05_(106-112) World Complexity.pmd


WORLD COMPLEXITY, VALUE CONFLICTS, HUMAN

WISDOMS

Kang Ouyang

Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China

Abstract

Global humanity is facing increasingly complex problems. Fore-

most is the complexity of values and value conflicts. How can we effec-

tively face these various challenges and great difficulties coming from our

complex global situation? This paper contends that we should learn and

borrow from many histories, traditions and cultures. There is no single

way or single wisdom that can resolve the complex problems in the world

we are facing now. This paper will also appeal to the insights of the Chi-

nese tradition. It also calls for a more complex model of thinking.

º·¤Ñ́ ÂèÍ

Á¹ØɪҵԷÑèÇâÅ¡¡ÓÅѧ༪ԭ¡Ñº»Ñ­ËÒ·Õè«Ñº«é͹à¾ÔèÁ¢Öé¹ »Ñ­ËÒÍѹ Ñ́ºáá
¤×Í ¤ÇÒÁ«Ñº«é͹¢Í§¤Ø³¤èÒ·ÑèÇä»áÅФس¤èÒ·Õè¢Ñ́ áÂ駡ѹ ·ÓÍÂèÒ§äà àÃÒ¨ÐÊÒÁÒö
༪ԭ¡Ñº¤ÇÒÁ·éÒ·ÒÂáÅФÇÒÁÂØè§ÂÒ¡ÍѹÁËѹµìàËÅèÒ¹Õé«Öè§à¡Ố ¢Öé¹ÁҨҡʶҹ¡Òóì
¢Í§âš㺹Õé·Õè«Ñº«é͹ º·¤ÇÒÁ¹Õéµéͧ¡ÒÃàʹͷҧÍÍ¡ÇèÒàÃÒ¤ÇÃàÃÕ¹ÃÙéáÅÐËÂÔºÂ×Á
¨Ò¡»ÃÐÇѵÔÈÒʵÃì »ÃÐà¾³Õ áÅÐÇѲ¹¸ÃÃÁµèÒ§ æ äÁèÁÕ˹·Ò§à¾Õ§ÊÒÂà ṌÂÇËÃ×Í
ÀÙÁԻѭ­Òà¾Õ§ÍÂèÒ§à ṌÂÇ·Õè̈ ÐÊÒÁÒöá¡é»Ñ­ËÒ·Õè«Ñº«é͹·ÕèàÃÒ¡ÓÅѧ༪ԭÍÂÙèã¹âÅ¡¹Õéä é́
º·¤ÇÒÁ¹Õéµéͧ¡ÒùÓàʹÍÀÙÁԻѭ­Ò¢Í§¢¹º¨Õ¹ÍÕ¡´éÇ ¹Í¡¨Ò¡¹ÕéÂѧàÃÕ¡Ãéͧ
ÃٻẺ¢Í§¡ÒäỐ ·Õè«Ñº«é͹ÁÒ¡¡ÇèÒÍÕ¡ é́ÇÂ

How Complex Is Our World Today?

No matter if seen from the scientific angle or philosophical angle,

the world is increasing in complexity. But complexity takes different forms

in different parts of the world and its different developing periods. We

understand from Darwin Evolutional Theory that the development of the

life is a tendency towards complexity. Now our world is in the most com-

plex situation in its history.

106 Prajna Vihara, Volume 13, Number 1-2, January-December, 2012, 106-112

  c 2000 by Assumption University Press

__                 __~



The complexity of the world suggests that it cannot be under-

stood very accurately, but there is a need to try to understand its most

important elements and their challenges to human life.

First, from the elemental level, our world can be considered a

complex giant system constructed by virtually unlimited, infinite hierar-

chies and infinite concrete elements with nearly unlimited types of rela-

tions. This can be seen in the way we classify its various forms: natural,

social, human; physical, mental, information, economic, political, cultural,

scientific, engineering, technological; individual, national, rational, emo-

tional, moral, aesthetic, objective, subjective, practical. These constitute

an almost infinitely complex organic stereo network system. Each of these

aspects, levels and elements are almost infinite properties and form al-

most unlimited inter-relationships. They each in their own way directly or

indirectly affect the overall function of the system.

