NEWLY REISSUED (original 1994)
Building on the insights of such thinkers as Teilhard de Chardin and Bergson, as well as contemporaries like Dobzhansky and Bateson, Henryk Skolimowski points us to a new metaphysical order in which mind and world are intimately connected. This new participatory worldview explains how the concept of the world "out there," independent of the mind, is incoherent. Rather, says Skolimowski, we must see the mind as actively shaping and creating the world. Even truth itself, he argues, is enmeshed in the web of the participatory mind. And all are encompassed by a universal process of cosmic evolution.
In beholding, we are articulating. In articulating, we are co-creating. In the act of articulation, mind and reality merge. Reality becomes an aspect of mind. In an era of stale and tedious analytic philosophy, Skolimowski brings us brave new visions, expansive metaphysical theorizing, and penetrating insight. Few individuals have proven able to encompass the scope of philosophy as he has, all while retaining an ability for truly creative work.
A pinnacle of a stunningly impressive career, this book is destined for greatness.
2019. Paperback. 360 pages.
Chapter 1: Outlining the Participatory Mind
Mind and Life
From The Minds of Amoebas to the Mind of Einstein
Sensitivities—Consciousness—Mind
A New Concept of the Human
A Model of Mind as Reality: Noetic Monism
Chapter 2: Mind in History
Empiricists and Rationalists—Their Views of the Mind
The Pigeon Methodology vs The Co-Creative Mind
Karl Popper—A Partial Liberation from Positivism
The Three Western Projects
Chapter 3: The Spiral of Understanding
Ontology and Epistemology in a Circular Relationship
The Walls of the Cosmos and the Spiral of the Mind
How Stable is Our Picture of the Universe?
The Peculiarity of the Process of Understanding
Chapter 4: Teilhard’s Story of Complexity: Its Beauty and Its Essential Incompleteness
Teilhard’s Legacy
Is Gradualism an Ideology or a Scientific Theory?
The Thesis of Simplicity Comprehension
Chapter 5: The Four Great Cycles of the Western Mind
Recapitulating Our Position
From the Tempestuousness of the Homeric Heroes to the Lucidity of Plato
From the Fall of the Roman Empire to the Building of Chartres Cathedral
The Renaissance: The Civilization That Did Not Make It
The Engines of Mechanos are Beginning to Run a New Civilization
Evolutionary Telos Emerging as a New Logos
Chapter 6: The Methodology of Participation and Its Consequences
The Objective Mind and Its Problems
The Methodology of Participation as Superseding the Methodology of Objectivity
Participatory Research Programs
Participatory Strategies
Participatory Thinking
Sensitivity of Matter
Chapter 7: Structures, Symbols, and Evolution
Structures and the Ascent of Evolution
The Origin of Structures
Symbols and Their Role in the Ascent of Man
Dominant Symbols in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity
Scientific Knowledge and Its Enigmatic Symbols
The Mind as the Creator if Symbols
Chapter 8: The Individual Spiral of Understanding
Our Individuality and Our Universality
The Pain of Becoming
Personal Truth
The Meaning of Transformation
The Spiral of Understanding and Meditation
The Fable of the Brain’s Two Hemispheres
A Model of the Integrated Self
The Participatory Mind and the Space of Grace
Chapter 9: The Universal Spiral of Understanding
Different Cultures — Different Spirals — Different Perspectives
Brains, Minds, and Computers
Interactionism and the Participatory Mind — The Historical Record
Some Forerunners of the Participatory Mind
On the Dangers of Subjectivism
Chapter 10: Participatory Truth
The Correspondence Theory
The Coherence Theory of Truth
Participatory Truth
Participatory Truth as the Search for the Completeness of the Universe
Truth is the Consequence of the Participatory Context
Chapter 11: Grand Theory in the Participatory Key
The Return of Grand Theory
Significant Experiences
Experience and Knowledge
From New Illuminations to New Realities
The Axis of Reality and the Axis of Meditation
Knowledge as Power and Knowledge as Liberation
Chapter 12: The Promise of Participatory Philosophy
Philosophy as the Pursuit of a Life-Style of Grace
From Perennial Philosophy to Scientific Philosophy
Philosophy as Courage
Participatory Philosophy
Participatory Ethics
Contents
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