The Evolutionary Outrider: The Impact of the Human Agent on Evolution, Essays Honouring Ervin Laszlo / Edition 1

by David Loye

Overview

The overriding challenge for our species during the 21st century, many believe, will be that of evolving…or becoming extinct. Can the theory of evolution be expanded into a source of guidance that could help our species save itself? This collection brings together the thinking of scholars in a wide range of fields in social as well as natural science directed to this end.

Moving beyond a critique of neo-Darwinism and sociobiology to explore the action implications of new theory—including Loye's reconstruction of the long ignored full vision of Charles Darwin and Laszlo's new QVI fifth field theory—essays explore the potential for the impact of self-organizing and self-regulating organism, of the biology of love, and the moral directional thrust of the human, as revealed in new discoveries in the fields of biology, psychology, brain research, sociology, economics, history, cultural evolution, and Darwinian re-evaluation. As such, the collection will be of interest to the educational community, the futurist community, and the more general global foresight community of concerned people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275964092
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/25/1998
Series:	Praeger Studies on the 21st Century
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

DAVID LOYE is a social psychologist, futurist, and developer of a new theory of moral transformation. His many books include The Healing of a Nation which won the Anisfield-Wolfe award for the best scholarly book on race relations in 1971. A former member of the psychology faculty of Princeton University, Loye for nearly a decade was a professor in the research series and Director of Research for the Program on Psychosocial Adaptation and the Future at the UCLA School of Medicine. He is a co-founder of the Center for Partnership Studies, the Society for the Study of Chaos Theory in Psychology, and the General Evolution Research Group.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Evolutionary Outrider by David Loye
The Challenge for our Species in the 21st Century
Manifesto of the Club of Budapest: An Excerpt by Ervin Laszlo
One Man's Quest: A Brief History by Ervin Laszlo
The General Evolution Research Group: A Brief History by David Loye
The Impact of the Human Agent on Evolution
Evolution: The Old View and the New View by Fritijof Capra
Organism and Psyche in a Participatory Universe by Mae-Wan Ho
On Brain, Conscious Experience, and Human Agency by Karl Pribram
Toward an Evolutionary Systems Approach to Creativity: The Contribution of Ervin Laszlo by Alfonso Montuori
Healing through the QVI-Field by Maria Sagi
Quantum-Vacuum Interaction and Psychosocial Organization by Raymond Trevor Bradley
Biological Evolution and Cultural Evolution: Toward a Planetary Consciousness by Mauro Ceruti and Telmo Pievani
Human Intervention in Evolutionary Process
Evolution Action Theory: A Brief Outline by David Loye
Conscious Evolution: Cultural Transformation and Human Agency by Riane Eisler
Social Interventions and the World Wide Web by Ralph Abraham
Economics and Evolution: An Ethos for an Action Researcher by Hazel Henderson
What Might Be the Next Stage in Cultural Evolution? by Paul H. Ray
Commentary by Ervin Laszlo
Introduction to Indexes
Subject Indexes
Name Indexes

Editorial Reviews

Sixteen essays stress the importance of evolution to the grounding of all science and attempt to work towards a theory of evolution which takes into account the expanded cortical and cultural capacities of humans. Decrying current evolutionary thinking as being geared towards specifically pre-human organisms, the articles discuss such issues as: the human ability to intervene in evolution, the self-organizing behavior of the human brain, Laszlo's quantum-vacuum interaction field theory, the Gaia hypothesis, the misuse of Darwinian theory, cultural evolution in the U.S., and possible economic evolutionary interventions. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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