The Cycle of Civilization
Authors: CHEN Ji-cheng 
Published: October 2023

Natural science is based on the material view and reductionism. We are accustomed to regarding external as objective existence and conscious experience as subjective, forming the potential assumption that matter and consciousness are antagonistic. We assume that there is an objective natural law independent of perception that determines the movement of everything in the universe. However, with the development of science, physics and biology gradually reveal some strange phenomena that cannot be explained by the current scientific paradigm. These phenomena challenge the classical physical world view, reveal the inseparable essence of matter and consciousness (or subject and object), and we had previously treated this underlying assumption as an absolute axiom. From the perspective of irrationality, the revealed objective laws of nature themselves exhibit a paradigm shift trend, and this trend ultimately implies that Eastern holistic philosophy can coordinate the consciousness-related dilemma, which regards matter and consciousness as inseparable and mutually inclusive relation. This cognitive paradigm can be proved by scientific ways. Because of the existence of chronological order, we tend to regard science as the only way to reveal the laws of nature, while the ancient Eastern holistic philosophy is regarded as outdated, naive dialectical philosophy, and the two are independent. In fact, the establishment of the world view is inseparable from the cognitive perspective, and different cognitive paradigms will lead to different world views and views of causation. The East and the West rely on first - and third-person perspectives (observation or perception) to understand the world, respectively. In this paper, we will compare the current scientific cognition system with the world outlook established by Taoism and Buddhism in Eastern religions, and provide reference for the future scientific demonstration of the unified relationship between the two, so as to reveal that all things are created in a "true" way and reality is deduced interpreted in a "beautiful" way.The dilemmas of consciousness which cannot be explained by the material view can finally be reconciled by the Eastern holistic philosophy, and the contrasting features of these two distinct cognitive paradigms have profound implications. It means that there is a non-independent Yin-Yang attributes relationship between the two. The world view determines complex social phenomena. On a rough scale, the social forms of Eastern and Western civilizations show Yin-Yang attributes, and this is determined by the different cognitive paradigms of the East and the West. Their origins are not random, but the result of adaptation to the macro environment. From the perspective of the whole, human civilization shows a regular development cycle in the way of Yin-Yang. The development of natural science has brought great productivity to human beings, but the inertia development of this cognitive paradigm has also brought some limitations. For example, the emphasis on external material and neglect of internal quality, and the ideology of antagonism between countries and classes. The holistic perspective can provide some solutions to the paradox of consciousness, but its main value is that it can help us understand the development laws and problems of human society from a holistic perspective. It is conducive to our understanding of the interdependent relationship under the cultural diversity of different regions, just as science has made us realize the unified origin of different biological species and the interdependent relationship between species through biological evolution. Locating the attributive characteristics, strengths and weaknesses and development stages of our own culture enables us to find the source of the problem and realize that the answer to our own social problems is hidden in the opposition which is antagonistic on the surface, but functionally interdependent and interconvert.