anti-Pagan laws. Pagan temples were shut down and torn down. People practicing pagan sacrifice were sentenced to death. The persecution lasted until the collapse of the Roman Empire in 476. [118]

"Christian persecution of paganism after Theodosius I until the fall of the Roman Empire involved a long series of emperors, from both the eastern and western parts of the Empire, and ranged from 395 till 476". – Persecution of pagans by the Christian Roman Empire, Wikipedia

"Christians destroyed almost all such Pagan political literature, and threatened to cut off the hands of any copyist who dared to make new copies of the offending writings". – Persecution of pagans by the Christian Roman Empire, Wikipedia

The persecution caused severe internal conflict between the Roman pagans and the Roman Christians, damaging the social structure. This was attributed to as one of the causes of the collapse of the empire by some scholars. [119]

The persecution of paganism had grievous impacts on the development of science and philosophy. Philosophy was an intellectual activity to seek truth at that time and natural philosophy was the predecessor of science.[120] As non-Christian ideals, philosophy and sciences which sought truth from nature were destined to collide with the church and were thus targeted by the church. Therefore, the main philosophical activities at that time, such as Epicureanism, Stoicism and Platonism, were all persecuted by the Christian Roman Empire during the persecution of paganism.

"After the official approval of Christianity by Constantine the Great, Epicureanism was repressed. Epicurus' materialist theories that the gods were physical beings composed of atoms who were unconcerned with human affairs and had not created the universe, and his general teaching that one's own pleasure, rather than service to God, was the greatest good were essentially irreconcilable with Christian teachings. The school endured a long period of obscurity and decline." – Epicureanism, Wikipedia.

"From its founding, Stoic doctrine was popular with a following throughout Greece and the Roman Empire, including the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, until the closing of all philosophy schools in AD 529 by order of the Emperor Justinian I, who perceived their pagan character as being at odds with the Christian faith". "Stoicism was later regarded by Fathers of the Church as "pagan philosophy". – Stoicism, Wikipedia.

"Plato's academy and other remaining classical schools were closed by the emperor Justinian in AD 529 and non-Christian philosophy was partially banned. Charles Freeman argues that "the imposition of orthodoxy went hand in hand with a stifling of any form of independent reasoning. By the 5th century, not only has rational thought been suppressed, but there has been a substitution for it of "mystery, magic, and authority". From that date some education was required and enforced to conform with sanctioned church doctrine, except in private and hidden circumstances". – Early middle ages, Wikipedia

During the campaign of anti-paganism, the great library, Serapeum, was destroyed in 391.The Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria executed the act. [121]

"In 364, the Christian Emperor Jovian ordered the entire Library of Antioch to be burnt. It had been heavily stocked by the aid of his non-Christian predecessor, Emperor Julian". – List of book-burning incidents, Wikipedia

This following description gives some general ideas of the intellectual activities at that time:

"While Muslims were busy translating and adding their own ideas to Greek philosophies, the Latin West was still suspicious of pagan ideas. Leaders of the Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire also frowned upon philosophy.... Further west, several key figures in European history who came after Boethius had strengthened the overwhelming shift away from Greek ideas. St. Jerome, for example, was hostile to Aristotle, and St. Augustine had little interest in exploring philosophy, only applying logic to theology. For centuries, Greek ideas in Europe were all but non-existent. Only a few monasteries had Greek works, and even fewer of them copied these works". – Latin translations of the 12th century, Wikipedia

The cultural downturn happened before the social downturn after the collapse of the Roman Empire.

### Middle Ages

Social downturn in the west

From the late antiquity, the Western Roman Empire had been experiencing severe social disorder and struggling in its terminal life. It finally came to its end in 476 A.D. marked by its last emperor deposed by the invading barbarians. This event spelt the end of Classical Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages.[122] The Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages were the transformation from Roman Europe to Germanic Europe.

The migration of Germanic tribes (376-800AD)[123] into Roman territory was physically a divergent expansion process due to their power increase. It was also due to the diminished power of the top of European hierarchical system, seen as the weakening of the Roman power. When these conditions happened, then a divergent process occurred, seen as the Germanic tribes diverging into the Roman territory. Their arrival brought in a new order of their own which was based on their interest. As their order was different to the Romans', they were destined to collide with the Romans, further aggravating the already existing disorder and accelerating the collapse of the Roman Empire.

With the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the top of the hierarchical social system, the centralized administration, no longer existed, and Western Europe slid into chaos. Furthermore, at the beginning, all these tribes were in a parallel relationship and there wasn't a powerful force to position on top of them. Since each tribe had its own "order" of interest and when these multiple "orders" existed in the same space in European continent without a powerful force on top to govern them, a stable hierarchical system could not exist. As the result, the whole system turned into disorder and conflict was inevitable, seen in wars as different groups collided, annihilated, subdued or merged together. This was the mechanism of incessant wars happening at that time.

The wars between new Germanic tribes as well as the war of the Eastern Roman Empire to reclaim the lost territory of the former Western Roman empire resulted in severe social downturn in early medieval Europe.[124] During this period.

"The Ostrogoths settled in Italy in the late 5th century and set up a kingdom; The Burgundians settled in Gaul and formed a kingdom in the 440s between today's Geneva and Lyon; In northern Gaul the Franks and Britons set up small kingdoms; other kingdoms were established by the Visigoths in Spain, the Suevi in northwestern Spain, and the Vandals in North Africa. In the 6th century, the Lombards settled in northern Italy, replacing the Ostrogothic kingdom..." "Warfare was common between and within the kingdoms". – Middle Ages, Wikipedia

Of all these wars, the Gothic war was of the most devastating.[125] As a result, social breakdown followed.

"The period saw a continuation of trends begun during late classical antiquity, including population decline, especially in urban centres, a decline of trade, and increased immigration. The period has been labelled the "Dark Ages", a characterization highlighting the relative scarcity of literary and cultural output from this time, especially in Western Europe". – Early Middle Age, Wikipedia

"In the Early Middle Ages, depopulation, de-urbanization, and barbarian invasion, which began in Late Antiquity, continued. – Middle Ages, Wikipedia

"Although Italian cities remained inhabited places, they contracted greatly in size".*8 "For almost a thousand years, Rome was the most politically important, richest and largest city in Europe. Around AD 100, it had a population of about 450000. Its population declined to a mere 20000 during the Early Middle Ages, reducing the sprawling city to groups of inhabited buildings interspersed among large areas of ruins and vegetation. – Early Middle Age, Wikipedia

"Everywhere, the gradual break-down of economic and social linkages and infrastructure resulted in increasingly localized outlooks. This breakdown often fast and dramatic as it became unsafe to travel or carry goods over any distance... Administrative, educational and military infrastructure quickly vanished, and the loss of the established cursus honorum led to the collapse of the schools and to a rise of illiteracy even among the leadership." – Early Middle Age, Wikipedia

"The older values of Latin scholarship and education mostly disappeared, and while literacy remained important, it became a practical skill rather than a sign of elite status. – Middle Ages, Wikipedia

The rise of the monastery

As de-urbanization occurred, cities and towns could not provide the environment for adequate living and various social activities, thus an alternative environment was needed. As the result, a special environment was adopted for people to conduct various social activities – the monastery.

Although monasteries originated in the Middle East in the 1st century, [126] they rose and thrived in the Middle Ages in Europe. Monasteries were a response to the unstable and chaotic social environment, by forming a specific organization isolated from the rest of society with self-sufficiency.[127]. Such a social isolation provided a stable environment for people to survive and conduct various activities. This organization is similar to a microorganism creating its cell wall and cell membrane to isolate itself from the harmful environment.

Out of this social environment, local powerful families used their asset to set up monastery with their family member being in charge of this organization – the abbot or abbess. [128]

To keep this organization in order, some "Internal Controlling Forces" were used, which were Christian ideals and asceticism. [129] The use of asceticism could minimize the chance of internal conflicts by lowering individuals' desire, particularly in this period of social downturn where supply was in shortage. In this harsh environment, mutual support was needed, and thus cenobitic monasticism was of value.[130] The concepts of Christianity were used to keep the system in order, in which different versions of monastic order were practiced during different periods such as Rule of the Master and the Rule of St. Benedict.[131] Individuals spent their time praying and studying the Bible.[132] Studying the Bible could keep them in line with the Bible's teaching. Praying could divert their desires to somewhere else (God). All these activities helped to maintain order in the monastery.

Although there was a bishop in the monastery to look after related affairs, he was not the highest administrator of the system. The top of the hierarchical system was the abbot or abbess. They had the right of jurisdiction and were laymen from a local powerful family which had used family assets to set up the monastery. [133]

Under their administration, members of the monastery according to their capabilities were organized to do their works in order to sustain the running of the system. [134] In this way, these monasteries became the production centers in the local area and also provided services to the people around. [135]

Isolation from the surrounding society, self-sufficiency and enforcement of rules provided an orderly hence stable environment among the chaotic society of the early Middle Ages. They were the "bright spots" in the "Dark Ages", preserving civilization. In these "spots", expertise and some technologies related to production were preserved and developed.

"They functioned as agricultural, economic and production centers as well as a focus for spiritual life".*9 "Monasteries were important contributors to the surrounding community.*10 Since monasteries offered respite for weary pilgrim travellers, monks were obligated also to care for their injuries or emotional needs. Over time, lay people started to make pilgrimages to monasteries instead of just using them as a stop over. By this time, they had sizeable libraries that attracted tourist... During the plagues, monks helped to till the fields and provide food for the sick." – Monastery, Wikipedia

Monasteries played an important role as intellectual centres, to copy and preserve previous classical works and author new works. [136]

"Many of the surviving manuscripts of the Roman classics were copied in monasteries in the Early Middle Ages. Monks were also the authors of new works, including history, theology, and other subjects... – Middle Ages, Wikipedia

Monasteries functioned as studying centres in the chaotic society. In all these works, monks and nuns played an important role. [137]

"De-urbanization reduced the scope of education and by the 6th century teaching and learning moved to monastic and cathedral schools, with the centre of education being the study of biblical texts. – Early Middle Age, Wikipedia

"Since the cenobitic rule of Pachomius (d. 348 AD) and the sixth-century Rule of the Master and the Rule of St. Benedict, monks and nuns were required to engage actively in reading. This reading took on the characteristics of a school that dealt with both religious and secular subjects. Beginning in the 5th century a variety of abbots took upon themselves the responsibility of education those who entered the monastery at a young age. The earliest of these monastic schools had more of a spiritual and ascetic focus than a scriptural or theological one..." – Monastic school, Wikipedia

"Monastic schools (Latin: Scholae monasticae) were, along with cathedral schools, the most important institutions of higher learning in the Latin West from the early Middle Ages until the 12th century. Since Cassiodorus's educational program, the standard curriculum incorporated religious studies, the Trivium and the Quadrivium. In some places monastic schools evolved into medieval universities which eventually largely superseded both institutions as centers of higher learning". – Monastic school, Wikipedia

"They were centres of intellectual progression and education. They welcomed aspiring priests to come study and learn, allowing them even to challenge doctrine in dialogue with superiors. – Monastery, Wikipedia

"The efficiency of his cenobitic rule in addition to the stability of the monasteries made such estates very productive; the general monk was essentially raised to a level of nobility; for the serfs of the estate would tend to the labor while the monk was free to study. The monasteries thus attracted many of the best people in society, and during this period the monasteries were the central storehouses and producers of knowledge". – Christianity in the 7th century, Wikipedia

Why could monasteries preserve some classical learning?

Of all monastic activities, the most interesting question to arise is: how on earth could part of the classical learning be preserved when it largely disappeared in the West under the persecution of paganism in the early time, and later the social downturn? For example, some classical works could be copied in monastery. This is in contrast to the case in late antiquity in which copyists were threatened to have their hands cut off if they copied these pagan works.

Apart from the monasteries' stable environment, the most important factor allowing some classical learning to survive was that the Roman Catholic Church's power was severely weakened due to the collapse of the Roman Empire. This left the Roman Catholic Church losing the arm of the "External Controlling Force" to impose its rules on society, as they had in the persecution of paganism. Meanwhile, the new rulers of Europe, the Germanic kings were not ready to give support to the Roman Catholic Church as much as the Western Roman Empire did. At the same time, the Eastern Orthodox Church took much of the ecclesiastical power away from the Catholic Church. All of these dealt severe blows to the Roman Catholic Church and they loosened their grip.

"The ecclesiastical structure of the Rome Empire survived the barbarian invasions in the west mostly intact, but the papacy was little regarded, with few of the western bishops looking to the bishop of Rome for religious or political leadership. Many of the popes prior to 750 were in any case more concerned with Byzantine affairs and eastern theological concerns". – Middle Ages, Wikipedia

Another reason was that European monasteries were based on the Irish model. Many Irish cultures influenced the development of European monasteries, such as the fact that the administration of monasteries was in the hands of laymen, abbots and abbesses, not in the hands of the Catholic Church. This situation lasted until the Cluniac reform [138] in 10th century.

"Commonly Irish monasteries were established by grants of land to an abbot or abbess who came from a local noble family. The monastery became the spiritual focus of the tribe or kin group. Successive abbots and abbesses were members of the founder's family, a policy which kept the monastic lands under the jurisdiction of the family (and corresponded to Irish legal tradition, which only allowed the transfer of land within a family). – Christianity in the 5th century, Wikipedia

"Ireland was a rural society of chieftains living in the countryside, there was no social place for urban leaders, such as bishops. In Irish monasteries the abbot (or abbess) was supreme, but in conformance to Christian tradition, bishops still had important sacramental roles to play (in the early Church the bishops were the ones who baptized new converts to bring them into the Church). In Ireland, the bishop frequently was subordinate to (or co-equal with) the abbot and sometimes resided in the monastery under the jurisdiction of the abbot". – Christianity in the 5th century, Wikipedia

Also, Ireland had its own distinctive situation to the European continent in the Roman time. While most of the classical works were not available in the West due to the persecution of paganism, some were available to be copied in Ireland. [139] This could be attributed to the fact that Rome never ruled in Ireland. [140] Therefore, one can theorize that the persecution of paganism did not happen in Ireland, given that the last high king of Ireland Diarmait Mac Cerbaill (d. 565) conducted his pagan inauguration. [141] As a result:

"... Irish monks did not fear pagan learning. Irish monks needed to learn Latin, which was the language of the church. Thus they read Latin texts, both spiritual and secular. By the end of the 7th century, Irish monastic schools were attracting students from England and from Europe". – Christianity in the 6th century, Wikipedia

As monasteries could adapt well to the specific social environment and help to preserve certain social activities, they spread to the European continent and were supported by the kings.

"The first non-Roman area to adopt monasticism was Ireland" later, it spread to "Scotland and Northern England, then to Gaul and Italy". – Christianity in the 5th century, Wikipedia

"Columbanus, an abbot from a Leinster noble family, travelled to Gaul in the late 6th century with twelve companions. Columbanus and his followers spread the Irish model of monastic institutions established by noble families to the continent. A whole series of new rural monastic foundations on great rural estates under Irish influence sprang up starting with Columbanus's foundations of Fontaines and Luxeuil, sponsored by the Frankish King Childebert II. After Childebert's death Columbanus travelled east to Metz, where Theudebert II allowed him to establish a new monastery among the semi-pagan Alemanni in what is now Switzerland. One of Columbanus' followers founded the monastery of St. Gall on the shores of Lake Constance, while Columbanus continued onward across the Alps to the kingdom of the Lombards in Italy. The King Agilulf and his wife Theodolinda granted Columbanus land in the mountains between Genoa and Milan, where he established the monastery of Bobbio". – Christianity in the 6th century, Wikipedia

Consequence of preserving classical learning

The preservation of learning in monasteries played an important role in the recovery of learning in the later Carolingian renaissance. It was monasteries' preserved knowledge and educated monks in the early Middle Ages that later assisted the Carolingian renaissance Carolingian renaissance,[142] in the 9th century. These monks played an important role in the Carolingian renaissance as some of them were later recruited by Charles the Great to his education program.[143] The spread of monasteries also helped the spread of monastic schools in Western Europe. These schools, along with cathedral schools, later served as the bases of Carolingian schools, helping the recovery of learning in the Carolingian renaissance.

The role of cathedral schools in medieval intellectual activities

"In the later Roman Empire, as Roman municipal education declined, bishops began to establish schools associated with their cathedrals to provide to the church with an educated clergy. The earliest evidence of a school established in this manner is in Visigothic Spain at the Second council of Toledo in 527. These early schools, with a focus on an apprenticeship in religious learning under a scholarly bishop, have been indentified in other parts of Spain and in about twenty towns in Gaul (France) during the sixth and seventh centuries". – Cathedral school, Wikipedia

"During and after the mission of St Augustine to the Southern British, Cathedral schools were established as the new dioceses were themselves created (Canterbury 597, Rochester 604, York 627 for example). – Cathedral school, Wikipedia

"Subjects taught at Cathedral schools ranged from literature to mathematics. These topics were called the seven liberal arts: grammar, astronomy, rhetoric (or speech), logic, arithmetic, geometry and music. In grammar classes, students were trained to read, write and speak Latin which was the universal language in Europe at the time. Astronomy was necessary for calculating dates and times. Rhetoric was a major component of a vocal education. Logic consisted of discovering the art of solving mathematical problems, and arithmetic served as the basis for quantitative reasoning.... Much as in the present day, cathedral schools were split into elementary and higher schools with different curricula. The elementary school curriculum was composed of reading, writing and psalmody, while the high school curriculum as trivium (grammar, rhetoric and dialect), the rest of the liberal arts, as well as scripture study and pastoral theology." – Cathedral school, Wikipedia

Carolingian Renaissance

The wars in the early Middle Ages were actually a process of power convergence, through which some tribes were eliminated; some were merged; and some were subdued. As a result, a stable hierarchical system gradually formed. In this process, the Frankish emerged as the most powerful force, occupying the top of the hierarchical system, while other weaker tribes were subdued to lower levels of the system forming the Carolingian Empire. When stability returned, it paved the way for social development. There came the development of education – the Carolingian renaissance.

"By the 8th century, the Frankish Kingdom, a Germanic kingdom that had originated east of the Rhine, ruled much of Western Europe, particularly in what is now France and Germany... In 768 Charles, son of King Pepin the Short, succeeded to the Frankish throne. During the 770s Charles conquered the Lombards in Italy extending the Frankish realm over almost all of Italy. On Christmas Day in 800, the Roman Patriarch Leo III coronated Charles as the Roman emperor, in essence denying the status of the Roman Empress Irene, reigning in Constantinople. This act caused a substantial diplomatic rift between the Franks and the Eastern Romans, as well as between Rome and the other patriarchs in the East". Christian missionaries to the Frankish Empire include: Saint Boniface, Saint Walpurga, Saint Winibald (English siblings assisting Boniface), Wilfrid, Willibrord, Willehad of Bremen, Lebuinus, Saint Ludger, Suitbert of Kaiserwerdt, Saint Pirmin, Saint Corbinian"...– Christianity in the 8th century, Wikipedia

The Carolingian renaissance started in 787, marked by Charlemagne issuing an order to create schools in his empire.[144] Under his leadership, a program to rebuild the educational system was launched. The reason for this program was that the kingdom badly needed educated personnel to administer various affairs,[145] as there were not many literate people, but lots of illiterate – even Charlemagne himself. In contrast to the potential rivals in the surrounding region such as the Byzantine Empire and Islamic caliphates, the educational level in his empire was far behind. The Byzantine area had been traditionally better developed than the West since the Greek classical age and it remained relatively stable while the West was at wars. The Islamic Abbasid Caliphate had developed into more advanced stage at that time.[146] The Carolingian empire would have been aware of the advancement of the Islamic culture since there was contact between the empire and Abbasid caliphate.

"an Abbasid-Carolingian alliance was attempted and partially formed during the 8th to 9th century through a series of embassies, rapprochements and combined military operations between the Frankish Carolingian Empire and the Abbasid caliphate or the pro-Abbasid Muslim rulers in Spain. These contacts followed the intense conflict between the Carolingians and the Umayyad, marked by the landslide Battle of Tours in 732, and were aimed at establishing a counter alliance with the faraway Abbasid Empire. – Abbasid-Carolingian alliance, Wikipedia

Meanwhile, the educational system in the West was in disarray due to the social downturn caused by previous wars. The lack of educated personnel to administer the society led to Charlemagne's rebuilding of the educational system.

"To address these problems, Charlemagne ordered the creation of schools in a capitulary known as the Charter of Modern Thought, issued in 787". – Carolingian renaissance, Wikipedia

"In 789, Charlemagne's Admonitio Generalis required that schools be established in every monastery and bishopric, in which "children can learn to read; that psalms, notation, chant, computation, and grammar be taught." Subsequent documents, such as the letter De litteris colendis, required that bishops select as teachers men who had "the will and the ability to learn and a desire to instruct other" and a decree of the Council of Frankfort (794) recommended that bishops undertake the instruction of their clergy". – Cathedral school, Wikipedia

He recruited many leading scholars from all over Western Europe to his court to lead the educational program, including Italian, English, Irish and Spanish. [147]

"In 800, Charlemagne enlarged the hostel at the Muristan in Jerusalem and added a library to it. He certainly had not been personally in Jerusalem". – Charlemagne, Wikipedia

As the effort of Charlemagne, the Carolingian renaissance left the impacts of "an increase of literature writing, the arts, architecture, jurisprudence, liturgical reforms, and scriptural studies".*11 The most important impact was the creation of many schools and educated personnel that later on helped the medieval institutional learning to evolve into university.

Compared with the Roman Empire, Charlemagne's education policy was very different. He created schools, whereas the Roman Empire shut down schools which were considered to spread paganism. The Roman Empire burned libraries in the anti-paganism campaign, whereas Charlemagne rebuilt libraries. These changes were due to the change in Europe's ownership. The new owners were not Romans but Germanic people. They had different cultures. Even the Frankish kings were Christianized, they were of characteristics of Germanic Christianity. It may be the utilitarianism of Germanic Christianity,[148] resulting in the reduced influence of the Roman Catholic Church on the Frankish kings, and in this period, the Catholic Church was not strong enough to hold the ear of the king.

The power changes of the Catholic Church

Although it was losing power after the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church did not just sit idly. It tried to regain its power and territory by sending missionaries to Christianize the new Germanic kingdoms. "Gregory had sent the Gregorian mission in 597 to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity".*12 He also played a role in converting the Visigoths and Lombards from Arianism to Catholicism. [149]

"From the 6th century, Germanic tribes were converted (and re-converted) by missionaries of the Roman Catholic Church, firstly among the Franks, after Clovis I's conversion to Catholicism in 496. In 498 (497 or 499 are also possible) he let himself be baptized in Reims. With this act, the Frankish Kingdom became Christian, although it would take until the 7th century for the population to abandon some of their pagan customs. This was typical of the Christianization of Europe. Conversion of the West and East Germanic tribes took place 'top to bottom', in the sense that missionaries aimed at converting Germanic nobility first, which would then impose their new faith onto general population".*13 "By the 8th century, most of Anglo-Saxon England and the Frankish Empire was de jure Christian". – Christianity in the 8th century, Wikipedia.

This means that the Christianity by that time had regained its lost territory and beyond.

Of all the conversion, the conversion of the Frankish was of most importance to the Roman Catholic Church, because the Frankish empire was the most powerful organization in Western Europe. However, to maintain such a large system, the Carolingian empire could not simply rely on armed force. The need for an "Internal Controlling Force" led the Frankish to choose Christianity as the means to do this job. At the same time, the Roman Catholic Church was still recovering from its downturn due to losing its supporter, the Roman Empire. To find a new supporter was the Catholic Church's need. Having this common goal, these two parties came together.

"In the 8th century, the Franks became standard-bearers of Roman Catholic Christianity in Western Europe waging wars on its behalf against Arian Christians, Islamic invaders, and pagan Germanic peoples such as the Saxons and Frisians". – Christianity in the 8th century, Wikipedia

"Eventually, the conversion was imposed by armed force and successfully completed by Charlemagne and the Franks in a series of campaigns, starting in 772 with the destruction of their Irminsul and culminating in the defeat and massacre of Saxon leaders at the Bloody Verdict of Verden in 787 and the subjugation of this large tribe". – Christianity in the 8th century, Wikipedia

"Charles followed with a policy of forcible conversion of all Frankish subjects to the Roman Church, specifically declaring loyalty to Rome (as opposed to Constantinople). The strength of the Frankish armies helped repel further incursion of Muslim forces in Europe. Charles was seen in the West as having revived the Roman Empire and came to be known as Charles the Great". – Christianity in the 9th century, Wikipedia

The peak of this "marriage" was staged on the Christmas day of 800 AD when the Roman Patriarch Leo III coronated Charles. – Christianity in the 9th century, Wikipedia

The coronation of Charlemagne was a critical point for the Roman Catholic Church and the Frankish kingdom, including Charlemagne himself. To the Frankish, the coronation gave them the legitimacy to be the ruler in the territory of the former Roman Empire and be equal to the eastern Roman Empire. To Charlemagne, not only did it strengthen his personal authority to govern but Christianity could be used as the "Internal Controlling Force" to maintain his empire.

To the Roman Catholic Church, it became powerful again by regaining an "External Controlling Force". Then, a series of changes happened.

However, this was a marriage for convenience. It was part of the Germanic culture that formed the Germanic Christianity.

"The Germanic peoples underwent gradual Christianization in the course of the Early Middle Ages, resulting in a unique from of Christianity known as Germanic Christianity. – Christianity in the 6th century, Wikipedia

"In the polytheistic Germanic tradition it was even possible to worship Jesus next to the native gods like Wodan and Thor. Before a battle, a pagan military leader might pray to Jesus for victory, instead of Odin, if he expected more help from the Christian God..... Such utilitarian thoughts were the basis of most conversion of rulers during this period". – Christianity in the 6th century, Wikipedia

An extreme example of this utilitarianism was the incidence that Roger III, Duke of Apulia, ambushed the papal troops and captured Pope Innocent II to force the pope to recognize his legitimacy.

"On 22 July 1139, at Galluccio, Roger II's son Roger III, Duke of Apulia, ambushed the papal troops with a thousand knights and captured Innocent. On 25 July 1139, Innocent was forced to acknowledge the kingship and possessions of Roger with the Treaty of Mignano. In 1143, Innocent refused to recognize the Treaty of Mignano with Roger of Sicily, who sent Robert of Selby to march on papal Benevento. The terms agreed upon at Mignano were then recognized". – Pope innocent II, Wikipedia

From the perspective of the Germanic people's utilitarianism, it would not be surprising to see that Charlemagne's education policies differed from those of the Roman Empire, particularly considering the more advanced cultures existing in other competing empires at that time.

Regaining the "External Controlling Force", the Catholic Church's power increased and the territory it influenced expanded. Only one century after the coronation of Charlemagne, the Catholic Church placed the monasteries "under the direct control of the pope rather than the secular control of feudal lords" through Cluniac reform.[150] This act further strengthened the church's power. The increased power transformed the church from having no importance in the Christian world to challenge the dominant position of Constantinople church, eventually leading to the east-west schism.

The transformation of European intellectual development which established the foundations of modern science

Although the Carolingian Renaissance suffered a setback after the death of Charlemagne, the intellectual development in Western Europe accelerated from the High Middle Ages: the direction of intellectual development changed with the reintroduction of Aristotle's metaphysics; advanced sciences and philosophy were introduced in large scale; the order of institutional learning was transformed with the establishment of medieval universities. All these changes eventually led to the development of modern sciences, but what was the mechanism behind this transformation?

It was the chaotic interaction of multiple forces that provided a social mechanism transforming the order of intellectual development in Western Europe. This led to the dawn of a new era: the scientific revolution. Of this power interaction, the Catholic Church certainly was one of the important forces in the medieval Europe but other forces also played important roles too. As all these powers existed in an environment without a powerful force on top to govern them, they turned into conflicts and eventually into wars. This was the mechanism leading to the widespread conflicts in this dynamic period and it was a convergent process. As the result, new orders were born out of this chaotic interaction \- the old order of intellectual development was gradually transformed into a new order.

Within this power interaction, although the Catholic Church had recovered from the previous downturn and expanded its territory, its power was bound by several forces at that time. The great schism created a religious rivalry to the Catholic Church, the Constantinople church. It stood in the East with its protector, the Byzantine Empire, and balanced the power of the Catholic Church to some extent.

Furthermore, another power, the secular authority, stood in parallel to the Catholic Church on top of the social hierarchical system. This structure led to the conflict of these two forces and the weakening of the church's control. Now, the Catholic Church had to deal with new rulers, the Germanic people who were different to the Romans, and with a very strong challenging culture.

However, the emergence of competition from another civilisation – the Islamic civilisation was critical to the phase transition in medieval Europe. The religion, military expansion, advanced sciences and technologies from Islamic civilisation were so compelling that it drew responses from Europe. Of these responses, intellectual development came to a critical point of phase transition. Under this social mechanism, the transformation of the order of institutional learning was unfolding:

The transformation of the order of how institutional learning was organized

The emergence of university in the Medieval period was the product of this mechanism. Consequently, it profoundly influenced the course of European civilization. It is important to understand how higher learning evolved under this mechanism in the Medieval period. Therefore, the focus should not only be placed on its superficial features but the running order of these institutions and the mechanism behind its evolution.

As we all know, university is a specific form of organization which creates and disseminates knowledge to individuals. But organizations for learning had already existed long before university and well beyond Europe. Then what is the difference between these methods of institutional learning – university and other institutional learning? To answer this question it is important to find out the specific order of running such a learning organization and the mechanism under which it evolved.

In the early Middle Ages, the center of learning shifted to the monasteries due to de-urbanization. After Europe became gradually stabilized, came the Carolingian renaissance. It was the prelude to the revival of learning in Europe. The need for educated men to govern society led to the revival of education. It was under Charlemagne's leadership that many cathedral and monastic schools were revitalized and the number of schools was expanded in Carolingian renaissance. Some of these schools later played a role in the evolution of higher learning – university.[151] After Charlemagne's death, his empire went into a period of instability and this renaissance suffered a setback. However, the fundamental social factors that cultivated the Carolingian renaissance still existed and influences from the Islamic world added to the revival of interest of learning.[152] Of all factors, the increasing demand for educated personnel to administrate social affairs was the main stimulation of learning.

The increased demand for educated personnel drew students to schools.[153] In some cities, such as Bologna in Italy and Paris in France, student numbers increased and they came from all over Europe.[154] With the increased number of individuals from outside these towns joining the "knowledge-trading", they became a group with specific interests and influence. Their demand benefited the local economy but also caused conflict with the local townspeople. The conflict between the students and the local residents is traditionally called "the town versus gown".[155] Of course, each party wanted to protect its own interests. With the continued increase in student numbers, their power in this trading also increased. When the power increased to a critical point, the phase transition happened. This was the formation of the trading union to protect their interests. The students in Bologna used this power to deal with local housing providers, the food sellers, and fought the injustice of the local government laws such as the collective punishment against foreign students. When they used their power to deal with teachers in deciding who taught them, how the teachers were paid, how the teachers taught and behaved and the curriculum,[156] it was the beginning of a change in the order of institutional learning which had significant impacts to the formation of the new order of learning – university. In this knowledge trading, the students were the dominant power over the teachers because "customers are always right". However, the teachers later formed their union which decided who had the qualification to teach. From then on, the students and teachers gained autonomy in governing institutional learning. They could determine what subjects to be taught and who had the qualification to teach. This allowed them to control their future development. Later, they demanded the authorities to formally recognize their organization and be given privilege and protection,[157] through which they acquired legal status, and their survival was guaranteed by the protection and privilege of the authorities. Getting protection from authorities was the first step for the union to survive, considering they were in the infant stage. [158]

However, all these aforementioned were simply the phenomena appearing on the surface. Behind all of these was the social mechanism at that time, of which the Germanic culture played a very important role in establishing the new order of institutional learning. If we look at the whole process from a new perspective, comparing those foreign students' role in the establishment of medieval universities with another parallel process, the barbarian invasion, then the Germanic culture will emerge to the surface:

Although the Germanic tribes had settle down on the land of the former Roman Empire, a new wave of "barbarian invasion" happened in southern Europe, Bologna and Paris. This was a group of young men. They were restless and eager to acquire knowledge, much as their predecessors who fought fiercely to acquire the land. Such foreigners' "invasion" of course caused conflict with the local townspeople with a series of disputes such as rents, food price and etc... The local authorities even imposed the law of collective punishment on them. Not only did these conflicts happen, but physical fighting happened as well. In response to these, the "invaders" did not sit idly but decided to fight to protect their own interest. They grouped together to form their "legion" – their union.[159] Their tactics were "fight and flee". Behind the similarity of these two parallel processes, the common mechanism was the culture of the Germanic people – the fighting spirit which was borne out of the warring environment in Europe. It was this spirit that made the students challenge the various local orders – the landlords, the shop owners, the local authority and the governing authority of schools in Bologna.

Compared with Bologna, the formation of the Paris University was more colourful and dramatic. Students also staged various fights. Fights with barkeepers and the locals happened in taverns, and these conflicts turned into fights with provost's men. After one "battle", when they lost the fight to the local police and suffered heavy casualties, with several students were killed, they turned to the chancellor for "reinforcement" and support. When they did not get it, they grouped together, led by teachers, and turned to the other authority – the secular king. This time, their weapon was threatening to flee which was a threat to launch an economical war on the local business, because in this way they could harm the local business since their spending helped the local economy. Finally, they got what they wanted – the royal charter, from King Philip. With it, they had their rights, privileges and protection from the king and later from the pope.[160] This was the first critical point of phase transition into new order of institutional learning. This transformation was under the mechanism contributed not only by the Germanic culture but the parallel governing systems at that time. The Catholic Church's power was balanced by the secular authority.

Although the formation of Paris University shared many similarities with the Bologna, the institutional learning in Paris was under tighter control from the Catholic Church. The teachers did not have the right to decide who could teach. This right was exclusively under the control of the chancellor of the Paris diocese. Therefore, having securing their survival, the teachers in Paris moved on to fight for the right of self-control of teaching affairs free from the chancellor's control, including the qualification of teaching, the curriculum, etc. This was an ongoing battle that had happened before when the chancellor directly imposed his authority to control the teaching affairs in the Cathedral School of Notre Dame. The teachers later left the school in defiance.[161] This time, the teachers launched the battle with greater power after forming their union. Finally, the teachers' demand for autonomy was granted by Pope Innocent III in 1215.[162] This was a decisive win for the teachers to change the order of organizing higher learning in the evolution of university. The obtaining of the right of autonomy from the pope allowed the teachers to decide the curricula in the learning institutions. Furthermore, within the University, the teachers gradually grouped together to form subgroups - the "Faculties" according to their subjects. The students also grouped together to form their subgroups – the "Nations" according to their original countries. The teachers in the Faculty of Arts were also members of the Nations. Later, the members of Nations in the Faculty of Arts elected a member who was a teacher as their representative – the" Rector". Originally, the rector's power only covered the Faculty but later gradually covered other Faculties. As such, the power of the Chancellor dwindled and eventually lost his control which meant that the Catholic Church's influence over the University was weakened. [163] Hence, an institution of higher learning with a new specific order was born – universitas.

This victory for the teachers was due to not only the challenging culture of the Germanic people but the competition from the Islamic world that the pope was facing. During this period, the most imminent threat to the Catholic Church was the expansion of Islamic power against which the Church launched several crusades in response to the Islamic military expansion. This was the top priority of the pope but the conflict between the chancellor and university teachers was not the priority. For this reason, Pope Innocent III had to make concession to the teachers in order to settle the internal dispute.[164] From this perspective, one can understand why the pope would make concession to the teachers' demand. This event demonstrates how Islamic civilisation impacted on the transformation of intellectual development in Western Europe.

The transformation of teaching method

Having changing part of the order of institutional learning, this "foreign legion" continually launched attacks on the teaching order of institutional learning. These Germanic "warriors" launched a new battle to challenge the order of how to teach. As a result, a new method of teaching was introduced to the classroom – disputation based on dialectic and logic.[165] Compared with the previous teaching approach in the Classical Ages and also the educational system in other civilizations, this was a distinct characteristic in medieval Europe. By its very nature, disputation is simply a debate, which was nothing new to society. For example, debate had been practiced in the ancient Greeks' public live in their city-states. Dialectic had been taught in classical Greece too. But to introduce dialectic in the form of real-time debate in the classroom was novel in leaning. It was of importance in the evolution of Western education.

The use of dialectic in disputation was a specific form of the ancient Greeks' legacy – the thinking method to seek truth. To train students to gain competent capability in thinking was part of the aim. The use of dialectic and logic in scholastic teaching played a role in training students to gain this capability, although at the beginning it was served as the approach to teach theology. It was part of the scholastic teaching.

"Scholasticism originally began to reconcile the philosophy of the ancient classical philosophers with medieval Christian theology. It is not a philosophy or theology in itself, but a tool and method for learning which puts emphasis on dialectical reasoning. The primary purpose of scholasticism was to find the answer to a question or resolve a contradiction. It is most well known in its application in medieval theology, but was eventually applied to classical philosophy and many other fields of study". – Christianity in the 13th century, Wikipedia

"Not so much a philosophy or a theology as a method of learning, scholasticism places a strong emphasis on dialectical reasoning to extend knowledge by inference, and to resolve contradictions. Scholastic thought is also known for rigorous conceptual analysis and the careful drawing of distinctions. In the classroom and in writing, it often takes the form of explicit disputation: a topic drawn from the tradition is broached in the form of a question, opponents' responses are given, a counterproposal is argued and opponent's arguments rebutted. Because of its emphasis on rigorous dialectical method, scholasticism was eventually applied to many other fields of study". – Scholasticism, Wikipedia

In training students to have the competent capability of thinking, disputation based on dialectic and logic was helpful for students to develop this capability. The mechanism of disputation being a useful approach is: in the process of seeking truth, there are always two opposite possibilities – yes and no. This is the expression of symmetry. But when this process further proceeds, two opposite possibilities will turn into only one true reality in which only one possibility can arrive at the true reality. This is the expression of asymmetry. The whole process is governed by the fundamental law of Symmetry–Asymmetry. Therefore, humans need to go through both channels to seek truth. Disputation training gave students the thinking capability to go through two opposite channels to arrive at truth. This was important for the development of science in the era that followed.

The approach of disputation not only trained the students to learn the way of thinking, but allowed them to develop the academic culture of challenging, irrespective of name and fame. Students experienced such debate through watching, participating and taking exams in the form of disputation.[166] Through this training, challenge as part of Germanic culture was embedded in Western education and academic research regardless of titles and fame.

The aforementioned demonstrates that the Germanic people adopted the ancient Greeks' legacies and combined their own culture of challenging to form a new order of how to teach.

The transformation of the curriculum in institutional learning

After "invading" the schools in southern Europe and changing the order of how teaching was organized, these Germanic people started to challenge the content taught in schools as well. For example, Peter Abelard, who was a product of this mechanism of education and an influential teacher at that time, started to challenge the contents taught in the classroom: he published a historically influential book, Sic et non (Yes and No),[287] in which he "juxtaposes apparently contradictory quotations from the Church Fathers on many of the traditional topics of Christian theology".*21

Apart from challenging the content in theology taught in the classroom, these teachers in medieval universities started to re-introduce the classical learning of the Greeks'. This was a turning point for the western intellectual development. It was the outcome of a new social mechanism in which the Catholic Church's power was being weaken. More precisely, the right of self-governance weakened the church's control in teaching, allowing more room for science to develop.

Having absorbed ideas from the ancient Greeks, further development was made as the outcome. In thinking methodology, Robert Grosseteste's (c. 1175- 9 October 1253)[167] interpretation of Aristotle's logic was helpful in spreading Aristotle's idea.

"Robert Grosseteste's commentary on the Posterior Analytics places Grosseteste among the first scholastic thinkers in Europe to understand Aristotle's vision of the dual nature of scientific reasoning, Concluding from particular observations into a universal law, and then back again, from universal laws to prediction of particulars. Grosseteste called this 'resolution and composition'. Further, Grosseteste said that both paths should be verified through experimentation to verify the principles". – History of scientific method, Wikipedia

Not only logic and dialectic were used, but the ancient Greeks' scepticism was learnt and further developed. Michel de Montaigne (28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592) played such a role and is "commonly thought of as the father of modern scepticism".*14 His works influenced many outstanding intellectuals for years to come.[168] "Most of Montaigne's Latin quotations are from Erasmus' Adagia, and most critically, all of his quotations from Socrates". – Michel de Montaigne, Wikipedia

Islamic influences to medieval Europe

Certainly, Greek classical knowledge played a role in advancing scientific development in medieval times but the advanced Islamic knowledge played an important role in the transformation of the subjects in institutional learning. "The Latin translations of the 12th century" [169] was a critical point for scientific development in Europe. The flood of advanced Islamic knowledge provided abundant resources and also tools for the European intellectuals to further produce new scientific concepts.

In contrast to Western Europe's social downturn in the early Middle Ages, the Islamic civilization was on the rise and started to expand in the 7th century, expanding to the Iberian Peninsula in the 8th century and Italy in the 9th century. The Islamic presence in the Iberian Peninsula developed into prominence with advanced knowledge. Not only did it expand its territory, but its knowledge in understanding the nature as well. Converging knowledge from Arab, Assyrian, Persian, Indian and Greek, the Islamic civilization reached its "Golden Age" from c. 750 CE – c. 1258 CE during which many advancements were made. These include philosophy, sciences and methodology. [170]

"These achievements encompass a wide range of subject areas; most notably: mathematics, astronomy and medicine. Other notable areas, and specialized subjects, of scientific inquiry include: physics, alchemy and chemistry, cosmology, ophthalmology, geography and cartography, sociology, psychology". – Science in the medieval Islamic world, Wikipedia

Great achievement in mathematics was made, and this was important since mathematics is the key to unlock all scientific problems. It provided a powerful methodological approach in scientific and technological development. Of all achievement in mathematics, algebra was an important development made by Islamic mathematicians. [171]

Another approach of methodology, experimentation, was used to solve problems such as in alchemy and optics by Islamic scientists. This approach in methodology is of importance for science development. [172]

With power expansion, Islamic civilization reached Europe. In the Iberian Peninsula, the Islamic civilization developed. The city of Cordoba evolved to "a population of perhaps 500,000, eventually overtook Constantinople as the largest and most prosperous city in Europe".*15 The cultural development also thrived with the highest literacy rate in Europe. Large amount of books were collected and libraries were built. [173] "The 10th-century library of Al-Hakam II was one of the largest libraries in the world, housing at least 400,000 volumes". – Caliphate of Cordoba, Wikipedia

Under this environment, came advancement in various studies and cultural exchange. [174]

"Reinhardt Dozy write: The fame of Cordoba penetrated even distant Germany: the Saxon nun Hroswitha, famous in the last half of the 10th century for its Latin poems and dramas, called it the Jewel of the World". – Cordoba, Andalusia, Wikipedia

This rich culture and advanced knowledge attracted many European scholars to the Iberian Peninsula to study including Gerbert of Aurillac who later became Pope Sylvester II. [175] This demonstrated that the advancement of knowledge in Islamic Spain was well ahead of the schools in medieval Europe before the emergence of medieval university.

"Toledo, with a large population of Arabic-speaking of Christians (Mozarabs) had been an important center of learning since as early as the end of the 10th century, when European scholars travelled to Spain to study subjects that were not readily available in the rest of Europe." – Latin translations of the 12th century, Wikipedia

Obviously, the thriving of higher learning in Iberian Peninsula under the Islamic civilization was before the arrival of medieval university in Europe. With the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, it became easier for people from Christian Europe to go to Spain. At the same time, the emergence of medieval university in Europe represented a new wave of interest of learning. Driven by the desire for learning, European scholars came to Spain to look for the treasure of knowledge and translate these texts into the common academic language – Latin. These were the Latin translations of the 12th century. [176]

Latin translations of the 12th century

The works were translated in Spain and Italy, with the former playing the major role. The work benefited from the multilingual skill of the local people. At the beginning, it wasn't an organized work, but later it became organized. Even King Alfonso X of Castile personally intervened in the translation work. [177]

As the result, a large number of books in science and philosophy including the classical Greek and Islamic works were translated into Latin and spread to a wide area of Western Europe. This importantly influenced scientific development in medieval Europe as it provided an abundant source of knowledge for the European scholars. [178]

"The Islamic world made important advances in science, such as in algebra, chemistry, geology, spherical trigonometry, etc. which were later also transmitted to the west. Stefan of Pise translated into Latin around 1127 an Arab manual of medical theory. The method of algorithm for performing arithmetic with Indian-Arabic numerals was developed by the Persian al-khwarizmi (hence the word "algorithm") in the 9th century, and introduced in Europe by Leonardo Fibonacci (1170-1250). A translation by Robert of Chester of the Algebra by al-Kharizmi is known as early as 1145. Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen, 980-1037) compiled treatises on optical sciences, which were used as reference by Newton and Descartes. Medical sciences were also highly developed in Islam as testified by the Crusaders, who relied on Arab doctors on numerous occasions". – Islamic contributions to medieval Europe, Wikipedia

"The Arab physicist and scientist Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) used experimentation to obtain the results in his Book of Optics (1021)". *16 "Optics was translated into Latin by an unknown scholar at the end of the 12th century or the beginning of the 13th century". – Ibn al-Haytham, Wikipedia

Roger Bacon was an influential thinker in medieval Europe. His works on optics "draws heavily on the works of both Claudius Ptolemy (his Optics in Arabic translation) and the Islamic scientists Alkindus (al-Kindi) and Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham).*17 Integrating others' ideas, Roger Bacon put forward his approach to seek truth:

"Roger Bacon was inspired by the writings of Grosseteste. In his account of a method, Bacon described a repeating cycle of observation, hypothesis, experimentation, and the need for independent verification. He recorded the way he had conducted his experiments in precise detail, perhaps with the idea that others could reproduce and independently test his results". – Roger Bacon, Wikipedia

"He rejected the blind following of prior authorities, both in theological and scientific study, which was the accepted method of undertaking study in his day". "With regard to the obtaining of knowledge, he strongly championed experimental study over reliance on authority, arguing that 'thence cometh quiet to the mind'". – Roger Bacon, Wikipedia

The advanced Islamic knowledge of mathematics gave the European scientists a powerful tool to use it as the key to unlock the mysteries of the physical world in which Fibonacci played his role in introducing the Hindu-Arabic numeral system. The advantage of this system greatly helped mathematics' development. [179]

Mathematics was applied to study other subjects such as physics:

"The 14th century saw the development of new mathematical concepts to investigate a wide range of problems. One important contribution was development of mathematics of local motion. – History of mathematic, Wikipedia

Thomas Bradwardine used mathematics to express the relation between speed (V), force (F) and resistance (R).[180] This was an important beginning for the development of modern science.

