Cosmolab

Reality. Complexity. Emergence.

In twelve conversations with philosophers, scientists and practitioners, the China Knowledge Network reflects on the complexity of our relationship with China. We think beyond classical analysis. We include diverse knowledge disciplines. We engage with diverse worldviews. How can we stabilize our entangled futures? What arenas emerge in international relations? What questions can we ask to develop the knowledge and awareness necessary for today’s policymaking?

Against Naive Realism

Markus Gabriel is a leader in the movement of New Realism in 21st century philosophy. He argues that reality itself is, in a way, diplomatic. To understand it, we need to acknowledge that our own worldview is not immutable. Knowledge corresponds to a plurality of fields of sense. “We need to become Europeans in light of Donald Trump's imperative. Now, the question - I think maybe the even more interesting question - is who can we become in the conversation with China? And we are much less ready to answer that question.”

Ideas of the World and the Self

A conversation on the foundations of idealism in Western and Eastern philosophy. Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad: “Unless we have a real mapping of epistemological diplomacy, we cannot start thinking through what the other person means.”

The Web of Relations

Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli argues that relations rather than objects offer the best scientific framework to understand reality. China and Europe shape their relations by their interactions. "Knowledge is not outside reality, looking at reality. It is one part of reality, which is us, interacting with the rest."

Thinking Complexity

René ten Bos offers concrete philosophy for public challenges in an increasingly volatile world. How can we think complexity? And on what information base? “Complexity is basically about the weaving, or the interweaving, of stories or narratives. It's always good to get as many stories as you can.”

Relational Accountability

Relations are the primary feature of reality. If we don’t take care of the rivers, they will not take care of us. At the boundary of a system that is maintaining itself in relation to the next, intelligence and creativity emerge. Jonathan Rowson: “We need to find ways to move towards bioregional governance.”

Complexity Economics

Economics models a state of equilibrium. Complexity economics models what is out-of-equilibrium. China and Europe deal with complexity by combining competition and cooperation in different ways. Steve Keen: “We desperately need an economics which breaks away from the fetish of equilibrium.”

Cosmologies and International Relations

Our fundamental ideas about the self, the other and the world are called cosmologies. By engaging with diverse cosmologies, we develop ideas on what is feasible in China-Europe relations. Ching-chang Chen: “Using the insights from East Asian medicine for political healing, it would be helpful to rethink the notion of the body in international relations.”

The Unicorn, the Dragon and the Storyteller

Narratives are blending the past, present and future into a story about where we want to go together. Good stories are powerful because they're able to transport us to that place. China and Europe seem to be turning each other into increasingly flat characters. Ágota Révész: “You get into a downward spiral where fear induces a lack of knowledge and a lack of knowledge induces even more fear.”

Multicurrency Mercantilism

A rapidly growing number of countries is trading in local currencies. This offers them huge advantages while adapting to a complex world. New technological infrastructure brings new options for local credit and local corporate structures. What monetary arena is emerging? Who benefits? And can it emerge peacefully? Kathleen Tyson: “I think the transition can be stable. The one caveat to that is war. War accelerates the transition because it makes people more fearful.”

Post Peak Materials

All we consume needs materials. The planet lacks the materials for all nation states to come out on top. What arena is emerging? How can China and Europe adapt their separate strategies to each other’s? Marcel Vester: “In the last five years we have consumed as much materials as we have done from 1900 to 2020. Sooner or later that production will decline.”

Technodiversity

Understanding the grand challenges of geopolitical tensions, ecological crisis and artificial intelligence requires a planetary thinking. We can rise to them embracing technodiversity, biodiversity and knowledge diversity. This conversation enters the field of epistemological diplomacy and traces the footsteps of philosopher Yuk Hui. In what emerging arena do Europe and China face their entanglement? Bart Gulden: “Difference in technological thinking underlies the development of a technology. Diversity is necessary if we are to break out of the totalizing power of a cosmotechnics.”

Mutually Assured Security

Security is becoming indivisible in its entanglement with planetary and living systems. For mutually assured security to emerge we can invest in pre-emptive peace strikes. Policymakers and diplomats are in a double bind as agents of destruction and agents of transformation – sensing the cracks in the systems and in themselves. Indy Johar: “So for me, the question for policymakers is: where are the new diplomacy structures being built? Not just the what - but where.”