Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Here, I want to reengage several of the ideas introduced earlier as a
way of thinking about a basis for this great leap forward to suggest an
alternative reading of the interpretations of Dawkins and Wilson.
In their discussion of evolution, Eaves and Gross focus on a view of
matter, evolution, and genetics that seeks to do justice to the reality of
human consciousness. Their focus looks to suggestions within the mech-
anisms of inheritance that indicate a capacity within historical nature for
self-transcendence. They then argue that such mechanisms are the basis
for surprise and graciousness within nature, suggesting that grace is
found within life itself.
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This type of position is also articulated by Rahner, who echoes a
much earlier tradition expressed in the writings of Bonaventure. In his
second topic of the
Sentences
, Bonaventure phrases the insight this
way: “Thus nature, according to the Philosopher, always desires what is
better; matter, which is composed of elementary forms, desires to be
under mixed forms and that which is under mixed forms desires to be
under complex forms.”
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While this language is clearly dualistic, it
also takes seriously the reality of matter and expresses, in the lan-
guage of medieval philosophy, a dynamic that is present within
matter, a dynamic that carries matter beyond itself to a point of tran-
scendence. Matter is not content to be itself but strives for ever-greater
complexity.
Further, Eaves and Gross note, as mentioned earlier, that culture pro-
duces conditions for community that are not possible in aggregates, and
that the very same conditions of life that produce tragedy also maintain
life itself. One example of such conditions could be the previously dis-
cussed great leap forward in culture. But importantly, this was followed
by the great axial age that lasted from about 800 to 400 B.C.E. This was
the age that saw the rise of the great religions of the East, particularly
Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. The West saw the rise of
Zoroastrianism and Judaism. In Latin America, we had the religions of
the Aztec and Mayan civilizations. Additionally, in Greece, the first philo-
sophical speculations were being advanced. Although the axial age lasted
but a few centuries, much was compressed into it—the foundations of
classical religions and philosophy. And as in the great leap forward of
culture that preceded it, the question is why. Homo sapiens had been
present for several centuries, and civilizations had begun to flourish. But
here was a new development—a focus on the transcendent, the other, the