"Bradwardine's analysis is an example of transferring a mathematical technique used by al-Kindi and Arnald of Villanova to quantify the nature of compound medicines to different physical problem". – History of mathematics, Wikipedia

Under the new conditions, the ancient Greeks' ideas to seek truth, the Islamic knowledge and the Germanic people's culture of challenge all converged to deliver new scientific achievement. This can be seen in Galileo's discovery that the speed of a falling body is not related to the body's weight but the resistance.

First, he used dialectic to point out the contradiction of the idea that a falling body's speed is related to its body weight. This was of Greek origin.

"Galileo arrived at his hypothesis by a famous thought experiment outlined in his book On Motion. Imagine two objects, one light and one heavier than the other one, are connected to each other by a string. Drop this system of objects from the top of a tower. If we assume heavier objects do indeed fall faster than lighter ones (and conversely, lighter objects fall slower), the string will soon pull taut as the lighter object retard the fall of the heavier object. But the system considered as a whole is heavier than the heavy object alone, and therefore should fall faster. This contradiction leads one to conclude the assumption is false". – Galileo's leaning tower of Pisa experiment, Wikipedia

Then, the legendary experiment of dropping two balls with different weights from the Tower of Pisa was conducted. Although there is controversy regarding whether it was performed by Galileo or someone else, the important thing is that experiment was used to verify the truth of a well accepted concept. This demonstrated that the approach of experimentation, which was of Islamic origin, was adopted by European scientists. To challenge this well accepted concept, which was of the authority of Aristotle, is consistent with the Germanic culture of challenging. This example further demonstrates that the Germanic culture of challenging had been incorporated into the European academic culture and it is this culture that kept advancing science. With continual scientific challenging, new scientific achievements were made. In astronomy, Nikolas Copernicus challenged the geocentric theory and put forward his heliocentric theory.[181] Through mathematical calculation, Kepler further improved Copernicus' theory and proposed his own theory.[182] All these works were the outcome of the Greeks' ideas, the Islamic ideas and the Germanics' culture of challenging.

Challenging the rule of the Catholic Church

By this time, the achievement in astronomy had put science in direct confrontation with the Catholic doctrines. In this confrontation, scientists faced the formidable Church, and were persecuted by it. This proved that the Catholic Church was the last obstacle to the development of modern science. But how did the Germanic people pass this hurdle and arrive at the scientific revolution?

Certainly, science did smash the credibility of the Catholic doctrines. Nikolas Copernicus' heliocentric system directly shook the credibility of those doctrines. This was an inevitable outcome when science kept developing, even the Church imposed hash punishing rules to try to control. There is no doubt that science itself played an important role in breaking free from the grip of the church, but science alone was not powerful enough to remove the Church's influence.

Actually, the conflict with the Catholic Church had happened when Aristotle's philosophy was reintroduced in the 12th century. Such conflict even happened earlier, in Roman times, and ended up with Aristotelianism being purged from teaching. Would these classical teachings face suppression from the Church and suffer the same fate? Yes, they faced strong resistance from the Church but eventually did not suffer the same fate, as the Church did not get the same support from the secular state and also faced strong competition from the Islamic world, which was a strong competitor in military, spiritual and intellectual spheres. Furthermore, the teachers in universities had some autonomy in deciding what to teach. To avoid conflict, a new study was introduced – scholasticism – the reconciling between classical philosophy and Catholic theology. However, the reintroduction and development of Aristotle's natural philosophy was not straightforward. This approach worked at the beginning but later could not escape from the surveillance of the Catholic Church. In the 13th century, the teaching in Paris University was condemned by the Catholic Church[183] followed by banning such teaching and punishing those who taught those ideas by excommunication, burning of books or even the person themselves, as in the case of Cecco.[184] This demonstrates that although the masters in Paris University had some autonomy in teaching, they were still subject to the control of the Catholic Church.

However, although the Catholic Church could control Paris University, it could not control all universities in Europe, as Germanic Europe was a system of multiple kingdoms. While Aristotle's teaching was banned in Paris University, it was welcomed by other universities:

"The university of Toulouse (founded in 1229) tried to capitalize on the situation by advertising itself to students: 'those who wish to scrutinize the bosom of nature to the inmost can hear the books of Aristotle which were forbidden at Paris.'"

– Condemnations of 1210-1277, Wikipedia

Unlike Roman Europe, Germanic Europe was (and still is) a parallel system. The truth banned in one channel could still go through other parallel channels. Therefore, the Catholic Church could not quarantine the approach of seeking truth from nature.

However, the ending of Catholic Church's control was due to the religious reformation movements, such as the Protestant and English reformations, but this was only an external factor. The cause of the downturn of the Catholic Church was its internal factor. It was the Church's organized structure that led to its collapse. The Catholic system severely violated the rules of a stable hierarchical system. Its organizational structure, rather than its doctrine, caused the system's disorder. In the Catholic system, a parallel symmetrical mechanism was absent below the very top, the pope, where it should had been in place to maintain an orderly hierarchical system. This meant that there was no internal parallel mechanism to check the clergies' power. As the result, the Catholic doctrines became empty words and could not enforce the clergies to obey, resulting in widespread corruption. Local churches used various corrupted approaches to make profits, such as selling Indulgence – a certificate for getting rid of sins. [185] Adding to the disorder of the Church, two popes were elected in 1378. This act created symmetry on the top of the system.[186] This structure severely violated the law that the top of a stable hierarchical system should be asymmetrical – singular. If this law is violated, the system is destined to clash, leading to disorder, further damage and even disintegration. Therefore when the Catholic system violated those fundamental laws, it ran into chaos. Its authority, i.e. its power to control peoples' mind, was damaged because people lost their faith in the Church. This period lasted from 1378 to 1417 and is historically referred to as the Western Schism. [187]

Further disorders followed, which were the expression of the following law: when the power of the top decreases, the disorder tendency of a system increases, particularly when the power of lower levels increases. The later social development exactly followed this law and presented as such: when the Catholic disorder continued, further disorder followed due to the challenges from the reformation movement. John Wycliffe, an English scholastic philosopher and university teacher at Oxford, started to challenge the Catholic Church in 14th century. His followers formed the Lollard movement, a precursor to the Protestant Reformation. [188] But the Protestant movement was a much greater challenge to the Catholic Church. This movement denied the Catholic Church's authority in Christianity and regarded the Bible as the ultimate authority. This movement marked by Martin Luther publishing the Ninety-Five Theses in1517 started in Germany and spread to most of northern Europe.

These events were not incidental, but a logical expression of the fundamental laws that govern the universe and were the critical points in the process of civilization.

All these events were the dynamic power interaction. As the Catholic Church became the most powerful organization in medieval Europe, the Church competed for dominance with secular states. They took the power of appointing the pope from the king and later on also tried to take the power of appointment of church officials from the secular kings.[189] But this power had traditionally belonged to secular authority. From Roman times when Christianity was legalized by the Emperor Constantine, the Church was clearly under the emperor.

"The reign of Constantine established a precedent for the position of the Christian emperor in the church. Emperors considered themselves responsible to God for the spiritual health of their subjects. And thus they had a duty to maintain orthodoxy".

– Constantine the great and Christianity, Wikipedia

When disputes happened inside Christianity, Constantine presided over councils to intervene. For example:

"In 316, Constantine acted as a judge in a North African dispute concerning the Donatist controversy. More significantly, in 325 he summoned the First Council of Nicaea, effectively the fist Ecumenical Council... – Constantine the great and Christianity, Wikipedia

The First Council of Nicaea was an attempt to solve the internal conflict due to different versions of Christian doctrines. As previously discussed, the invisible rules that govern the whole hierarchical system are actually the highest level of the system and it should remain in a state of singularity. Violation of this interrelationship inevitably results in disorder and may lead to disintegration. Christian doctrines are the core values that govern the Christian system and are the top of the whole system. Different versions of these doctrines violated the fundamental interrelationship and inevitably led to the internal conflict. For this reason, Emperor Constantine had to personally intervene. Despite his intervention, the schism of the core values still led to conflicts and eventually led to partial disintegration of Christendom, which was the split of Arianism from the whole system.[285]

The aforementioned demonstrates that the Church was under the emperor. However, the European power structure changed over time. The Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century. Towards the end of the early Middle Ages, the Catholic Church recovered and expanded to most of the Europe. This ecclesiastical organization became the largest single organization in Europe after the Carolingian empire disintegrated. On the other hand, there was no a single secular state organization, but rather multiple kingdoms in Europe.[190] Therefore, within the hierarchical system of Europe, the increased power of Catholic Church moved the church from under the secular authority in Roman and Carolingian times, to the top – parallel to the secular authorities. As there were two administrative systems on the top level of the whole European hierarchical system, this violated the rule that the top of a hierarchical system is asymmetrical, presented as singularity. Thus, clash between these two symmetrical systems was inevitable in the absence of a uniting force above them. The at times opposing nature of such symmetry presented as many hostile clashes.

From the Roman Empire to the kingdoms of the Middle Ages, emperors and kings had been portraying themselves associating with God and divine right in order to strengthen their power. But the Catholic Church also made similar claims. With increased power, the Church even declared that they had the right to depose Catholic kings.[191] Such claims would certainly lead to clashes between the kings and the popes.

Of all these clashes, Investiture Controversy[192] in the 11th and 12th century was one of significance, which was the fight between the state and the Catholic Church over the right to appoint local church officials. Such clashes between Pope Gregory VII and the emperor of Holy Roman Empire Henry IV, starting from 1075, developed into full-scale war. [193]

The clashes were not limited to the continent but occurred in England as well. There had been many conflicts before: there was a conflict between King Henry I and Pope Paschal II in the years 1103 to 1107;[194] There was a conflict between Pope Innocent III and King John over the appointment of archbishop of Canterbury, which led to the king seizing the properties of the pope and supporters, and the pope excommunicated the king in 1209.[195] Of all these conflicts, the one between King Henry VIII and the pope in 1527 was a critical point to the power structure change in England. The conflict started when the king wanted to annul his marriage with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to marry Anne Boleyn. However, the pope refused to annul the king's marriage in 1527.[196] This triggered the king to remove the Catholic Church's influence and existence in England by starting the English Reformation.

"The English reformation was a series of events in 16th century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Roman Catholic Church". – English reformation, Wikipedia

At this time, the Church's power had already been weakened by its corruption, Western Schism and the Protestant Movement.[197] Thus the king's move was good timing.

Through a series of political battles, the king subdued the Catholic force in England, established the "Royal Supremacy" and rejected the "Papal Supremacy". He established the King of England as the supreme ruler in both secular and spiritual authority. He recovered jurisdiction from the pope. He prohibited the Church from legislating and practicing laws in England. He stopped the financial drain from England to the pope. At last the king launched the "Dissolution of the Monasteries" from 1536 to 1541 to eradicate the existence of Catholic Church in England by appropriating the Catholic Churches' assets, including monasteries and churches.[198] The English reformation fully established the self-control of its kingdom free from external intervention. This reformation would further impact on the future development of the English Empire.

This reformation paved the way for the scientific development in England as it removed the Catholic Church's influence. Furthermore, King Henry VIII also directly intervened in the teaching in universities.

"A change in the colleges' focus occurred in 1536 with the Dissolution of the Monasteries. King Henry VIII ordered the university to disband its Faculty of Cannon Law and to stop teaching 'scholastic philosophy'. In response, colleges changed their curricula away from canon law, and towards the classics, the Bible, and mathematics... Examination in mathematics was once compulsory for all undergraduates studying for the Bachelor of Arts degree, the main first degree at Cambridge in both arts and sciences. From the time of Isaac Newton in the later 17th century until the mid-19th century, the university maintained an especially strong emphasis on applied mathematics, particularly mathematical physics". – University of Cambridge, Wikipedia

Only one century later, important laws of the physical world were discovered in England: Newtonian mechanics. These shaped how humans view the world up to today. As the result of the religious reformations and scientific revolution, English scientists made great contributions to modern civilization, among them Isaac Newton, James Maxwell, Michael Faraday, Charles Darwin. Among these great historical figures, Isaac Newton emerged as the one who defined the new age of physics. Among all universities, Cambridge University has an outstanding record: "A total of 89 Nobel Prizes winners are affiliates of the university".*18

In contrast, when English scientists were making their scientific advancement, their Italian counterparts were under the Catholic Church's Roman Inquisition, under which Copernicus' work was banned, Galileo Galilei was under house arrest, Tommaso Campanella was imprisoned, Giordano Bruno was burnt to death, Domeico Scandella was also burned to death... [200]

Contrast to the England, the reformation movement in the European continent was not that "smooth". In this period, the Catholic Church was still a powerful force even though the religious reformation was occurring. These symmetrically opposing forces clashed, triggering a series of wars in the European continent with devastating impacts on society, while England was on the eve of scientific breakthrough.

"The reformation led to a series of religious wars that culminated in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), which devastated much of Germany, killing between 25 and 40% of its population. From 1618 to1648 the Roman Catholic House of Habsburg and its allies fought against the Protestant princes of Germany, supported at various time by Denmark, Sweden and France. The Habsburgs, who ruled Spain, Austria, the Spanish Netherlands and much of Germany and Italy, were staunch defenders of the Roman Catholic Church. – Protestant reformation, Wikipedia

Finally, the Peace of Westphalia was signed in 1648 to end the war. But more importantly, the treaty ended the Catholic Church's hegemony.

"The treaty also effectively ended the Pope's pan-European political power, fully aware of the loss, Pope Innocent X declared the treaty 'null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, insane, empty of meaning and effect for all times'. European sovereigns, Roman Catholic and Protestant alike ignored his verdict"

– Protestant reformation, Wikipedia

The dominance of the Catholic Church in European politics was over and the Catholic empire disintegrated in Europe. Once the political obstacle to scientific development had been removed, Science finally broke the grips of religion. Hence, came the dawn of scientific revolution. Intellectuals in Europe on the track of science dashed for their goal – to seek truth from nature.

It was the challenging culture of the Germanic people that changed the order in Europe. First, they challenged the Roman Empire's order when they started their migration and changed the Roman order to their own – the Germanic kingdoms. Then they challenged the order of institutional learning and changed them to a new order – university. Furthermore, they challenged the Roman Catholic Church's order and changed it to a new order under which they continued to challenge various concepts in civilization, leading to various breakthroughs in sciences and technologies.

However, there is a deeper mechanism behind the rise of modern science from Western Europe. It was the law of Symmetry–Asymmetry, a part of the fundamental interrelationships that governs everything in the universe. This mechanism is the same mechanism discussed previously on disputation: there are always two opposite possibilities in the process of seeking truth, true or not true, which is the expression of symmetry. When the process proceeds, only one of the possibilities will be proven true. This is the expression of Asymmetry. The whole process is governed by the fundamental interrelationship of symmetry-asymmetry. For example, there are two possibilities regarding whether it is going to rain tomorrow. Over time, these two will proceed to only one true reality. On the journey to seek truth in the Middle Ages, there were two symmetrically opposing possibilities: theology, not science, is the only way to seek truth, an idea propagated by the Catholic Church. The philosophers proposed an opposing idea: science, not theology, is the way to seek truth. As the church was on the top of the social hierarchical system, it only allowed their way to seek truth and suppressed the opposite way. With its increased power, the Church ascended to the top of the European hierarchical system, parallel to the secular authority. It started to claim the ultimate power in Europe by pushing the policy of "Papal Supremacy". This policy pushed the secular authority to the opposite of the church. Then, an opposing symmetry was formed on the top of the European hierarchical system. These symmetrical forces opposed each other from time to time with opposite policy: when one side pursued one policy, the other side would pursue an opposite policy. This mechanism lessened the Church's grip on seeking truth from nature. However, this system was an unstable system and caused conflicts. Over time, these symmetrically opposing forces also proceeded to asymmetry and finally the secular force became the asymmetrical winner. Then, the policy opposite to the Catholic Church was adopted, that is to seek truth from nature. It was this unique symmetry-asymmetry system that provided the mechanism under which human beings finally had the chance to proceed from the two symmetrically opposite possibilities to arrive at the asymmetrical truth: science is the way to seek truth. This is the mechanism by which modern science arose in Western Europe. Compared with the Western Europe, the Byzantine Empire was traditionally more advanced in cultural development than the Western Europe. It did not experience the social downturn that the West had. It was even closer to the land of Islamic civilization. But it did not have the same mechanism as the West. As a consequence, there was no possibility to attempt the approach opposite to the idea of the Orthodox Church due to the strong alliance between the empire and the Church. [201]

After breaking free from the grip of religion, enormous achievements were made in Europe by exploring nature. Then came the Age of Enlightenment. This was the new phase after the critical point of phase transition in history – a transition from theology to science. The remarkable achievements were not only limited to theoretical discovery, but technological invention as well. The great invention of the steam engine was finally completed by an equipment maker in a place[202] in which the trace of the revolution of higher learning in the Middle Ages can be seen –Glasgow University. By this time, European civilisation had gained tremendous power. Then it followed the fundamental interrelationship – expansion, to enter into a new phase – the rise of Europe.

# Chapter Eighteen: The Development of Chinese Civilization

On the eastern side of the Eurasian continent, the water of the Yellow River flows through the mountains and plains, providing the resources to enrich the soil and cultivating another civilization. This land is transformed into the cradle of Chinese civilization. For thousands of years, the Chinese nation has written her proud history on this land, developing the most prominent civilization in the East. Take a look, riding on the ridges of mountains and stretching thousands of kilometres, the Great Wall of China silently gives its testimony of the glory that the Chinese people achieved in the past. On the sea, the mighty commercial fleet led by general ZHENG He sailed to the southern Pacific and the Indian Ocean. To the west, the Silk Road exchanging with the west spread the Chinese civilization to other parts of the world. In intellectual achievements, many technological inventions and theoretical works were made. Yet, after a time, Chinese civilization fell from its former glory while its European counterparts arose in prominence. Why was there such a discrepancy between the two civilizations?

The mechanism that drove Chinese civilisation forward

Was there a mechanism driving Chinese civilisation forward?

To answer this question, we need to review the mechanism of civilization. It has been suggested that the pace at which a civilization advances depends on whether all individuals in society can collectively deliver their maximum output. To achieve this goal, the driving force must be maximized and resistance must be minimized through the use of "internal and external controlling forces". Therefore, to understand the mechanism governing Chinese civilization, we need to examine how "internal and external controlling forces" played their roles in Chinese histories. Furthermore, as human civilization is governed by the fundamental interrelationships, using these interrelationships to analyse the development of Chinese civilization can help us to understand the mechanism on the most fundamental level.

In the very early stage of Chinese civilization, concentrated settlement already existed. The first dynasty, the Xia dynasty, was established from 2070-1600 BC.[203] By the time of the Spring-Autumn and Warring States Period (770-221BC),[204] many villages, towns, cities and social governing organizations had been well established. The populations of these settlements far outstripped those of nomadic tribes. Therefore, exchange was easily created among the inhabitants. Commodity exchanges formed the market, which was similar to the Agora in Greek towns. The exchange of commodities, which is in fact the exchange of desires, played an important role in driving Chinese civilization forward. Moreover, because the population was relatively large, the volume of desires was correspondingly large and in turn created a stronger driving force. The exchange of commodities also brought along the exchange of concepts, accelerating the dissemination of concepts in the population, resulting in concept dissection and integration and driving Chinese civilization forward on another level. This means of concept dissemination had a lot of similarities with that of the ancient Greeks, such as the trading of physical goods, the private imparting of knowledge, the performances of drama. In social management, "internal controlling forces" such as morals, ethics and customs started to emerge and played their roles, as did the "external controlling forces" such as the governing systems. However, there were many differences in the development of civilization between the Chinese and the Greeks, and this eventually led to different paths of development.

How did this mechanism control the driving force and resistance of civilization?

The above discussion demonstrates that a mechanism was formed to drive Chinese civilization forward in ancient times. Further questions arise: how did this mechanism control the driving force and resistance of civilization? What were the differences of this mechanism that led the Chinese civilisation to a different direction?

The ancient Greeks' intellectual direction

Although the ancient Chinese civilization had many similarities to the ancient Greek civilization, the different environments created differences between these two civilizations. From the very beginning, the intellectual activities of these two civilizations went different directions. The direction of the ancient Greek intellectual activities was set by some pioneering thinkers. They laid down the blueprint for the Greeks' intellectual development. This is similar to an ancestor passing his genes to his offspring. Of those pioneers, Thales was fundamental to this process. It was he who defined the direction of the intellectual pursuit. Firstly, he paid a lot more attention to the physical world and raised questions. As a result, the area of interest of the Greek intellectual pursuit was intensely locked on to the physical world. Secondly, he turned away from mythology to the natural environment to seek answers. Thirdly, he set out the direction of dealing with physical phenomena – to trace the origin of the physical world i.e. the composition of the world. All these three important aspects were contained in his fundamental query – what composes our world? To answer this question, he proposed a concept, Arche, which he believed the world was composed of. This was fundamental to the direction of understanding the physical world. To understand its importance, we need to understand the meaning of Arche. [205]

"Arche is a Greek word with primary senses 'beginning', 'origin' or 'first cause'. Later, 'power', 'sovereignty', 'domination' as extended meanings were accepted by some. This list is extended to 'ultimate underlying substance' and 'ultimate undemonstrable principle'. In the language of the archaic period (8th – 6th century BC) Arche (or archai) designates the source, origin or root of things that exist. In ancient Greek philosophy, Aristotle foregrounded the meaning of Arche as the element or principle of a thing, which although undemonstrable and intangible in itself, provides the conditions of the possibility of that thing. If a thing is to be well established or founded, its Arche or starting point must be secure. The most secure foundations are those provided by the gods – the indestructible, immutable and eternal ordering of things". – Arche, Wikipedia

From the above description one can understand that Arche was "something" composing all physical existences. It "exists" prior to all physical existences in terms of order. It also "dominates" all existence, or we can interpret it as "governing" all existences.

