Conscious Evolution in the simplest sense would seem to imply consciously, or deliberately, engaging in the process of evolution. In other words it means that human beings, who are aware of the process of evolution …
What is Evolution?
Before getting back to the issue of freewill I wanted to write a post or two about the general topic of evolution and the less general topic of “conscious evolution.” My interest in freewill falls …
What is a “something” anyway? further consideration of Darwin and Dewey
In my last post I wrote about Darwin’s recognition that the idea of separate species was just that, an idea. And, as Brian astutely commented on that post, that doesn’t mean that there is no …
Darwin and the Illusion of Separate Species
The American Pragmatists were all profoundly influenced by Darwin’s publication of “On the Origin of Species.” The originators of Pragmatism, including Charles Sanders Peirce who coined the term and William James who popularized it, were …
John Dewey and B.F. Skinner
I have been thinking more and re-reading Dewey’s paper on the reflex arc and wanted to add a second post with fuller thoughts. At the end of my last post I mentioned that Dewey’s conception …
John Dewey and the Unity of Mind and Matter
One of the challenges of the philosophy of Pragmatism is that it is too easy to reduce its complexity and subtlety to simple utilitarianism. Some of the same language that William James used to almost …
Pragmatism – The Western Law of Karma
It occurred to me that now would be as good a time as any to talk a little bit about truth and inquiry. I am reading Charles Sanders Peirce right now so that has given …
Freewill and Human Bubbles
When you begin to ask questions like, “Do human beings have free will?” as we have done in my last few posts, you enter into thorny philosophical territory. My understanding of Charles Sanders Peirce logic …
Peirce and James: Beyond the Metaphysical
The Pragmatists in America were modernists coming of age at the height of science’s rise to intellectual supremacy in the west. As such they were biased toward the idea that reason was supreme and that …
Are we a Self or a Self-Concept?
Pragmatism was a philosophy that emerged directly out of The Enlightenment that initiated the “modern revolution” and it helps when thinking about Pragmatism to think about it in relationship to The Enlightenment and the new ways …
Free Will: A case of mistaken identity?
My last two posts may have seemed like a diversion from the exciting discussion on the existence of human free will, (Take a look at the string of excellent comments by Carl and Ted Howard …
Integral Theory, Evolutionary Enlightenment and American Philosophy
I am helping to put together an internet based seminar featuring Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber and I thought that I would write a blog post explaining how my interest in the work of these …
Characteristics of an Evolving Universe
Before continuing with my thoughts about free will, I thought it would be good to take a step back and take a wide angle look at what evolution and more specifically conscious evolution is all …
Conscious Evolution and Free Will?
Part of the controversy over Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution has always been its deterministic tone. Darwin saw evolution as happening through the combination of chance variation and natural selection. The theory goes something like …
John Dewey’s Evolutionary Ethics
I am continually amazed to find that John Dewey had such a profoundly awakened evolutionary philosophy. In his work to construct an evolutionary ethical sensibility, Dewey recognized that the efforts to create an ethics based …
Charles Darwin and the directionality of Evolution
I have often heard and have at times gotten into arguments about whether the process of evolution has directionality. And this argument has seen lots of air time in the media recently. I realized the …
A New American History
I was a primary and secondary school teacher for many years and one of the things that I taught was history. It always occurred to me that the way we taught history, the events and …
The Curious Case of John Elof Boodin vs. Charles Darwin
The American philosophy of Pragmatism was in many ways a direct response to Darwin’s publication of “On the Origin of Species.” The early Pragmatists were trying to apply the same logic to philosophy that Darwin …
Two Generations of American Philosophy: Part 4
In the fourth instalment of my talk on the roots of American Philosophy I give a brief biographical account of the birth of the American philosophy known as Pragmatism and the contributions of its main …
Two Generations of American Philosophy: Part 3
In this third instalment of my talk on the roots of American Philosophy, I give a brief biographical account of Ralph Waldo Emerson and the emergence of New England Transcendentalism. Audio (14 mins) Download