Human Superposition and the Superposed State
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: What is a human person once culture has become cumulative? Natural Human Philosophy (NHP) answered this question in 2020 through the construct after which its framework was named: Human Superposition. After transgression, persons are joint products of biological nature and culture, and each individual exists in a particular Superposed State. This paper states the construct precisely and explains how to test it. Human Superposition combines three components within an individual: species-typical biological nature—in NHP’s terminology, the natures of survival, reproduction, and Third Nature; an acquired layer of content, skills, values, and cognitive organization acquired from the Cultural Cloud, the cumulative cultural whole transmitted across generations; and interactions between the two. A Superposed State is the realization of this combination in a particular person at a particular historical place and time. Five arguments are developed. First, the acquired layer can be identified independently of the behavior it explains. Second, the 2020 thesis holds on present evidence: the acquired layer changed in scope and function during transgression, whereas innate instincts did not change in kind; the post-transgression acquired layer has a configuration found in no other species. Third, culture becomes part of persons through two mechanisms: value resetting and the reorganization of the brain by acquired skills such as reading. Fourth, Superposed States are dynamic and associated with civilizations and historical periods, a conclusion independently corroborated by behavioral genetics, cultural psychology, and personality science. Fifth, the construct unifies findings described separately by neighboring theories and supplies the account of persons underlying NHP’s treatments of good and evil, will, and universal human nature. Acting agents are persons characterized by Human Superposition and organized Superpowers. Intangible Superpowers shape the acquired layer through education, communication, and participation, while human action perpetuates, transforms, or corrects their content. Three tests—historical profile comparison, a prospective test of value change, and out-of-sample model comparison—will determine where the construct predicts beyond its neighbors.
Authors: Yuan, Xihao, Yuan, Haidan
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7222903169
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