jon:
I've a feeling that the definition of animism you gave has a lot in common
with Anaxagorus' "Nous" - a sort of 'life-force' that is to be found in
everything, but more in us than in plants, more in plants than in rocks, and
so on. It was supposed to be a sort of organising principle, which allowed
simple forms to group into complex ones. It seems to surface in Hegel's
'universe trying to understand itself'. In fact, I wish I understood more of
Hegel - not just his dialectic, but his overall thinking.
As for the phase we're going through, - we've been through worse, though
admittedly we're still paying for it - competitiveness, aggression,
territoriality, etc., but by having an eye on the notion of evolution of
ideas, we can keep things in perspective and not believe that it's the end
of the world if nobody actually seems to know the truth and that all our
notions of truth are entirely muddle-headed. As you say, as long as we get
through it!
cheers
Peter Lennox
Hardwick House
tel: (0114) 2661509
e-mail: peter@lennox01.freeserve.co.uk
or:- ppl100@york.ac.uk
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