6.2. The law of complexity and consciousness
The great factor in the evolutionary phenomenon as expounded
by Teilhard de Chardin is the "great law of complexity and consciousness'. It
is a law implying a structure, a converging psychic curvature of the world upon
itself. This is called the metaphysics of union and fits well into the
evolutionary conception of the cosmos. Evolution takes place along the axis of
complexification - we pass from the relatively simple to the complex. Thus we
pass on to atoms from atomic particles, from atoms to molecule and successively
to molecular compounds, carbon compounds, viruses, cells living organism,
plants, animals and finally man; briefly pre-life, life and thought.
Teilhard de Chardin asserts that all energy is of a psychic
nature. But this fundamental energy is divided into two distinct components: a
tangential energy, which brings together all the elements of the world in
ever-increasing complexities, and a radical energy which draws it in the
direction of a state even more complex and even more directed towards the
future.
6.2.1. Matter and psychism
According to Teilhard de Chardin, matter and psychism were
co-created. Just as man' s body goes back to some primordial matter, which has
gradually evolved, so does his psychism or soul. The whole matter is permeated
by the spirit, although this is not evident at all levels. The whole man, body
and soul, thus emerged form matter. Just as matter evolves from the very
beginning into a body that becomes more and more human, so psychism from the
very beginning evolves into psychism that becomes more and more human. To put
it in Teilhard de Chardin's own words:
We must accept what science tells us that man was born
from the earth. But more logical than scientists when they lecture to us, we
must carry the lesson to its conclusion; that is to say, accept that man was
born entirely from the world, not only his flesh and bones, but also his
incredible power of thought.i
The most revolutionary and fruitful aspect of Teilhardian
metaphysics is the relationship it has brought to light between matter and
spirit; spirit is no longer independent of matter and vice versa. It follows
from this that spirit and matter are two facets of one and the same thing. This
conception accords with Spinoza's conception of body and soul as not being two
distinct substances as it is the case with Descartes. Man's soul and his body,
the inside and outside, Teilhard de Chardin would say "within and
without", have existed at all times. In Teilhard's words:
In the world nothing could ever burst forth as final,
across the different thresholds, successively traversed by evolution which has
not already existed in some obscure primordial way.2
This applies to life, to consciousness and thought.
I Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The phenomenon of
Man, New York, I959, p. I63. 2 Ibid., p. I64.
6.2.2. The unity of all things
In the seeming myriad of entities around us, Teilhard de
Chardin perceives a unity. His starting point is the fundamental initial fact
that each one of us is per force linked by all the material organic and psychic
strands of his being to all that surrounds him. Moreover, that unity reaches
back in time and continues into the future:
If we look far enough back in the depths of time, the
disordered anthill of living beings suddenly, for an informed observer,
arranges itself in long files that make their way by various paths towards
greater consciousness.'
Teilhard de Chardin's research had already convinced him of
the validity of evolution as a paradigm fundamental to understanding the
meaning of human existence. He affirms that the belief that there is an
absolute direction of growth, to which both our duty and our happiness demand
that we should conform. It is the human function to complete cosmic
evolution.2 In I925, Teilhard de Chardin wrote in an essay entitled
"Hominisation" where he brings out his conception of a human sphere:
And this amounts to imagining, in one way or another,
above the animal biosphere a human sphere, a sphere of reflection, of conscious
invention, of conscious souls (the Noosphere, if you will)3
I Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Vision of the
Past, London, I966, pp. 58-59.
2 Ibid., p. 63.
3 Id.
| 
