In Renyuan Dong’s newest release, Rainstorm of Tomorrow: The Ever-Flowing Banquet of Philosophy (MSI Press) the author has dexterously woven together several seemingly disparate themes. The storied philosophical themes of truth, ethics, and aesthetics together with the theories of relativity, quantum mechanics, neuroscience, epigenetics, social Darwinism, utilitarianism, evolutionary psychology, and modern art — from the soberest rationality to the wildest conjecture. The idea seems to be to generate provocative or even alienated discourse on topics that readers might otherwise regard themselves as being familiar with, and challenge them into rethinking any settled positions that are taken for granted. Core discussions are represented by a reversed worldview—the tree growing into the soil with its roots buried in the air; the complexity of ethical behaviors—the conformity to utilitarianism by anti-utilitarian events and the violation of utilitarianism by seemingly utilitarian events; and the establishment of universal aesthetics—memory inheritance through “the encephalic waterpipe.”
Rainstorm of Tomorrow attempts to cast light on philosophical questions described in scientific contexts but ultimately beyond the reach of science. “Philosophy welcomes questions but evades answers” the author tells us. “This never-perishing sense of frustration is not something to eliminate but rather to hail as the ultimate driver of human civilization.” ◊
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