Based on the meaning of Arche, to search for Arche is to search for the components of physical existence, the cause of phenomena and physical existence; that is, to trace the origin of phenomena and existence.

Thales proposed water as the Arche. This was important, as it disseminated the idea of tracing the origin to the generations that followed, and set the direction of intellectual inquiries. This direction of intellectual activities was immediately followed by many Greek thinkers in the pre-Socrates period. After Thales, many Greeks followed this direction to propose their speculated concepts. These included Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Leucippus, and Democritus... In this way, diverse concepts were proposed. This process was governed by the fundamental relationship, Convergence–Divergence. Although they proposed varied concepts, they all had a common theme – to trace the origin of the physical environment (the world).

Although Thales was the pioneer, in fact, he was the follower of one of the fundamental interrelationships in the universe – the Cause-Effect relationship. As these fundamental interrelationships govern all physical existences and phenomena in the universe including human thinking, thus, Thales' thought was governed by this relationship. His idea of tracing the origin is the transformation of this fundamental relationship into the thought. What was specific in Thales' intellectual pursuit in relation to this law was that he chose the direction – the direction of tracing the origin. This was fundamental to the Greek intellectual development.

After the pre-Socratic period, the direction of intellectual inquiry into the physical world was continued by other thinkers. During this classical period, the Greek civilization flourished with many new concepts. Aristotle was one of the important thinkers. Although Aristotle followed Thales' direction, he went beyond Thales' boundaries. He not only looked into the composition but started to inquire about the mechanism for things to exist and change. These can be seen in the following description on Wikipedia about Aristotle's book, "Metaphysics":

"At the heart of the book lie three questions. What is existence, and what sorts of things exist in the world? How can things continue to exist, and yet undergo the change we see about us in the natural world? And how can this world be understood?" – Metaphysics (Aristotle) Wikipedia

Although the direction of intellectual inquiry in classical ages still followed Thales' direction, there was a difference. The difference is that Thales viewed the physical environment as a whole and traced the origin of its totality, while the following thinkers traced the respective direct origin of various particular existences or phenomena. This is a different development. Although the whole hierarchical system of the physical environment has its commonality, these commonalities present as specific forms in specific existences. For example, the cause of ice to reach the critical point and transform into water is a raised temperature/heat, but the cause of students' critical point of transforming into qualified professionals is the accumulation of academic knowledge. The former's critical point presents as melting, while the latter's critical point presents as receiving the certificate of graduation. Their direct causes and the critical points present as different forms. It is arguably reasonable to believe that the modern science deals with the direct causes, while Thales tried to tackle the origin of the whole physical world.

In this way, the direction of the intellectual inquiry in the pre-Socratic period was continued but went beyond the previous boundaries. For example, Aristotle studied multiple subjects. All of these studies were to trace the direct origins of particular existences and phenomena, which are their composition and causes. His studies included: causes, natural motion, terrestrial motion, rectilinear motion, speed, weight and resistance, vacuum, continuum, aether, terrestrial change, celestial motion. [206]

The following writings demonstrate how Aristotle explained the particular phenomena by tracing their direct causes.

"Aristotle proposed that velocity is directly proportional to the weight of an object which will make objects of different weight fall to the ground at different time". – Aristotelian physics, Wikipedia

"Aristotle believed that the speed of an object's motion is proportional to the force being applied (or the object's weight in the case o natural motion) and inversely proportional to the viscosity of the medium; the more tenuous a medium is, the faster the motion". – Aristotelian physics, Wikipedia

"The Aristotelian explanation of gravity is that all bodies move toward their natural place". – Aristotelian physics, Wikipedia

"He believed that four elements make up everything under the moon (the terrestrial): earth, air, fire and water". – Aristotelian physics, Wikipedia

The aforementioned demonstrate that Aristotle still continued Thales' thought direction of tracing the origin. However, he applied this method to search the direct causes of various phenomena. This was an important step away from Thales because it led to the search of the direct origin of different physical systems which are subsystems of the hierarchical system of the world. It resulted in the discovery of many direct mechanisms of the subsystems in the physical world such as in physics, biology, astronomy and etc. From the description above, one can see that the Greeks not only described the physical phenomena but also searched for their origins, including compositions and causes. Even the "cause" was studied in details and classified into "Four Causes".

Apart from tracing the origin of existence and phenomena, one of the important developments in classical times was the development of the approaches to seek truth. Although the ancient Greeks proposed many speculated concepts to explain the physical environment, we know that most of them are not true from our present-day knowledge. How could human civilization arrive at our present stage of accurately understanding the world? This could only be achieved after human civilization passing through a period of investigating how to seek truth. In the Greek civilization, this period presented as many approaches of seeking truth. And indeed, this development was critical to the development of scientific revolution. They included the mathematical approach, empiricism, skepticism, dialectic and logic. Finally, the adoption of experimentation in the 15th century, together with the Greek approaches, formed the scientific method.

The ancient Chinese intellectual direction

However, the Chinese intellectual development went different direction. The focus of intellectual activities was placed on the other direction of the Cause-Effect relationship that is the practical uses of existences or phenomena. Or in other words, it placed a lot more attention on the effects that existences and phenomena create and use for their practical needs. As a result, vast amount of technologies were invented, far outstripping the discovery of underlying causes and scientific principles. Many of these technological achievements are well documented and can be proven by archaeological findings. At the same time, the intellectual activity following the cause direction of the Cause-Effect relationship was not given as much attention as the effect direction. These phenomena have been well documented and discussed in the studies of ancient Chinese history by a well known English sinologist Joseph Needham (1900-1995). [207]

The causes of the ancient Chinese intellectual direction

Pragmatism

Why did the Greeks and the Chinese go different directions in terms of the Cause-Effect relationship? This was due to the physical and social environments. In response to the physical and social environment, pragmatism evolved as part of the Chinese culture in the Chinese population. It began in the early stage of the Chinese civilization, which originated from the Central Region of China. At that stage, China had already acquired a large population. By the time of the Han Dynasty (202BC-220AD), the population had reached nearly 60 million.[208] It was under these physical and social environments that the Chinese civilization evolved. For such a large population with only limited resources, survival became the highest priority. Once survival became the top priority, pragmatism became the answer, and thus the culture of pragmatism evolved. Pragmatism had impacts on many social activities.

Pragmatism's influence on technological development

The focus on survival led to the intellectual activities heavily following the effect direction of the Cause-Effect relationship. This direction led people to more incline to the practicality of physical existences to fulfil human needs when engaging with the physical world. As such, the development of technologies was given more attention because they have practical uses and can benefit production. As a result, practical technologies flourished, for example, those well known inventions such as paper, gun powder, compass and movable type printing. These were only a small part of the vast amount of technological inventions. Indeed, even today there are plenty of evidences of how advanced ancient Chinese technology was. For example:

"Jorn Utzon is the visionary architect whose name is linked to the history of Sydney Opera House. One of the books that marked his design philosophy was the Chinese building manual of the Sung dynasty written some 900 years ago". – Jorn Utzon, the Sydney opera house architect, Star-a-new-life-in-australia.com

However, the other direction of the Cause–Effect relationship, nature, was not given as much attention as technology. In other words, the mechanism behind physical existences and phenomena was not given as much attention as their practical uses, because there was no direct link to survival. Thus, this way of thinking in engaging the physical world resulted in the imbalanced development between science and technology. Although the idea that sciences and technology were well advanced in ancient China is generally accepted, the truth is that technologies aimed at practical use were advanced, while science aimed at exploring nature was not parallel to the level of technologies.

From the above discussion, it is reasonable to conclude that the limited degree of freedom in economy restrained the degree of freedom to explore nature. In other words, without a proper income, people did not have the degree of freedom needed to explore nature.

Comparing the directions of ancient Chinese and Greek intellectual development

While the Chinese intellectual development strongly focussed on practicality to achieve the goal of survival, the Greeks gave more attention to the natural environment issues. The Greeks' intellectual inquiry was also influenced by their social environment at that time - a period of economic prosperity. This environment allowed the Greeks to have a larger degree of freedom. Their thinkers did not need to worry about their basic survival, so they could afford to ponder non survival issues such as nature. Thus they could afford to ponder the stars in the sky after a good meal, rather than having to count the money in their pockets or the grains in their bowls. So could the general public. This can be seen in the fact that some of the Greeks' public lectures served as entertainment.[209] This in some sense reflects that the Greek general public did not need to worry about survival issues due to economic prosperity. The economic prosperity allowed the Greeks to look into issues unrelated to survival, while the Chinese had to pay more attention to the social issues due to the priority of survival. It was said that Thales was involved in trading and made a profit out of trading olive oil.[210] If this is true then one can understand that Thales could afford to look into those non survival related issues.

Due to the larger degree of freedom provided by the economic prosperity, the Greeks strongly focused on the cause direction. The following description demonstrates Aristotle's emphasis on tracing the origin of existences and phenomena and it was this strong emphasis that ultimately distinguished the Greek civilization from other civilizations.

"Book I or Alpha outlines 'first philosophy", which is knowledge of the first principles or causes of things, the wise are able to teach because they know the why of things, unlike those how know that things are a certain way based on their knowledge of first causes and principles are fitted to command, rather than to obey. Book Alpha also surveys previous philosophies from Thales to Plato, especially their treatment of causes". – Metaphysics (Aristotle), Wikipedia

Gradually, this way of thinking, i.e. tracing the origin, became a habit or part of the norm of the Greeks' philosophical inquiries. In a sense, the Greek thinkers were conditioned to raise such questions. So if we look back into the history of western sciences and philosophy, there are plenty of cases of raising such question to inquire the nature of events, phenomena and existences.

While tracing the origin became the norm of the Greeks' intellectual activities, pragmatism became the norm of Chinese thinking. Once such pragmatism evolving from this specific environment dominated peoples' minds, it became a part of the "internal controlling force" of the population. As this way of thinking was passed on to the following generations, it became part of the traditional culture shaping people's way of thinking. Its dominance displaced the pursuit of exploring nature, even without the pressure from survival. As a result, people are more interested in money-making activities than exploring nature, such as trading of commodities and entertainment activities. Such a culture is poisonous to the nation. This consequently retarded the progress of Chinese civilization. In a sense, pragmatism became the resistance to the further development of Chinese civilization. It is here that the fundamental differences between the ancient Chinese civilization and ancient Greek civilization emerged.

Pragmatism's influence on science development

Pragmatism not only influenced technology's development, but also influenced sciences' development in China. Some sciences related to practical use were given more attention. For example, meteorology was better developed due to its practical use for agriculture; so was medicine, due to its practical use for survival. Mathematics was developed as it was necessary for production and business activities. But natural sciences were not given as much attention as those social issues.

For this reason, of all sciences, social sciences were particularly better developed. Laozi (571-471 BC)[211] certainly was one of, if not the only pioneer of the development of Chinese intellectual inquiry. The role of pioneers in intellectual inquiry was important to intellectual development. From the previous discussion, one can understand how Thales influenced the Greek intellectual development and moreover the western intellectual development. If the direction of the Greek intellectual inquiry was set by Thales, then, in parallel, it can be said that the Chinese intellectual inquiry was set by Laozi, Confucius[212] and Mozi, (468-376 BC)[213] who set the fundamental tune of the Chinese intellectual inquiry. Although they had some differences, they all heavily focused on social management. Ultimately, their role led Chinese intellectual development down a different path, which heavily focused on social management.

This intellectual focus was followed by many Chinese thinkers for thousands of years. As a consequence, a vast amount of social management ideas was created, which far exceeded those in natural science, in which morality and ethics were extensively studied and developed due to their uses for managing the population. This can be seen in the three most important philosophies that laid the foundation of the traditional thoughts in China. Of the three main philosophies, Daoism, Confucianism and Mozism,[214] social issues constituted the largest part of discussion. Those issues concerned social management, including individual behavior and government management. For example, Xunzi (313-238AD)[215] made tremendous contribution to social sciences. His analysis of human behavior and their relationship to social management is still amazing even in the present day. [216]

Why were social sciences particularly better developed? Some authors believe that the high demand for social management ideas came from the social turmoil in the Spring-Autumn and Warring States Period. It was the chaotic social environment that stimulated the great demand for the ideas of social management.[217] The practicality of the social management ideas could fulfil that demand. The social management ideas from Confucius, Mencius (372-289 BC), Mozi, Xunzi and many others were the products with such practicality to meet the demand. This hypothesis can well explain the intellectual development in the Spring-Autumn and Warring States period, a time of social disorder. However, intellectual inquiry continued to focus on social issues even though such turmoil had ceased. Although such a focus can be attributed to cultural tradition, the more likely reason is that the demand for intellectual ideas of social management came from the social governing system. They had the demand for social management ideas and could offer good return to those intellectuals who provided good social management ideas, in finance and social status. For example, the writing of Laozi's Dao De Jing (or Tao Te Ching) was requested by an important governor.[218] Most of the issues in his book were social issues. Not only Laozi, but most of the Chinese thinkers at that time were heavily involved in politics.

Chinese natural science development in the ancient time

The aforementioned has discussed the main direction of intellectual activities in the early stage of Chinese civilization. However, having said that the ancient Chinese civilization focused on the effect of physical objects and phenomena, it is by no means true that the Chinese did not look at all into the cause of the physical environment. It is impossible for the whole population to ignore the causes of physical existences and phenomena, and the interrelationship of Cause-Effect inevitably influenced some individuals to look into the causes of physical environment in ancient times.

During the Spring-Autumn and Warring States Period, a period of cultural prosperity, the "hundred of schools of thought" occurred.[219] It was similar to the Greeks' classical period and marked by abundant intellectual activities. Parallel to the Greeks, the Cause-Effect relationship was also transformed into some speculated concepts at the beginning of the Chinese intellectual inquiry. These speculated concepts were regarding the physical environment and its composition. They were also the products of thinking direction of "tracing the origin". The environment was interpreted and classified as the sky, the earth and the "everything" that exist between the sky and the earth. The concept of "everything" did not include the sky and the earth.

To trace the origin of the physical environment, the ancient Chinese came up with some speculations. They speculated that "everything" came into being from "air". The concept of "air" was not the normal air but it is similar to the concept of "apeiron". Some speculated that the physical environment was formed by "Yin" and "Yang". Some speculated that the "nothing" turned into "Taichi" and "Taichi" turned into everything. The hypothesis of "Five Elements", which was similar to the Greeks' "Four Elements", was proposed. Later, some of these speculative concepts merged to become the concepts of the "air" of "Yin" and "Yang". The "air" of "Yin" and "air" of "Yang" merged to form "everything". [220]

One of the most interesting ideas was the idea of "Dao" proposed by Laozi. In his writing, he proposed an order: "human follow the earth, the earth follows the sky, the sky follows the Dao and the Dao follows what it is". What is Dao? Dao has multiple meaning. Generally, it means the roads. It also means the rules. What was the exact meaning of Dao? Laozi said "Dao can be explained but it is not the common meaning of ordinary rules". "It came from the mixture of something. It was born before the sky and the earth. It is silent and intriguing". Laozi said: "I don't know what it is but anyway I just roughly give it a name, Dao".[221] From present-day knowledge, the concept of Dao is consistent with the fundamental interrelationships. These fundamental interrelationships do not have shapes nor do they make any sound but they govern everything in the universe. Even the sky and the earth have to follow these fundamental rules. For example, periodicity is one of the fundamental relationships. The sky, earth and everything have to follow this rule. From this example, one can see how remarkable it is that the ancient Chinese could come up with such a concept to interpret the world more than two thousand years ago!

Laozi's Dao theory is clearly a product of the Cause-Effect relationship. He tried to find out the cause-effect relationship between various existences. Laozi's Dao order is more regarding one of the expressions of the law of causality: it stated the order between Dao, sky, earth and human. Compared with Laozi's Dao order, Thales' Arche order is more clearly the causality itself: the concept of Arche has the meaning of the first principle because the concept of Arche can more clearly convey the meaning of "first" and "origin" in terms of the order in the law of causality.

The cause of cultural prosperity in the Spring-Autumn and Warring States period

Why did this cultural prosperity arise and why was it at that time? It was due to the collapsing of the Zhou dynasty. The weakening of the central control allowed intellectual development in previously forbidden areas. Earlier, the sky had been considered to possess the ultimate power, and the emperor was the son of the sky. Therefore, any attempt to view the sky as part of the natural environment would be in conflict with the emperor's authority. However, the weakening of the Zhou dynasty resulted in the rise of multiple kings and their kingdoms. The power to enforce the concept that the emperor was the son of the sky was weakened, and exploring nature, including the sky, was met with less resistance. [222]

The influence of Zhou dynasty's social protocols on the early stage of Chinese intellectual development

Although the cultural prosperity that occurred in the Spring-Autumn and Warring States Period was similar to the Greeks' classical period, there were many differences between the Chinese and the Greeks.

As discussed previously, Laozi's Dao theory was similar to Thales' Arche theory in terms of interpreting the interrelationship of Cause-Effect. But the Dao theory did not create as much diversity as Thales' Arche theory did. This point can be demonstrated by the fact that there were not many thinkers to follow Laozi's step to propose their ideas to compete with the Dao theory. This can be partially explained by intellectual focus and pragmatism: His major interest was social management, not looking into the nature of physical environment. This point can be seen from his work, Dao De Jing, of which the discussion of the physical environment is only a small part. Other thinkers may have the same reason too, given they were all in the same social environment. This explanation is based on pragmatism. However, was pragmatism the only contributing factor?

Certainly, pragmatism was one of the factors that influenced Chinese intellectual development; however, it cannot well explain the underdevelopment of other studies which have great practicality, like medicine. The fundamental factor that influenced intellectual development during that time was "Zhou Li", a part of the "internal controlling forces". Established in the Zhou dynasty,[223] these "internal controlling forces" was the product of early stage of Chinese civilization development. By the time of the Zhou dynasty, the territory had developed into 3.4 million square kilometres.[224] Even the prior dynasty, the Shaung dynasty (1160 – 1046 BC), [225] had a territory of 3.2 million square kilometres.[226] The reasons for the collapse of the Shaung dynasty led the Zhou dynasty to find a mechanism to prevent itself from suffering from the same fate.[227] The Duke of Zhou, who was the regent king when the emperor was a child, was the key architect in establishing such a mechanism, which was in the form of a set of social protocols.[228] The objective of setting up such "internal controlling forces" was to maintain social order and further social stability by establishing a hierarchical system. Within the system, individuals were classified into different classes and different classes were specified with different symbols, including dress, music, greeting, etc. Eventually, this classifying system legitimized different classes' rights and responsibilities. The class system was organized according to their kinships. This set of the protocols was the "Zhou Li", the protocols of Zhou dynasty's class system. [229]

However, the Zhou dynasty started to disintegrate and entered into the Spring-Autumn and Warring States Period. During this period, the power of the Zhou dynasty was weakened and its social protocols failed to be enforced. With the weakening of these restraining social protocols, many different schools of thoughts had a chance to develop, leading to the period of the "hundred schools of thought" and cultural prosperity. This was the reason for such a period of cultural prosperity. [230]

Although the weakening of the central power in this period provided an environment for the cultural boom in Chinese society, this period of cultural development was still influenced to some extent by the social protocols of the Zhou dynasty's class system. In other words, the social protocols of the Zhou dynasty's class system still circulated in society and influenced social development, including intellectual development. For example, the school of Confucianism strongly endorsed the social protocols of the Zhou dynasty's class system. Confucius committed himself to restore the social protocols of the Zhou dynasty's class system, saying "restraining himself to restore the social protocols of the Zhou dynasty's class system is his task".

These social protocols aimed at maintaining a hierarchical social system fundamentally influenced the Chinese intellectual development in the Spring-Autumn and Warring Period. A hierarchical system was outlined in intellectual activity, including teaching-learning and teacher-student relationships. Teachers were lifted to a position with undisputed authority. For example, the influential Confucianism thinker, Xunzi, said: "the protocols of the Zhou dynasty's class system have three foundations; the sky and earth are the basis of survival; ancestry is the basis of social groups; the king and teachers are the basis of governing. Without the sky and the earth, how could survival happen? Without ancestry, how could social groups develop? Without the king and teachers, how could governing happen?"[231] From these arguments, it is clear that teachers were involved in the governing system, and that they did play a role to instil the "behavioural controlling forces" in people's minds. Based on these arguments, the idea that teachers have undisputed authority in education was justified and teachers' authority in intellectual activities was established. It was these "internal controlling forces" that restrained individuals' independent thinking, preventing diversified development in intellectual activities.

However, the ancient Greeks did not have such social protocols in their intellectual activities. The reason was that the Greeks had never formed a large social system until Alexander the Great united all those City-States. [232] The ancient Greeks' social system in classical times was City-States, which was much smaller than the Chinese social system, dynasties. Even the Roman Empire in 25 AD had an area of only[233] 2.75 square kilometres. For such a large area, the Chinese badly needed a powerful "internal controlling force" to maintain the hierarchical system. The fundamental mechanism is: the large territory means that the bottom part of the social hierarchical system is more powerful due to the larger population. Therefore, a more powerful top is needed to maintain the system's order. That was the reason that Zhou dynasty's social protocols were developed. But the Geeks were not in the same situation as they did not have a similar powerful "internal controlling force" in place in their society at that time. Therefore, the Greeks' social activities including their intellectual activities had less restraint from their social protocols. Their society was more disordered and filled with many conflicts and challenges, as was evident from their mythology. In Greek mythology where their gods fought each other and some even committed adultery and theft. Ironically, they were respected by the Greeks, if not followed as role models. However, without the restraint of a set of similar social protocols in their intellectual activities, students were able and encouraged to challenge their teachers' ideas. For example, Thales proposed water as the Arche, but Anaximander disagreed and proposed apeiron; Anaximander's student, Anaximenes, disagreed with his teacher and proposed fire as the Arche; Plato proposed that the world was composed from "forms" but his student Aristotle disagreed and believed that the form was simply the shape of substance. It was for this reason that the ancient Greeks could propose a greater variety of ideas to explain the physical world.

On the other hand, their Chinese counterparts were under the restraint of those social protocols practiced in intellectual activities including education, and were therefore less likely to deviate from their teachers' ideas. This led to less diversity in thinking. This is evident when one compares intellectual development between the classical time in Greece and the Spring-Autumn and Warring States Period in China. As discussed above, the Chinese intellectual inquiry also looked into the nature of the world, but compared with the Greeks', the Chinese thinkers were less likely to disagree with already existing ideas. Thus, when it came to explain the origin of the world, the concepts that arose tended to be less diverse. This was the fundamental reason that Laozi's Dao theory did not diversify in his contemporizes and followers.

