and paleontologist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, famously made the evolution of the cosmos the central theme of his posthumous book The Phenomenon of Man (1955). Here he embraced cosmic evolution, and argued for a teleological evolution in w…Following in the tradition of Shapley’s Of Stars and Men (1958), a variety of popular books are also bringing cosmic evolution to a broader audience including Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution (also a…24. Smocovitis, Unifying Biology, pp. 142–153: 148. Connie Barlow’s book of readings, Evolution Extended: Biological Debates on the Meaning of Life (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995), clearly shows these wider evolutionary themes.
Cosmos and…
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
theologian · 4 mentions across 2 readings
In this course
Teilhard de Chardin was a Jesuit paleontologist and theologian who theorized cosmic evolution toward a unified collective consciousness, establishing a teleological framework that positioned humanity's future in technologically-mediated synthesis. His vision of convergence and interconnection appears in the readings as a precursor to contemporary systems thinking and cybernetic models of global consciousness, particularly influencing French thinkers like Morin who adapted his evolutionary vision for discussions of emergence and complexity. His work haunts the intersection of spirituality and futurism that runs through posthuman theory, offering both inspiration and intellectual friction for debates about AI and unified systems.
Mentioned in 2 readings
Appears alongside
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Brian Swimme 2Thomas Berry 2Ursula Goodenough 2Arthur Peacocke 1Bernard Carr 1Frank Tipler 1Hans Blumenthal 1John Barrow 1Julian Huxley 1Paul Davies 1Steven J. Dick 1Thomas Samuel Kuhn 1Ursula King 1Pierre Lecomte du Noüy 1Reinhold Niebuhr 1Edgar Morin 1Henri Atlan 1Henri Laborit 1Jacques Attali 1Joël de Rosnay 1René Passet 1