People and Planet

PEOPLE AND PLANET -- unprecedented change Blog #2

August 19, 2010

Marie Schickel Rottschaefer

Retired RN BSN & MS (Nursing Education)

Rue translates ‘psychological and social organization’ as personal wholeness and social coherence.   Spiritual traditions have personal wholeness and social coherence as their foundation and goal as I understand this book.  Rue takes an evolutionary perspective as his infrastructure.  His trajectory is comprehensive from the beginning of the universe to our present doomsday foreboding times.  A significant part of the book demonstrates evolutionary success from the standpoint of physics, chemistry, biology, as well as culturally, religiously, and in other domains.  But in the final pages he speaks of our inclination to fail, -- nevertheless with hope always present.  He brings us to an ironic ending that causes one to look further for a satisfying sequel, either his or elsewhere.  To me, that is a measure of fine reading.

To attempt to answer the question in abbreviated form why the positive, why the negative (?) that I mentioned in my first blog, I will itemize the chapters by including at least one outstanding point he makes in each chapter.   Rue’s book and a preceding book of his called Everybody’s Story – Wising Up To The Epic Of Evolution are for me ‘base camp’ for my publications’ journey.   People and Planet -- unprecedented change, as the title of this blog, and as already stated starts with a book that goes to a situation before the beginning of planet and people.  But before the ‘beginning’ let’s start with his initial remarks.

Introduction: “Edward O. Wilson has rescued the concept of consilience from historical obscurity to characterize the ultimate prize of inquiry: a coherent, unified meshwork of ideas that renders intelligible the full scope of human experience.”

Part 1 ON HUMAN NATURE

Chapter 1 The Epic Of Evolution

He uses Holmes Ralston’s Science and Religion, New York: Random House, 1987 model of cosmic evolution: An Ontological structure/process -> as the vertical line and Historical time -> as the horizontal line.  In ascending order the graph looks like it’s at a 45-degree angle (wavy line outline).

I. Matter: Plasma, Energy Particle, Star, Element, Compound, Crystal, Formational molecule.

II. Life: Informational molecule, Cellular organism, Multicellular organism, Ecosystem, Sentience, Experience.

III. Mind: Thought, Person, Society, World History.

Chapter 2 The Evolution of Behavior

This robust chapter takes us through living systems: molecular, neural, reflex, perceptual, physiological drive, learning/memory, emotional, cognitive, symbolic, various sub-systems, and finally to human nature and the meaning of life.

At the end of the chapter he summarizes the central features of his sketch of human nature.  “ Human beings are star-born, earth-formed creatures endowed by evolutionary processes to seek reproductive fitness under the guidance of biological, psychological, and cultural systems that have been selected for their utility in mediating adaptive behaviors.  Humans maximize their chances for reproductive fitness by managing the complexity of these systems in ways that are conducive to the simultaneous achievement of personal wholeness and social coherence.”

Responding to this difficult challenge is the purpose of spiritual traditions.

Chapter 3 The Education of Emotion

This chapter is a powerful introduction into how effectively and adaptively religious traditions provide for us.

More later.  Marie.