Unitary Thought as the Next Development of Mankind

* Book: Lancelot Law Whyte. The Next Development of Mankind. (2002) ISBN 978-0765801623

URL =

Discussion

Michel Bauwens, 2003:

The motivation for reading this book came from the website Philosphere, which specializes in epistemic shifts. Whyte's key theme is the necessity of strengthening the shift from dualisms to the 'unitary mode of thought'. Thus, it seems to be a form of integral thought.

Chapter 1

Change is universal. This change is not chaotic and has continuity, it is a process. 'Form' is the recognizable continuity of any process. Unitary means one general form, dualistic means the co-existence of incompatible forms. Thus, "unitary throught is the continuing activity of recognizing one universal form within the diversity of particular processes."

As Man originally sought permanence, he saw a subject facing objects: conscious purpose vs material necessity. Thinkers were drawn either to overemphasize subjectivation, and see purpose in nature, or the opposite: essentialist diversity in nature. Process consists of the development of form through the decrease of asymmetry. The appearance of the contrary, i.e. decay, arises from isolating a sub-process from the whole. The first chapter concludes with the appearance of dualism in European culture and says the book is the history of its emergence, its development, and the first steps to its dissolution.

Chapter 2

The normal condition for humanity is organic integration, disintegration can only be temporary. Total symmetry and stability is characteristic of the inorganic only; life is always unstable and in development.

Therefore,

   - "The ideal of perfection is an impostor; to claim it is to deny further growth. Man's yearning for the Absolute is false. Human personality cannot in general be integrated through the ideal of static perfection."

The European dissociation started in 500 BC, as a dualism between the

   - 1) system of immediate behavior, i.e. the instincts, and
   - 2) the system of delayed response based on the cortex, "reason".

They are in conflict, with neither able to permanently dominate the other. Genius is an exagerration of the dissociation, which explores particular limits to the full.

The individual cannot cure himself from a distortion that is social in origin: only others can (and because the distortion is overwhelmingly male, woman is the solution!).

Whyte then turns his attention to the general history of mankind, distinguishing a first period dominated by instinctive behavior; then a second, where this dominance is maintained, but supplemented by social differentiation and thought (the ancient civilisations). It is only in the third period that rational self-consciousness arises,: man starts to think about himself. This period lasts from 1600 BC to 1600 AD.

Three great developments occur in the period spanning 3000 to 400 BC: