Week 9 - November 13 - Contemporary Prophets
Readings and videos
- Governing the Commons, by Elinor Ostrom (on-line PDF)
- Rachel Carson, excerpt from Scientists as Prophets, by Lynda Walsh
- Robert Kelly, The Fifth Beginning (2016) (Ch 1 to be added) Click here for overview of hominin species
- "Review of Defiant Earth - Humans Rupture Earth System; Earth Fights Back," by Herman Greene
- John Dupré, "Freedom of the Will", last chapter from his book Human Nature and the Limits of Science (2001). This reading if borrowed from Class 11 of Donald Drayden's OLLI class website (referenced below.) In introducing this chapter, Dr. Drayden writes:
- "...if you can find the time, I believe it will be well worth your while to read a second article I've provided for downloading, "Freedom of the Will" by John Dupré, which is the concluding chapter of his book, Human Nature and the Limits of Science (2001). Dupré is one of the most interesting philosophers of science writing today, and most of his interests lie in the biological sciences and the implications of developments in evolutionary and molecular biology for understanding a wide range of human problems. In this reading, Dupré draws an important distinction between determinism and what he calls causal completeness, and he uses this to question the most basic assumptions about causality in the physical world, which have provided the traditional framework for thinking about the problem of human freedom. The position that he develops is especially interesting because it is developed within an alternative framework for thinking about freedom and causality, a framework that allows him to transcend the timeworn and restricted range of options that have characterized past attempts to solve the problem of freedom of the will."
- Donald Drayden, Ph.D., offers an OLLI course entitled, "Science Without Laws, Knowledge Without Truth" The readings and discussion he has assembled on his course website provide ground on which we are able to fundamentally flip our understanding of "scientific laws" and "universal truth" to a basis that is in harmony both with the strengths of human possibility, and the patterns of evolutionary emergence.
- The Center for Ecozoic Studies
Agenda and Questions for Nov 13 class discussion:
- The readings above, and indeed the whole course, not only point us in a new direction, but also provide the motivation for investing in the effort to adopt this flipped vision of our role as a species. From your own perspective, what are the main differences you see in the so-called "Fifth Beginning" from the story we have been using as a narrative?
- Taking the description of a vision as offered by Zander & Zander in The Art of Possibility, (p. 169), how is the vision of the Fifth Beginning different?
- What are the barriers to understanding this vision?
- What are ways of overcoming the barriers?
Here are the characteristics of a vision as noted by Zander & Zander:
- A vision articulates a possibility
- A vision fulfills a desire fundamental to humankind, a desire with which any human being can resonate. It is an idea to which no one could logically respond, “What about me?”
- A vision makes no reference to morality or ethics, it is not about a right way of doing things. It cannot imply that anyone is wrong.
- A vision is stated as a picture for all time, using no numbers, measures, or comparatives. It contains no specifics of time, place, audience, or product
- A vision is free-standing – it points neither to rosier future, nor to a past in need of improvement. It gives over its bounty now. If the vision is “peace on earth,” peace comes with its utterance. When “the possibility of ideas making a difference” is spoken, at that moment ideas do make a difference.
- A vision is a long line of possibility radiating outward. It invites infinite expression, development, and proliferation within its definitional framework.
- Speaking a vision transforms the speaker. For that moment the “real world” becomes a universe of possibility and the barriers to the realization of the vision disappear.
- From inside the framework of a vision, the goals and objectives spring from an outlook of abundance. The goals are invented as games to play. The challenge is the joy.
- A vision is an invitation to a party with music, laughter, friendship, and satisfying refreshment.