The Search for Certainty

ISBN-13: 9780387908892 / Angielski / Miękka / 1984 / 248 str.

Wilford W. Spradlin; W. W. Spradlin; P. B. Porterfield

Opis

Who are we? What are we? How do we fit into the world? Or into the universe? These and other questions pertaining to ourselves and our environ ment are as compelling to us today as they were to our primitive ancestors. Throughout our history we have developed paradigms of thought that have attempted to answer these questions, each conceptual framework being par ticularly relevant to its age. We are, in the twentieth century, witnessing a complete reorganization of our thinking. We are now, with the aid of tech nology, able to bring together both ancient and new patterns of thought and to observe the emergence of a kaleidoscopic world view that is uniting the once dissonant theories of philosophy, religion, and science. This book sketches an historical picture of three world views that have shaped our ideas about ourselves. These conceptual formats that have so influenced us are not mutually exclusive and are present in all of us simulta neously, although to varying degrees depending upon our individual biases.

Spis treści

1. The Birth of Certainty.- Civilization and Its Concepts.- Language and the Concept of Self.- Construction of the Word World.- The Anthropomorphic World of Words.- 2. Spirits and Gods.- The Creation of Spirits as Causal Agents.- Differentiation of Spirits into Polar Opposites.- Magic and Religion.- A Reverence for Words.- Greek Gods Made in Man’s Image.- The Gods of Rome.- 3. Christian Concepts.- The Rise of Christianity.- Reward and Punishment.- Witchcraft and the Persecution of Witches.- Modern Religion and Magic.- 4. Self, Soul, and Psyche.- The Homunculus Within.- Science and the Soul.- The Unconscious.- From Soul to Psyche.- In Search of the Psyche.- The Anthropomorphic World of Words.- Benediction.- The Mechanical World of Form and Function.- 5. Knowledge in Numbers.- The Language of Numbers.- Harmony in Form and Function.- Natural Periodicities.- Science as Master—The Reign of Certainty.- Scientific Discovery and Technology.- Instruments of Change.- 6. Living Machines.- Early Views of Man as a Biologic Organism.- The Biologic Sciences from the Medievalists to Darwin.- The Building Blocks of Life.- What Controls the Machinery of the Body?.- The Building Blocks of Behavior.- The Mechanical World of Form and Function.- Commencement Remarks.- The Relative World of Process.- 7. The Return of Uncertainty.- The Relativity Theories.- The Quantum Theory and Quantum Mechanics.- Systems or Patterns.- Reducing the Uncertainty.- Practical Considerations.- 8. The Emergence of I.- Life as Process.- Living Systems and Information Processing.- The Nature of Mind.- Mind in Society.- The Relative World of Process.- Seminar Conclusion.- Conclusion.- 9. The Death of Certainty.- Increasing Uncertainty—An Overview.- A New Concept of Mind and Body.- Two Modes of Organizing Information.- The Self—A Wave or a Particle?.