Second, human society is composed of numerous conscious per-

sons and their activities. Each individual activity has its conscious pur-

pose, has its value orientation, with its own purpose and value orienta-

tion. These purposes may be different, contradictory or come into con-

flict. The social process is an irreversible process, in the presence of the

individuals, groups, class differences and conflict situation will produce

even more complex situations.

Third, from the perspective of values, human life is essentially a

kind of value choice, it involves cognition, but this cognition is more of

an evaluation of advantages and disadvantages between choices. But in

today’s world this value differentiation involves many conflicts of inter-

ests. Between the global and the individual there is a very complex net-

work of values, involving the formation of many knots. These knots in-

volve value contradictions, conflicts, and collisions.

The contemporary world can be said to be a huge complex sys-

tem of problems. The largest are global problems, including the enviroment,

climate, resources, and energy issues. They directly affect the whole hu-

man existence on the earth. The smaller problems involve individual, in-

cluding violence, drug use, crime, sex, mental confusion. They not only

affect the individual survival condition, but also cause serious social prob-

lems. Between the global problems and individual problems are race prob-

lems and national issues, including various forms of racial conflicts, eth-

nic conflict, religion conflict and cultural conflict. The above problems

range from the macroscopic to microscopic, and to their intertwining,

resulting in an extremely complex problem system. For the solving of one

particular problem relies on the solving of other problems. We ought to

give them the highest attention and concern.

Kang Ouyang  107



The Value Conflicts in China Today

There are many value conflicts in China today. These result from

different value sources: globalization; modernization; new science and

high technology, the Western world, nationalism, market economic sys-

tem, etc. Here I just mention some major conflicts.

1) The conflict between traditional Chinese values and the mod-

ern Western values. Since the May 4 movement in Beijing in 1919, there

was a very strong and long time’s debate around the conflict between the

Chinese values and the Western values in China. Since 1978, in the prac-

tice of open door policy and the Chinese modernization, the conflict be-

tween the traditional Chinese heritages and the new creation of modern-

ization in the western world become obvious and sharp. Following from

its meaning, modernization is to create new values. Since western world

had modernized itself much earlier than China, China has much to learn

from the West. There are some people who believed that the moderniza-

tion is westernization, therefore there is a strong desire to westernize

China. Many Chinese people undervalue traditional Chinese culture and

want to give up their own history and culture. Now there is a growing

awareness among Chinese people that Chinese modernization can only

successfully build on the historical ground of Chinese culture. China should

try to combine traditional Chinese values with Western values. There are

many core elements of Western values: modernity, freedom, equality, jus-

tice, democracy, love, human rights, etc... These are all values that Chi-

nese modernization should learn from. And there are also many tradi-

tional Chinese values that are still meaningful even today, for example,

the union of Heaven and Man, Ren (benevolence), Yi (righteousness), Li

(manners), Zhi (wisdom), Xin (faith), Means (zhongyong), searching the

harmony of people and society, etc. These are values which have been

developed through the long span of Chinese history. The Chinese social-

ist modernization should combine all meaningful value elements of hu-

man civilization into China no matter they come from the East or the

West.

2) The conflict between Marxist and non-Marxist Values. In the

past, CCP only respected Marxism and refused all kinds of non-Marxism.

Since 1978, Chinese leaders and scholars tried very hard to overcome the

misunderstanding of Marxism. They criticized and corrected Chairman

Mao Zedong’s mistakes in his later years and tried to re-understand Marx-

ism. In the academic area, there was an academic movement named “re-

turn to Karl Marx” or “re-understand Karl Marx”. They tried to learn

from the former Soviet Union and develop a more tolerant attitude to

108  Prajna Vihara
__                 __

~



Marxism, Western Marxism and Western ideology. They also tried to con-

tinue the development of Marxism in today’s China.

