Holism

Doornkloof – the humble home of Jan Smuts, father of holism Smuts was twice Prime Minister of the then Union of South Africa, the second time during the trying years of World War II, when he was simultaneously contributing to the war effort of the allies and fending off those in South Africa who were against the war effort and wanting to support Hitler against the “English”. Born on a farm in Malmesbury in the then Cape Colony on 24 May 1870, he only started going to school at the age of 12 when his older brother died. His formidable intellect and self-discipline ensured that he caught up to his fellows within four years and went on to University at the age of 16. He graduated with double firsts in literature and science, gaining him access to a scholarship which enabled him to go to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he read law and wrote a book on Walt Whitman called Walt Whitman: A Study in the Evolution of Personality which was, for various reasons, not published until 1973.

Spiritual ecology - Wikipedia Introduction[edit] Contributors in the field of Spiritual Ecology contend there are spiritual elements at the root of environmental issues. Those working in the arena of Spiritual Ecology further suggest that there is a critical need to recognize and address the spiritual dynamics at the root of environmental degradation.[citation needed] The field is largely emerging through three individual streams of formal study and activity: science and academia, religion and spirituality, and ecological sustainability.[1] Despite the disparate arenas of study and practice, the principles of spiritual ecology are simple: In order to resolve such environmental issues as depletion of species, global warming, and over-consumption, humanity must examine and reassess our underlying attitudes and beliefs about the earth, and our spiritual responsibilities toward the planet.[2] U.S. History[edit] During the modern age, reason became valued over faith, tradition, and revelation. Indigenous wisdom[edit]

Hylozoism - Wikipedia Philosophical doctrine which holds that all matter is alive Hylozoism is the philosophical doctrine according to which all matter is alive or animated,[1] either in itself or as participating in the action of a superior principle, usually the world-soul (anima mundi).[2] The theory holds that matter is unified with life or spiritual activity.[3] The word is a 17th-century term formed from the Greek words ὕλη (hyle: "wood, matter") and ζωή (zoē: "life"), which was coined by the English Platonist philosopher Ralph Cudworth in 1678. Hylozoism in Ancient Greek Philosophy[edit] Hylozoism in Western philosophy can be traced back to ancient Greece. Though hylozoism was common in ancient Greek thought, the term had not been coined yet. Renaissance period and early modernity[edit] During the Renaissance period in Western Europe, humanist scholars and philosophers such as Bernardino Telesio, Paracelsus, Cardanus, and Giordano Bruno revived the doctrine of hylozoism. Contemporary hylozoism[edit]

Stigmergy Kind people have stigmergically translated this article into German, French, and Spanish. This article is part of a series now incorporated into : ‘Binding Chaos’. Stigmergy is a mechanism of indirect coordination between agents or actions. The principle is that the trace left in the environment by an action stimulates the performance of a next action, by the same or a different agent. In that way, subsequent actions tend to reinforce and build on each other, leading to the spontaneous emergence of coherent, apparently systematic activity. A personality based system can never allow for mass collaboration on a global scale without representation such as that seen in organizations like the United Nations. Currently, the typical response to a situation which requires an action is to create a noun, in the form of a committee, commission, organization, corporation, ngo, government body, etc. Most systems are now run by competitive organizations. Hierarchical System Consensus Hierarchy Stigmergy

Hylomorphism - Wikipedia Hylomorphism (or hylemorphism) is a philosophical theory developed by Aristotle, which conceives being (ousia) as a compound of matter and form. The word is a 19th-century term formed from the Greek words ὕλη hyle, "wood, matter", and μορφή, morphē, "form". Matter and form[edit] Aristotle defines X's matter as "that out of which" X is made.[1] For example, letters are the matter of syllables.[2] Thus, "matter" is a relative term:[3] an object counts as matter relative to something else. For example, clay is matter relative to a brick because a brick is made of clay, whereas bricks are matter relative to a brick house. Change is analyzed as a material transformation: matter is what undergoes a change of form.[4] For example, consider a lump of bronze that's shaped into a statue. According to Aristotle's theory of perception, we perceive an object by receiving its form with our sense organs.[7] Thus, forms include complex qualia such as colors, textures, and flavors, not just shapes.[8]

Margaret Fuller - Wikipedia Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli (May 23, 1810 – July 19, 1850), commonly known as Margaret Fuller, was an American journalist, editor, critic, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement. She was the first full-time American female book reviewer in journalism. Her book Woman in the Nineteenth Century is considered the first major feminist work in the United States. Born Sarah Margaret Fuller in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she was given a substantial early education by her father, Timothy Fuller, who died in 1835 due to cholera[1]. Fuller was an advocate of women's rights and, in particular, women's education and the right to employment. Biography[edit] Early life and family[edit] Birthplace and childhood home of Margaret Fuller Sarah Margaret Fuller was born on May 23, 1810,[6] in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, the first child of Congressman Timothy Fuller and Margaret Crane Fuller. Early career[edit] Fuller was an avid reader. The Dial[edit] Death[edit]

