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object:1.14 - TURMOIL OR GENESIS?
book class:The Future of Man
author class:Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
subject class:Christianity
subject class:Science
class:chapter


CHAPTER 14

TURMOIL OR
GENESIS?

The Position of Man in Nature and the
Significance of Human Socialisation

Is there in the Universe a Main Axis of Evolution?
(An attempt to see clearly)



Introduction

NO ONE CAN any longer doubt that the Universe,
conceived in experimental or phenomenal terms,
is a vast temporo-spatial system, corpuscular in na-
ture, from which we cannot sensorially escape
(even in thought) either backward or forward or by
circumventing it. Viewed in this light everything in
the world appears and exists as a function of the
whole. This is the broadest, deepest and most
unassailable meaning of the idea of Evolution.

But it raises a question. How are we to envis-
age the operation of such a system, which by its
nature is both organic and atomic? Is its movement
one of disorderly or controlled impulses? Is the
world amorphous in structure, or does it on the



TURMOIL OR GENESIS 211

contrary show signs of containing within itself a favored axis of
evolution?

Following the principle that the greater coherence is an infalli-
ble sign of the greater truth, I propose to demonstrate that such an
axis does in fact exist, and that it may be defined in terms of the
following three (or even four) successive propositions or approxi-
mations, each of which clarifies and substantiates the one preced-
ing it on a single line of experience and thought:

a Life is not an accident in the Material Universe, but the
essence of the phenomenon.

b Reflection (that is to say, Man) is not an incident in the bi-
ological world, but a higher form of Life.

c In the human world the social phenomenon is not a super-
ficial arrangement, but denotes an essential advance of Reflection.

To which may be added, from the Christian point of view:

d The Christian phylum is not an accessory or divergent
shoot in the human social organism, but constitutes the axis itself
of socialization.

Let us look in turn at the separate links in this chain of propo-
sitions, each of which, as we shall see, represents a test whereby we
may better know and measure, in the scale of spiritual values, the
worth and position of others.



212 THE FUTURE OF MAN

Proposition I. Life Is Not an Epiphenomenon in the Material Universe,
but the Central Phenomenon of Evolution

placed AND OBSERVED within the general framework of Matter
as it is now revealed to science, life may seem to be of tragically little
importance in the Universe. In spatial terms we know for certain of
its existence only on an infinitesimally small body in the solar system.
In terms of Time its whole planetary duration is no more than a flash
in the huge course of sidereal development. And structurally its ex-
treme fragility seems to relegate it to the humblest and lowest place
among all the substances engendered during the physicochemical
evolution of cosmic matter. We can hardly wonder, in the circum-
stances, that agnostics such as Sir James Jeans and Marcel Boll, and
even convinced believers like Guardini, have uttered expressions of
amazement (tinged with heroic pessimism or triumphant detach-
ment) at the apparent insignificance of die phenomenon of Life in
terms of the cosmos — a little mold on a grain of dust . . .

Small wonder, I repeat: but it is no less astonishing that minds so
outstanding should not have perceived the possibility and the ad-
vantages of adopting a precisely opposite viewpoint. Life seems to
occupy so small a place in Space-Time, that it cannot reasonably be
regarded as anything other than incidental and accidental. That is
the difficulty. But why should we not reverse the position and say:
"The fact that Life is so rarely encountered in the sidereal immensity
is precisely because, representing a higher form of cosmic evolution,
it can only come into existence in privileged circumstances of time
and place." We shall see the full force of this argument (based on the
premise that Life, everywhere and for ever struggling to assert itself,
is liable to appear at any point in the Universe when the conditions
are favorable) only when we come to the end of this paper: when,
that is to say, we have perceived the full coherence and fruitfulness of
the mental and moral attitudes to which it gives access. But it is im-



