Human Consciousness and Its Evolution A Multidimensional View
Richard W. Coan
Published by Greenwood Press, 1987
This book focuses on psychic evolution and examines the roots and presuppositions of evolutionary theories. It explores the possible goals of human psychic development, the origins of human consciousness, and various conceptions of psychic development in the Occidental and Oriental world. In the final chapter, Coan presents a comprehensive multidemensional view of human psychic development. Coan maintains that the goal of human consciousness must be understood as the maximization of all our potentials for perceiving, understanding, and judging; that maximazation requires that we have ready access to all these potentials. It also means that we are able to choose the states of consiousness and modes of awareness that best meet our needs. Readers who follow the running debate on this fascinating issue will find this book a gold mine. Suitable for the professional and general reader alike. -Choice.
How has human consciousness evolved from its primitive origins, and what course will it take in the future? How should it develop in an individual from infancy and through childhood and the adult years? Such questions have been the focus of many writers and many religious and philosophical traditions, both Eastern and Western. Most writers and traditions conceive of psychic evolution in terms of one universal pattern, and the evolutionary goal considered by a given writer or tradition may be one of rationality, love, or transcendence of ones individual separateness. The author contends that we may conceptualize the goal of psychic evolution in terms of any of five different modes of fulfillment. We can recognize higher and lower levels of attainment in each of these modes. Whatever mode an individual emphasizes, it is easy to recognize a value in having access to other modes. In the authors view, we need to recognize alternative pathways of psychic evolution. The pathways will differ with respect to the modes that are emphasized and the nature of the interplay of different modes.
Binding: Hard cover
Book Condition: Good condition
Edition: 1987
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