Ram Dass - Wikipedia Youth and education[edit] Richard Alpert was born to a Jewish family in Newton, Massachusetts. His father, George Alpert, was a lawyer in Boston. While Alpert did have a bar mitzvah, he was "disappointed by its essential hollowness".[3] He considered himself an atheist[4] and did not profess any religion during his early life, describing himself as "inured to religion. I didn’t have one whiff of God until I took psychedelics Harvard professorship and research[edit] McClelland moved to Cambridge to teach at Harvard University, and helped Alpert accept a tenure-track position there in 1958 as an assistant clinical psychology professor.[5][7][8] Alpert worked with the Social Relations Department, the Psychology Department, the Graduate School of Education, and the Health Service, where he was a therapist. Millbrook and psychedelic counterculture (1963–1967)[edit] In 1967 Alpert gave talks at the League for Spiritual Discovery's center in Greenwich Village.[19] Be Here Now[edit] Later life[edit]

Marilyn Ferguson - Wikipedia Marilyn Ferguson (April 5, 1938, in Grand Junction, Colorado – October 19, 2008) was an American author, editor and public speaker known for her 1980 book The Aquarian Conspiracy which is connected with the New Age Movement. A founding member of the Association of Humanistic Psychology,[citation needed] Ferguson published and edited the well-regarded science newsletter Brain/Mind Bulletin from 1975 to 1996. She eventually earned numerous honorary degrees, served on the board of directors of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and befriended such diverse figures of influence as inventor and theorist Buckminster Fuller, spiritual author Ram Dass, Nobel Prize-winning chemist Ilya Prigogine[citation needed] and billionaire Ted Turner. Ferguson's work also influenced Vice President Al Gore, who participated in her informal network while a senator and later met with her in the White House. Youth and early writing career[edit] The Brain Revolution and Brain/Mind Bulletin[edit] Aquarius Now[edit]

Albertus Magnus - Wikipedia Albertus Magnus,[3] O.P. (c. 1200 – November 15, 1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great and Albert of Cologne, was a German Catholic Dominican friar and bishop. Later canonised as a Catholic saint, he was known during his lifetime as Doctor universalis and Doctor expertus and, late in his life, the sobriquet Magnus was appended to his name.[4] Scholars such as James A. Weisheipl and Joachim R. Söder have referred to him as the greatest German philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages.[5] The Catholic Church distinguishes him as one of the 36 Doctors of the Church. Biography[edit] It seems likely that Albert was born sometime before 1200, given well-attested evidence that he was aged over 80 on his death in 1280. Albert was probably educated principally at the University of Padua, where he received instruction in Aristotle's writings. Albert was the first to comment on virtually all of the writings of Aristotle, thus making them accessible to wider academic debate. Writings[edit]

Meditationes sacrae God beheld all things which his hands had made, and lo they were all passing good. But when man turned him about, and took a view of the works which his hands had made, he found all to be vanity and vexation of spirit: wherefore, if thou shalt work in the works of God, thy sweat shall be as an ointment of odours, and thy rest as the sabbath of God: thou shalt travail in the sweat of a good conscience, and shalt keep holy day in the quietness and liberty of the sweetest contemplations; but if thou shalt aspire after the glorious acts of men, thy working shall be accompanied with compunction and strife, and thy remembrance followed with distaste and upbraidings; and justly doth it come to pass towards thee, O man, that since thou, which art God's work, doest him no reason in yielding him well-pleasing service, even thine own works also should reward thee with the like fruit of bitterness. "He hath done all things well." A true confession and applause. The detestation or renouncing of Job.

Baconian method - Wikipedia The Baconian method, commonly known as the scientific method, is the investigative method developed by Sir Francis Bacon. The method was put forward in Bacon's book Novum Organum (1620), or 'New Method', and was supposed to replace the methods put forward in Aristotle's Organon. This method was influential upon the development of the scientific method in modern science; but also more generally in the early modern rejection of medieval Aristotelianism. Description in the Novum Organum[edit] Bacon's view of induction[edit] Bacon's method is an example of the application of inductive reasoning. He argues in the Novum Organum that our only hope for building true knowledge is through this careful method. While he advocated a very empirical, observational, reasoned method that did away with metaphysical conjecture, Bacon was a religious man, believed in God, and believed his work had a religious role. Role of the English Reformation[edit] Approach to causality[edit] Refinements[edit] Notes[edit]