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Phenomenon of Man by Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

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Phenomenon of Man by Pierre Teilhard De Chardin About the Author PIERRETEILHARD DE CHARDIN (1881-1955) was born in France and ordained a Jesuit priest in 191 1. Trained as a paleontologist, Teilhard did research at Muste National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris and fieldwork in China, where in 1929 he codiscovered the celebrated "Peking Man" fossils. In his writings, he sought to reconcile his spiritual and scientific beliefs, producing a vision of man as evolving toward the divine. His unorthodox theological positions were at odds with Catholic doctrine and led to a strained relationship with Jesuit leaders, who forbade him from publishing his writings. The Phenomenon of Man became a bestseller when it was posthumously published in France in 1955. SIRJULIAN HUXLEY(1887-1975) was one of the twentieth century's leading evolutionary biologists. Among his numerous distinctions, Huxlcy was the first director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and cofounder of the World Wildlife Fund. Pierre Teilhard De Chardin , THE PHENOMENON OF MAN ' , . I WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY SIR JULIAN HUXLEY Contents INTRODUCTION BY SIR JULIAN HUXLEY FORBWORD: Seeing BOOK ONE: BEFORE LIFE CAME mapran I. 7%~Stu~ojthc Univmc I. ELEMENTAL MATTER A. Plurality B. Unity c. Energy a. TOTAL MATTER A. The System a. The Totum c. The Quantum 3. THE BVOLUTION OF MATTER A. The Appearance B. The Numerical kws cmrran 11. Tlu Within 4Thinp I. EXISTBNCB 2. THE QUALITATIVE LAWS OF GIOWTH A. Finr ObKNaaon a. Second Observation c. Third Observation 3. SPIRITUAL BNBRCY A. The Problem of the Two Energies a A Line of Solution CONTBNTS CONTBNTS CHAPTBR 111. CHAPTEI Ill. Tht hrfhin it3 &/J' Stage3 Dmta I. ARIADNE'S THREAD I. THE WITHOUT 2. THE RISE OF CONSCIOUSNESS A. The Crystallisiig World s. The Polymerking World 3. THE APPROACH OF TIME 2. THE WITHIN BOOK THREE: THOUGHT CHAPTER I. Tkc Birth of Thought BOOK TWO: LIFE I. THE THRESHOLD OP REPLBCTION A. The Threshold of the Element: the Hominisa- CHAPTER I. TIlC Advw ojL+ n tion of the Individual I. THE TRANSIT TO LlPE 79 B. TkThreshold of the Phylum: the Hominisa- A. Micro-orgdmr and Mega-molecules 81 tion of the Speties a. A Forgotten Era 83 c. The Threshold of the Terrestrial Planet: c. The Glluhr Revoluaon 86 The Noosphere 2. THE INITIAL MANIFESTATIONS OF LIPE 2. THE ORIGINAL FORMS A. The Milim CHAPTER 11. Tkc Deployment ofthc Noosphere s. Snullneu and Number c. The Origin of Number I. THE RAMIFYING PHASE OF THE PIE-HOMINIDS 2. THE GROUP OF THE NBANDERTHALOIDS D. Inter-relauonship and Shape 3. THE Homo Sqim COMPLEX 3. TBI SEASON OF LIFE I. THE NEOLITHIC METAMORPHOSIS CHAPTEE 11. Tlv Erponrim, 4L9 5. THE PROLONGATIONS OF THE NEOLITHIC I. THE ELEMENTAL MOVEMBNTS OF LIPE AGB AND THE RISE OF THE WEST A. Reproduction CRAPTER 111. The A.fodmEmtk n. Multiplication I. THE DISCOVERY OP EVOLUTION c. Renovadon A. The Perception of Space-time D. (=onjugaim B. The Envelopment in Duration e hociation c. The Illumination P. Controlled Additnity 2. THE PROBLEM OF ACTION A COIOLLAIY: TRI WAYS 01 Llll A. Modcrn Disquiet 2. THE EAYIF1CAtIONS OP THE LIVING MASS a. The Requirements of the Future The and A. Aggregates of Growth c. Dilemma the Choice 8. -rhc nounrhrag of )ulturicy BOOK FOUR: SURVIVAL c. W' of Di cxzrpran I. TkcCol/ectivcIrcue 3. THE TREE OF Lf?B nTheMLinLk3 I. THE CONFLUENCE OF THOUGHT A. Forced Coalcsumce B. The Dhosionr 8. Mega-Spth& c The Evidcna CONTENTS 2. THB SPIRIT OP THE EARTH A. Mankind a. Sam c. Unanimity CHAPTER 11. Beyond the Colkctivc: the Hyper-Personal TRANSLATOR'S NOTE I. THE CONVERGENCE OP THE PERSON AND Perhaps a word ma be permitted about some of the lesser pro- THE OMEGA POINT blems involved in Xe translation of this book. A. The Personal Universe The author's style is all his own. In some instances he coins n. The Persodking Universe words to express his thought-' ho-tion', for instance, or ' noos here '--and in others he adapts words to his own ends, as 2. LOVE AS ENERGY whenR trlLt of the ' within ' and the without of things. fi 3. THE ATTRIBUTES OP THE OMEGA POINT meaning, however, should become a parent as his thought un- folds, and I have dispensed with cum 1rous efforts at defining his CHApran 111. Tkc Ultima~cEmrh terms. I. PROGNOSTICS TO BE SET ASIDE As fir as possible I have dispensed with italics for his nco- logisms-they are repeated too ofttn to stand italicisation in a 2. THE APPROACRBS work alread thickly sprinkled with italics for emphasis. I have A. The O~tionof Research also, in odence to the conventions of typography in England, B. The Dkcovcry of the Humvl Object ebtedthe author's initial capitals for all abstract nouns such c. The Conjunction of Sacnce and Religion as 