Hi List,
I am back in the saddle after the cruise. Lots of good food and family time, and it bookends (and ends) my month of “gluttony and sloth.” I was off line for about 5 days, which is always an interesting experience. Thanks for the contributions to the list when I was out. Jamie, I have enjoyed your detailed posts on The Moral Apex, there is much that resonates with me. My fundamental conception of the fifth joint point is that we must foster a shift from the current state of fragmented knowledge pluralism to a more wisdom-based integrated pluralism. And that must be connected to the development of technology. A highlight of the trip was hanging with my 17 year old nephew, Andrew, who is precocious and curious and had become fascinated about the ToK/UTUA System. He had many questions about consciousness, free will, psychology, politics and the future of humanity. It was great discussing such things with him. And it was a reminder of the kinds of things our education system is not doing (i.e., getting our kids to think about philosophy and psychology).
My primary intellectual activity during that time was to complete the book,
The Story of Philosophy (Durant, 1926). It attempts to provide an overview of “synthetic” philosophy via telling the life stories and works of major figures starting with Socrates, Plato and Aristotle and ending with late 19
th/early 20
th century folks like James, Dewey and Russell. It was instructive to see how these folks put together the various strands/branches of philosophy, with the main ones being metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics (the book skirted around both analytic philosophy/logic, and also did not include Eastern perspectives). The relationship between “matter” and “mind” (and variants of objective versus subjective and idealism versus materialism) was a primary and central concern of the thinkers Durant reviewed.
I was pleased to reference these thinkers in relationship to the ToK/UTUA system. I found that I could readily empathize with each of the perspectives offered. In the language of
psychotherapy integration, I could “assimilate and integrate” the various perspectives, seeing both what was being offered, while at the same time seeing what was not being seen by the approach via the version of reality through which I see the world and our place in it. I remain happy with the idea that the ToK System is a new metaphysical system. By that I mean a new language game that carves up reality in a way that is consistent with scientific/empirical findings, and empirical/common sense observation. I also remain happy with the linkages the system affords between justification and epistemology. In other words, it felt very much to me that the two insights I had over twenty years ago (i.e., the ToK and the JH) were very much key missing puzzle pieces to developing a truly advanced synthetic scientific humanistic philosophy.
Best,
Gregg
___________________________________________
Gregg Henriques, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Graduate Psychology
216 Johnston Hall
MSC 7401
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
(540) 568-7857 (phone)
(540) 568-4747 (fax)
Be that which enhances dignity and well-being with integrity.
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