For DWill January 28, 2010
If you have never been to Esalen I think it will be difficult to understand or appreciate the conclusions Tarnas reached to be a goal for humankind. When I visited Esalen 35 years ago it was a touchy-feely place where all solutions revolved around getting in touch with your inner self. Notice on page 47 he defines Logos, page 60 Nous, and page 61 Telos.
On page 438 he prepares us to receive his insight:
“And as with the evolution of scientific paradigms, so with all forms of human thought. The emergence of a new philosophical paradigm, whether that of Plato or Aquinas, Kant or Heidegger, is never simply the result of improved logical reasoning from the observed data. Rather, each philosophy, each metaphysical perspective and epistemology, reflects the emergence of a global experiential gestalt [you need to understand this word to understand his conclusions] that informs that philosopher’s vision, that governs his or her reasoning and observations, and that ultimately affects the entire cultural and sociological context within which the philosopher’s vision is taking form.”
Then start reading on page 441, he floats into a discourse about the masculine domination controlling western civilization and creating all the problems and on 443 he presents his solution:
“And this dramatic development is not just a compensation, not just a return of the repressed (feminine spirit), as I believe this has all along been the underlying goal of Western intellectual and spiritual evolution. For the deepest passion of the Western mind has been to reunite with the ground of its being. [emphasis added] The driving impulse of the West’s masculine consciousness has been its dialectical quest not only to realize itself, to forge its own autonomy, but also, finally, to recover its connection with the whole, to come to terms with the great feminine principle in life: to differentiate itself from but then rediscover and reunite with the feminine, with the mystery of life, of nature, of soul[emphasis added.”
Well DWill that’s what I understand is his conclusion. I didn’t say I agreed with his conclusions but his analysis of the evolution of philosophy in Western Civilization was very clear, insightful, and useful to me. That’s why I enjoyed Jacques Barzun’s book From Dawn to Decadence. His conclusion is there are the following forces acting on the emotions as gravity acts on the body. They are: Emancipation, Primitivism, Individualism, Secularism, Self-Consciousness, Specialization, Analysis, Reductivim, Scientism, and Abstraction which he carefully defines and then shows what historical activity, during the last 500 years, was a result of one or more of the above forces being addressed by different segments of society at different times. I don’t recall Barzun ever mentioned freedom nor Tarnas for that matter.