Debriefing the Gurdjieff work
Falk has a new work in progress, and blog to go with it: http://spiritonthebrain.com/blog/
I click on the link and what do I find: comments on Wade’s useless book on the evolution of religion:
The Faith Instinct
I hope we won’t be treated to a history of religion from the Darwinian perspective.
The unnatural selection of consciousness
Written by: Raymond Tallis | Appears in: Issue 46
Posted by: TPM ⋅ July 23, 2009 ⋅ Email This Post ⋅ Post a comment
Filed Under science
Ray Tallis argues that there is no evolutionary explanation of consciousness
We have grown accustomed – perhaps too accustomed – to the idea that every characteristic of living creatures has been generated by the operation of natural selection on spontaneous variation; that it is there because it has, or at the very least once had, survival value or was a consequence of other things that had a survival value. Consciousness, even human consciousness, we are told, is no exception to this rule. Read the rest of this entry »
Comment on Selection from Book on Social Darwinism
Andrew said,
20.05.09 at 4:51 am ·
Ouspensky was actually an anti-Darwinist, but his arguments are very cranky and ill-thought out. Gurdjieff parodied Darwinism in Beelzebub’s Tales, saying that periodically people got together to work out whether monkeys were descended from mankind or vice-versa.So I don’t think either of them can be counted as Darwinists in any sort of way.
Thanks for the comment. My post was misleading perhaps, to many. I had thought that everyone was aware of Ouspensky’s anti-Darwinism (and I hadn’t recalled Gurdjieff’s comments on the subject)
My point was that the influence of Social Darwinism on such people was indirect, and connected with their own false views of evolution with the influence of Nietzsche in the background.
All in all, it is misleading to charge them with Social Darwinism if they were not Darwinists, which they weren’t .
But Darwinism seems to have somehow spoiled the tone of much guruism, as they gurus began to compete with each other and fight to destroy each other behind the scenes (but then again that was true long before Darwin).
Another critic of Darwin is J.G. Bennett.