We are born into the world as children of our parents, carrying with
us a physical heritage from our ancestors which is called heredity. These
traits are passed along in the DNA transmitted from the parents, and combined
according to the dominant or recessive characteristics of the particular
genetic interactions. This process therefore provides a basis for the
continuity of the physical framework of our lives from generation to
generation. The ability for genetic material to combine and create new
combinations through the contribution of the two parents provides an enormous
potential capability for individuation and new development in the newly born
child.
This process of heredity, however, is not the sole factor in
determining our lives. Once born into the world, we interact with an
environment consisting of both the world at large, and the other beings with
whom we interact. We are both influenced, and in our turn, influence the
development of the community of life and existence and its development. We are
part of the community and partake of the time-spirit within which we are born and
live, carried along by the currents of that tremendous collective energy, but
also doing our part to try to shape and move that collective existence.
While there is a debate about whether heredity or environment is more
important in the development of the human being, and there are strong
proponents of each view, it is clear that both are part of the legacy of the
past, and the force of the present within which we have to take up our lives
and become who we are meant to be. These two factors on their own however are
not the whole story, although they provide us a clue. When we recognize that
the very process helps to ensure “uniqueness” of each individual, we can see
that the physical process supports the concept of the individual soul born into
life.
Patterns of the Present is a profound and inspiring account of the
present situation of mankind and the world it lives in. On the threshold of the
new millennium, countless pages have been written on the meaning of our world
and its possible development. The conclusion in most cases was depressing – man
would become an automaton in a sci-fi world. The author puts the present
situation of humanity in the perspective of the evolutionary vision of Sri
Aurobindo and The Mother. The result is a positive interpretation of the global
situation. The meaning of history, the globalization of our planet, the values
represented by East and West, their meeting and reciprocal fertilization, the
future evolution of mankind – all these topics and more are presented here in a
fresh, often surprising, perspective. Contents:
1. The Big Picture
2. The Avataric Field
3. East and West
4. Reason on Trial
5. Science, Scientism, Modern Technology
6. The Supramental “Catastrophe”
7. The Future of Humanity
1. The Big Picture
2. The Avataric Field
3. East and West
4. Reason on Trial
5. Science, Scientism, Modern Technology
6. The Supramental “Catastrophe”
7. The Future of Humanity
The Belgian writer Georges Van Vrekhem explores these and other
timeless questions in the light of Sri Aurobindos evolutionary concept and
casts a refreshing new look on issues that have been the lasting preoccupation
of seekers throughout the ages. This book contains the edited versions of
eleven talks that Georges Van Vrekhem gave in Auroville in 2010 and 2011:
* Adam Kadmon and the Evolution
* The Development of Sri Aurobindo's Thought
* Preparing for the Miraculous
* What Arjuna Saw: the Dark Side of the Force
* 2012 and 1956: Doomsday?
* Being Human and the Copernican Evolution
* Bridges across the Afterlife
* Sri Aurobindo's Descent into Death
* Sri Aurobindo and the Big Bang
* Theodicy: "Nature Makes no Mistakes"
* The Kalki Avatar.
* Adam Kadmon and the Evolution
* The Development of Sri Aurobindo's Thought
* Preparing for the Miraculous
* What Arjuna Saw: the Dark Side of the Force
* 2012 and 1956: Doomsday?
* Being Human and the Copernican Evolution
* Bridges across the Afterlife
* Sri Aurobindo's Descent into Death
* Sri Aurobindo and the Big Bang
* Theodicy: "Nature Makes no Mistakes"
* The Kalki Avatar.
I mentioned this text, American
Philosophy and Rudolf Steiner, edited by my advisor Robert McDermott, a few
months back. It has since been published. …
About
the Author Robert McDermott, Ph.D., is president emeritus and chair of the
Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Program at the California Institute of
Integral Studies (CIIS). His publications include Radhakrishnan (1970); The
Essential Aurobindo (1974, 1987); The Essential Steiner (1984); (with Rudolf
Steiner) The Bhagavad Gita and the West (2009); The New Essential Steiner
(2009) and Six Pillars: Introductions to the Works of Sri Aurobindo (2012). He
has also published on William James, Josiah Royce, M. K. Gandhi, the evolution
of consciousness, and American thought.
Book Description American philosophy may have taken a wrong turn in the mid-twentieth
century, when pragmatism gave way to a tradition of analytical philosophy that
eschewed metaphysics as inherently meaningless and focused on the coherence or
incoherence of linguistic structures. Nonetheless, many new sites of potential
dialogue exist between Steiner and American philosophy.
Style « Larval Subjects 25 Apr 2008 – Hopefully I have enough “cred” to inveigh against “difficult books” (I
am, after all, mired in the work of figures such as Deleuze, Lacan, Hegel,
etc., who are the worst of the worst), but I have increasingly found myself
suspicious of the “difficult work”… I wonder if terribly dense styles such as we find in figures like
Deleuze, Lacan, Hegel, Derrida, etc., etc., etc., aren’t a form of intellectual
terrorism… I’ve spent my fair amount of time defensively
defending the writing style of figures such as Lacan, Derrida, Heidegger,
Deleuze, etc., etc., etc. What I realize is that what I was defending was not
their style but the value of their concepts and arguments despite their
style. 12:19 PM - 4:22 PM
Alethetics from Larval Subjects Every great philosopher proposes a frame, a
new window through which to encounter the world… We no less frame selections of
the world than we are seized by selections of the world. 7:07 PM
A Must Read New Book on Friedrich Hayek from Adam
Smith's Lost Legacy by Gavin Kennedy - Eamonn Butler: “Friedrich Hayek: the ideas and influence of thelibertarian economist”
Hayek’s life and legacy testify to the lasting power of ideas over the
fleeting influence of individual politicians who, because they misunderstand
the dynamics of human societies, normally promote the wrong ideas. Radicals of
Left and Right believe they can change society by capturing the legislature to
correct what they regard as society’s systemic errors. Hayek noted,
sardonically, that if designed changes tried to change the world, we cannot be
sure that the outcome would please either its designers or those affected by
their changes.
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