Evolutionaries

Carter Phipps is a writer who as editor of Enlighten-Next had many opportunities to interview leading evolutionary thinkers. Here he provides an antidote to Daniel Dennett, who regards evolution as the ultimate corrosive idea demolishing everything in its course. As such, he is an inheritor of Alfred Russel Wallace rather than Charles Darwin, although the name of Wallace does not feature in this book. Wallace believed not only in evolution through natural selection, but also in the evolution of consciousness, potentially beyond death. Although the scope of the book is very considerable, there are other notable omissions such as Brian Goodwin, Goethe, Ervin Laszlo and Ilya Prigogine, all of whom have contributed important ideas to the philosophy of modern evolution and to a new science of qualities. Having said that, the book does live up to its subtitle of unlocking the spiritual and cultural potential of science's greatest idea. The four parts re-examine evolution, reinterpret science, re-contextualise culture and re-envisage spirit. The book goes well beyond the dichotomy of believing or not believing in evolution, which is a much more significant factor in the US than it is in the UK. The pivotal figure is Teilhard de Chardin with this comprehensive vision of evolution, and there is a delightful description of the interaction between the young Jean Houston and Teilhard (Mr Tayer) in New York in the spring of 1955 just at the time of his death. He told her to remain true to herself, moving ever upward towards greater consciousness and greater love - wise advice indeed.

In the West, evolution was prefigured by ideas of progress developed during the 18th century Enlightenment, but it has to be seen in terms of cycles of development and decline, as Goethe suggested. This applies to individual organisms as well as cultures, although the general trajectory maybe upwards and onwards. In our own time, it is evident that technological progress outstrips progress in humanising ourselves, although, as the author points out, there is an upsurge in spirituality beyond dogmatic religion. This is basically optimistic, an optimism that I share even with a few sanguine reservations, although I like his idea of a progress of meaning. The title of Evolutionaries refers to people who are cross-disciplinary generalists, who understand vast timescales and who embody a spirit of optimism. In science, this means the emergence of cooperation, directionality or purpose, an emphasis on novelty and creativity and what Sir Julian Huxley called transhumanism. This last theme includes an excursion into the work of Ray Kurzweil who thinks that the human self is nothing more than information that could be transferred onto a different organic substrate. Phipps is wary of this move, characterising it as an over-conflation of consciousness with informational complexity. This brings him to the evolution of consciousness or the noosphere and the ideas of 19th century idealists such as Hegel, Fichte and Schelling as well as lesser-known thinkers such as Steve McIntosh, James Mark Baldwin, Jurgen Habermas and Jean Gebser, where he provides summaries of their work. There are also extensive sections on spiral dynamics and the philosophy of Ken Wilber. Evolutionary spirituality and enlightenment has been championed by Andrew Cohen, but it has also been exemplified by the number of other thinkers such as Barbara Marx Hubbard, who herself was inspired by Teilhard when reading about the drive for greater expression, greater connectivity and greater consciousness expressing itself to an individual. Another person influenced by Teilhard was Thomas Berry who helped articulate a new cosmology, work continued by Brian Swimme. We stand at a moment of choice with huge upsides and downsides, but we can collectively choose to evolve consciously, and this book is an important contribution to this realisation.