In the present essay I suggest that the main reason why history failed to develop societies in harmony with Nature, including our internal nature as well, is that we failed to evaluate the exact basis of the factor ultimately governing our thoughts. We failed to realise that it is the worldview that ultimately governs our thoughts and through our thoughts, our actions. In this work I consider the ultimate foundations of philosophy, science, religion, and art, pointing out that they were (...) and can be again in harmony with each other if their ultimate tasks are specified. I specify here the first task of philosophy as considering the philosophical significance of the ultimate principles of physics, biology and man/society. These ultimate principles are in direct connection with the ultimate questions of religion. I show that the fundamental nature of art makes it able to perceive the ultimate destination of mankind and the Universe, the world-to-be. I propose that philosophy, religion and art together are able to supply us with an inter-subjective picture of the world-process, including the inter-subjective picture of the future of mankind and the Universe. Care is taken to enlighten the possible role of values in founding scientific research in the frame of present wide-ranging discussions. The result is found that universal values of respect for existence, life and reason represent the inevitable basis of science. The exact foundations of a new, integral worldview are outlined, involving the worldprocess-picture, Nature-picture, images of man, society, self, history and manipulation. A list of our common tasks for founding the Integral Culture is proposed. (shrink)

We propose to replace the present, 400 years-old scientific world picture with an updated, essentially complete model describing the architecture of the Universe. We show that three levels of reality, namely: phenomena, laws and first principles, together form the Universe. Moreover, on the basis of observable behaviour, phenomena, laws and principles can be classified into three fundamentally different branches of natural sciences: physical, biological and psychological. It is shown that the first principles have an ultimate role in the Universe, concentrating (...) the governing potential of the Universe in a most elegant, comprehensive and fundamental manner. We define life and introduce the first principle of biology, i.e. the Bauer principle and show that it is the most fundamental of all the three first principles of the Universe. We consider the similarities and differences of our biological principle in comparison to the onto-poietic principle of Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka. With the help of the three first principles of natural sciences, we present arguments indicating the ultimate basis of the long awaited universal science that has a determining role for the development and perspectives of sciences, philosophy, religion, art, and the future of civilization. (shrink)