The influence of these social protocols was not only on philosophy but on the sciences as well. For example, physics was studied in the Spring-Autumn and Warring States period. Mozi observed many physical phenomena and in some cases even tried to examine their causes. However, many of these studies were descriptions of physical existence and phenomena. Compared with the physics studied at the same period by the Greeks, the Chinese were looking less into the composition, causes and mechanism of the physical existences and phenomena. There was no significant effort attempted by Mozi's contemporaries or followers to change this direction. The reason can be attributed to those restraining social protocols. This direction not only existed in the Spring-Autumn and Warring States period but remained thereafter. For example, the inertial phenomena had been documented in a book, Kao Gong Ji, written around the Warring State period,[234] as the phenomenon that occurred when a horse stopped but the cart continued moving. However, there was no explanation of the cause of this phenomenon. Similar situations in acoustics were noted by Joseph Needham.

"In acoustics, as in so many branches of science the Chinese approach was rather different from the European, where ancient Greece was analytic, ancient China was correlative... Nevertheless, the question remains, what did early Chinese thinkers believe sound to be? Their contemporaries in ancient Greece set themselves this question and tried to answer it. The Pythagoreans, for example, believed sound to be what Laloy describes as 'la chose numerale par excellence' theon of Smyrna, about +150, attributes to Hipasus and Lasus (-5th century) the establishment of a relation between sound and speed, sound being something which is thrown so quickly that like a rapid discus it cannot be perceived in flight, but only on the instant of 'landing'. Archytas(fl. -370) went further and defined sound as speed itself.

In ancient China, on the contrary, no parallel analysis and abstraction was made. Sound was regarded as but one form of an activity of which flavour and colour were others. The background for Chinese acoustic thinking was largely determined by a concept which stemmed from the vapours of the cooking-pot, with its fragrant steam for which the word was Chhi." - Science and Civilisation in China by Joseph Needham, F.R.S., F.B.A.

From what Joseph Needham wrote, one can see that he was puzzled that there was no theory to explain the cause of sound. This is in contrast to Aristotelian physics which had a strong tendency to seek the causes of physical existences and phenomena. It was Aristotle who dared to deviate from Thales' focus and started to look into the direct causes of physical existences and phenomena. It was this phase transition, a change in focus that broke the old boundary and opened a new frontier in exploring nature. But fundamentally, the reason why the Greeks could achieve this phase transition was that they did not have a set of restraining social protocols in the intellectual inquiries.

The absence of such protocols allowed the Greeks to be relatively free from the restraint of a hierarchical system in intellectual inquiry. Individuals were on a relatively equal position to put forward their own concepts, seen in their academic disagreements and debates. This was important for one of the key intellectual developments - the methodology to seek truth. Under such an environment, many methodologies to seek truth were developed in the classical time of Greece, leading to the evolving of scepticism, dialectic, logic, empiricism, mathematics and many other methods. Had the Greeks had a set of restraining social protocols in the intellectual development, they would not have been able to develop dialectic to disagree and refute opponents' views.

In parallel, the Chinese intellectual development also looked into the methodology of seeking truth. Similar to its Greek counterpart, many of the competing thoughts clashed in the Spring-Autumn and Warring States Period, creating confusion. As a result, attempts were made to clear this confusion and find the right answers. These efforts resulted in looking into the rules of thinking, including the relationships of words and corresponding realities. [235] This was similar to the Greeks' search for the right methodology to seek truth. They had commonalities, however, there were also differences too. Like the inquiry into the physical environment, the restraining social protocols also played their roles in the development of the Chinese methodology of seeking truth. The Greeks in particular focused on this development. Their development was more comprehensive. They emphasized the importance of raising questions as Socrates did. Raising questions is essential to scepticism, one of the schools of thought in ancient Greece.

Skepticism was developed into one of the major schools of thought in ancient Greece. At the beginning, it was a school of thought that doubted whether humans could have the absolute certainty of knowledge (pyrrhonism). This was pioneered by Pyrrho's followers.[236] Later, another derivative version, academic scepticism, asserted that human could not obtain absolute knowledge.[237] Although Pyrrhonism is considered as the school of scepticism, dialectic taught by Socrates and Plato was of the nature of scepticism. Dialectic's approach to the rebuttal of opponents' points was to prove it invalid; therefore, it is natural to doubt the validity of the opponent's point first. Without doubting the truth of opponent's point, it would be impossible to begin the process of logical reasoning to prove it wrong. Since dialectic can be used in a broad area, it is more general than simply doubting whether humans can obtain absolute certainty of knowledge. In comparison, was there scepticism in China in that time? Those scholars who believe that scepticism existed in ancient China cite two examples that Zhuangzi (~369-286 BC) [238] gave: in the first, Zhuangzi wonders whether he was dreaming of a butterfly or the butterfly was dreaming of him. In the second example he questions his debating opponent, Huizi (~370-310 BC),[239] how he knew that the fish was happy. It can be reasonably said that some characteristics of scepticism are shown in these two specific cases; however, whether these two cases can be generalized as the school of scepticism is debatable. What is certain is that scepticism was not taught as a particular school of thought in the institutional learning at that time. However, this does not mean that the Chinese would not raise questions or doubts, because they are a part of human's natural thinking. Compared with the Chinese, scepticism was developed to a more comprehensive and sophisticated level in ancient Greece. The development of scepticism could only be achieved without those restraining social protocols in their intellectual inquiry, and the social environment that allowed the Greeks to debate aided the development of scepticism.

Among such an environment of debate, an approach to seek truth was developed. This was Dialectic, of which Socratic Method was one of the many forms. The Socratic Method was a method aimed at discrediting an opponent's point by demonstrating that the point will lead to contradiction.[240] At the time of the classical age in Greece, dialectic was only used as an approach to seek truth, and the nature of contradiction in dialectic was not well understood. So Socrates often ended up saying, "I don't know". It was different to the later development of dialectic, which looked further into the nature of contradiction and realized that contradiction is caused by one of the fundamental relationships, symmetry. Symmetry is part of the fundamental interrelationship, symmetry-asymmetry. Symmetry-asymmetry is interpreted in Hegelian dialectic as the unity of the opposite - an important point in dialectic developed in the 18th century.[241] There are some people who believe that dialectic also existed in the time of Hundred Schools of Thought in China. They cite that contradicting phenomena such as tall-short, bright-dark etc. were noted by philosophers at that time. However, those contradicting phenomena mentioned in ancient Chinese philosophy were not an approach to seek truth. Rather, they were the fundamental interrelationship, symmetry, expressed as phenomena. The Socratic Method, a form of dialectic, [242] is an approach to induce opponents to arrive at a situation where two contradicting opinions (symmetry) appear where only one opinion (asymmetry) is allowed. Thus they could refute their opponent's idea. For example, there is an individual coming from far distance. There are two possibilities, man and woman (not a man). This is symmetry. But in reality, it can only be man or woman. This is asymmetry. It cannot be both man and woman at the same time. If someone's idea will lead to the conclusion that the coming individual is both man and not a man (woman), then this idea will be proven wrong and refuted.[243] This was the dialectic in the ancient Greece. Dialectic in ancient times existed as an important approach to seek truth and was taught in schools. Even when Catholic Church banned Aristotle's works, dialectic and logic were still taught in Catholic and Monastic schools.[244] Was there dialectic in ancient China? In terms of a curriculum taught in schools, there was not. However, Mozi's approach of using an opponent's contradictory points to refute his own point shares some similarity with the Socratic Method in principle. But in terms of practice, there was evidence showing that the Chinese were well versed in dialectics. For example, compared with the dialectic written by Plato in his works such as The Apology, the debate between Zhuangzi and Huizi regarding whether the fish was happy is of the nature of dialectic. Actually, dialectic is something that people can attain without training. It is a way of thinking in the form of dialogue between two parties or sometimes more than two parties. These two parties conduct their dialogue following the interrelationships to arrive at the conclusion. Of many forms of dialectic, the Socratic Method is an approach that follows the interrelationship of symmetry-asymmetry. When one examines the discussions, debates and articles in the Chinese history, one can find plenty of examples that demonstrate the dialectic nature. Why can dialectic be attained without special training? The answer is simple: logical thinking is a matter of following the fundamental interrelationships. Any human individual has the brain function to follow those interrelationships. Dialectic is only one form of following those interrelationships. Therefore, people don't need training to attain the skill of dialectic. But the training of dialectic allows individuals to efficiently and effectively follow the interrelationships to think. It is similar to anyone having the capability to throw a basketball into the net, but training provides the accuracy of throwing the ball into the net. Therefore, the development of dialectic helps the West in intellectual inquiry. Compared with the Chinese, the Greeks' dialectic was better developed, as it benefited from a strongly debating environment. Again, had they have the restraining social protocols in intellectual development, they would not have developed dialectic to such a sophisticated level.

As previously discussed, the ancient Greeks started to explore the interrelationships of thinking as a result of their debating environment. This was the development of logic, accredited to Aristotle. Interestingly, a similar development also occurred in the Spring-Autumn and Warring States Period. Of those Chinese thinkers, Mozi made significant achievements in studying the interrelationships of thinking. He referred to one of the thinking approaches as "deriving from a group and applying to a group".[245] For example, if someone sees several pigeons and notices that they all have wings, he can derive an idea from this group of pigeons that "all pigeons have wings". If later he were given a present in a box and told that it was a pigeon, then he can apply the concept that "all pigeons have wings" to this pigeon because this pigeon belongs to the group of pigeons. This rule of thinking is what Aristotle referred as "prior analytics and posterior analytics" and is what Robert Grosseteste referred as "inductive thinking and deductive thinking". Apart from this rule, Mozi had also investigated parallel thinking in detail to the extent that he classified parallel thinking into six subcategories and looked into how to appropriately use them and the inappropriate use of parallel thinking. As mentioned above, one of these parallel thinking approaches was similar to the Socratic Method. But the development of logic in ancient Greece was more comprehensive and sophisticated.

In ancient Greece, empiricism was developed as one of the approaches to seek truth. Xunzi also contributed to the development of epistemology. In his writing, he clearly analysed the process from human sensory organs to thinking.[246] It was a remarkable achievement at that time. But this school of thought was watered down by another school of thought, dogmatism.

There is another important difference between the Chinese and the Greeks at the beginning of intellectual activity in seeking truth: that is, to use mathematics to seek truth. It was the use of mathematics to explain physical phenomena in the west that led to the birth of modern physics. Mathematics was developed in ancient China but it was not used to explain physical phenomena. It was largely used for practical activities. [247]

The above discussions have demonstrated that while there was a similar development of intellectual inquiries in ancient China, there remained differences between the Greeks and the Chinese in this development. It is important to understand the mechanism behind these historical phenomena because it not only led to the things that happened in the past but it will continue to happen if this mechanism still exists. Through analysis, we can come to understand why this period of intellectual prosperity happened and why there were such differences between the Chinese and the Greek. Furthermore, it can help us to understand the consequences of these differences.

From all these discussion, it can be concluded that the weakening of the Zhou dynasty loosened the restraint on intellectual inquiries. As the result, a cultural prosperity occurred in which exploring nature achieved substantial progress. However, the Zhou dynasty's social protocols, which were the most fundamental factor, still partially influenced Chinese intellectual development of that time. As the result, the Chinese did make intellectual achievement in ancient times, but the fundamental differences started to emerge. These fundamental differences created the gap between the Chinse and the Greeks, particularly in developing the right methodologies to seek truth. This consequence further influenced later Chinese intellectual development. However, the Greeks were relatively free from the restraint of these protocols, therefore, the Greeks intellectual activities could easily diversify in many subjects of study and as a consequence they came up with more theoretical achievement.

The change of social environment fundamentally shaping the Chinese intellectual development after the Qin dynasty

After the kingdom of Qin united other kingdoms and formed a large system, the social environment changed. The large territory, large population, geographical isolation, low productivity and scarce resources available to the general public easily resulted in heightened interaction between individuals threatening the social stability. To ensure such a large social system remains in order, the power of the top of a hierarchical system must be strengthened according to the fundamental interrelationships. Thus, the methods attempting to increase the governing system's power were made. One of the attempts was to establish a school of thought as the "internal controlling force" to maintain the social order. In fact, this "internal controlling force" is the very top of the whole system and governs individuals on all levels. It is parallel to the force that binds all molecules together in any stable and solid material, such as an ice cube. It must be only one school rather than multiple schools because the top of a system has to be in the state of singularity (asymmetry) according to the fundamental interrelationship, otherwise disorder in the system will result. So, the Qin dynasty established a policy of "learning from the government officials only".[248] This policy effectively stabilised the society but ended the period of "Hundred Schools of Thought". These social changes by the Qin dynasty were actually the expressions of those fundamental interrelationships i.e. convergence, singularity-plurality, symmetry-asymmetry, hierarchical system and order-disorder. As the Qin dynasty only lasted for a short period, those changes aimed at strengthening the power of the governing system were continued by the succeeding Han dynasty.

Faced with the same situation as the previous dynasties, the Han dynasty had to address these problems and maintain social order. Therefore, "an internal controlling force" was needed. For this reason, customs, morals and ethics were used as the "internal controlling forces" to address these problems. This was the approach that the previous Zhou dynasty had used and was left behind as a cultural legacy, strongly endorsed by the school of Confucianism. For these reasons, Confucianism was chosen by the Han dynasty as the "internal controlling force" to maintain social order. [249] The endorsement of Confucianism was part of establishing the new social order, and Confucianism could help to achieve this objective as it promoted the establishment of a hierarchical feudal system.

The use of Confucianism as the internal controlling force originated in the Han dynasty (202 BC-220 AD) and lasted to the end of the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). The impacts of Confucianism on Chinese civilization were profound and long-lasting. This process is not accidental, but a universal phenomenon, as we can see by the similar process in which Christianity was adopted as the state church by the Roman Empire. As the result, the Roman society changed from polytheism to monotheism and intellectual activities in the Empire was restrained. As the result, the cultural prosperity ended. Any attempt to seek truth from nature was banned. This has been discussed in the previous chapter. Similar to when Christianity obtained the dominant position of state church, Confucianism had direct effects on other schools of thought. Other schools of thought started to dwindle as the Han dynasty adopted a policy of "banning all other schools of thought but only endorsing Confucianism". [250]

Then what is Confucianism? It is a set of moral and ethical protocols to maintain the feudal society. It constituted the major part of the feudalistic social protocols. From what Confucius said, that his important task was to restore the protocols of the Zhou dynasty's class system,[251] it can be seen that Confucianism was the continuation of the social protocols of the Zhou dynasty, but in a different form. They had a common objective: to maintain the order and stable condition of a large social system by designing and implementing a set of social protocols. These protocols were the "internal controlling force" to establish a hierarchical system to maintain stability. Confucianism is a complicated mixture of various concepts. One of its major objectives was to establish a hierarchical feudal system through the emphasis of personal authority to maintain social order. Its teachings outlined a social hierarchical structure (class system) and emphasized the personal authority of the higher level over the subordinate level and the loyalty and obedience of the lower level to its superior. These ideas can be seen in its teachings, such as: "The higher level is superior and the lower level is inferior"; "Men are superior and women are inferior"; "The king is dominant and ministers are subservient"; "Father is dominant and sons are subservient". Under the feudal system, individuals were educated to serve their superiors and follow orders. Confucianism's emphasis on personal authority had the endorsement of the individuals in power in the feudal system because it was designed for them. However, Confucianism also proposed other protocols to balance the negative impacts of emphasising personal authority. Other protocols were designed to increase social output by minimising social conflicts, taking social responsibilities and encouraging hard work, particularly in academic studies.

Another approach to strengthen the power at the top of the social system was to promote the ideology that the emperor was the son of the sky. Unlike the Spring-Autumn and Warring States period, the emperors in the Han dynasty regained their power. Therefore, they could once again enforce this ideology. However, it was presented as a new version of interpretation believing that the emperor had the unique power to communicate with the anthropomorphic sky and the sky was the ultimate authority in the world. This idea was championed by the Prime Minister, DONG Zhongshu. [252]

The impacts of a new social environment on the Chinese intellectual development

Under this social environment, the direction of intellectual development was changed. Certainly, those subjects conflicting with the social values such as Mozi's ideals would not be taught in schools run by the government. Any attempt to consider the sky as a natural environment would be in conflict with this ideology and was met with incredible resistance. The brief period in the Spring-Autumn and Warring States period allowing intellectual inquiry to look into the sky as a part of the natural environment ended and any attempt to do so again became a sensitive issue. This is why Mozi's ideals to explain the natural existence were abandoned. His efforts of starting to look into the physical phenomena were interrupted. Even the ideals of one of the influential figure of Confucianism, Xunzi, were abandoned because some of those ideals (his atheism) contradicted the main stream of feudalism at that time.[253] As such, the infant stage of natural scientific development in ancient China was thus interrupted because feudal society's social values were in conflict with natural science, and thus resisted scientific development. This practice lasted throughout the Chinese feudal history till the end of the last dynasty, the Qing dynasty (1636-1921)[254] and was one of the major reasons that natural science could not be properly developed in China's feudal society. Although the general environment was unfavourable to the development of natural science, there were several individual thinkers managing to achieve in the field of natural sciences in an isolated personal environment. WANG Chong (27-97AD), in the Han dynasty, was an example of this. He was a peculiar thinker: he was educated in the government educational institution, designed to produce educated personnel to manage the social system. But somehow, he could not manage to stay and get promoted within the system, so he left and focused on studying nature in an "ectopic" way, by seeking answers from the physical environment itself.[255] Having left the government system, he isolated himself from the environment and became independent. Then, he was relatively free from restraint in his studies and began to explore nature. However, as his ideas were in conflict with the social values of the time, they were not accepted in the main academic system and could not be disseminated in academic society.

Furthermore, as the objective of setting up government run schools was to administrate the society, the curriculum was pragmatically designed to fit into this objective. Hence, social management was the main focus. Despite the main focus of intellectual inquiries in the previous Spring-Autumn and Warring States Period having already been social management, after the Han dynasty, social management study was further narrowed down to largely Confucianism [256] because it was the endorsed social value.

This occurred in the government run learning institutions, the mainstream intellectual activities, which were under the direct control of the feudal administration system. However, the ancient Chinese education system also had privately run learning institutions,[257] so why did those learning institutions also follow the same direction? This was largely due to a specific academic assessment system, the Imperial Exam [258]. The Imperial Exam, as a crucial part of the education system, played an important role in shaping the development of Chinese intellectual inquiry.

The Imperial Exam

The Imperial Exam started in 605 of the Sui dynasty and ended in 1905 in the Qing dynasty. The exam was designed for the selection of educated elite personnel for the government to administrate the society. It provided the most important and pragmatic avenue for learned individuals from broader social backgrounds to advance their career. It awarded examinees with different academic titles when they passed the corresponding exams. Once an individual passed a certain level of exam, he would be more likely to get a government position, meaning a respected social status and good financial income.

Certainly this exam provided a positive avenue for talented individuals and also promoted the Chinese intellectual development. However, the format of this exam failed to promote intellectual diversity, particularly the development of natural sciences. The contents and criteria of the exam were set by a select group of examiners. Because the number of examiners was limited, it was difficult for them to prepare and test the students on a more diversified range of subjects. Subsequently, this examination failed to lead students to a more diversified range of studies. Furthermore, since the objective of studying was to pass the Imperial Exam, and the exam itself had a predetermined format, students concentrated on memorizing existing knowledge at the expense of innovative and creative thought.

Because the aim of the students to study was to pass this exam, the contents of the exam became the guidelines of the students' studying curriculum and further influenced their intellectual development. This means that the exam influenced what subjects should be studied and what should not be. Moreover, the objective of this exam was to select well educated individuals for government positions, so most of the contents of the exam were related to social management. Since Confucianism was the social value for maintaining the society, it became the major content of the exam.[259] Of course, those subjects related to the natural sciences would not be included. Therefore, students concentrated on studying social management related subjects rather than studying nature related subjects. As a consequence, the Imperial Exam created a large number of elites in social management but not in natural sciences, resulting in well studied social management but the insufficient development of natural sciences. The reason for this situation was also due to the fact that there was a strong link between the government officials and the academic elites. Appointment as government officials based on academic excellence had already existed before the establishment of the imperial exam, and was only further enforced by this system.[260] Furthermore, academic elites were also keen on becoming government officials. Their studies were substantially involved with how to manage the population, for example, Confucianism. These elites themselves were either bureaucrats or had links with bureaucrats. Their research was aimed at how to maximize their interests. So arose such research outcomes as Confucius sayings: "Laws should not be applied to senior government officials".[261]

As a knowledge of nature was not examined, the Imperial Exam failed to create a demand for knowledge of nature in the intellectual product market. Moreover, the demand for knowledge of nature was not created by public interest on the intellectual product market either because of the pragmatism discussed above. Studying itself also had strong pragmatic motivation; for example, the saying "there is a house of gold in books" illustrated the motivation to study. However, to achieve this goal, simply studying was not enough. One had to pass the imperial exam to get a position as a government official. In other words, gaining knowledge would not make you rich no matter how knowledgeable you were; however, gaining a position as a government official could get you rich and a respectful social status. Otherwise, it would waste your time and you may have ended up becoming a clerk, practicing Feng Shui or being a herbalist. This demonstrates that knowledge could not be directly translated into wealth because there was not a lucrative knowledge market. In particular, there wasn't a market for knowledge exploring the nature of the world.

So, knowledge producers and distributors could not sell knowledge of nature to get a good return, and without such a knowledge market, there was no mechanism to effectively push the exploration of nature. Under the pressures of life, people had to pragmatically place survival before education. A casual survey of history books will reveal that the Chinese marketplace consisted of many trading activities but left no trace of spaces for public lectures like the Stoics in the Agora. Nor would you find people who travelled around and sold knowledge of nature as an occupation like the Sophists. Some Sophists charged a fee for giving public lectures as entertainment,[262] demonstrating that there was demand for knowledge purely out of interest, not out of practicality. Such "entertaining" intellectual activity was helpful for exploring nature and development of sciences.

In contrast, in the Chinese entertainment market, there was no such activity that used knowledge of nature as "entertainment". Nevertheless, the Chinese cultural market was full of many entertaining products such as Chinese chess, mah-jong, Chinese opera, calligraphy and painting. Of these entertaining activities, calligraphy is a unique product. It was different to the ancient Greek market. Indeed, many people in the West are fascinated by calligraphy; this is no surprise given that Chinese calligraphy gives us a sense of what is beautiful. That calligraphy was appreciated is indicated by the variegated styles and qualities that emerged in its development: vigorous, bold, smooth, mellow, full, showy, regular, cursive, running, among others. Since there was a public demand for calligraphy, people invented new styles of calligraphy and made it as artistic and beautiful as they possibly could in order to sell it at a premium. The existence of such a market, ultimately driven by desire, made it possible for the expression of calligraphy to proliferate and flourish. As a result, many individuals practice calligraphy and some do it as their profession. And the work of those who excelled at it, like that of Wang Xizhi, has been praised and celebrated over the centuries. Those who were unable to reach such a level of expertise may have instead chosen to write New Year's couplets, scribe for citizens in the area, or document proceedings for the court. The way in which calligraphy developed in the public market is similar to the way knowledge was developed by the ancient Greeks. Although this kind of entertaining activity was part of intellectual activities, it was fundamentally different to another kind of intellectual activity – exploring nature. The entertaining activities have no direct benefit to civilization; however, exploring nature can move civilization forward.

The knowledge about nature was a unique product in ancient Greece compared with the Chinese cultural market. The ancient Greeks did not pursue calligraphy, and nor did its philosophers recommend it to the public, which meant there was little, if any, market for calligraphy (and hence hardly any Greek calligraphers). Rather, they devoted their energies to the study of the rules of nature. In terms of writing sentences, the Greeks studied grammar and its logical structure – the connections between words and sentences. Just as the Chinese saw beauty in calligraphy, in some sense, the ancient Greeks had an aesthetic appreciation of grammar. Although typographical changes have been made from ancient Greek to various European languages (e.g. in alphabetical systems), the original logical structure and grammatical order has been largely retained.[263] This has enabled European languages today to be installed into and processed by computers more readily and efficiently.

From the above discussion, we can reasonably conclude that a market for knowledge of nature that promised good returns did not exist in ancient China. At that time, the market set the appropriate commercial value for knowledge based on supply and demand. However, this 'appropriate' value severely underestimated the true value of knowledge: social value, the ability to move civilization forward. Under these circumstances, the "internal and external controlling forces" failed to set up a mechanism based on social value to push the development of the knowledge market. As is evident from its historical outcome, such a seemingly appropriate commercial value was absolutely inappropriate, as it partially led to Chinese civilization falling behind in modern times. As a consequence, Chinese civilization remained in agrarian society while Western civilization was experiencing the Industrial Revolution.

Compared with the Chinese counterpart, the Greek educational system provided more channels for students with different motivations to advance their careers. Some individuals sought to become politicians; for them, studying the subject of rhetoric would enable them to give eloquent and persuasive speeches and help them succeed in the political arena.[264] Similarly to the Chinese, the ancient Greeks also studied for their "exam" in order to attain a public position. However, their "exams" took the form of public debates and selling their ideas to the public, and their "examiners" were not just a few members of a committee but a crowd of fellow citizens. Individuals would commit themselves to study in order to acquire the ability to win the audience's mind in public speaking before they could get a public position. As such, "promotion as government official based on academic excellence" and "Imperial Examinations" meant one thing to the Greeks and another thing to the Chinese.

Moreover, becoming a politician was not the only avenue for students to advance their careers. Another channel for students to succeed was to be knowledge producer-distributors and sell knowledge on the market, as in the case of sophists. This demand stemmed from the general public's interests, which influenced intellectual development. The public's interests was distinguished and it can be seen from that some public lectures "were given in the spirit of entertainment rather than education".*19 Although the Greeks' motivations of study were, to some extent, different to the Chinese, the motivation of study was of pragmatism. However, the desire to understand nature was beyond pragmatism. It was driven by the human nature of curiosity. This created the demand from the general public for the knowledge of nature, thankfully due to the large degree of freedom provided by their economic prosperity. The demand for knowledge of nature led to an exploration of nature, which, as discussed, was important for the Greeks' intellectual development.

In this market, these knowledge producer-distributors faced the public rather than a few individuals, and therefore had to deal with a diversified range of intellectual demands. Hence, they needed to be able to match these demands with products that covered large and multifarious areas. Furthermore, those Greek knowledge producer-distributors faced market competition, forcing them to continuously perfect their curriculum and teaching methods. Such a market encouraged diversity in thinking and allowed nature to be studied in-depth and from multiple viewpoints, resulting in the development of various subjects of study. Thus the ancient Greeks progressed, in their search for answers, from mythology to philosophy, philosophy to science, and science to specific disciplines within science.

The two different aims of studying resulted in two different approaches to education. For the ancient Chinese, the aim of study was to gain intellectual products (i.e., knowledge); consequently, the method of study was memorization. For the Greeks, the aim of study was not only to gain intellectual products but to acquire the ability to produce them as well; as these individuals produced and sold knowledge, they needed to gain the capacity to produce their intellectual products. This consequently developed into the capacity of independent thinking, allowing them to further explore the nature of the world; thus the method of study involved more analytical and complex thinking skills than simply memorization. This resulted in the development of methodology of seeking truth. These two different objectives in education resulted in a different level of creativity. We should really look into the differences between these two approaches to education when noticing where those important inventions and discoveries such as the steam engine, electrical motor, electrical light, radio, television, radar, computer, Newtonian mechanics, relativity, quantum mechanics and genetics came from. More importantly, we should look into the causes behind these differences.

Comparing the Chinese education system with the Medieval schools and universities

It has been discussed that there were differences between the Chinese and the Greeks in intellectual development in ancient times. These differences were fundamental; however, their impact on civilization was not alarmingly significant at that time. The continual development of higher education and intellectual inquiry in the West in the Middle Ages critically increased the differences and subsequently created significant impacts on these two civilizations. It was the mechanisms governing these two education systems that created their differences, but how did these two different mechanisms impact on their intellectual development?

This can be attributed to the changing direction of institutional learning. In the West, this happened in the high Middle Ages and set the right direction for the subsequent scientific revolution. However, before this critical point, the western intellectual development in the early Middle Ages was not much better than the Chinese counterpart. When education was only available from limited monastic schools and catholic schools in the West, institutional learning had been well established in China: the Imperial Academy, Taixue which represented the highest level of institutional learning, had been established since the Han dynasty and once upon a time reached a scale of 30,0000 students; the Imperial Exam had been in place since the Sui dynasty. Although the institutional learning had developed early (from the Xia dynasty 21-16 BC)[265] in China, the focus of study largely remained unchanged and could not resume the direction of looking into nature that Mozi pursued in the Spring-Autumn and Warring States period.

On the other hand, the social mechanism in Medieval Europe changed the order of intellectual development. A new order of institutional learning, medieval university, was born. In contrast, such a social mechanism did not exist in China. Therefore, the mechanism of intellectual development was different to the West. As the result, critical differences in intellectual development between the East and West emerged. Of all these changes, new subjects were studied, as seen in the reintroduction of Aristotle's metaphysics to the curriculum in the medieval universities and the large scale translation of Islamic scientific knowledge into Latin. However, this did not happen in China in the same period, social subjects remained the main focus of study.

The difference in curricula was not the only one. More importantly, it was the difference in methodology of seeking truth. At some stage, the Catholic schools were similar to their Chinese counterparts. However, the Catholic schools had something different: their cultural legacy from the ancient Greeks. They taught dialectics and logic, which helped students to train logical thinking. This cultural legacy was later used to develop disputation, an important intellectual activity of scholasticism in the Middle Ages, which further contributed to the culture of academic debate. With the introduction of the Greek classics, Aristotle's prior and posterior analytics were introduced and interpreted as deductive and inductive thinking; scepticism was further developed into methodological scepticism; mathematics and experimentation were employed as the approaches to seek truth.

On the other hand, there was no teaching similar to dialectic, logic or disputation in the Chinse higher learning institutions over the corresponding period. By this time, the negative impacts of the Zhou dynasty's class protocols emerged. It has been discussed that the Zhou dynasty's class system protocols played a part in restraining people's minds in the Spring-Autumn and Warring States period, leading to the insufficient development of philosophies including the speculation of the origin of the world and the methodologies of seeking truth.

Although the Zhou dynasty ended in 256 B.C., the idea of class system was inherited and incorporated into the social value adopted by those feudal dynasties. Untill the end of the last feudal dynasty, the Qing dynasty, the feudalistic social values had been fundamentally influencing the subculture of intellectual development. Although protocols regarding teachers had been outlined under the Zhou dynasty's class protocols, they were further developed into more sophisticated detail over time. In education, the teaching-learning and teacher-student relationships were further defined at a more detailed level, such as the doctrines: "Respecting teacher and following his teaching"; "Teachers' teachings are of authority"; "Learning from teacher for one day, respecting him as a father for a hundred days"; "The rules of students and disciples". Eventually, teachers' position was lifted to parallel to the Sky-Earth, king and ancestry in their respective systems, as reflected by the saying, "Sky, earth, king, ancestry and teacher".[266] they were the important class protocols in the feudalistic system and were ranked on the top of the class system. It was these social protocols that restrained intellectuals from developing different ideas from their teachers' teachings. These social protocols, aimed at maintaining a hierarchical social system, fundamentally influenced the Chinese intellectual development.

While dialectic, logic, disputation and scepticism were used in European medieval institutional leaning, dogmatism dominated the Chinese education and intellectual inquiry under the intellectual class system. Credibility was needed to enforce the doctrines, and this was gained by giving the authority to the doctrines. As long as an idea was quoted from a source with authority then it would have credibility. Therefore, concepts handed down from high profile individuals, teachers, ancestry, previous generation, predecessors and tradition were of authority according to the feudalism's class protocol. Those concepts should be followed rather than subject to the most important step of scientific method - the scrutiny of scepticism.

As dogmatism is incompatible with scepticism, this school of thought could not develop in such an environment because raising questions may conflict with the order of the feudal society, which is based on personal authority and protected by the feudalistic social values on moral and ethical grounds. Those feudalistic protocols outlined a class system in intellectual activity. Within this class system, questioning those academic "superiors" may be considered as disrespect or even an "offence to the superior". Therefore, it was not encouraged and suppressing questioning became the approach to protect their personal interest. As discussed in the previous chapter, raising question is the first step to initiate the process of logical reasoning. Such an approach destroyed the most vital step to initiate intellectual inquires, thus stopping the search for truth. This practice put a shackle on people's minds and restrained the scope of thought. Consequently, it reduced the chances of finding the correct answer, leading to science, and ultimately civilization, falling behind.

From the perspective of present-day's scientific method, personal authority is not a measure of right or wrong. The winner of the Nobel Prize in economics also made big losses in investments.[267] The truth of a theory is based on whether it matches with facts rather than personal authority. Furthermore, the concept of authority used in academic research may have an undesirable impact because it may psychologically restrain other individuals' independent thinking. Unconditional admiration can only put a shackle on one's mind. In fact, many scientists would not unconditionally accept claims from well-known individuals with the title of "academic authority"– there are still many scientists questioning the truth of the Theory of Relativity, despite Albert Einstein's fame.

However, restrained by the feudalistic class protocols, the methodologies of Chinese intellectual inquiry followed the other way. Using those methodologies which were based on feudalistic class protocols to seek truth, intellectual development falling behind was inevitable. For example, In ancient times, the development of Chinese medicine was parallel to the Greeks'. Chinese medicine is based on the experiences accumulated over time. It has been used for various conditions. Even in modern time, some are particularly effective. For example, the anti-malaria drug Artemisinin (Qinghaosu) was discovered by the Chinese researchers from the extracts of the herb, qinghao (artemisia annua or sweet wormwood). [268] This herb is one of the ingredients of a specific herbal formula of Chinese medicine. The name, qinghaosu means the element from qinghao. Now, this medication is the main drug in the treatment of malaria. The theory of Chinese medicine comes from the practical experience. More than 2000 years ago, the Chinese had already put forward a medical work, "Huangdi Neijing" or "The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classics". It was a systematic study of Chinese medicine, covering anatomy, physiology, pathology, aetiology, diagnostic approaches and treatment. In this book, some philosophical concepts such as the "Yin-Yang" theory and "Five Elements" had been introduced to explain various human body conditions.[269] The comprehensive covering was at least as good as the Greeks', if not better. However, from the classical age to modern times, Western medicine developed into modern medicine and its theories of medicine fundamentally changed into modern sciences. Chinese medical theory, however continued using those philosophical concepts as its theoretical basis – it barely changed over this period of time, although several other versions with more detailed explanations were written. Nevertheless, these new versions did not fundamentally change the theory of Chinese medicine and its studying methodology, as the western medicine had. Behind this discrepancy were the differences in the mechanism of intellectual inquiry between these two civilizations. The title of this Chinese medical work may provide some ideas to look into the mechanism of Chinese intellectual development. This medical work, "Huangdi Neijing", uses the title of Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor). Why was it linked to the Yellow Emperor, the legendary ancestor of the Chinese people? By using the influential and authoritative name of the Yellow Emperor, this medical book could obtain authority, because the Yellow Emperor and Emperor are both pronounced the same in Chinese (Huangdi). Since the Yellow Emperor was the common ancestor of the Chinese people, his name was unmatched in influence and authority. By using such an authoritative name, this medical work was immune from being questioned, criticised, challenged and changed, because under the restraining of the feudalistic class protocols, these were impossible. Over time, this medical work's authority was further strengthened as it became tradition handed down from previous generations and ancestry. This theoretical work was not scrutinised by scepticism; debated through dialectic and logic; or assessed by evidence of scientific method because all these methods were not possible under the restraint of the feudalistic class protocols. This book became the bible of Chinese medicine. However, without being sceptical about the truth of this book's theory, it would not initiate the examination of one of the two possibilities, true or not true. As a result, truth cannot be found. Again, this is governed by the fundamental interrelationship of symmetry-asymmetry. That is why for thousands of years, the changes to this work were only adding explanation to the original work. Its fundamentals and its theoretical bases of the "Five Elements" and "Yin-Yang" were never changed. Although the Yin- Yang theory can explain body disorders on the philosophical level, it is not detailed enough to give the direct causes of various disorders. For example, in infectious diseases, the immunity can be considered as the Yang and pathogen can be considered as Yin. Hyperthyroidism can be considered as Yang disorder and hypothyroidism can be considered as the Yin disorder. But the Yin-Yang theory is not detailed enough to give the explanation of direct causes of these disorders. It was for this reason that over thousands of years, the development of Chinese medicine became slower than its Western counterpart.

This is only an example in the Chinese intellectual inquiries. But the mechanism behind this case influenced the overall intellectual development in China. This is the reason why academics in the West had deviated to look for the direct causes to explain phenomena since the time of Aristotle, but the Chinese intellectual inquiries had continued using philosophical theories such as "Yin-Yang" to address various phenomena even when the West had developed modern sciences.

On the contrary, neither the ancient Greeks nor the Germanic people developed these restraining protocols to implement them in intellectual inquiry. Compared with the Greeks, the Germanic people's culture was even more challenging. Why did the Germanic people have such a strong challenging culture? The Germanic people, during the same period, were in a tribal system. They only migrated into Roman territory from the 4th\- 8th centuries AD.[270] Their settlement was late compared with the Greeks and Romans, far later than the Chinese. Their settling down and forming the first large social system was the Carolingian Empire (800-888 AD).[271] Before forming a large stable social system, there was not a strong "internal controlling force" like Confucianism in place in their society. Although they adopted Christianity, Germanic Christianity was of utilitarianism. From their settlement to the time of medieval university, they still retained a strong challenging culture which was also attributed by their warring environment; therefore, they had a stronger tendency towards challenging than even the Greeks. This Germanic culture influenced their intellectual inquiry. Even with the restraint of Catholicism, they still challenged the order of intellectual inquiry. For example, Leonardo da Vinci performed dissections on human corpses until he was banned by the pope.[272] The Belgian scientist Vesalius further challenged Galen's anatomy.

"The intensive study of Galen led to critiques of Galen modeled on his own writing". – History of medicine, Wikipedia

"The Galenic doctrine in Europe was first seriously challenged in the 16th century,.... Vesalius was the first to publish a treatise, De Humani Corporis Fabrica, that challenged Gallen 'drawing for drawing'" – History of anatomy, Wikipedia

"Over his lifetime he corrected over 200 of Galen's mistakes". – History of anatomy, wiki

Finally, with the modern scientific approach of experimentation, bacteria as the pathogen of infectious disease was discovered and the Greeks' four elements theory in medicine was overthrown. [273]

Compared with the development of modern medicine, the development of modern physics can more convincingly explain the mechanism of developing modern science. Newtonian mechanics is a landmark in this development, of which the discovery of the First Law of Newtonian Motion is a clear example to understand the mechanism behind the development of modern sciences.

Although Thales pioneered looking for answer from nature, his follower, Aristotle, broke away from the boundary by starting to look into the direct cause of phenomena. One of Aristotles' subjects was the rules of motion and he was the pioneer of this study. He believed that there were "natural motions" that were caused by objects seeking their "natural place", such as the heavy bodies falling to their natural place – the Earth, the centre of the universe (geocentrism). Light bodies, such as air and fire, had the tendency to move away from the centre to the outer layer of the universe, where it was their "natural place". The motion towards other directions rather than their "natural place" by external force was "violent motion" such as projectile motion. For continued motion, an external force was needed to keep applying on the moved object. If the external force stopped acting on the moved object, the motion would cease. These concepts were an important beginning in the development of dynamics. Like all concepts, Aristotle's ideas are subject to the governing of the fundamental relationship of symmetry. In this case, it is expressed as two possibilities: true and not true. Following these two possibilities, the proceeding of investigation will eventually arrive to only one conclusion: it is either true or not true, which is an expression of asymmetry. Therefore, the whole process proceeds from symmetry to asymmetry, as it is governed by this fundamental relationship. Not only does symmetry-asymmetry govern the possibility of true or not true of any concept, this relationship also governs the opinions of people. As a result, there are people supporting and opposing before the final conclusion is reached. Aristotle and his supporters followed the true possibility to present their argument while their opponents followed the opposite. The critics argued that a projectile motion was inconsistent with Aristotle's doctrines: a projectile could continue moving without keeping in touch with the hand of a thrower after leaving his hand. To this criticism, Aristotle's explanation was that the moved projectile created a vacuum behind it, which in turn allowed air to move in and push the projectile forward. His critics were not convinced because it was impossible that the air acted as a resistance and driving force at the same time. One of the critics, Hipparchus (c. 190 - c.120 BC), an astronomer and mathematician, proposed that the continued motion was due to a property imparted to the projectile when it left the hand of the thrower. This property diminished by itself over time and eventually to the point that it could no longer sustain the unnatural direction. John Philoponus (c.490 – c. 570) was another better known critic. He proposed an idea similar to Hipparchus. Although the criticism was fundamentally governed by the interrelationship of symmetry-asymmetry, however, what was the direct mechanism behind it? Why could the criticism proceed along the opposite line to disprove Aristotle's doctrines? This was due to the freeing of a set of restraining protocols in intellectual inquiries. To these critics, their thoughts were not restrained by Aristotle's fame, although he was well known and the pioneer of these studies. He was not regarded as the authority to judge true or not true. Furthermore, the methodologies of scepticism, empiricism and logic encouraged people to seek truth. Importantly, Aristotle was not given the title of "chief scientist", which may have the psychological restraint on others, and the administrative power to control the direction of investigation. All of these led to the diversity of inquiries, including the opposite possibility leading to the challenging to Aristotle's ideas [288]. However, one should notice that the opposing ideas did not originate from the peripatetic school. Hipparchus could propose opposing idea because he was outside of this subsystem. It would be hard to imagine that opposing ideas could happen within the administrative power of the peripatetic school.

Although there were intellectual activities to prove Aristotelian physics not true in the Greek world, this symmetrically opposing opinion was much weaker than the mainstream of Aristotelian camp. In this symmetry-asymmetry expression, Aristotelian physics remained the dominant opinion in the search for truth. However, when these Greek ideas were introduced to another system, the Islamic world, the opponent opinion gained a better acceptance. Avicenna (c.980 - 1037), a Persian polymath, accepted Philoponus' idea that the continued motion of a projectile was due to the imparted property but he believed the diminishing of this property was due to air resistance. Apart from violent motion, other aspects of Aristotelian physics were criticized by the Islamic thinkers. For example, Hibat Allah Abu'l-Barakat al-Baghdaadi (1080-1165) criticized Aristotle's idea that constant force produced uniform motion and proposed continuous force produced acceleration. The extent of criticism from the Islamic world far exceeded the Greek world [289].

Why did the criticism of Aristotelian theories gain momentum in the Islamic world? As both Aristotelian theories and the critics were from outside the Islamic system, the Islamic thinkers were in a neutral position to assess these two opposing opinions. It is the same mechanism of argument presented in a court battle where a judge sits in a neutral position to listen to the arguments from two opposing sides. As the Islamic world was a separate system to the Greek world, Aristotle's fame (i.e. his psychological impact) to influence others inevitably diminished, compared with the level in the Greek world. In some sense, his reputation was more or less disqualified. These were the reasons that Aristotelian theories were met with stronger challenge in the Islamic world.

Although Aristotle's physics was criticized in the Greek world and the Islamic world, it remained the mainstream theory in the scientific world until being widely and vigorously challenged in the Germanic kingdoms. Jean Buridan (1295 -1363), a French priest, was one of the challengers. He adopted the previous Aristotelian critics' idea of imparted property driving the continued motion of a projectile and gave the name of impetus to this property. The vigorous challenges was due to the strong challenging culture of the Germanic people. This culture further evolved into the subculture of academic challenge from disputation in medieval universities. Furthermore, Aristotelian theories' defects had been exposed by previous challengers. Meanwhile, the methodologies of seeking truth had been further developed: scepticism was further developed to a new level; mathematics had been used to explain physical phenomena; more importantly, experimentation was used to prove or disprove hypothesis; medieval universities were rising, allowing disseminating concepts in a large scale. In such an environment, Aristotelian physics was widely challenged. The geocentricism was challenged by heliocentric model. The idea of a heavier body falling faster than the lighter one was challenged and proved to be false. Heavenly bodies believed to be perfect by Aristotle were proven imperfect. Continuing force producing uniform motion was challenged. The idea that natural motion was due to things naturally seek their natural place was challenged by the theory of gravity. Finally, the search for truth and study of motion reached a critical point[290]:

"The concept of inertia was proposed to explain "violent motion". Galileo's writings would later come to be refined, modified and codified by Isaac newton as the first of his Laws of Motion (first published in Newton's work, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, in 1687):

Unless acted upon by a net unbalanced force, an object will maintain a constant velocity".

–Inertia, Wikipedia

Through the above discussion, we can understand part of the mechanism behind the development of modern sciences. However, no matter what the Germanic intellectuals challenged and changed, they simply inherited Thales' direction of intellectual inquiry and Aristotle's approaches to further develop modern science along that direction. After the scientific revolution and at the beginning of modern science, we can see that this direction of thought to trace the origin of existence culminated in scientific inquiries leading to extensive discoveries. From the following description one can see the link from ancient to modern intellectual pursuit of those western thinkers. From one of the outstanding scientists, Leibniz (1646-1716) who discovered the law of conservation of matter,[274] one can see the link between ancient, medieval and modern times: the search for the origin of existence.

"The principle of sufficient reason is one of four laws of logic which states that nothing is without causation. It is a powerful and controversial philosophical principle stipulating that everything must have reason or cause. The formulation of the principle is usually attributed to Leibniz, although the idea was conceived and utilized in various philosophers that preceded him, including Anaximander, Parmenides, Archimedes, Thomas Aquinas, Anaximander of Miletus, and Spinoza. – Principle of sufficient reason, Wikipedia

From the aforementioned, one can see that the search for "Arche" from the physical environment continued and progressed into medieval and modern times, although there were differences.

By comparison, one can see that the Germanic people's challenging culture influenced the development of Medieval European intellectual inquiry, while feudalistic class protocols influenced the development of Chinese intellectual inquiry. The mechanism that moved intellectual inquiry forwards would not exist under the restraining protocols of feudalism. The consequence was noticed by Joseph Needham:

"In casting about for some explanation of the poverty of Chinese discussions on dynamics, we may first remember that it seems to have had no inhibitory effect at all upon practical technology in the eotechnic phase, so far as vehicles, projectiles, and engines of all kinds were concerned, Chinese mechanical practice was ahead of European, not retarded, down to the very time when the scholastics of the 14th century were preparing the way for Galileo, and even later. Yet if the absence of Galileo needs no explanation, how was it that China had no thinkers corresponding to Philoponus, Buridan or d'Oresme? I have tempted to wonder whether it was not because, as shown above (pp.3ff.), Chinese thinking was so averse from atomic or particulate conceptions". – Civilization and science in China, Joseph Needham

As an academic from the West, Joseph Needham compared the Chinese situation with its Western counterparts and raised the question. His question, Needham's ground question, has been intensely studied and heatedly debated in the academic society and the general public in China, but the reasons have not been fully understood. Needham's ground question is indeed a very intriguing question. The idea that the ancient Chinese intellectual activities strongly focused on practicality can only partially explain Chinese intellectual development. But Needham's ground question involves the fundamentals of Chinese intellectual development; that is, the restraining protocols of the feudalistic social value used in intellectual inquiry. The thinkers mentioned by Needham were trained in an environment relatively free from restraining protocols, and full of intellectual debate. They were the products of the mechanism of Western education. The impacts of those feudalistic social protocols on scientific development were noticed by Joseph Needham:

"If there has been not a little to say about statics and hydrostatics, we shall now see that the study of motion (kinetics and cinematics) seems to have been, on the whole, conspicuously absent from Chinese physical thinking. Nevertheless, there are statements on the subject in the Mo Ching; indeed, some remarkable anticipations.c" – Civilization and science in china, Joseph Needham

From his writing, one can come to understand that the study of kinetics was once taken on by one of the schools of thought in the ancient time in China. However, under the restraining class protocols that were adopted later on, this study became "on the whole, conspicuously absent from Chinese physical thinking". *20

A similar impact was also seen on philosophy. Although the Chinese intellectual development had a good beginning, the trend could not continue, considering the fact that the Chinese in ancient times had already noticed that things followed some common rules, expressed by the saying that, "Prolonged unification will lead to separation and prolonged separation will lead to unification". This is an interpretation of convergence-divergence. The Yin-Yang theory is the interpretation of symmetry. The saying, "when something develops to its extremity it will turn to its opposite", is the expressions of phase transition and interexchange of the opposites. Although these descriptions were not quite precise, they were a very good beginning in philosophy. From this description, one can hypothesize that if there had not been such a restraining social protocols implemented in the Chinese intellectual development, China would have been more likely to develop into more advanced philosophy, and from philosophy further develop into science.

The gap between the Greeks and the Chinese in the early stage of intellectual inquiry was expressed as the understanding of the rules of nature. However, the gap continually increased in the high Middle Ages and became critically significant after the Scientific Revolution. On a deeper level, it was the capability of producing concepts based on objective interrelationships. This is the most fundamental level in civilization. The gap was recessive (invisible) in ancient times but became expressive (visible) in modern times. It was the feudalistic class protocols implemented in intellectual inquires that restrained the Chinese intellectual development.

Under the feudal system, Chinese intellectual inquiry retained traditional approaches until the 16th century when some modern scientific concepts were introduced to China. But those scientific concepts would not be well accepted in a social system in which its social values were in conflict with science. Considering that so many Chinese technologies had been transmitted to the West throughout history, one may wonder why the Western sciences could not be transmitted to China over the same period. For example, spaghetti and fettuccine are the Italian version of Chinese noodles; salami is the Italian version of Chinese sausage; tortellini and ravioli are similar to the Chinese dumpling; prosciutto is the Italian version of Chinese ham (Jinhua Ham). They are not only similar in appearance (readers are encouraged to search their images on the Internet) and tastes, but also in processing. Since the Italians already had the technology of producing spaghetti in the 12th century [275] (archaeological findings of noodle can be dated back to 4000 years ago in China [276]), why then, could the scientific knowledge not be transmitted to China at the same time from the Islamic civilization? The answer was simply that those ideas could not be properly accepted under the feudal system. In fact, as the improvement of travelling technologies contact with the West became more frequent, the geographical distance as the restraining factor of contact became less important. These activities were not only through the land but maritime voyages as well. The maritime contact can be dated back to Han dynasty. In Ming dynasty, seven maritime voyages from 1405-1435 led by General Zheng He were made, reaching Southeast Asia, Arabia peninsula and the eastern coast of Africa. The scale of these voyages was much larger than the Columbus' (three ships)[279] and Magellan's (five ships) fleets.[280] The first voyage was composed of 28,000 crewmen and more than 317 ships stretching several miles on the sea. However, under the feudal system these contacts did not trigger the introduction of advanced science knowledge similar to the Latin translation of the 12th century in the West.[281]

Apart from the feudalistic class protocols, the feudal system also used another school of thought to control society. Given this large population and the relative scarcity of resources available to the population as well as the low productivity of the time, there was a large gap between the desires of the population and the capability of satisfying them. Competition among individuals to satisfy their desires was intense, resulting in an enriched interaction with other like-minded individuals. This competition was mainly confined to its internal environment by the isolated geographical environment. Moreover, the inadequate order of wealth distribution in the feudal system created a large number of poor people, mainly peasants, aggravating social tensions. In order to prevent conflict and maintain social order, a set of specific "internal controlling forces" that evolved from this specific environment was used to manage the population. One of these approaches was the practice of self-suppression of desires – a school of philosophy based on the self-suppression of one's desires in a non-selective way to reduce the occurrence of conflict.

Such a philosophy formed part of the "internal controlling forces" of human behavior, and included rules or maxims like "Clear the mind and abandon desires," "Be content with whatever you have," and "No action is better than any action." Maxims and rules of this kind were employed to reduce detrimental and poisonous conflicts by controlling desire. However, such non-selective suppression reduced the driving force of civilization. When the driving force of an individual or group of individuals was reduced, this led to reduced output, and ultimately the civilization fell behind. "Abandoning desire" suppressed individuals' desires and "clearing the mind" suppressed individuals' thinking. These "internal controlling forces" became resistance for Chinese civilization, resulting in reduced social output. This practice of self-suppression of desires has been the chronic poison of Chinese civilization and left serious long lasting damage. On the contrary, Western civilization evolved from a fierce competitive external environment. The numerous wars evolved into the culture which is part of the "internal controlling force" and became the driving force of Western civilization.

During the same period, western intellectual inquiry continued to progress. Philosophers in the West progressed from Thales' search for truth in nature, Socrates' questioning, Pythagoreans' mathematical approach, dialectics, Aristotle's empiricism and logic, skepticism, introduction of the Islamic advanced sciences in the 12th century, all the way to the adoption of experimentation and finally breaking free from the grip of the Catholic Church. All of these finally led to the breakthrough of the Scientific Revolution. This empowered Western civilization to explore the unknown world.

Although General Zheng He's voyages were large scale, these maritime contacts with the outside world later disappeared because the Ming dynasty implemented the policy of banning all maritime activities. The impacts of this policy were grievous. The commercial trading was hard hit. The shipbuilding industry which could build treasure ships of 137 metre long and 55 metre wide[282] no longer existed. However, these were not the most important impact. The most important impact on Chinese civilisation was the isolation with the outside world during this critical period at which Western civilisation was taking off. It reduced the input of advanced concepts of science and technology. Although the cause for this policy was due to maritime smuggling and piracy, the creation and long lasting of this policy reveals that the Ming dynasty's decision making mechanism was seriously flawed.

While China was under isolationism, civilisation in the West accelerated. With the invention of the steam engine, Western civilization transformed into the Industrial Age, and its power rapidly expanded. Along with this process, the vast amount of accumulated concepts turned into actions, leading to the global expansion, a new wave after the expansion into the Roman Empire in 400 AD.[277] The power of the steam engine and sea navigation technology smashed the geographical barrier between East and West, and the isolation of Chinese civilization from other civilizations was gone forever. The contact between the East and West began on the soil where Chinese civilization had existed for thousands of years.

When the competition from the West came to China, the Chinese nation was awoken from the dream by gunfire only to find that Chinese civilization had already fallen behind and was in danger. For more than a hundred years, generation after generation, countless social elites, passionate individuals with great determination and brave youth devoted themselves to save the nation and search for a way to rebuild their homeland. They shed their sweat and blood on the soil they were born on, sacrificed their precious lives, offered their flesh and blood for the sake of their noble dream, hoping that their endeavours and sacrifices would bring tomorrow's fruit of great success.

The cruel reality forced the Chinese people to find solution. Yet, the road seemed to be unclear through the endless dark night. Without the knowledge of sciences, particularly in modern social science, it was hard to find the right solutions. Modern social science was necessary to understand the rules of Chinese society, but this was impossible at the time, due simply to a lack of capability. In these circumstances, copying and learning from the West became the only viable solution.

With the contact of western civilization, many new concepts were introduced into Chinese society, including natural sciences, social sciences, philosophy and technologies. This was no doubt a critical point in Chinese civilization. Alongside this process came products, religions, moral and ethical concepts from the West. All of these had important impacts on the Chinese social structure.

By this time, the importance of sciences started to be realised and science was believed the right way to save the nation. Subsequently, education reform started. The real start of the introduction of modern sciences on a large scale to the educational system was between the late 19th century and early 20th century. This educational reform happened in an environment similar to the 12th century in Europe which was facing the competition from another more advanced civilisation. By this time, the mechanism for change was coming into place and drove the educational reform. In the Chinese educational reform, the Imperial Exam was abandoned; modern universities began to be established and many students went to the West to study. They brought new scientific and technological knowledge back to China and started a new chapter in the history of Chinese education.

Facing the cruel reality that the nation's survival was hung in the balance, the Chinese people started to look for the fundamental answers as to why the nation felt from the former glory into this situation. When the Chinese culture was examined, the negative impacts of Confucianism gradually surfaced Consequently, Confucianism was denounced. Since then, the role of Confucianism has been controversial. There is no doubt that Confucianism had negative impacts on the Chinese civilization. This particularly happened to the Chinese intellectual development and consequently led to the falling behind of the Chinese civilisation. However, one should realize that the society would have fallen into disorder if the moral and ethical system based on personal authority collapsed at that time. Therefore, it is not appropriate to comment on Confucianism's role without considering the historical circumstances. In retrospect, had it not been used as the "internal controlling force" to maintain the social order in Chinese history, China would have been in a state of anarchy and would have disintegrated. Take a look at the Chinese history: during Confucius' time, China was in the age of the Warring States. Before Confucius was ordained as a saint and his teachings were widely accepted, China was divided into seven warring states, which was in fact a disintegration of the society. From the Qin dynasty, Chinese society remained in a much more stable condition, although there were threats from outside and unease from inside. The positive role of Confucianism in maintaining the integrity of Chinese society is evident when comparing China and the West where there was not such a system. Take a look at the Greeks: after Alexander the Great's death, his Empire disintegrated. Look at the Romans: when the Empire grew larger, it could not be managed and had to be split into two, the Eastern and Western Roman Empires. The Carolingian Empire fell apart after the death of Charlemagne... These are only some of the historical examples not to mention the incessant wars in the West. From this historical evidence, one should realise the positive role of Confucianism. Not only did Confucianism play a role in maintaining the integrity of the Chinese society, but the effectiveness and efficiency in administrating the society as well. When one is amazed by those astonishing projects achieved in the Chinese history, one should realise Confucianism's role in strengthening the power of the administration that is at the top of the hierarchical system. Had it not been such a powerful administration system, those projects would not been possible. It was the Confucianism coupled with the sophisticated and well designed architecture of the central government that enabled the Han dynasty and Tang dynasty to rise to the prominence in Chinese history.

Having compared the positive and negative impacts of Confucianism, one may wonder why Confucianism had the opposite impacts on Chinese civilisation. This is interesting and bewildering. Surely, it can be explained that everything has two opposite impacts because they are governed by the fundamental interrelationship, symmetry. However, further looking into the social mechanism, one will realise that a social system consists of two subsystems, the divergent and convergent systems. The divergent system is the top-down executive system and the convergent system is the bottom-up system including the information feedback systems. This is parallel to the human neural system and circulation system: the neural system consists of the divergent top-down motor system and the convergent bottom-up sensory system; the circulation system consists of the divergent top-down arterial system and convergent bottom-up venous system. All of these cases are the expression of the fundamental interrelationship, symmetry-asymmetry or in the Hegelian dialectic's term, the unity of opposites. In the neural system, the prefrontal cortex (the most anterior part of the brain that performs complicated logical reasoning) unites the motor system and the sensory system. In the circulation system, the heart unites the arterial system and the venous system. Higher blood pressure in the higher level of the arterial system (such as the aorta) facilitates the blood flowing to the lower level (peripheral arteries). This is consistent with the principle of power distribution in a hierarchical system. The same principle applies to the neural motor system to execute command. Therefore, Confucianism's emphasis on authority is consistent with this principle and facilitates the functioning of top-down executive system. However, it restrained the flow of the bottom-up system which is the information feedback system because for the duration of Chinese history, both the order execution and information feedback flowed through the same system. This potentially led to a conflict of interest. This defect in organisational structure potentially led to abuse of authorised power because there was no symmetrical force to balance this power on the intermediate-low levels of the social hierarchical system. Although Confucius proposed some ideas to balance his main principles and theoretically his whole ideals could form a symmetrical system, in reality, there was no enforcement measure to implement these balancing ideas. Whether these balancing ideas could be implemented was up to the wills of those individuals who had the power. As a consequence, the abuse of authorized power could happen and at times lost control. This situation occurred particularly on the intermediate-low levels of the hierarchical system, when the higher level lost control while there was no balancing mechanism to restrain the authorized power within the confinement of the public interest. When this situation happened, influenced by humans' self-centred nature, those individuals on the lower level who were authorized power could use it for personal gain, creating conflict and disorder in society. For example, those individuals could use their power to suppress other individuals' performance if they felt that their subordinates were outperforming them and their personal interests were under threat; as a result, some individuals' intellectual and physical outputs were suppressed. Although most of the time the lost output of one individual was not visible or alarming, the collection of these hidden lost outputs for society was enormous and results in a huge reduction of discovery, innovation and production. When such social disorder caused by the mismanagement of lower level administration, the higher level of the imperial system would directly send other personnel to investigate the lower level's performance. The most typical case was the Imperial Commissioner sent by the emperors. This approach did work and its mechanism is to establish symmetry on the lower level. As these two divisions were directly appointed by the higher level, a mechanism of symmetry-asymmetry which is also expressed as unity of the opposites is introduced to the social system. However, once these temporary personnel were withdrawn, this mechanism disappeared and disorder could come back again.

The feudal society that had lasted for thousands of years finally came to an end with the Qing dynasty overthrown by the Chinese people. The feudalism that restrained Chinese civilization for thousands of years has been replaced. The nation has arisen from the war torn homeland and started to rebuild. For more than half century, the Chinese civilization has made astonishing developments. A dream that many generations of Chinese have fought for are becoming reality.

Although social values have changed, the residual feudalism is still rooted in Chinese culture after thousands of years of penetration. The concept of personal authority has disseminated into every branch of society, including micro branches. In some families, members are considered "higher level" and "lower level", in which the higher level has the dominant power to define other family members' rights. The authority of the higher level over the lower level is always expressed as the higher level saying no and restraining the lower level. Often, such exercise of authority is not for the family's interest but for the interest of the "higher" level and maybe even for the sake of personal authority. This class system restrains individuals' potential, including their creativity.

Influenced by feudalistic class protocols, academic challenge is not part of the Chinese traditional culture in intellectual inquiry, while the feudal class system is. It still more or less influences the intellectual inquiry. The "lower" level hesitates to raise questions on "higher" level academic authority and put forward their own new ideas. This mentality restricted individuals' degree of freedom in thinking; it was not helpful to explore nature.

In exploring nature, each individual should have equal entitlement, allowing them to think independently. This is helpful to create diversity of thinking to find the right answer. It is also important to exchange ideas in intellectual inquiry. Only based on equality can individuals exchange ideas on the grounds of mutual respect. However, the class concept of feudalism and absolute personal authority make it hard to discuss ideas on an equal footing. They block concept exchange between individuals, reducing concept dissection, reorganization and integration. As a consequence, the output of new concepts is reduced. Creativity and discovery of nature are suffocated. For example, the class system based on age means that seniors' opinions carry more weight. Juniors should respect their seniors and not debate with the seniors. Otherwise, it may be considered disrespectful. If you don't believe it, you are free to try exchanging ideas based on fact with seniors and teachers when both sides hold different ideas. You are guaranteed to have an unpleasant ending. Perhaps this is not the worst case; if the other side is a professor or supervisor who is important to your career, then good luck to you. Under the current system in university and research institutes, such challenge, albeit academic, may be considered by some as "offending the superior". However, it is inevitable to have different ideas in the exploration of nature. To get the right answers, debate is unavoidable, but it should be based on facts rather than age or reputation. Such a mentality of feudalism is one of the reasons that reduce creativity. Even professor Qian Xiesen who was considered an undisputed genius,[278] once wondered, "Why can't our universities produce first class scientists?"

Indeed, the students in Chinese universities, particularly in prestigious universities, are elite students. They are highly intelligent and the lucky survivors in the fierce competition in university admission. Yet, if what professor Qian said was right, then there must be reasons. The Confucian feudalism may be one of them. But this situation is improving. People are getting used to challenging the academic heavyweights and China has made remarkable achievements in modernising the country.

Although some residual feudalism still remains in the Chinese culture, the whole nation's endeavour to reform Chinese culture will never end; the exploration is still continuing. The revolution in Chinese culture that started more than one hundred years ago is a natural process in Chinese civilization. With the development of the Information Revolution, this process will accelerate. The residual feudalism in people's minds will be discarded forever. The intelligence of people's minds and souls will be released and move Chinese civilization forward.

## Final Conclusion

In the dynamic changes of the universe, part of the energy is transformed into the existence of human beings. Our civilization was born from the interaction between the environment and human behaviour. Within this process, human behaviour is controlled by inherent desires and concepts which are the interpretations of existences in the physical world. All the processes leading to the creation of civilization are physical processes; therefore, the development of civilization is governed by the laws of physics. We as human beings, as well as other forms of existence in the universe, are inescapably subject to the constraints of these laws. Before we start our journey, the direction has been set – our degree of freedom lies in the power that we possess, at the mercy of the constraints that nature imposes upon us.

##  Acknowledgement

There is nothing that will continue forever, be it from seasons on Earth to cosmic phenomena in the space, because nothing can escape from the grip of one of the fundamental laws – limitation. That includes the writing of this book, which consumed 17 years of strenuous mental and physical labour. Now it is coming to an end, a rough journey trigged by the yearning to understand the confusing environment and curiosity about nature. It was an experience of joy and pain, happiness and sadness, excitement and frustration. At the end, a work looking into the nature of civilization and beyond is completed.

On this uneasy journey, many people offered their helping hands to me, some whom I know and some I don't. All these efforts contributed to my accomplishment of the writing and publishing this work. No matter whether their help was critical or trivial, I honestly feel obliged to acknowledge them.

The idea of putting those discoveries on paper came from Mr. Martin Feng after I shared part of the ideas with him nearly 20 years ago. Being a research scientist, it was his professional sensitivity that gave me the suggestion which led to the start of my writing. Throughout this long lasting process, I have received his positive encouragement and shared my excitement of discovering the rules of nature as well as the pain of frustration. So once again, I would like to take this opportunity to share my excitement with him in the way of appreciation.

This intellectual research project is actually a work of extensive integration of many different concepts. Of all these concepts, many of them are the legacy of those historical pioneers. It was their endeavours in the field of sciences and philosophy that created so many fundamental concepts and approaches and laid down the foundation for followers to explore nature, and I benefited from their pioneering ground work. For these ground laying pioneers, their fundamental works should absolutely be acknowledged even though they can no longer hear it.

The input of a large number of modern science concepts was crucial to the output of my work. Some of the contributors of the intellectual works are known, but some still remain unknown. They contributed their work to various encyclopaedias and to the websites from which I learnt a lot and quote their works in my work. Therefore, they certainly deserve to be credited no matter whether their names are known or not.

There are several authors' works that are critical to my understanding the development of western education. One of them was Professor James Bowen. His book, A History of Western Education, provided crucial knowledge for me to understand ancient education in the Greek civilization and I thank him for providing such valuable knowledge and his generosity of allowing me to quote part of his writing. There are many more of the works that I learnt from those unknown authors. Their works are included in the encyclopaedias. I appreciate their selfless contribution.

To tackle the subject of Chinese civilization, I benefited a lot from works of those Chinese authors. They devoted their intelligence and hard work to dig into the Chinese history and unravel the causes, from which I benefit a lot. Therefore, they deserve my respect and I thank them for their intellectual output.

Right at this moment, the memories are bringing me back to the time when I was luckily receiving my free education. I deeply appreciate, from the bottom of my heart, those people who gave me such an invaluable opportunity, from kindergarten to university. Although it was long time ago, the images are still so vivid that it is as if time were reversed and I could directly talk to those teachers: In school, it was you who helped us to learn the basics in the classroom; in the lecture theatres on campus, you opened up the door to the scientific kingdom and displayed the fascinating nature to us; the things that you gave us were not only the treasure of knowledge but the power of science to understand the world, which guided me to follow the pioneers' footsteps and finally tumble into the intriguing philosophical realm. When I think of all of these, I cannot hold back my emotion that I humbly bow to you in expressing my deepest gratefulness from the bottom of my heart, and I will never forget those people who work hard to allow those lucky few to receive the free education. It was the free education that I was lucky enough to receive allow me to have the opportunity to look into the nature of civilization. I deeply feel that I owe them too much. Their hard work turned me from an illiterate when I was born into someone who managed to complete this work.

I also would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to Professor Chu, the former president of the Chinese Australian Academic Association, for his evaluation. Although he was extremely busy all the time and never met me, he still took the time to review a previous version of my book, and voluntarily wrote a book review on The Australian Chinese Daily, portraying it in a positive light. For this, I sincerely thank Professor Chu for his encouragement.

To write this book was certainly a painstaking task, however, it was even more frustrating to translate it from Chinese into English, because breaking the language barrier is not an easy job. Fortunately, with the help of several people, Serene Ho, Mary Zhang, Wendy Loo, Wayne Kuo, Jenny Chu, Sam Sherry and Janine Hsu, this difficult task has been achieved. I also thank those people who edited the texts and contributed to the enrichment of the writing of the book, Erin Patten, Will Noonan, Kenneth Chong, Jaki Brown, Kyla Bremer, Samuel Yap, Andrea Barr, Nicky Tan, Alycia Rankine, Amanda Feng and Helen Wang. This English edition is embedded with their hard work, which enables people from different cultures to share in our common interest. I would like to take this opportunity to thank these people for helping me to complete the job.

While the writing of this book is an expression of the rules of civilisation in the form of text, the book cover is another expression in the form of visual art. First, several images were chosen[286] to represent the following interrelationships: atoms form molecules; a special form of molecules, DNA, dictates the development of organisms; a special organism, human being, creates civilisation; it is human nature that drives civilisation forward. All of these processes are a part of the universe and fundamentally governed by a common mechanism. Of these images, the human nature is represented by a naked human body and the universe is represented by a galaxy and the space. Finally, these ideas were translated into a visual art by Mr. Mark Heron, a graphic designer with excellent artistic expertise. This book cover is not only beautifully designed and eye-catching but well presenting the meaning of those texts. I thank him for adding such beauty to my work. This artwork was further edited by Mrs. Gissane

Looking beyond writing this book, there are so many people in my life to whom I would like to express my sincere gratitude – for the best of human nature that you displayed to me. Your sincerity, your kindness, your valuable help and your beautiful gesture that expressed the most valuable part of life from the heart let me experience the gifts that God gives to mankind. Those special episodes in my life will not be forgotten. Although I am not able to talk to you directly, I still and will always cherish those valuable memories from the bottom of my heart.

Written in March, 2014 in Sydney, Australia

By Gavin Huang

Finally finished on 27th of October, 2015

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[64] Principles of neural science 5th edition, Eric Kandel and etc.

[65] 1) Principles of neural science 5th edition, Eric Kandel and etc.; 2) Harrison's principles of internal medicine, 18th edition; Principles of neural science 5th edition

[66] Page 545 Principles of neural science 5th edition, Eric Kandel and etc.

[67] 1) Harrison's principles of internal medicine, 18th edition; 2) Principles of neural science 5th edition; 3) Regulatory T cell, Wikipedia

[68] Principles of neural science 5th edition, Eric Kandel and etc

[69] 1) Harrison's principles of internal medicine, 18th edition; 2) Principles of neural science 5th edition; 3) Cough reflex, Wikipedia

[70] 1) Harrison's principles of internal medicine, 18th edition; 2) Principles of neural science 5th edition; 3) Primitive reflexes, Wikipedia

[71] Principles of neural science 5th edition, Eric Kandel and etc.

[72] Principles of neural science 5th edition, Eric Kandel and etc.

[73] EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY nutrition, energy, and human performance by William McArdle; Frank Katch; Victor Katch

[74] EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY nutrition, energy, and human performance by William McArdle; Frank Katch; Victor Katch

[75] Review: autonomic regulation of islet hormone secretion – Implication for health and disease, B. Ahren, Department of Medicine, Lund University, Malmo, Sweden. Diabetologia (2000) 43: 393-410

[76] EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY nutrition, energy, and human performance by William McArdle; Frank Katch; Victor Katch

[77] EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY nutrition, energy, and human performance by William McArdle; Frank Katch; Victor Katch

[78] EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY nutrition, energy, and human performance by William McArdle; Frank Katch; Victor Katch

[79]1) Neural control of muscle blood flow during exercise, Gail D. Thomas, Steven S. Segal, journal of Applied Physiology Published 1 August 2004 Vol. 97 no. 2. 731-738 DOI; 2) Chapter 48, Regulation of Skeletal Muscle Blood Flow During Exercise, by Sabah N. A. Hussain, Alain S. Comtois, Physiologic Basis of Respiratory Disease; 3) Control of skeletal muscle blood flow during dynamic exercise: contribution of endothelium-derived nitric oxide. Green DJ, O'driscoll G, Blanksby BA, Taylor RR; 4) Harrison's principles of internal medicine, 18th edition

[80]1) Harrison's principles of internal medicine, 18th edition; 2) Principles of neural science 5th edition; Principles of neural science 5th edition, Eric Kandel and etc.

[81]1) Harrison's principles of internal medicine, 18th edition; 2) Principles of neural science 5th edition, Eric Kandel and etc. [82]Harrison's principles of internal medicine, 18th edition

[83]1) Harrison's principles of internal medicine, 18th edition; 2) Principles of neural science 5th edition, Eric Kandel and etc

[84] Review: autonomic regulation of islet hormone secretion – Implication for health and disease, B. Ahren, Department of Medicine, Lund University, Malmo, Sweden. Diabetologia (2000) 43: 393-410

[85] "Evolution of Nervous Systems and Brains", by Gerhard Roth and Ursula Dicke

[86] 1) Harrison's principles of internal medicine, 18th edition; 2) Principles of neural science 5th edition, Eric Kandel and etc.

[87]1) Harrison's principles of internal medicine, 18th edition; 2) Principles of neural science 5th edition,

[88] 1) How did multicellular life evolve? by Charles Q. Choi, Astrobiology Magazine; 2) Multicellular organism, Wikipedia; 3) "Evolution of Nervous Systems and Brains", by Gerhard Roth and Ursula Dicke; 4) Evolution of the nervous system, Wikipedia; 5) Neocortex, Wikipedia; 6) Cephalization, Wikipedia; 7) Biological System: A Tutorial Study Guide by Nicoladie Tam

[89] 1) Harrison's principles of internal medicine, 18th edition; 2) Principles of neural science 5th edition, Eric Kandel and etc.

[90] Human musculoskeletal system, Wikipedia

[91] Dolly (sheep), Wikipedia

[92] Principles of neural science 5th edition, Eric Kandel and etc.

[93] Principles of neural science 5th edition, Eric Kandel and etc.

[94] Guyton and Hall Texbook of Medical Physiology, Twelfth edition, Saunders Elsevier

[95] Ice crystals, Wikipedia

[96] 1) Phase change, hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu/hbase/thermo/phase.html.; 2) CH 2270 melting point determination (adepted from organic chemistry: a short course, H. Hart, L.E. Craine, D.J. Hart, and T.K. Vinod 13th ed. Houghton-Mifflin, Bonton, 2012; 3) Chemical Principles: Properties of water, written by: Gemma Bridge from Birmingham University, www. Fastbleep.com/bidogy-notes/40/116/1166;

[97] 1) Phase change, hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu/hbase/thermo/phase.html.; 2) CH 2270 melting point determination (adepted from organic chemistry: a short course, H. Hart, L.E. Craine, D.J. Hart, and T.K. Vinod 13th ed. Houghton-Mifflin, Bonton, 2012; 3) Chemical Principles: Properties of water, written by: Gemma Bridge from Birmingham University, www. Fastbleep.com/bidogy-notes/40/116/1166;

[98] 1) Phase change, hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu/hbase/thermo/phase.html.; 2) CH 2270 melting point determination (adepted from organic chemistry: a short course, H. Hart, L.E. Craine, D.J. Hart, and T.K. Vinod 13th ed. Houghton-Mifflin, Bonton, 2012; 3) Chemical Principles: Properties of water, written by: Gemma Bridge from Birmingham University, www. Fastbleep.com/bidogy-notes/40/116/1166;

[99] 1) Phase change, hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu/hbase/thermo/phase.html.; 2) CH 2270 melting point determination (adepted from organic chemistry: a short course, H. Hart, L.E. Craine, D.J. Hart, and T.K. Vinod 13th ed. Houghton-Mifflin, Bonton, 2012; 3) Chemical Principles: Properties of water, written by: Gemma Bridge from Birmingham University, www. Fastbleep.com/bidogy-notes/40/116/1166;

[100] 1) Encyclopaedia of the ancient Greek world, Revised Edition, David Sacks revised by Lisa R. Brody 2) History of Greece, Wikipedia

[101] Stoicism, Standard Encyclopaedia of Philosophy

[102] Ionian school, Wikipedia

[103] History of logic, Wikipedia

[104] Dialectic, Wikipedia; Zeno of Elea, Wikipedia

[105] Encyclopaedia Britannica

[106] 1) History of logic, wiki; 2) Stoicism, Baltzly, Dirk, "stoicism", the Stanford encyclopaedia of philosophy

[107] Empiricism, Wikipedia

[108] Scepticism, Wikipedia

[109] Cicero, Wikipedia

[110] Library of Alexandria, Wikipedia

[111] 1) History of Rome, Wikipedia; 2) Ancient Rome, Wikipedia

[112] Roman Greece, Wikipedia

[113] Religion in ancient Rome, Wikipedia

[114] Imperial cult (ancient Rome) Wikipedia

[115] History of Christianity, Wikipedia

[116] State church of the Roman Empire, Wikipedia

[117] Persecution of pagans in the late roman empire, Wikipedia

[118] Persecution of pagans by the Christian Roman Empire, Wikipedia

[119] Persecution of pagans by the Christian Roman Empire, Wikipedia

[121] Serapeum, Wikipedia

[122] 1) Decline of the Roman Empire, Wikipedia; 2) Fall of the Western Roman Empire, Wikipedia

[123] Migration period, Wikipedia

[124] Middle Ages, Wikipedia

[125] 1) Gothic war, Wikipedia; 2) Early Middle Ages, Wikipedia

[126] Christian monasticism, Wikipedia

[127] www.ducksters.com/history/middle_ages_monastery.php.

[128] Christian in the 5th century, Wikipedia

[129] Christian monasticism, Wikipedia.

[130] Cenobitic monasticism, Wikipedia

[131] Christian monasticism, Wikipedia]

[132] 1) Monasticism, Catholic Encyclopaedia; 2) Christian Monasticism, Wikipedia

[133] Christian monasticism, Wikipedia; Christian in the 5th century, Wikipedia;

[134] Christian monasticism, Wikipedia

[135] Christian monasticism, Wikipedia

[136] Middle Ages, Wikipedia

[137] Middle Ages, Wikipedia; Monastery, Wikipedia

[138] Cluniac reform, Wikipedia

[139] The transmission rout of the classical works, Wikipedia

[140] Hiberno-Roman relationship, Wikipedia

[141] Diarmailt Mac Cerbaill, Wikipedia

[142] Carolingian renaissance, Wikipedia

[143] Carolingian renaissance, Wikipedia

[144]Carolingian renaissance, Wikipedia

[145]Carolingian renaissance, Wikipedia

[146] Islamic science, Wikipedia

[147] Carolingian renaissance, Wikipedia

[148]Germanic Christianity, Wikipedia

[149] Christianity in the 6th century, Wikipedia

[150] Christianity in the 10th century, Wikipedia; Christianity in the 10th century, Wikipedia

[151] Medieval university, Wikipedia

[152] Islamic contributions to medieval empire, Wikipedia

[153] Medieval university, Wikipedia

[154] University of Bologna, Wikipedia; university of Paris, Wikipedia

[155] Town versus gown, Wikipedia

[156] 1) The rise of universities, by Charles Homer Haskins, Henry Holt and company, New York, 1923; 2) Western Civilization: A Brief History, Jackson Spielvogel,

[157] Governance of universities: autonomy of the university community, by Jagan Nath Kaul

[158] Governance of universities: autonomy of the university community, by Jagan Nath Kaul

[159] The rise of universities by Charles Homer Haskins, Henry Holt and company, New York, 1923 T

[160] Lynn Harry Nelson, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

[161] Lynn Harry Nelson, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

[162] Policy and university faculty governance; edited by Michael. T. Miller, Julie Caplow, series editor Bruce Anthony Jones

[163] Universities, Catholic Encyclopaedia

[164] 1) Fifth Crusade, Wikipedia; 2) Crusade, Fourth (1202-1204), the Encyclopaedia of War, W. Marvin Laurence; 3) Religion, Politics and Society in Britain 1066-1272enry Mayr-Harting

[165] 1) Lynn Harry Nelson, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas; 2) Universities, Catholic encyclopaedia

[166] Universities, Catholic encyclopaedia

[167] Robert grosseteste, Wikipedia

[168] Michel de Montaigne , Wikipedia

[169] Latin translation of the 12th century, Wikipedia

[170] Islamic golden age, Wikipedia

[171] Mathematics in medieval Islam, Wikipedia

[172] History of experiments, Wikipedia

[173] Al-Andalus, wiki

[174] 1) Caliphate of Cordoba, wiki; 2) Al-Andalus, Wikipedia

[175] Latin translations of the 12th century, Wikipedia

[176] Latin translations of the 12th century, Wikipedia

[177] Latin translations of the 12th century, Wikipedia

[178] Latin translations of the 12th century, Wikipedia

[179] 1) Hindu-Arabic numeral system, wiki; 2) History of mathematics, wiki

[180] History of mathematics, Wikipedia

[181] Copernican Heliocentrism, Wikipedia

[182] Johannes Kepler, Wikipedia

[183] condemnations of 1210-1277

[184] Cecco d'Ascoli, Wikipedia

[185] Indulgence, Wikipedia

[186] 1) Western schism, Wikipedia; 2) Pope Urban VI, wiki

[187] Western schism, Wikipedia

[188] John Wycliffe, Wikipedia

[189] 1) Investiture controversy, Wikipedia; 2) Church and state in medieval Europe, Wikipedia

[190] Church and state in medieval Europe, wiki

[191] 1) Imperial cult wiki; 2) Separation of church and state, wiki

[192] Investiture controversy, Wikipedia

[193] Investiture controversy, Wikipedia

[194] Investiture controversy, Wikipedia

[195] John king of England, Wikipedia

[196] English reformation, Wikipedia

[197] English reformation, Wikipedia

[198] 1) English reformation, wiki; 2) Dissolution of the monasteries, Wikipedia

[199] University of Cambridge, Wikipedia

[200] Roman Inquisition, Wikipedia

[201] Roman inquisition, Wikipedia

[202] 1) James Watt, Wikipedia; 2) Steam Engine, Wikipedia

[203] Xia dynasty, Wikipedia

[204] 春秋戰國時期,百度百科

[205] Thales, wiki, ref. Arche, Wikipedia

[206] Aristotelian physics, Wikipedia

[207] 1) Civilization and Science in China, Joseph Needham; 2) Joseph Needham, Wikipedia

[208] 漢朝,互動百科

[209] "A History of Western Education" James Bowen

[210] Thales, wiki

[211] 老子,百度百科

[212] 551BC-479BC孔子,百度百科

[213]墨子,百度百科

[214] 道家,百度百科;儒家,百度百科;墨家,百度百科;儒家思想,百度百科;道家思想,百度百科;墨家思想,百度百科

[215] 互動百科

[216] 荀子,百度百科

[217] Regarding this idea, I sincerely apologise for my failing to recover the author's name and article who posted this idea on the Internet

[218]老子,互動百科;道德經,百道百科

[219] Hundred schools of thought, Wikipedia

[220] 1) 精氣學說,互動百科;2) 气元論,百度百科;3) 渾沌陰陽說,百度百科

[221] 道德經,百道百科

[222] 百家爭鳴,百度百科

[223] (c.1046-256BC) Zhou dynasty, Wikipedia; 周朝,百度百科

[224] 周朝,互動百科

[225] Shaung dynasty, Wikipedia

[226] 商朝,互動百科

[227] 禮樂制度,互動百科 [228] 周公,百度百科 [229]禮樂制度,互動百科

[230] 東周,百度百科

[231] 禮樂制度,互動百科

[232]Alexander the Great, Wikipedia

[233] Roman Empire, Wikipedia

[234] 考工記,百度百科

[235] 1) 百家爭鳴,百度百科;2) 先秦邏輯思想,百度百科;3) 名辨,互動百科

[236] 1) Scepticism, Wikipedia; 2) Philosophical scepticism, Wikipedia; 3) Pyrrhonism, Wikipedia

[237] Academic scepticism, Wikipedia

[238] 庄子百度百科

[239] 惠子,百度百科

[240] Dialectic, Wikipedia

[241] Hegelianism, Wikipedia

[242] Socratic method, Wikipedia

[243] Dialectic, Wikipedia

[244] Carolingian school, Catholic Encyclopaedia

[245] 以類取以類與,互動百科

[246] 荀子,百度百科

[247] 論中國古代數學文化與教育的特點及對當代旳啟迪,黃秦安,陜西師范大學,數學與信息科學學院,陝西西安,數學教育學報,第 23卷第4期

[248] 以吏為師,中國文史百科

[249]罷黜百家,獨尊儒術,百度百科

[250] 中國古代教育,百度百科;獨尊儒朮,互動百科

[251] 克已复禮,百度百科

[252] 董仲書,天人感應,百度百科

[253]天命思想,百度百科; 論荀學的歷史命運,劉周堂,江西社會科學1991, (01) 64-68

[254] 清朝,百度百科

[255] 王充,百度百科

[256] 中國古代教育史,北京師范大學,毛禮銳,翟菊農,邵鶴亭編,人民教育出版社

[257] 1) 中國古代教育史,北京師范大學,毛禮銳,翟菊農,邵鶴亭編,人民教育出版社;2) 中國古代私學,互動百科;中國古代教育史,林琳著;3) 中國古代教育史,北京師范大學,毛禮銳,翟菊農,邵鶴亭編,人民教育出版社

[258] 1) 科舉制度,百度百科;科舉制度,互動百科;2) 中國科舉考試制度,張希清著,吳宗國審定,新華出版社出版

[259] 1) 科舉制度,百度百科;科舉制度,互動百科;2) 中國科舉考試制度,張希清著,吳宗國審定,新華出版社出版

[260] 1) 學而优則仕,百度百科;2) 中國古代書院與學而优則仕的思想觀念,劉國平,圖書館雜志 (2013 年第期;268總第期)

[261] 刑不上大夫,百度百科

[262] A History of Western Education by James Bowen

[263] Latin alphabet Wikipedia; English language, Wikipedia

[264] A History of Western Education, by James Bowen

[265]夏朝,百度百科

[266] 天地君親師,百度百科

[267] Long-term capital management, Wikipedia

[268] 1) Artemisinin, Wikipedia;2) 菁蒿素,互動百科

[269] 黃帝內經,互動百科

[270] Migration period, Wikipedia

[271] Carolingian Empire, Wikipedia

[272] History of anatomy, Wikipedia

[273] History of medicine, Wikipedia

[274] Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Wikipedia

[275] Spaghetti, Wikipedia

[276] Noodle, Wikipedia

[277] Migration period, Wikipedia

[278] Qian Xiesen, Wikipedia

[279] Christopher Columbus Wikipedia

[280] Frederick Magellan, Wikipedia

[281] Zheng he, Wikipedia; China's Great Armada, National Geographic

[282] Chinese treasure ship, Wikipedia

[283] Principles of neural science 5th edition, Eric Kandel and etc.

[284] Babylonian mathematics, Wikipedia

[285] First Council of Nicaea, Wikipedia; Arianism, Wikipedia

[286] These images were legally downloaded from iStockphoto.com and Dreastime.com and they were respectively uploaded ("contributed") by PeopleImages, Linda Bucklin, Jose Antonio Nicoli and Stephen Girimont.

[287] The Rise of the Universities by Lynn Harry Nelson, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas;

[288] 1)The scientific achievement of the middle ages,by Richard c. dales; 2) Impetus, by Elzbieta Jung, Department of philosophy, University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland, Encyclopaedia of medieval philosophy: philosophy between 500 and 1500, volume 1; 3) In the Grip of the Distant Universe: The Science of Inertia, by Peter Graneau, Neal Graneau; 4) The History of Physics, by Anne Rooney; 5) Aristotelian physics, Wikipedia; 6) John Philoponus' Criticism of Aristotle's Theory of Aether, by Christian Wildberg; 7) The Scientific Achievement of the Middle Ages, by Richard C. Dales.; 8) Hipparchus, Wikipedia; 9) Peter of Auvergne, Questions on Aristotle's De caelo: a critical edition, by Petrus, Griet Galle; 10) Certain philosophical Questions: Newton's Trinity Notebook, by L. E. Martin Tamny

[289] Aristotelian physics, Wikipedia

[290] 1) Aristotelian physics, Wikipedia; 2) Theory of impetus, Wikipedia; 3) Inertia, Wikipedia, History of classical mechanics, 4) Wikipedia; Jean Buridan, Wikipedia

[291] Cephalization, Wikipedia;

[292] Principles of neural science 5th edition, Eric Kandel and etc.

An ancient Greek town (series ed Unstead, R J)

Bowen, James (1972) A history of western education St Martins, New York.

Couper, H & Henbest, N (1996) Big bang HarperCollins, Pymble, NSW.

Compton's Encyclopaedia

Encyclopedia Americana

Hawking, Stephen (1988) A brief history of time Bantam, London.

Hibbins, G (1983) It stands to reason Macmillan, South Melbourne.

Holt, R (1987) Clear thinking Pitman, Melbourne.

Kandel, E, Schwartz, J & Jessel, T Principles of neural science Elsevier, New York

The history of science (pub. Cohen & West, London)

The New Book of Knowledge

The New Encyclopedia Britannica Encyclopedia Britannica, Chicago.

Spangenburg, R & Moser, D K (1993) The history of science from the Ancient Greeks to the scientific revolution Facts on File, New York.

Tortora, G & Grabowski, S (1993) Principles of anatomy and physiology 7th ed, HarperCollins, New York.

Weiten, Wayne (1992) Psychology: themes and variations 2nd ed, Brooks/ Cole, Pacific Grove, Calif.

World Book encyclopedia world Book, Chicago.

*1History of Greece, Wikipedia

*2 Ionian school, Wikipedia

*3Ionian school, Wikipedia

*4Ionian school, Wikipedia

*5 Philosophical scepticism, Wikipedia

*6Ancient Rome, Wikipedia

*7 Persecution of pagans by the Christian Roman Empire, Wikipedia

*8 Middle Ages, Wikipedia

*9 Christianity in the 6th century, Wikipedia

*10 Monastery, Wikipedia

*11Carolingian renaissance, Wikipedia

*12Middle Ages, Wikipedia

*13Christianity in the 5th century, Wikipedia

*14 Michel de Montaigne, Wikipedia

*15 Al-Andalus, Wikipedia

*16 History of scientific method, Wikipedia

*17 Roger Bacon, Wikipedia

*18 University of Cambridge, Wikipedia

*19 A History of Western Education, James Bowen

*20 Civilization and science in China, Joseph Needham

*21 Sic et Non, Wikipedia
