Tag Archives: Philosophy

An interview with Ilya Prigogine

Considered one of the founders of complexity science, Ilya Prigogine was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1977 for his work on the thermodynamics of non-equilibrium systems. His seminal book, ‘Order Out of Chaos: Man’s New Dialogue with Nature’ (written with Isabelle Stengers) shows how the two great themes of classic science, order and chaos, which coexisted uneasily for centuries, are being reconciled in a new and unexpected synthesis. This interview, with Yiannis Zisis, was recorded in 2000.

The Chaotic Universe

In 1990, artists, scientists, spiritual leaders and economists gathered in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam to explore the emerging paradigm of a holistic world view and the implications for a global economy in a seminal conference called ‘Art Meets Science and Spirituality in a Changing Economy’. ‘The Chaotic Universe’ is the second film in the series of recordings of the event. In this fascinating tape, composer/artist John Cage, thermodynamic physicist Ilya Prigogine, and philosopher/comparative religion teacher Huston Smith are interviewed.

Evolution as a Spiritual Journey

“Most people think of evolution in physical Darwinian terms, from the perspective of the evolution of species. My purpose in this paper is to show evolution in a different light, from the perspective of the evolution of human consciousness.” – Richard Barrett is an author, speaker and internationally recognised thought leader on the evolution of human values in business and society

The Light of Consciousness

Blending physics, psychology, and philosophy, internationally renowned writer, Peter Russell, leads us to a new worldview in which consciousness is a fundamental quality of creation. He is fascinated by how light is a recurrent theme in meditation, religion, philosophy and modern physics, and asks ‘Does physical reality and the reality of the mind share common ground in light?’

Illuminating Light

Sidney Perkowitz explores how our knowledge of light’s intangible nature has evolved into deeper understanding – deeper, but incomplete, for light still holds mysteries. Yet we know it well enough to predict its behavior and manipulate it with exquisite finesse for scientific research, technological application, and aesthetic use.

In and Out of This World

Throughout the ages people have felt that the material world is not all there is. Mystical visions, answers to prayer or an awareness of a power or comforting presence beyond the self have given intimations of a greater reality beyond the everyday. Might this awareness also suggest some kind of survival of death as End of Life Experiences, Near-Death Experiences and Post Death Communication seem to indicate?

Marianne Rankin looks at a range of spiritual experiences and considers the effects on people’s lives and what they might indicate about the nature of consciousness and Ultimate Reality.
Many experiences cited are taken from the archive of the Religious Experience Research Centre, now at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David in Lampeter, the collection initiated by Sir Alister Hardy in Oxford when he retired as Linacre Professor of Zoology in 1969. Much has happened since.

on ‘The Dialectics of Outside and Inside’ and ‘Intimate Immensity’

“Poets help us discover within ourselves such joy in looking that sometimes, in the presence of a perfectly familiar object, we experience an extension of our intimate space”. According to the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard, inside and outside form a dialectics of division. Yet, despite their mutual resistance, Bachelard argues that both inside and outside depend upon one another for the sake of preserving their identities and that aesthetic experiences and “escapades of imagination” prompts a revision of the boundaries of inside and outside.

From Cognitive Science to A Science of Consciousness

In this essay I intend to demonstrate how cognitive science, which stands at the crossroads of the natural sciences and the human sciences, has adopted an “objectivist” perspective on cognition that unnecessarily limits our understanding of the human mind; and I shall conclude with a prolegomenon to understanding the nature of consciousness and its causal efficacy.