ToKers:
Fascinating that Gregg spent his cruise reading Will Durant's 1926
"The Story of Philosophy" -- written by perhaps the most successful
popularizer of philosophy in English in the 20th century (yes, other
language-groups have taken different approaches.)
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__archive.org_stream_TheStoryOfPhilosophyWillDurant_The-2520Story-2520Of-2520Philosophy-2DWill-2520Durant-5Fdjvu.txt&d=DwIDaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=pyETWxn2CmLxyi5WMuga1-70Wt2xZS_j2rQtKaxaG_E&s=Gi558V7akAF49_fYVk8NPsXj47ErPLlFy-AxuhS33n4&e=
As it turns out, Durant (1885-1981) was trained by Jesuits in High
School and College, a century ago in the same town where I now live,
Jersey City, NJ -- at St. Peter's (a college next-door to which my son
recently bought a house.)
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_Will-5FDurant&d=DwIDaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=pyETWxn2CmLxyi5WMuga1-70Wt2xZS_j2rQtKaxaG_E&s=D7dlXDE0TXzoMtwD_uxG2RVFq8r1wZqG1IPsJhlaQDI&e=
But, arguably, Durant's real focus was on history (as only partly
illustrated through philosophy.) Along with his wife Ariel (who he
"fell in love with" when she was 15 and his student, perhaps helping
to explain why he didn't become a priest), he wrote the 11-volume "The
Story of Civilization" -- which narrates 2000+ years of Western history.
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_The-5FStory-5Fof-5FCivilization&d=DwIDaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=pyETWxn2CmLxyi5WMuga1-70Wt2xZS_j2rQtKaxaG_E&s=I86zN_ZlbT0j0XnwMq74clZMbeWZNzhdL3-DkQ7UAcE&e=
Another version of this was the 6-volume "The Great Ages of Western
Philosophy," which constructs the following life-cycle: Belief (Anne
Freemantle) --> Adventure (Giorgio de Santillana, my other
"godfather") --> Reason (Stuart Hampshire) --> Enlightenment (Isaiah
Berlin) --> Ideology (Henry Aiken) --> Analysis (Morton White.)
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.amazon.com_Great-2DAges-2DWestern-2DPhilosophy-2DVOLUMES_dp_B001GDE68C&d=DwIDaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=pyETWxn2CmLxyi5WMuga1-70Wt2xZS_j2rQtKaxaG_E&s=itLk2UgipKZ7uXRDGeL80y0pklFVeJTaLn2O-quKyKk&e=
Much like simple living organisms (Life, 2nd on Gregg's chart) and
"higher animals" (Psychology, 3rd on Gregg's chart), Cultures (4th on
Gregg's chart) come and go. They have a "life-cycle" that follows a
particular arc. This theme was emphasized by Oswald Spengler in his
1918 "Decline of the West" and then picked up by Arnold Toynbee in his
multi-volume "A Study of History" &al. This quote from Durant's SoC
volume one is instructive (particularly when considered in the light
of his Catholic upbringing) --
"Hence a certain tension between religion and society marks the higher
stages of every civilization. Religion begins by offering magical aid
to harassed and bewildered men; it culminates by giving to a people
that unity of morals and belief which seems so favorable to
statesmanship and art; it ends by fighting suicidally in the lost
cause of the past. For as knowledge grows or alters continually, it
clashes with mythology and theology, which change with geological
leisureliness. Priestly control of arts and letters is then felt as a
galling shackle or hateful barrier, and intellectual history takes on
the character of a "conflict between science and religion."
Institutions which were at first in the hands of the clergy, like law
and punishment, education and morals, marriage and divorce, tend to
escape from ecclesiastical control, and become secular, perhaps
profane. The intellectual classes abandon the ancient theology
and—after some hesitation—the moral code allied with it; literature
and philosophy become anticlerical. The movement of liberation rises
to an exuberant worship of reason, and falls to a paralyzing
disillusionment with every dogma and every idea. Conduct, deprived of
its religious supports, deteriorates into epicurean chaos; and life
itself, shorn of consoling faith, becomes a burden alike to conscious
poverty and to weary wealth. In the end a society and its religion
tend to fall together, like body and soul, in a harmonious death.
Meanwhile among the oppressed another myth arises, gives new form to
human hope, new courage to human effort, and after centuries of chaos
builds another civilization." (p. 71)
Yes, this "cyclical" approach -- which seems to apply to Life and
Psychology, as well as Cultures -- is at odds with the "Omega Point"
theme brought to this list by Jamie. Is the West finished (with China
on the rise)? Or, is it just "pausing"? Or, is it "evolving" into
some version of "heaven on earth" (as the Book of Revelation would
have it)?
My guess is that a Theory of Knowledge based on these "dimensions of
complexity" will also need to deal with Durant &al's "rise-and-fall"
arc and, in the process, provide us with the tools to assess the
current state of ours and its most likely future trajectory (yes, this
would also be where the topic of technology enters the analysis,
unfortunately a subject not well understood by Durant &al and, for
which, McLuhan becomes necessary) . . . <g>
Mark
P.S. Most who have considered Spengler -- who kicked all this off,
provoking scores of responses, including UofChicago's Great Books,
Marshall McLuhan, JRR Tolkien and Narnia, the New Age/Aquarian
Conspiracy &c -- don't take the next step to read his final summary,
the 1931 "Men and Technics." It was only recently that a thorough
biography (based on recent scholarship) of Spengler appeared in
English. I highly recommend it for a backdrop of the 20th-century and
how we have been delivered to our current predicament . . . !!
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.amazon.com_Prophet-2DDecline-2DSpengler-2DPolitical-2DTraditions&d=DwIDaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=pyETWxn2CmLxyi5WMuga1-70Wt2xZS_j2rQtKaxaG_E&s=93s7EDuYe9SZXJnfNSbcMPYUuGptwMTY-OPbiMpW4r8&e=
P.P.S. When asked if he was a pessimist or an optimist, McLuhan
answered, "Neither, I'm an apocalyptist" -- by which he meant that his
work involved *revelation* (the meaning of the term "apocalypse") and
shouldn't be taken as a "prediction" that could be mistaken as "good"
or "bad." He went out of his way to emphasize that "moralizing" (i.e.
attaching positive/negative "values" to reality and its causal
processes) is the surest way to block one's ability to understand what
is actually going on. If we "want" something, then, as the Rolling
Stones told us, you probably won't get it -- instead, what actually
happens is what you "need" (which may be quite different.)
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube.com_watch-3Fv-3DoqMl5CRoFdk&d=DwIDaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=pyETWxn2CmLxyi5WMuga1-70Wt2xZS_j2rQtKaxaG_E&s=Q8ObTcOfqoy6c1jRRNU9quJzaFMwAZOqgz9f4GDdL0U&e=
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