10.10.08
Reviewing WHEE 2: a world macro system
The first in a series of two posts, Reviewing World History And The Eonic Effect
The first post emphasized the issue of the dynamics of the eonic effect. This resulted in a frequency hypothesis, which is then set aside, as we zoom in on the actual structure that we find, called the ‘eonic effect’. We don’t need to solve the question of its dynamics to assess its significance. In the same way we can see how a mechanism functions, ‘what it does’, without knowledge of its hidden details. The study of the eonic effect can change gears thus, to look at issues of mechanism, and/or questions of historical content. The way to do this is to create, not another ‘theory’, but a model using periodization to track the operation of an immense evolutionary dynamic embedded in history. This model is a mirror of the elegant way the eonic effect shows the operation of historical evolution on two levels, which we call ‘macro’ and ‘micro’. Consider the Axial Age, embedded in the eonic effect. The ‘macro’ is the ’system action’ on a set of cultures, the ‘micro’ the free action response to the system action. This action operates directly on human self-consciousness.
Introduction The book begins with the question of history and evolution, and the paradox in the question, When did evolution stop and history begin. cf. online selection: http://eonic-effect.net/TOC/intro1_1_1.htm
From there we examine the legacy of Darwinism, and the basic problem, that of natural selection. We study the limits of standard theories in the Oedipus Paradox, and the problem of the limits of observaton.
We then announce our basic strategy: to demonstrate a non-random pattern in world history, something that is not supposed to exist.
Before proceeding we look at the ‘metaphysics of evolution’ in terms of Kant’s critique of metaphysics.
Chapter Two We embark on a description of the eonic effect as a sequence of three transitions, and then begin to construct a simple periodization model around the data. We note in passing our sudden suspicion that the Great Explosion is going to show something like the ‘eonic effect’, had we the data.
Chapter Three In this chapter we formulate an hypothesis of frequency, and then set it aside, waiting on further research, a falsifiable hypothesis we should note. We recast the eonic effect as an ‘eonic sequence’ of transitions, and then note the so-called discrete freedom sequence inside it, a spectacular mystery.
Chapter Four We proceed to resolve, in spectacular fashion the question of theory, as this must involve the antinomy of causality and freedom, and then show how this mirrors almost exactly the Kantian so-called Third Antinomy. The result is a model that can in a most elegant fashion handle causality and freedom, these two now transposed into ’system or eonic determination’ and ‘relative free action’ in a dynamism of system and individuals.
Chapter Five And Six We then produce a long outline of history from the Neolithic to tthe modern transition, concluding with the so-called Great Divide at the end of the modern transition, as the modern transition cascades in a climax of effects, concluding in the early nineteenth century.
To periodize world history with a continuous-discrete model is disconcerting, but it gives expression to the reality we uncover of a hidden driver behind historical development. It is difficult at first to credit this, but a slow and meticulous study using the model shows a set of correlations too massive to be due to chance.
Another advantage to the model is the way it harmonizes the duality of evolution and history and shows a way to use the two concepts together on different levels. The result prevents the hopeless confusion created by the mis-application of Darwinism to cultural subjects.
This is but a few of the topics covered by the book, which creates a vast panoply of concepts that can transform our study of history. The eonic model is designed to leave the data alone, and makes an excellent way to study history in detail, armed with a sense of coherence as to the whole.
In the process we discover that almost all our evolutionary concepts so far are false or misleading when applied to human culture, and proceed to construct an new approach to its study.