TURMOIL OR GENESIS 213

portant to insist at the outset on the fundamental point that (despite
all contrary appearances and prejudices) the best way of scientifi-
cally explaining the World is to make up our minds to regard ani-
mate beings, not as a fortuitous by-product but as the characteristic
and specific higher aim of the universal phenomenon of Evolution.
Let us strip Life of all its anatomical and physiological super-
structure, bringing it down to the essentials of its physicochemical
nature. Reduced to its basic mechanism it shows itself to be a
straightforward process of increasing complication whereby Mat-
ter contrives to arrange itself in particles of ever greater volume,
ever more highly organized. But do we not find that at the same
time its seeming weaknesses, its fragility and appearance of ex-
treme localization in time-space, tend to vanish? For underlying
these supposedly "exceptional" cellular arrangements we have first
the far vaster world of molecules, and underlying this again the im-
mense and decidedly cosmic world of atoms; two worlds display-
ing, the first by its interatomic arrangements and the second by its
nuclear groupings, (each in its own way and through different pro-
cedures) precisely the same tendency to "fall" into increasingly or-
ganized states of complexity 1 Thus considered, the era of the
Organic (living) which may have appeared so exceptional in Na-
ture becomes no more than a further instance, at a particularly

1 We may seek to distinguish the phases or pulsations of the cosmic rise into
complexity (that is to say, into the Improbable) as follows:

a The preatomic phase: formation of nuclei and electrons;

b The atomic phase: grouping of nuclei in atoms (fixed and limited num-
ber of free "compartments");

c The molecular phase: grouping of atoms in finite or indefinite chains;

d The cellular phase: grouping of molecules in centered clusters.

In all these cases, up to but excluding Man, the arrangement seems to
have been brought about mainly by the working of chance and of grouping;
but in phases a to c the majority of the groups (except in the case of very large
molecules) represent knots of stability, whereas in phase d the arrangements that
survive represent privileged centers of activity.



214 THE FUTURE OF MAN

high level, of the operation of the same law that governs the whole
of the Inorganic. So finally we find the Universe from top to bot-
tom brought within a single, immense coiling movement 2 succes-
sively generating nuclei, atoms, molecules, cells and metazoa — the
special properties of Life being due solely to the extreme (virtually
infinite) degree of complexity attained at its level.

Thus the World falls into order, it organizes itself, around Life,
which is no longer to be regarded as an anomaly but accepted as
pointing the direction of its advance (evidence in itself that the axis
was well chosen!). And what is more up to a point its progress be-
comes measurable: for, as observation shows, it is the nature of Mat-
ter, when raised corpuscularly to a very high degree of complexity,
to become centered and interiorized — that is to say, to endow itself
with Consciousness. This means that the degree of consciousness
attained by living creatures (from the moment, naturally, when it
becomes discernible) may be used as a parameter to estimate the
direction and speed of Evolution (that is to say, of the Cosmic
Coiling) in terms of absolute values.

Let us adopt this method and see where it leads us.



Proposition II. Human Reflection Is Not an Epiphenomenon of the
Organic World, but the Central Phenomenon of Vitalization

if, as we have agreed, Life is the spearhead of Evolution, does
Life in its turn afford us a pointer to the direction of its advance?



2 It may be as well here to distinguish between the two types of "coiling" or
"in-folding" in the evolutionary process.

a The Coiling of Mass, which subdivides Matter without organizing it
(e.g., the stellar masses);

b The Coiling of Complexity which organizes elementary masses in ever
more elaborate structures.



TURMOIL OR GENESIS 215

This again is an idea that the latest scientific research does not
seem to favor at first glance. Just as Life itself seems to fade into in-
tangibility and insignificance within the sidereal immensities
known to astronomy, so does the happy simplicity which seemed to
indicate a gradual and steady rise of consciousness from the lower
animals to Man lose distinctness in the extraordinary diversity and
profusion of living forms now known to biology. Formerly "in-
stinct" could be treated as a sort of homogeneous quantity varying
(something like temperature) on a scale running from zero to the
point of Reflection representing human thought. Now we have to
accustom ourselves to seeing things differently. It is not along a sin-
gle line that Consciousness has emerged and is increasing on earth,
but along an immense fan of nervures, each nervure representing
a particular kind of sensory perception and knowledge. There are
as many wavelengths of consciousness as there are living forms. 3
How can we venture to assert that in this spectrum or spreading
sheaf of psychisms, any single line can exist? Hence the reluctance
of many biologists to fix upon a scale of values for use within the
animal kingdom. Is Man really more than a protozoan? It has been
possible for the question to be seriously asked and left unanswered.
But if there were really no answer we should be obliged to con-
clude that, although the course of Evolution was "directed" up to
the emergence of Life, beyond that point all that goes on is a scat-
All Mass-Coilings certainly do not result in Coilings of Complexity; but on
the other hand all Coilings of Complexity seem to originate or be conditional
upon a Mass-Coiling — for example, Life, which could only be achieved on the
physical foundation of a planet.

3 i.e., in seeking to grasp the interior world and associative faculties of an ani-
mal it is not enough to try to diminish or decenter our own picture of the
world: we have to modify our angle of vision and our way of seeing. Failing this
we fall into the anthropomorphic illusions which cause us to be amazed at the
phenomena of mimetism, or by mechanical arrangements which we ourselves
could only carry out with the full aid of science, whereas the insect or the bat
seems to have acquired the skill directly.



216 THE FUTURE OF MAN

tering in every direction. We are left with no trail to follow unless
we decide, for sufficient reasons, to attribute a unique and privi-
leged value to reflective consciousness.

It has become the rather unconsidered fashion, since Bergson,
to decry intelligence as compared with other forms or aspects of
cognition. To the extent that this is simply a reaction against a
static and abstract rationalism, it is wholly salutary; but it becomes
pernicious if it goes so far as to cause us to overlook what is truly
exceptional and essential in the phenomenon of Thought — the
power of Consciousness to center so perfectly upon itself as to be
able to situate itself (itself and the Universe at the same time) in the
explicit framework of a present, a past and dijuture — that is to say,
in a Space-Time continuum. The more we reflect upon the revo-
lutionary consequences ensuing from this transformation of the
laws hitherto governing the world — the growth of powers of fore-
sight and invention, prompting and guiding a "planned" rebound of
Evolution! — the more must we be persuaded that to regard Intel-
ligence as an anomaly and even a disease of Consciousness is as
absurd and sterile as to regard Life as a mold on the earth's sur-
face; and the more do we find ourselves drawn toward another in-
terpretation of the facts, which may be expressed as follows: It is
perfectly possible that in the general spectrum of Life the line end-
ing in Man was originally no more than one psychic radiation
among countless others. But it happened, for some reason of haz-
ard, position or structure, that this sole ray (this is an experiential
fact) among the millions contrived to pass the critical barrier sepa-
rating the Unreflective from the Reflective — that is to say, to enter
the sphere of intelligence, foresight and freedom of action. Be-
cause it did so (and although in a sense, I must repeat, this ray was
only one attempt among many) the whole essential stream of ter-
restrial biological evolution is now flowing through the breach
which has been made. The cosmic tide may at one time have



TURMOIL OR GENESIS 217

seemed to be immobilized, lost in the vast reservoir of living forms;
but through the ages the level of consciousness was steadily rising
behind the barrier, until finally, by means of the human brain (the
most "centro-complex" organism yet achieved to our knowledge in
the universe) there has occurred, at a first ending of time, the
breaking of the dykes, followed by what is now in progress, the
flooding of Thought over the entire surface of the biosphere.

Thus regarded, everything in the history of the world takes
shape, and what is better, everything goes on.



Proposition III. Socialization Is Not an Epiphenomenon in the
Sphere of Reflective Life but the Essential Phenomenon of Hominization

I believe THAT few readers will quarrel with my reasoning in fa-
vor of Propositions I and II. Where that part of the argument is con-
cerned, the way through the jungle of facts has been cleared by a
century of research and discussion. We may assert today that there
is almost complete unanimity among scientists regarding the central
position of Life in the Universe, and of Man in Life. It is beyond this
point — beyond Man in his anatomical and spiritual individuality —
that the path vanishes in the undergrowth and the dispute begins.
We have now entered the battle: let us see what the position is.

What hinders and even prevents us from advancing beyond
this point is our evident inability to conceive of anything more or-
ganically complex or psychically centered than the human type
emerging in Nature as it now is. Hence the instinctive tendency, so
widespread even among men of science, to regard the tide of Life
on earth as having for practical purposes ceased to flow. According
to this view, Life, having reached the reflective stage, must not only
disperse in diverging ethnocultural units, but must finally culmi-
nate (and one might say, evaporate) in separate individualities, each



218 THE FUTURE OF MAN

within the enclosed sphere of its sensibilities and knowledge repre-
senting an independent, absolute summit of the Universe.

That is one way of looking at it. But before we acquiesce in a
solution which to me seems nothing but the implied admission of
a dead end, we need to be quite sure that the forces of vitalization
really do possess no outlet upon earth, above the level of the hu-
man individual. We are told that the way ahead is completely
closed. But have those who believe this given any thought to the
forces of socialization?

From habit, and from ignorance, we are inclined to consider the
human social phenomenon as no less commonplace and uninterest-
ing than the human phenomenon of reflection. What, we ask in ef-
fect, can be more sadly natural than that the human particles, since,
unluckily for them, they gather in crowds and masses, should feel the
need to organize themselves so as to make existence tolerable? What
is this but a process of necessary adjustment, with no mystery about
it? That is the view taken by many people as they gaze with melan-
choly disquiet at the turbulent swell of humanity; and by it the whole
edifice of human relationships and social structures is reduced to the
level of a regulated epiphenomenon, having no value or substance
of its own, and therefore no future in its own right.

But here, and for the third time, why should we not adopt a po-
sition diametrically opposed to the one which is most familiar and,
at first sight, most simple? Why not assume instead that, if it is by
reason of the cosmic structure, and not by chance, that man is
born "legion," by the same token it is not through chance, but
through the prolonged effect of "cosmic coiling," that the human
layer is weaving and folding in upon itself in the way we see it to
be doing? On this basis the fundamental evolutionary process of
the Universe does not stop at the elemental level of the human
brain and human reflection. On the contrary, at this stage the



TURMOIL OR GENESIS 219

"complexity-consciousness" mechanism gains an added impulse,
acquiring a new dimension through new procedures. It is no longer
simply a matter of cells organized by the hazards of natural selec-
tion, but of completed zoological units inventively building them-
selves into organisms on a planetary scale. Adopting this organic
view of the social phenomenon, we find that not only does the
structure of our terrestrial society become meaningful both in a
general sense (the gradual rise of tension or psychic temperature
under technico-social pressure) and in detail (the "anatomy" and
"physiology" of the Noosphere) but the whole process takes on a
convergent aspect: the phenomenon of man, seen in its entirety, ap-
pears to flow toward a critical point of maturation, (and perhaps
even of psychic withdrawal) 4 corresponding to the concentration
of collective Reflection at a single center embracing all the indi-
vidual units of reflection upon Earth.

Further than this we cannot see and our argument must
cease — except, as I have now to show, in the case of the Christian,
who, drawing upon an added source of knowledge, may advance
yet another step.



Proposition IV The Church Is Neither an Epi- Nor a
Paraphenomenon in the Growth of the Human Social Organism,
but Constitutes the Very Axis (or Nucleus) about Which It Forms

to those accustomed to see in the phenomenon religion
nothing more than a purely conventional association of minds in
the sphere of the "imaginary," this fourth and final theorem will

4 Necessitated, it would seem, by the requirement of irreversibility developed
on the way by the coiling of the Cosmos upon itself.



220 THE FUTURE OF MAN

seem astonishing and may even come under suspicion as "illumi-
nism." Yet it arises directly out of the juxtaposition of two con-
cepts of the World: the one which practical considerations have
just led us to adopt, and the one which every Christian is bound to
accept if he is to remain orthodox. As we know, the belief that the
human individual cannot perfect himself or fully exist except
through the organic unification of all men in God is essential and
fundamental to Christian doctrine. To this mystical superorgan-
ism, joined in Grace and charity, we have now added a mysterious
equivalent organism from the domain of biology: the "Noo-
spheric" human unity gradually achieved by the totalizing and
centering effect of Reflection. How can these two superentities, the
one "supernatural," the other natural, fail to come together and
harmonize in Christian thought; the critical point of maturation
envisaged by science being simply the physical condition and ex-
perimental aspect of the critical point of the Parousia postulated
and awaited in the name of Revelation? Clearly for the conjunc-
tion to be effected it is necessary (as is already happening) for it to
gain possession of many devout minds. But we must be clear that
this change in our vision goes far beyond any purely intellectual
and abstract merging of two complementary pictures, one ra-
tional, the other religious, of "the end of the world."

For one thing, by this conjunction Christian cosmology,
harmonized and effectively articulated at its peak with Human
cosmology, shows itself to be fundamentally and in real values
homogeneous with the latter. Thus dogma is no mere flowering of

5 From the Christian point of view (which in this coincides with the biological
viewpoint logically carried to its extreme) the "gathering together" of the Spirit
gradually accomplished in the course of the "coiling" of the Universe, occurs
in two tempos and by two stages — a by slow "evaporation" (individual deaths);
and simultaneously b by incorporation in the collective human organism ("the
mystical body") whose maturation will only be complete at the end of Time,
through the Parousia.



