September 24, 2016
The reason that I have given this ebook edition one star is because there are many typographical errors in it. I believe that the paper print book was scanned digitally in order to make the ebook. The scanner changed many letters (for example, from "c" to "e"). If you are going to purchase this ebook, then also purchase a low cost paper edition, too, so that you can determine the correct spelling of some of the words used.
December 18, 2015
This book is one of the most profound intellectual adventures I've ever been on. Anyone interested in spirituality and the evolution of consciousness should read this. Teilhard was ahead of his time, even predicting the internet. Not only is he clear and easy to read in his analysis, he is also a gifted writer. I put this book down many times to either savor a insight he made, or to let the poetic nature of a phrase sink in. The best thing about this book is that it trains you to view the world through the lens of evolution. Although the book must end, Teilhard gives you enough structure to continue his analysis in our everyday lives and reveal once invisible connections.
May 15, 2018
I came to THE PHENOMENON OF MAN later in life. When I was in college Teilhard de Chardin was all the rage. I heard about the book but I never found time to read it. Since then it has been on my ‘must read some day’ list. I found the book interesting and engaging but I also had difficulty positioning it. It is not pure science and it is not pure theology, nor is it pure metaphysics. He recognizes this when he says, “Among those who have attempted to read this book to the end, many will close it, dissatisfied and thoughtful, wondering whether I have been leading them through facts, through metaphysics or through dreams (p. 289).”
The thrust of his thought is clear. He believes that evolution and theology are completely commensurate with one another. The evolutionary process leads toward consciousness and thought. We progress from the biosphere to the noosphere. Some take the latter concept to be a theologized version of the internet—the consciousness and thought of ‘all of us’. Our final destination is the ‘Omega Point’, God. Since Christianity tells us that God is both the alpha and the omega I would have liked to have heard Teilhard’s view of the big bang, whose nature and timing were in the process of being understood when he was writing.
Throughout the book Teilhard is forced to hedge. We can’t see all of the way back into the past nor all of the way into the future. We can’t really yet know all of the outside of things nor all of the inside of things. Nevertheless, he presses on, guided by his overarching vision of human/cosmic evolution.
Ultimately, I think the book is best not characterized as science or theology. It is ‘visionary’ speculation presented in the language of science. Some have said, for example, that Marx was really not an economist and Freud was really not a scientist. They were poets, creating concepts and images that are an important part of our cultural inheritance and important elements in our cultural language. They are not really science. I think of Teilhard in those kinds of terms. We can now talk about the Omega Point and the noosphere, but they do not carry the kind of specificity that ‘Molybdenum’ or the ‘pancreas’ enjoy.
His work fell afoul of church teaching during his own time and his work was published posthumously. Obviously, the church had some issues with evolution, particularly the notion of evolution as a kind of closed system. ‘Organicism’ is different from ‘determinism’ but there is a ruthless momentum to Teilhard’s view of evolution that smacks of determinism. There is no significant talk here concerning free will and free will is central to Christian theology, particularly when we seek to understand the problem of evil. Teilhard speaks of the latter in an appendix and his thoughts are quite pedestrian. It is hard to reconcile Teilhard’s thought with the notion of original sin and it is questionable whether or not Teilhard would permit divine intervention in human history once the original plan has been set in motion.
Bottom line: the directions of Teilhard’s thought can serve (like the ‘arguments’ for God’s existence) as aids to piety, but his work will neither make the church comfortable nor receive the full-throated approval of scientists. His science per se is well-informed but when he gets into theory and explication we are sometimes at a loss to penetrate his language, which is too abstract and/or too abstruse. He writes like this (chosen at random): “b. Next comes ingenuity. This is the indispensable condition, or more precisely the constructive facet, of additivity.” (Why does ‘additivity’ have to be ingenious? Why couldn’t it also be simple and direct?)
The thrust of his thought is clear. He believes that evolution and theology are completely commensurate with one another. The evolutionary process leads toward consciousness and thought. We progress from the biosphere to the noosphere. Some take the latter concept to be a theologized version of the internet—the consciousness and thought of ‘all of us’. Our final destination is the ‘Omega Point’, God. Since Christianity tells us that God is both the alpha and the omega I would have liked to have heard Teilhard’s view of the big bang, whose nature and timing were in the process of being understood when he was writing.