3) The conflict between individual values and social values. In

the past, Chinese people believed that collectivism is the main value of

Chinese culture and individualism is the main value of western value.

Now Chinese people realize that, on the one hand, individual is the foun-

dation of society, all individual’s needs should be protected in a just soci-

ety, all individual’s efforts are absolutely necessary in the market society,

on the another hand, individuals can only effectively live in and act in the

group and society, so collective cooperation is also absolutely necessary

for all individuals and whole society. In the modernization process, China

needs to encourage all Chinese people to develop themselves and realize

themselves.

4) The conflict between the values of social equality and the ef-

ficiency value of economic development. There was a long tradition of

egalitarianism in China; it obstructed the economic development. At the

beginning of social reform in 1978, to encourage all people to try their

best to produce general wealth, China developed the important policy of

“allowing some people to become rich earlier than others”. This func-

tioned to stimulate individual’s productive enthusiasm and prompted the

efficiency of economic development in a period, but it has led to many

new social problems. The greatest problem is the enlarged gap between

the rich and the poor. Now China is trying very hard to maintain a balance

between social equality and productive efficiency. On the one hand, the

country need to reform the working and distribution system in order to

collect more money from the richer and to distribute them to the poorer

by different ways, on the another hand, the country still needs to encour-

age the able man to produce more and to earn more according to their

contribution to society.

5) The conflict between economic values and the moral values.

In the past, there was a tradition in China to stress morality and justice,

and to despise benefit and utility. Since 1978, economic development

became the central task of the whole of society, but in the meantime,

moral education more or less was ignored. As a result, social morality

was reduced or fell to some extent. Morality becomes a new social prob-

lem in China. Many people became concerned about this situation. Now,

China is trying to keep the balance of these two aspects: to keep the

central position of economic development and to enhance the moral and

political education. The aim of the country is to construct three kinds of

civilizations in the one social progress: material civilization, spirit civili-

zation and political civilization. My university and our colleagues are ac-

Kang Ouyang  109



tually in charge a national research project to cultivate and enhance the

national spirit. We hope to make contributions to raise the moral level

and enhance national unity.

6) The conflict between universal values and the particular val-

ues. In the rapid process of modernization, people are often attracted to

universal values and ignore particular values. There are many kinds of

particular values which emerge from different sources, for example, the

different districts, different social levels, different estates, different ben-

efit groups and different vocations. For example, the gap between urban

area and rural area, peasants and workers is still very large. Now the

Chinese government pays very close attention to the weaker groups and

the less developed districts.

What Can We Learn from Chinese Culture and Philosophy?

Different nations and cultures have their own wisdom to resolve

their problem and to improve them. What can Chinese culture and phi-

losophy can provide? We list some of the most important.

1) The Unity between Sky and Earth (天人合一 )

The idea of the unity of Humanity and Heaven (the Nature) is one

of the key points of Chinese culture. Now our entire world is facing sharp

contradictions between the human being and Nature. Various challenges,

such as environment pollution, weather problems, and different natural

disasters and so on, are increasingly threatening the safety of our world

and gradually damaging the existence of Human beings. Superficially, it

seems that they are created and induced by nature itself. However, in fact

many of them are man-made disasters, or at least the side effects of hu-

man behavior. From the guiding idea, this results from absolute rational-

ism. Concerning these emergencies, the basic topic of Chinese philoso-

phy is to find out the possible ways to achieve the unity between human

beings and nature, to harmonize Sky and Earth. Chinese philosophers

always stressed that nature is not the slave of human beings but an equal

companion with human life. Man should stay with the nature on good

terms. Human beings should respect and protect nature. To protect na-

ture is to protect the necessary environment of human life. To protect

nature is to protect and care about human beings themselves. This is not

just for the benefit of a single individual, single country or single nation-

ality, but for the planet and for human civilization as a whole. This is not

110  Prajna Vihara
__                 __

~



just for one generation, but for generation after generation into the fu-

ture. In this sense, we might say that Chinese thought with its thousands

of years history, has a special insight into this respect for a sustainable

relationship with nature and respect for future generations.

