Christianity was particularly important to the European renaissance. Why? How has Christianity impacted on the phenomenology/ontology that enables positive cultural evolution? Both the Left and the Right have different ways of prioritizing self-interest. But Christianity introduces another dimension that is alien to the secular Left or the atheist Right (and the vast majority of religions)... commitment to a higher purpose, regardless of the earthly benefits that may or may not accrue. Is there something in that, at least as a fundamental cultural principle?
Burkean conservatism and its attendant social practices has its place, but the "higher purpose" is absent. Clinical. Behaviorist. A utilitarian morality that maximizes happiness for the greatest number of people. Darwinism speaks the same language, and it looks like its shelf-life will be limited. Their fates are determined by the entropy of self-interest. Of the trillions of billions of planets that exist, at least a tiny proportion must surely contain advanced cultures that do not follow the history template that we are familiar with. Expect the unexpected. The only constant is semiotics... what are the possibilities bound within semiotic constraints? And this brings us back to this notion of commitment to a higher purpose. -----Original Message----- From: Clark Goble [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2018 9:18 PM To: Peirce-L Subject: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Democracy (was The real environmental problems... It’s worth noting that most evolutionary views of religion see much of it evolving intertwined with the evolution of government. To the point that it’s hard to separate the two. It’s true that particularly in evolutionary psychology religion has some key differences such as focus on the cognition of agency detection and so forth. Yet as a practical social organization the separation between government and religion is fairly recent. And arguably still incomplete (if it’s even possible to really separate the two) >From a Peircean view with its emphasis on common sense as heavily tested >practices in a somewhat narrow environment it’s worth considering how these >social practices would evolve. And perhaps offer some more Burkean like >conservative reasons for worrying about the widespread abandonment of many >tested social practices. > On Jun 19, 2018, at 7:53 AM, John F Sowa <[email protected]> wrote: > > On 6/19/2018 9:15 AM, Stephen Jarosek wrote: >> Groupthink is the problem... >> I believe that Christianity might provide some pointers. > > All the religions of the world began at the village level, usually as > a social group with a guru or medicine-man as the social-religious > leader who shares power with the military leader. > > Because of the sharing of power, the guru can only retain social power > by persuasion. That means an emphasis on normative values: > aesthetics by stories and ceremonies; ethics by morality and justice; > and truth by knowledge of history, medicine, and good counsel. > > But religion can be corrupted by wealth and political power. > It's important to keep the guru poor and honest. > > John > > ----------------------------- > PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on "Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON > PEIRCE-L to this message. PEIRCE-L posts should go to [email protected] > . To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message not to PEIRCE-L but to [email protected] > with the line "UNSubscribe PEIRCE-L" in the BODY of the message. More at > http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm . > > > >
----------------------------- PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on "Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON PEIRCE-L to this message. PEIRCE-L posts should go to [email protected] . To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message not to PEIRCE-L but to [email protected] with the line "UNSubscribe PEIRCE-L" in the BODY of the message. More at http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm .
