Historically, the human needs for survival, security and personal identity have been expressed in evolving, epistemological paradigms. The paradigms are predominant expressions of our concepts about the human condition. In the order in which they flourished they are 1. mythology, 2. religion, 3. philosophy and 4. science. None of them has become extinct.
Each retains its ancestral heritage of ideas in a sort of homology of ideas.
What will be the 5th paradigm? Or, if you disagree with the idea of evolving paradigms as argued here, how would you describe the situation?
How about psychology? What is the lot of stuff already considered about this? Come on, guys 'n gals, lets think hard, not frivolously. I don’t waste my time on other worlds, extraterrestrials and what not. I’m interested in why certain paradigmatic considerations flourished and what they say about who and what we are.
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5. How about Symbolism? God geometricized. We use symbols everyday, the circle, square, cross, triangle, etc. Male/female have symbols. We even use icons in our computer toolbar. But does God has a universal symbol? If you have to assign symbol to God, what would it be?
Justly, Good thoughts. I have a copy of one of Wm. Blake’s art works showing God using a compass to create the world. Symbols, however, evoke primitive needs, drives, etc., as well as aspirations, hopes, etc. Can the concept of God be appropriate in discussing both types of need?
I think the next paradigm will be that of the spiritual age. In the coming years we’re either going to kill ourselves or move into a different phase of consciousness.
Philosophy will delve into issues of dimensional considerations and a new spiritual age will be examined. Theology will cease to exist with all of the normal religions and we’ll likely live under different derivative lifestyles stemming from the galatic truths that will become apparent to us.
Dan,
Science came from philosophy. Psychology may be derived from science.
Old-Gobbo,
I like it! Say more. But first, let me tell about my talks with an American native spiritual leader. I asked him why new wave? He said it was because the churches had lost their fire, their ability to invoke, provoke and satisfy our cravings for truth.
I honestly think ‘new age’ has been around for quite a while. As is demonstrated by the native leader you talked to. Most of the natives, the mayans especially, were quite close to what science is now starting to prove anyways. They knew such institutionalized religions such as Christianity and Muslim were nothing more than the workings of those wanting power and knew they didn’t take into account things like dreamwalking (Astral Projection) and meditation, which the elders used extensively.
Things like the 100th monkey phenomenon (google it) and the crossword test indicate we are all connected consciously, at some level or another there is a global consciousness. As it evolves, those who are free from psychological bias and restraint will evolve as well (feel like the days just keep speeding up? They’re resetting the atomic clocks every year now). However those who are religious (and I don’t mean to be disrespectful here, just laying out what I believe) cannot evolve, or rather do fundamentally believe anything close to the true reality which we live in. This discrepency, I fear, will either lead to a fight or flight mentality. Such seems to the case when people brush up against what they do not understand.
You see how fight or flight scares me on the macro level, when you consider how many hardcore religious people there are, especially in the middle east.
This is compounded by the fact that the political truths are coming out as part of evolution I’m talking about. The system the power elites have (well) established is simply becoming useless because we are evolving faster then they can try to brainwash with the media. More and more people are exposing them, or being exposed to the truth of their power.
They will not give up everything they’ve worked for easily.
Old-Gobbo,
Thanks for the references. I see much truth in what you say here. It was either in the 1970s or 1980s that a conference was held between physicists and adherents of Eastern religions. I read the book about the conference, but cannot recall its title. They were discussing the possibilty that reductionism could lead to holism. From what I remember of the book, only Krishnamurti seemed affronted by the issue. Alan Watts, in trying to acquaint us Westerners with Eastern philosophy, which really generated much of Western philosophy, stressed some of the ideas you speak of here. I agree that we dismiss the facts of our interconnectivity at our own peril.
Dan,
I go to Wikipedia and philosophy dictionaries only to refresh my memory. No boasting intended here; but having read hundreds of first hand works from which second hand critiques and definitions are made, I feel comfortable in expressing opinions about these matters.
What I find truly fascinating is that as we enter this curve (the technological cascade hasn’t even started yet, we’re seeing the trickling beginnings, IMO) we’re going to see not only a bunch of cool technological things, but also the personal to match. There are already technologically enhanced psychic mediums in existence now, who knows what we’re going to see in the future – but I digress. What I find the most interesting, as I said… are the people.
Some of the kids being born today, these ‘indigo kids’ are simply unreal. Imagine a psychic 4-year old with a sense of purpose and individuality. Imagine looking to a child for direction and leadership. This comes back to the fact that they’re psychic and part of this collective whole. To the child, it is an entire family of 6 billion taking care of two lost, scared individuals – the parents.
Old-Gobbo,
But will this enlighten us about our fragile biosophere or about the moral mandate of ecology as expressed in W. H. Auden’s beautiful poem, “Sept., 1939”-- “We must love one another or die.” What a wise old queer he was. The poem was written on the eve of WWII! Do you have hope for us that we will survive the self-centeredness and isolationism taught us by religions and politics? I’ve bookmarked the 100th monkey reference for further reading. I think it was Einstein who noted that if 13% of a population stessed an idea, it would change the world.
Dan,
I used paradigm correctly in assigning the word to zeitgests of predominant worldviews.