'science '. ' life '. ' thought ', and also for ' world ', ' universe ', ' man ' and other such key-words of his work. There were dis- 3. maurrlMAra advantages in this decision, but at least the printed page lookc more normal to the ~shruder. eplrocua: Thc Chririim, Phmomrnon A number of peopleY ve contributed to the tramlation, some I. AXES OP BBLIBf by subtanad paper work, others by s*~ggestions; and the out- 2. EXISTENCE-VALUE corn is in a sense a joint effort. Outstanding among partici- pants ue Mr. Geoffrey Sainsbury, Dr. A. Tindell Hopwood, 3. POWER OP GROWTH Profeuor D. M. h4acKinnon and Mr. Noel Lindsay. At times versions or sug ations have been conAiaing and I have had to PosTscnrPT: Th~Eucncco/thcPhcnommonojMm take it on myseB f to make an editorial decision. The translators' I. A WORLD IN INVOLUTION notes appear in square brackets. I should like to thank my wift, 2. THE FIRST APPEARANCE OP MAN without whom it would have bocn im ossible to produce this version. Finally, I must cake on myse f responsibility for the 3. THE SOCIAL PHENOMENON inadcquaaes that still persist. I' BERNARD WALL AppexDIx: Sonc Rcmmh a rk Plvr omd Part cfEvil in a World in Evolution Introduction bv Sir lulian Huxlev The Phenomenon of Man is a very remarkable work by a very remarkable human being. Ptre Teilhard dt Chardin was at the same time a Jesuit Father and a distinguished palaeontologist. In The Phenomenon of Man he has effected a threefold synthesis-of the material and physical world with the world of mind and spirit ; of the past with the future ; and of variety with unity, the many with the one. He achieves this by examining every fact and every subject of his investigation sub specie evolutionis, with reference to its development in time and to its evolutionary position. Conversely, he is able to envisage the whole of know- able reality not as a static mechanism but as a proctss. In cotuc- quence, he is driven to search for human sigtllficance in relation to the trends of that enduring and comprehensive process ; the measure of his stature is that he so largely succeeded in the search. I would like to introduce Tk Phommon of Man to English readers by attempting a summary of its general thesis, and of what appear to me to be its more important conclusions. I make no excuse for this personal approach. As I discovered when I hnt met Pere Teilhard in Paris in 1946, he and I were on thc same quest, and had been pursuing parallel roads ever since we were young men in our twenties. Thus, to mention a few signposts which I independently found along my road, already in 1913 1had envisaged human evolution and biological evolution as two phases of a single process, but separated by a ' critical point ', after which the properties of the evolving material underwent radical change. This thesis I dcveloped years later in my Uniqueness of Man, adding that man's evolution was unique in showing the dominance of convergence over divergence : in I1 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION the same volume I published an essay on Scientific Humanism (a The different branches of science combhe to demonstrate that close approximation to P2re Teilhard's Neo-Humanism), in which the universe in its entirety must be regarded as one gigantic pro- I independently anticipated the title of Phre Teilhard's great book cess, a process of becoming, of attaining new levels of existence by describing humanity as a phenomenon, to be studied and and organisation, which can properly be called a genesis or an analysed by scientific methods. Soon afier the first World War, evolution. For this reason, he uses words like noogenesis, to mean in Essays of a Biologist, I made my fint attempt at defming and the gradual evolution of mind or mental properties, and repeatedly evaluating evolutionary progress. stresses that we should no longer speak of a cosmology but of a In my Romanes Lecture on Evobtionary Ethics, I made an cosmogenesis. Similarly, he likes to use a pregnant term like attempt (which I now set was inadequate, but was at least a hominisation to denote the process by which the original proto- step in the right direction) to relate the development of moral human stock became (and is still becoming) more truly human, codes and religions to the general trends of evolution ; in 1942, the process by which potential man rcalised more and more of his in my Evolution, rkc Modern Synthesis, I estayed the fmt compre- possibilities. Indeed, he extends this evolutionary terminology by hensive post-Mcndelian analysis of biological evolution as a enlploying terms like ultra-horninisation to denote the deducible process : and just before meeting P8re Teilhard had written a future stage of the process in which man will have so fir tran- pamphlet entitled Uncsco : its Purpose and Philosophy, where I scended himself as to demand some new appellation.
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