Chpter 7

The Phenomenon of Man

In the Shoes of Fisherman, a novel written by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, wherein the main character is Jean Telemond, who happens to be the thinly - disguised of him, says. Man is the only link between the physical order & the spiritual one. Without man the universe is a leaving wasteland contemplated by an unseen Diety Again Man is a very special phenomenon. He is a being who knows, he is also a being who knows that he knows Man has this so-called intellectual supremacy compared those of the animals. Man is the link because we are the one studying everything about our existence and we are the one that producing divine images in the society We know and aware of what we are doing, we decide, we make breakthroughs, we look something interesting etc. compared to the animals which they all know is to survive..prey-predator relationship, mate, look for food etc.. About the Author of Phenomenon of Man Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was born in France in 1881, he was French Jesuit priest and was a highly regarded paleontologist (studies fossil remains) and philosopher. Ordained in 1911, Teilhard risked his reputation as both priest and paleontologist in order to put forward his evolutionary theory, which attempted to reconcile Christianity, and the scientific theory of evolution. He studied geology and paleontology in France. Having obtained his doctorate, Teilhards controversial views were suppressed by the Roman Catholic superiors, in part, forced him away from teaching and flew to China to work on a paleontological expedition. Teilhard became wellknown for his participation to the discovery of Peking Man in China. Peking belongs to the Homo Erectus family, one of the evolutionary stages of human. His writings wee suppressed during his lifetime. But after his death. His popularly known book, Phenomenon of Man was then published.

In the Preface of his book, he said that the book Phenomenon of Man must not be taken as metaphysics, nor as theology, but just simply and purely science. He said that, The book deals w/ man solely as a phenomena; but covers the whole phenomena of man Here he reminds us the 2 things. 1.that nothing exists in pure isolation 2. science, philosophy and theology tend to converge the nearer they try to explain the whole man. Meaning they should converge or come together but without merging and without ceasing to the very end. Example, You take a book all about universe written by great modern scientist like Einstein, and you will end up that it is impossible to give the best shot on general scientific interpretation of the universe without giving the impression or impact of explaining it through and through.

Teilhard's modest proposal for the resolution of this dilemma is to chart a new course for both theology and science. If religion has seen its purpose as raising human life to higher consciousness in a vertical dimension and if science has seen its purpose in moving humanity forward on a horizontal plane within the boundaries of the material world, the obvious frontier of consciousness involves a movement both upwards and forwards. So thats how Teilhard offers a simple image to depict his agenda for the evolution of human consciousness

Religion

Religion in partnership w/ Science

Science He also wants to point out 2 basic assumptions in the development of his theme. These are: The pre-eminent significance of man in nature The organic nature of mankind

The book reflects clearly the authors evolutionary approach. It has 4 main parts Pre-life which covers the stuff of the universe (principally energy and matter) and the within of the things (existence and spiritual energy) and the juvenile earth. Life covers the advent of life, its expansion and complexity. Thought the birth of thought and the different stages toward homo sapiens and modern earth Super-life (Survival) talks of the spirit of the earth, the convergence of the person and the Omega Point, and man and the Ultimate Earth.

Noogenesis is the fourth of five stages of evolution described by French Jesuit scientist and philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in his first posthumously published book, The Phenomenon of Man Noogenesis, the emergence of mind, follows geogenesis (beginning of Earth), biogenesis (beginning of life) and anthropogenesis (beginning of humanity), and is followed by Christogenesis, the genesis of the "total Christ. Noogenesis began with reflective thought; or with the first human beings. Teilhard believes that because human beings are self-reflective or self-conscious they constitute a new sphere of existence on earth: the sphere of thought, or the noosphere. The continued consolidation of all human thought into the noosphere is noogenesis. It is a continual increase in thought and consciousness brought about by the increased socialization of mankind on earth. As human beings continue to socialize, or as Teilhard says, "totalize" upon themselves, the more complex systems of communication and exchange they will form, thus increasing the consciousness of the noosphere. The best example here is the web of thought the World Wide Web or Internetbefore there was only a little population around the world, but as the time goes on and on and the mass of population grows, socialization increases and became more complex..people share ideas and transmits from one another resulting to a new complex ideas and knowledge an increasing extent every machine comes into being as a function of every other machine; and, again to an increasing extent, all the machines on earth, taken together, tend to form a single, vast, organized mechanism..and so Internet is one of the evidences. People around the worl communicate to each other so there is unification in the humankind.. The socialization of mankind is nothing but an extension of the Law of Complexity/Consciousness. Teilhard imagines that noogenesis will eventually reach a critical point of consciousness, brought about by a maximum tension of human socialization. This critical point will serve to detach consciousness from time and space and to converge on Omega Poin, the final state which for all intents and purposes, is GOD or peace our Ultimate goal. And to explain morehere is simple equation about it. Evolution = Rising Consciousness Rising Consciousness = Unification affected (increasing manner) We evolve, consciousness rises to a higher level resulting unification towards the only goal.. the Omega point which is God Then we have Sir Julian Huxley, he was an English biologist. He said that Teilhard has affected three-fold synthesis, namely: 1. of the material and physical world, of the world of mind and spirit; 2. of the past w/the future; & 3. of variety w/ unity, of many, with the one.

Huxley also asserts Teilhards 2 positions: 1. the mankind is its totality is a phenomenon to be described & analyzed like any other phenomenon, & all its manifestations including human history and human values, are proper objects for scientific study. Example. The weather activities, meteorologists had to study every small details of a certain phenomenon of the earths atmosphere for them to arrive comprehensive results like the storms, so that they will know how strong and fast the storm is or what places to be hit, how much volume of rain the storms would bring,etc. 2. his second and perhaps most fundamental point is the absolute necessity of adopting an evolutionary point of view. There are certain terms used by Teilhard, as explained by Huxley 1. Noogenesis : gradual evolution of mind 2. Cosmogenesis : gradual evolution of cosmos/universe 3. Hominization : process by which the original proto-human stock becomes ( and is still becoming) more truly human. 4. Noosphere : sphere of the mind 5. Convergence : denotes the tendency of mankind, during its evolution, to superpose centripetal on centrifugal trends, so as to prevent centrifugal differentiation from leading to fragmentation. i. So this refers to human mating with human beings, unlike in the animals, when they mate with other species, they produce varieties of species, fish has many varieties, cats have varieties of species like leopards, lions, tigers etc. compared to man that even though you both are homosexual beings still you are a man.. 6. Complexification : this concept includes the genesis of increasingly elaborate organization during cosmogenesis, as manifested in the passage:

from subatomic units to atoms, from atoms to inorganic and later to organic molecules; then to first subcellular living units to cells to multicellular individuals to cephalized metazoan with brains to primitive men to civilized societies

Teilhard suggest necessary senses to discover man and take his measure instead of the five basic senses of man which are sight, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting.. These senses are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Sense of spatial immensity in greatness and smallness Sense of depth laboriously through endless series and measureless, sluggishness of mind\ Sense of number multitude of material or living elements Sense of proportion difference and dimension, the infinitesimal from the immense Sense of quality absolute stages of perfection and growth Sense of movement extreme slowness extreme agitation Sense of organic physical links and structural unity

Report by: Ortojan, Sheena Marie L. BSOA- 3