2) The Mean or the Golden Rule (中庸之道 )

The Mean (Zhong Yong, also called as Golden Rule) is one of the

most important perspectives and approaches in Chinese Philosophy. In

the daily life, people always un-consciously tend to be involved in a model

of thinking featuring of binary opposition, such as good or bad, good or

evil, true or false, friend or enemy, and so on. However, in fact the real

world is extremely complex, which requires a more comprehensive

worldview and a wiser way of thinking. The Mean or the Golden Rule is

one of the wisest principles of thinking embodied in Chinese philosophy.

The Mean, as well as “the Impartiality”, “the golden mean” or “the doc-

trine of the mean”, indicates the need to give up the two extremes, but to

hold to the middle. From the epistemological angle, it never means to

master an object in a comprehensive and perfect viewpoint, but to avoid

any kind of extreme, excessiveness or partiality. In the social life, it insists

that people should cultivate their right judgments and maintain balanced

positions, no matter what others are saying or doing. The Mean is also an

important methodology for people to handle complex matters more wisely.

3) Collectivist Spirit and Family Values (� � �精神和家庭价 )

No matter in which society, how to deal well with the relationship

between individuals and collective is one of the most serious of problems.

There is such a long and strange tradition of individualism in the West. It

tends to give attention only to the needs, positions and functions of indi-

viduals, as well as passionately encouraging individual development and

freedom. It has played an important role in the development of Western

civilization, while also causing so many serious problems and difficulties.

Now we should learn more from the Collectivism in Chinese philosophy

and culture. In Chinese philosophy, an individual is one cell of the whole

society. In this sense, every cell can realize its nature and function when

becoming an organized part of certain organization. Society is composed

and organized by Individuals but has more functions and common needs

than every single individual. In the society, such an organized organism,

all individuals inseparably rely on each other. So they should learn to

respect each other, understand each other, help each other, cooperate

Kang Ouyang  111



with each other, and even more. The society as a whole should be a united

integration featuring of Co-laboring, co-living, co-existing and co-shar-

ing.

4) Social Harmony ( �社会和 )

Building and maintaining a harmonious society constitutes the his-

torical aspirations of Chinese people. Chinese philosophers emphasize

that people should stay on friendly terms, as well as avoid irrational con-

flicts and unjust wars. It insists that people should respect and help each

other. The harmonious relationship is based on the common understand-

ing of virtues. The rulers should treat their people kindly and consider-

ately as they would treat their own children. To show the respect to the

old and to protect youth have been regarded as the basic virtues for Chi-

nese extending back to ancient China. Traditional Chinese virtues, such

as diligence and filial piety, still have meaning for the contemporary era,

and should become an intrinsic content of Marxist ethics.

Complexity and Complex Thinking

The complex and serious global problems, which involve diverse

value conflicts, suggest that any particular kind of wisdom is not enough

to solve the problem; we must learn to cultivate complexity thinking.

Complexity thinking involves multiple perspectives and ideas, and func-

tions different from simple thinking.

First, we should be aware of the complexity factors, in the global

world and apply this to our comprehensive system thinking.

Second, we should be attentive to random variables, dynamic re-

versible process, and the use of diachronic thinking.

Third, we should perceive the diverse conflict of values, and the

use of selective thinking.

Fourth, we should try to develop interdisciplinary and multi-level

cooperation, and apply this to our subjective and integrated thinking.

Fifth, we should think of the harmony of society with the help of

modern science, technology and networks.

Sixth, we should be conscious of both original creation and prac-

tical application, and integrate them into our thinking.

112  Prajna Vihara
__                 __

~