Natural Philosophy of Health and Challenges of Technogenic Civilization

Abstract

The article discusses the concept of natural philosophy of health. The author ana­lyzes historical and modern systems of healing. The author highlights such areas of healing as folk medicine, spiritual healing, natural medicine, experimental medicine. Today natural medicine is represented by Ayurveda, Chinese and Ti­betan traditions. As for Western Europe, natural medicine developed in the Antique and Arabic schools. Until Modern times healing and natural medicine existed in Ancient Russia. The author conducts a comparative analysis of the philosophi­cal foundations of the natural attitude to disease and healing. Plato’s works, Ayurvedic texts, ancient Russian literature and the Roerichs’ philosophy were the primary sources of the concept. The principles of naturalness and integrity are defined as systemically inseparable concepts. The author highlights the unity of the environment, body and consciousness as an axiom of the natural philoso­phy of health. The versatility of the concept of environment in modern condi­tions is explained through the unity of the Space, planetary geosystems, geosocial realities, existential realities. In the Roerichs’ philosophy, poisoning of the envi­ronment and poisoning of consciousness are considered as the main causes of the global crisis and existential threats to health. The author proves the illegitimacy of the narrow approach of positive experimental medicine to a human as a body. In the natural philosophy of health the holistic human nature encompasses spiri­tual, moral, mental, psychoemotional, and physical components. Spiritual health is regarded as the key to physical health. The author discusses the meanings of the concept “psychic energy” in the Roerichs’ philosophy. Health improve­ment (cleansing) of the mind, body and environment is the way to restore a har­mony between nature and man. Integration of medical practices based on the nat­ural philosophy of health is postulated as the future of humanistic medicine.