The Odyssey of the Western Spirit

Jack Meyer

Description

How is it that the "West has won?"
The Odyssey is a general theory as to how mankind moved from the scarcity of primitive life to the present world of technological abundance.It offers a specific view of psychological life that recurs in the institutional structures of religion, capitalism, and romanticism. A similar theme emerges in the various configurations of the Western world starting with Odysseus on his way home to today’s world of global outreach, a story like no other.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Plato
• History
• Edmund Husserl

Informations

• Publié par: Trafford Publishing
• Date de parution: 05 septembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781490796321
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Odyssey of the Western Spirit
FROM SCARCITY TO ABUNDANCE
Third Edition
JACK MEYER

 
 
© Copyright 2019 Jack Meyer. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.
Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]
 
ISBN: 978-1-4907-9624-6 (sc) ISBN: 978-1-4907-9623-9 (hc) ISBN: 978-1-4907-9632-1 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019909988
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only. Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
Trafford rev. 09/03/2019
www.trafford.com North America & international toll-free: 1 888 232 4444 (USA & Canada) fax: [phone]
Table of Contents
Preface A World in Crisis
Inroduction Method and Intention
Part One Materiality and Mentality:
The General Condition of Human Reality
Chapter One Materiality and the Experience of Scarcity
Chapter Two Mentality and the Experience of Ideality
Chapter Three The Religious Experience
Part Two Constitution and Power
The Specific Conditions of Human Reality
Chapter Four Denial and Substitution and Power
Chapter Five The Individual and Capital
Chapter Six The Public and the Idea of Social Welfare
Part Three The In-Between
Transition and Opportunity
Chapter Seven The In-Between: A Description
Chapter Eight Abundance and Self-Responsibility
Chapter Nine A Change of Attitude: Examples
Conclusion Personal Choice
Epilogue A World at Peace
Bibliography
Preface
A World in Crisis
I n the natural human quest for understanding, the greatest difficulty concerns the beginning . Where is the place from which one can achieve the perspective to see clearly and distinctly? Recourse is possible to any number of theories, both historical and philosophical, but the hope is to step outside of such theories and to take a first look anew, perhaps even naively. From there it may be possible to push to a greater clarity with respect to the burgeoning problems of today. As our world seems to continue to descend into intractable conflicts and fundamental divisions, it becomes more and more evident that it is necessary to do better, to find ways to think this through with the hopes of a better resolution.
Looking towards a better understanding of this, it is necessary to take the broadest possible historical and philosophical perspective. It is necessary to begin anew and to re-think all of our history, the entire cultural tradition that makes up our world. How did we get here? The purpose is to think this through with respect to three questions. The first is necessarily philosophical, the second historical, and the third psychological and political. The general issue concerns the conditions for the possibility of fundamental social and political change, or the terms by which we could carry through a positive program of deep and difficult cultural transformation that will move us away from crisis and towards a greater consensus and cooperation. The issue is for us together, as a global community, to do better . So, as with any crisis, there are simultaneously conditions of danger and possibilities of opportunity. The one requires urgency and the other foresight in order to orchestrate an attempt to meet the immediate danger with the embrace of the long-term opportunity.
At the beginning stands the most important question of all. What is the general condition for the possibility of human existence? In other words, what is the essential reality that must be present for there to be human existence at all? What is the essential common denominator that is evident with every possible human being? Simply, what and who are we? While there is certainly an unjustified presumption as to any possible answer it is nonetheless perfectly appropriate to ask . The attempt then is to ask without presuming much of an answer, although one will clearly be offered. But none of this suggests anything of the mysterious rather, it is simply asking as to what a human being is as such. Whether one is alive today as an American, an Oriental, an African, or one has lived in Ancient Greece, Persia, or India, or whether one is to live in some possible future, it is all the same. What is the essential and common reality that is universally true for everyone, anywhere, anytime?
An obvious and immediate fact is that it is essential that one have a body. No one, ever, has existed as a human being without a physical body. Accordingly, the fact of being embodied places one within the domain of material nature. Any human being is a piece with material conditions which are determined by the physical laws of nature. This physical reality is of a profound importance and in coming to terms with these conditions, much of human history has been enacted. Another essential fact lies at the center of the possibility of human existence. As it is necessary to have a body, it is quite obviously equally necessary to have a mind. While being, on the one hand, an object of material conditions, so too, on the other, one is subject to the conditions of the mental. As materiality defines one limit, so too, mentality defines another. Between the two, between the real and the ideal, the material and the mental, the general condition for the possibility of human existence is established. Part One will work through the historical and philosophical details of this relationship and lay the foundation for the second question.
Given this twofold general condition of human existence, it is necessary to ask about specific conditions. What are the specific conditions for the possibility of human existence as that has developed in the history of the Western world? What are the particular details that distinguish the West from all other historical traditions? How is the West uniquely itself, in contrast, for example, to China or India? Of central importance will be the traditions of the Biblical Old Testament, Ancient Greece, and the New Testament. As these traditions were woven together there was established the cultural formations that came to determine the subsequent development of the West. This of course is the foundation of the modern scientific and technological culture that shapes most of the world today. It will be necessary to present this historical development in detail as it moves forward from the Old Testament, to the New Testament, to the Greeks, to the Romans, to Roman Catholicism, to the Lutheran Reformation, to the Modern Age of science and technology, to the capitalism of the New World, and, finally, to our world today. The critical task will be to show how the general condition of materiality and mentality has been specifically played out in the history of the West. Something unique occurs that will make all the difference. This concerns the nature of self-consciousness and the power of the person to think for himself. The circumstances of this thinking will provide the impetus for self-responsibility, and this in turn will transform the conditions of social and political life. A dichotomy will be established between traditional cultures, where the life of the individual was strictly determined in advance, and the culture of the West, where the possibility arose for the individual to find his way outside of a pre-determined tradition. He came to think for himself and to live his life accordingly. Of course there is never a complete freedom to step beyond the limits of tradition but a decisive exception was made that is essential for the cultural formation of the West. This too can be referred to as a “tradition” but now qualified by an exception. With this account of the history of the West, there will emerge general structures that will appear in various specific configurations. The experiences of religion, capitalism, modern science, nationalism, and romanticism will be shown to be various expressions of an underlying theme.
The final question brings us to the present crisis. In light of questions one and two, what could this mean for our world today? More specifically, on the occasion of the end of the Cold War, where do we go from here ? The world is now in the midst of the greatest transition in all of history. How is this to be understood? What role are we to play as active and concerned participants? In a way it is a struggle between the negative and the positive, between the ideologies of the past that no longer apply, and the possibilities of the future, that requires untried methods and unproven initiative. This will concern the “political” as the place where power and policy meet on behalf of the possible well-being of the world.
This then is the task of The Odyssey of the Western Spirit , to ask three questions that span the historical horizon from the general to the specific, from the philosophical and historical to the political. But the question of method immediately arises and, before advancing to the central task, it is necessary to address this preliminary concern.
In the most general way the method could be defined as a matter of description , but in a speci