0.5 Scan of Related Literature

Version 1.7 July2016                              Previous Version

We are looking at these global beliefs, and the value choices we base on them, because we are not aware of any other book or internet site that explains in a fairly brief, understandable format what all we humans can and should believe and how this impacts on the values we choose and helps us to address global, national, local and personal issues.

Many people are not sure what to believe.  Most people would say they don't care about philosophy – it's irrelevant to their lives.  Most people have trouble integrating what they learn from science, history and religion into everyday life.  Many people keep their scientific knowledge and religious beliefs in totally separate “silos�.  Many people believe that it has to be that way – that domains like science and religion are separate “magisteria� with no overlapping content.  Many people believe that religion must be kept out of politics.  They are all wrong, or at least, not quite correct.

Many people have spent lots of effort trying convince us to adopt some specific set of values.

·        Philosophers have tried to deduce values from first principles;

·        Scientists have tried to discover values in the evolution of altruism;

·        Historians try to discern values in the progress of history, like Marx’s dialectic, or American exceptionalism;

·        Religions infer values from stories about the gods or gurus and their instructions;

·        Cultures, rulers and elders try to impose values to preserve the status quo and their privileges;

·        In our personal lives and in politics there is no consensus, and people despair.  it's a mess.

In the detail sections for this chapter we present a very high level, very opinionated, scan of the relevant literature and the currently limited potential of each of these domains.  more