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Title: Activation of Energy
Harper Collins
Item Number: 9780002154611
Number: 1
Product Description: Activation of Energy
Universal Product Code (UPC): 9780002154611
WonderClub Stock Keeping Unit (WSKU): 9780002154611
Rating: 4.5/5 based on 2 Reviews
Image Location: https://wonderclub.com/images/covers/46/11/9780002154611.jpg
Weight: 0.200 kg (0.44 lbs)
Width: 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Heigh : 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Depth: 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Date Added: August 25, 2020, Added By: Ross
Date Last Edited: August 25, 2020, Edited By: Ross
Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
$99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub (9296 total ratings) |
Christopher Bird
reviewed Activation of Energy on July 08, 2020Teilhard had the unfortunate plight of being a Christian Materialist. He knew that there was spirit, but matter was all that could be seen. How to reconcile these two things? For Teilhard, all matter has some form of life or spirit inside of it, regardless of how infinitesimal the piece of matter; this would include for him the smallest form of matter, the Atom. Just as we can't see atoms unless we enhance our vision, so too we can't see the minuscule portions of life inside of matter, but the spirit is there nonetheless. If there is life in all things than the movement from "non-life" to life is completely solved, as there never was non-life, only life that we couldn't see.
The claim that all matter has life in it helps bridge the gap when you take into account another of his claims; that all monads tend towards greater internal and external complexity. This may seem like an unqualified leap, especially when considering the law of inertia, but he appeals to what he considers to be the law of evolution, and if you believe in it you can't help but to admit that if matter started as the smallest building block (the atom or it's like) it had to get where we are now (because we are here, now), and that means it naturally moves towards a greater internal and external complexity. The material and biological movement of this drive to greater complexity can be mapped out through the building blocks of matter and life: first molecules, then virus, then cells, then animals, then humanity. In order to make the leap between molecules and virus (and even to explain the kind of living aspect of the virus despite it not being technically alive) the First assumption of Teilhard - life is (at least infinitesimally) in all things - can arguably smooth that abrasive jump.
Where then does that leave us? Two claims: Life in all things and movements towards greater complexity. As matter became life, animals began to move yet again to greater complexity, and this brings out Teilhard's third claim; that all things move to a greater interioricity or centration. Things unify. This could be seen as a natural by-product of his second claim, the drive to complexity, but I think it's a little deeper. Teilhard sees centration as the greatest movement of evolution bar none, greater than the old Darwinian claim that evolution was just moving towards the survival of the fittest. Why? Because to Teilhard the apex of evolution (so far) is humankind, and the greatest difference between humanity and the animals is our incredible levels of centration; we've become so centered that we can know that we are centered - we are conscious.
Consciousness to Teilhard is, as Sir Julian Huxley says, evolution becoming aware of itself, of matter and life suddenly knowing that that it knows. I think Teilhard would argue that the imago dei is consciousness, that it's what separates us completely from the animal. Where then does the human race go from here? Teilhard sees that humanity has stopped evolving physically, and yet we've become the single most present species on the planet. Something must be the cause of this, and that for Teilhard would be our ability to reason.
So naturally, as someone sold on evolution as the greatest mechanism of the universe, Teilhard puts the same laws he saw at work in the material sphere and biosphere (life in all things, the drive to complexity and centration) at work in the "noosphere." The noosphere is Teilhard's sphere of influence for thought. Just as the other spheres can operate on the sphere lower than them (biosphere on the material sphere) so too can the noosphere operate on the two lower than it. But just as the endless drive to complexity and centration is seen in the prior two spheres, so too is it found (at least for Teilhard) in the noosphere.
Teilhard believes that this centration and drive to live will create in the noosphere an organism that is super-human, that unifies all of humanity under itself in the same way all the cells of our body are unified under our minds, and is unifying all thoughts to itself already. He calls this the Omega point, and for Teilhard it is also God, Christ as all in all. In the same way that the noosphere unites all the spheres under it, so too will the omega point unify all things underneath it and the world will at last be one.
The essays in this book do a great job further explaining Teilhard's thoughts and their ramifications in all spheres of life. He tries to make it as practical as possible, exhortations to humanity to pick themselves up and press towards the goal of complete unity so that we can in some way help the arrival of the Omega point here on earth happen faster. Of course, following his logic there's no real need to act towards unity (besides personal fulfilment) as all unity will happen inevitably by the unstoppable progress of evolution in the noosphere.
This is where we reach the problems of Teilhard's philosophy on several fronts, the most challenging being the Christian front. Teilhard was a Jesuit, and as such believed in the doctrines of the Catholic Church, and his work often made come at odds with the Church. The most contreversial of his points and the one that ultimately got his work sensored by the magisterium was his views on original sin (and I'd argue his view on sin itself.) As a firm believer in evolution, Teilhard couldn't help but see "sin" (pain, disintegration, failure etc) as a natural by-product of evolution. Evolution probes towards greater forms of life, and that probing inevitably will find things that are wrong and hurtful, but the organism at the end of the day is better off for it and will become something greater because of it. You can see the problem. If you believe this, that all sin is just stepping stones to something greater, how is it sin at all? And what role does Christ fit into this conception? Dangerous ground to tread when compared to the revealed role of Christ.
He also makes a claim on mystical grounds that all things, because they're being used to build up the return of the Omega point, are good and that losing ourselves in this building up of the Omega should be our rightful place of mysticism. Gone are the methods of renunciation and loss, now are the days of gain and fruitful harvest. I see this as simply a misunderstanding of mysticism. The end goal of mysticism is unity with God, and that unity will always lead the mystic to fruitful interaction with the world around them. But for that interaction to happen the Christian must first lose their life to find it.
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