From Modernity to After-Modernity (12)

Part 2. Theoretical considerations
Chapter 4. About societal governance and societal evolution

Political theory has always addressed the exercise of power by referring to the opinions of European classical thinkers about that subject. Nowadays political scientists particularly focus on Modernity and the Nation-State which are also European constructs. With the globalization of the reach of capital, that was put in motion in the 70ths through the actions of various international organizations, that European model of political theory is being imposed all over the world as if it was the sole truth of the matter about things relating to political science.

But the fact is that Europe represents no more than 5% of the world population. Adding to that 5% the geographical extensions it imposed on natives, along the initial phase of merchant capitalism (1), this 'European cultural domain' still counts no more than 10% of the world population. A question then arises. Why is the field of societal governance, which is what political theory is all about, so blind to the historical experience of such great countries as China (18.8% of the world population) and India (17.6% of the world population) (2)?

From Modernity to After-Modernity (11)

Part 2. Theoretical considerations
Chapter 3. About culture, worldviews, civilizations

3.  Culture, worldviews, civilizations

I  started book 1 of this series with a presentation about the most important concepts that frame my personal thought process. Chief among them is societal evolution that is deeply ingrained in cultural change and more particularly in the elements of cultural change that make it into the worldview of society.

I have furthermore dedicated some chapters of book 1 to the history of worldviews 1 & 2 and civilizations 1, 2, & 3. My intention in this chapter 3 is not to rehash the content of these earlier posts. I want now to address how these concepts interrelate and more particularly I want to address how culture acts as the catalyst of the evolution of worldviews, and of societies at large, in ways similar to genes that succeed to implant their mutations in the human genome.

From Modernity to After-Modernity (10)

Part 2. Theoretical considerations
Chapter 2. About the formation of consciouness

2.9. Lessons about the process of consciousness

Brain, mind, and consciousness are subjects that are not very well understood by science to this very day. Different approaches are competing for attention but none is truly satisfactory. In my personal search to make sense of consciousness I borrow elements of some of these approaches while integrating them in a holistic or set theory vision that is animated by the idea that the dance between polarities is what creates the reality of any entity.

The subjects are so vast and fraud with so many ideological a priori that I feel it is necessary to start by clarifying the context that shapes our perception.

From Modernity to After-Modernity (09)

Part 2. Theoretical considerations
Chapter 2. About the formation of consciousness



2.3.  The mind and 'Increased Complexity'

I'll start with an update of the graphs I gave in my last post.


A.    visualization of the cycle of life

Where do I stand with my "grand project" ?

2015/12/15

I terminated the first 4 columns with each 5 paintings (if one can say that a painting is ever terminated). Here is the full view. The paintings are stitched together in the Gimp (open source version of photoshop) and not taken in one shot because my present painting place is not big enough to position all the panels together while leaving me the distance to shoot the whole damn thing. This explains the 'dark-light' differences between panels. The whole thing has a better flow that on this picture but that was the price to pay to share this work with my readers. What I hope to share is the dynamic that runs between thinking, painting and writing (please click on images to get their large version).

From Modernity to After Modernity (08)

Part 2. Theoretical considerations
Chapter 2. About the formation of consciousness


2.  About the formation of consciousness

Species are an assemblage of a mass of individual particles that live in groups which are also called societies. The particles have a very short lifespan while their societies last the life of many generations of individual particles. Societies themselves are also mortal and collapse from time to time to be annexed by, or annexing, other societies and forming a larger unit or splitting in smaller units. Societies, or groupings, are the natural form of organization of all species for the good reason that an individual on his own soon dies without reproducing. Preservation of the individual integrity and his reproduction are thus the reasons why individuals are assembling in groups. From the dawn of the principle of life, when life emerged, immediately appeared the necessity to reproduce individual life over the generations in order to ensure the continuity of the species. This principle is the essence of human groupings or societies and societies are natural instruments that ensure the reproduction of species.

From Modernity to After Modernity (07)

Part 2. Theoretical considerations
Chapter 1. About the formation of human knowledge 



1.5. Conclusions (2)


1.5.5. Science and animism have different finalities

Humanity has witnessed three forms of knowledge formations along the path of its long history: animism, religion-philosophy and modern rationality.

From Modernity to After Modernity. (06)

Part 2. Theoretical considerations

Chapter 1. About the formation of human knowledge 

1.6. Conclusions (1)

Let me start by sketching the most salient traits of the history of knowledge formation as I reported on it in my last 4 posts.

From Modernity to After Modernity. (05)

Part 2. Theoretical considerations
Chapter 1. About the formation of human knowledge 




1.4.4. The civilization of China  = animism+

I have laid out in some detail, in my posts “The axioms of civilizations” 01, 02, 03 and 06, 07, 08 (2) the passage from animism to power societies and how China and the West were made to take radically different civilizational paths. I then went on to describe how their conceptual foundations ended up being pole apart. What follows is a further development of the content of those posts and more particularly the formation of knowledge under the Chinese empire. So it could be useful, but not absolutely necessary, to start reading those posts before engaging any further in the present one.

From Modernity to After Modernity. (04)

Part 2. Theoretical considerations

Chapter 1. About the formation of human knowledge

1.4. power societies

The widely shared model about the formation of empires tells us that following the emergence of agriculture sometime 12,000 years ago the sum of societal practices and knowledge that had been accumulated and transmitted from generation to generation over the preceding 100,000 years or so by tribal societies gradually disintegrated. This disintegration of the tribal model spread over a few thousand years and was paralleled by trials and errors in setting up power societies. This process that spanned roughly 7-8000 years culminated, some 5000 years ago in Sumer, in Egypt, and in China, with the institutionalization of empires that reproduce over the generations which is what gave rise to civilizations.

From Modernity to After Modernity. (03)

Part 2. Theoretical considerations

1. About the formation of human knowledge

1.3. non-power societies = tribes & animism

Tribal societies were societies without power and animism, or the tribal worldview, was shared by all. Tribesmen were free and equal individuals; free and equal women and men who willingly shared the views offered by their Man of Knowledge

From Modernity to After Modernity. (02)

Part 2. Theoretical considerations

1. About the formation of human knowledge

1.2. The historical context

Notwithstanding what believers in empire say (1) we do not create reality. We have to discover it. In other words the reality of the universe is not a creation of humanity. It exists independently of humanity.

From Modernity to After Modernity. (01)

Part 2. Theoretical considerations
1. About the formation of human knowledge


1.1. Introduction

The notion of being, of being human, is not a given – nor a universal one - nor a historical one. It is a work in process.

Biological evolution lays the ground work in which an evolving materiality gives form to life and life evolves then a multitude of biological forms – plant and animal.

From Modernity to After-Modernity

Hi guys,
Have been blogging on Weebly for some time now and in the meantime I neglected my Blogger account (this was a mistake). Since I encountered some problems with Weebly I'm remaking Crucial Talk my first blogging platform

During my absence from Blogger I have been writing "From Modernity to After-Modernity" a series of articles that divides in 3 parts and time willing I'll edit them as 3 books addressing different angles of a same subject. The subject relates to the transition from Modernity toward a new historical era that I simply call After-Modernity.

A second life.

What is sticking out, in my view, from my writing over the past 10 years can be summarized as follows:

1. The general economic and societal reality in Late-Modernity:

• Late-Modernity is the age of an over-indebted capitalistic globalization that threatens the collapse of nation-states that in turn could collapse the "Economy-World"