TURMOIL OR GENESIS 221

the imagination but something authentically born of history; and
it is in literal not metaphorical terms that the Christian believer
can illumine and further the genesis of the Universe around him
in the form of a Christogenesis.

Moreover, by very virtue of the interlocking of the two "gene-
ses" the ascending force of Christianity is directly geared to the
propulsive mechanism of human superevolution. To the Christian,
for whom the whole process of hominization is merely a paving of
the way for the ultimate Parousia, it is above all Christ who invests
Himself with the whole reality of the Universe; but at the same
time it is the Universe which is illumined with all the warmth and
immortality of Christ. So that finally (the point cannot be too
strongly stressed) a new impulse becomes possible and is now be-
ginning to take shape in human consciousness. Born of the psychic
combination of two kinds of faith — in the transcendent action
of a personal God and the innate perfectibility of a World in
progress — it is an impulse, (or better, a spirit of love) that is truly
evolutionary. We can indeed say of it that it is the only kind of spir-
itual energy capable of causing the formidable human machine, in
which, from what we can see, all the future and all the hopes of
Evolution must henceforth be concentrated, to function at full
power, without danger from egotism or from mechanization, and
to the full extent of its potentialities.



Conclusion

what I set out to show, and hope to have shown, is that, viewed
from a certain angle, the internal stir of the Cosmos no longer ap-
pears disorderly: it takes a given direction following a major axis of
movement at the completion of which the phenomenon of man
becomes detached as the most advanced form of the largest and



222 THE FUTURE OF MAN

most characteristic of cosmic processes, that of in-folding. This
axis, as we have suggested, may conveniently be determined by
means of three successive propositions, so closely linked that we
cannot accept any one without being committed to those which
precede it, nor, conversely reject any one without being barred
from those that follow it.

This coherence (which is not closed, like the coherence of a
system, but open like that of a method of, or key to, progressive re-
search) — is so marked that we would have to have extremely grave
positive reasons for refusing to face it; and for my part I can see
none that is adequate. But it is nevertheless true that, above all if
they are taken separately, none of the propositions I have formu-
lated is rigidly deductive or, therefore, conclusive: each is more in
the nature of an intuition, that is to say, a kind of choice. So it is
possible to part company from the sequence at each stage: but only,
it should be noted, if in doing so we accept the alternative choice.
But this, to the logical mind, threatens to have dangerous reper-
cussions in the field of action.

As an instance let us take the particularly crucial and mean-
ingful Third Proposition — or option.

Do we accept the idea, strongly supported by fact, that the in-
dividual man cannot achieve his wholeness (that is to say, reflect
and personalize himself completely upon himself) except in soli-
darity with all other men, present, past and future? If we do, the
awareness aroused in us of being each a responsible element in a
rebounding course of Evolution must, at the same time as it gives
rise to a desire and reason for action, inspire us with a fundamen-
tal sense of obligation and a precise system of moral tendencies. In
matters of love or money or liberty, of politics, economics or soci-
ety, we not only find our main line of conduct and criteria of
choice structurally laid down for us ("ever higher in convergence")



TURMOIL OR GENESIS 223

but furthermore, our instinct for research and creation ("to con-
summate the Universe in ourselves") discovers endless justification
and sustenance. Viewed in this way, everything makes sense, every-
thing glows with life; and the flow of human sap rises to the very
heart of the Christian faith.

But if, on the other hand, we refuse to regard human social-
ization as anything more than a chance arrangement, a modus
Vivendi lacking all power of internal growth, then (excepting, at the
most, a few elementary rules safeguarding the living-space of the
individual) we find the whole structure of politico-economico-
social relations reduced to an arbitrary system of conventional and
temporary expedients. Everything in the human world becomes
artificial in the worst sense of the word; everything is divested of
importance, urgency and interest; Christianity itself becomes no
more than a sort of alien proliferation, without analogy or roots in
the Phenomenon of Man.

Faced by so wide a divergence of attitudes, can we fail to see
that the attempt made in these pages to determine a cosmic axis of
evolution, far from being a mere intellectual diversion, is by way of
expressing the condition of survival for the human race? And
more especially how can we do other than feel that it is about the
social phenomenon, according to the degree of central and or-
ganic value which we attribute to it, that Mankind is in process of
reassessing and regrouping itself?

PARIS, DECEMBER 20, 1947. L'ANTHROPOLOGIE, SEPTEMBER 1948.




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