Throughout the book Teilhard is forced to hedge. We can’t see all of the way back into the past nor all of the way into the future. We can’t really yet know all of the outside of things nor all of the inside of things. Nevertheless, he presses on, guided by his overarching vision of human/cosmic evolution.
Ultimately, I think the book is best not characterized as science or theology. It is ‘visionary’ speculation presented in the language of science. Some have said, for example, that Marx was really not an economist and Freud was really not a scientist. They were poets, creating concepts and images that are an important part of our cultural inheritance and important elements in our cultural language. They are not really science. I think of Teilhard in those kinds of terms. We can now talk about the Omega Point and the noosphere, but they do not carry the kind of specificity that ‘Molybdenum’ or the ‘pancreas’ enjoy.
His work fell afoul of church teaching during his own time and his work was published posthumously. Obviously, the church had some issues with evolution, particularly the notion of evolution as a kind of closed system. ‘Organicism’ is different from ‘determinism’ but there is a ruthless momentum to Teilhard’s view of evolution that smacks of determinism. There is no significant talk here concerning free will and free will is central to Christian theology, particularly when we seek to understand the problem of evil. Teilhard speaks of the latter in an appendix and his thoughts are quite pedestrian. It is hard to reconcile Teilhard’s thought with the notion of original sin and it is questionable whether or not Teilhard would permit divine intervention in human history once the original plan has been set in motion.
Bottom line: the directions of Teilhard’s thought can serve (like the ‘arguments’ for God’s existence) as aids to piety, but his work will neither make the church comfortable nor receive the full-throated approval of scientists. His science per se is well-informed but when he gets into theory and explication we are sometimes at a loss to penetrate his language, which is too abstract and/or too abstruse. He writes like this (chosen at random): “b. Next comes ingenuity. This is the indispensable condition, or more precisely the constructive facet, of additivity.” (Why does ‘additivity’ have to be ingenious? Why couldn’t it also be simple and direct?)
March 12, 2017
If you are a thoughtful, well read, classically educated scientist or engineer, The Phenomenon of Man is a straight forward read of corpuscles, entropy, unity and quantimization. The better your analytical and problem solving skills, the easier it is to follow his break down of human experience from pre-existence in parallel to the physical world. Translating from French to English required significant grammatical and linguistic gyrations to express his abstract thoughts. This results in a treasure trove of unusual expressions and curiously worded phrases sure to delight the would-be philosopher and college student plagiarizer. Teilhard is very clear that this a "story" from his imagination and is not a philosophical proof and that no one will ever know the origins. Teilhard narrowly escapes orthodox Christian heresy by carefully inserting terms like "probably". Those who have not worked out their own belief systems and particularly for students, The Phenomenon of Man is sure to be an eye opener. Get your highlighter ready. This work requires a high level of reading and comprehension and is not recommended for trivial pursuits. Having a Teilhard acolyte such as a retired professor to debate and discuss the work greatly enhances the intellectual experience.
May 9, 2017
I can only say that this is the one book I would recommend everyone read over and over again. You will never be the same. I read this when it was first published and I was barely 12 years old. Reading it again has brought back so many thoughts about how it has shaped my life since then. I will be forever grateful for the early influence.
May 30, 2016
The Kindle format for this book has no active (or inactive) table of contents, nor are paragraphs indented, nor is the formatting good. A disappointment. Get the book version instead. Forget the Kindle version.
December 29, 2017
A stunning portrait and examination of man as being--his place in the world and the future of his progress. The presentation of man as the ultimate earth being was a bit too anthropocentric, and there were some strangely mystical bits at the end that felt a little jarring from his earlier chapters (not to mention the obvious-yet-unnamed background of Christian belief), but overall it is a masterful attempt to understand man in all his complexity and purpose.
August 15, 2017
I read and reviewed this when I was in college at age 20 and now I am 75. It was an interesting re-read. It certainly influence my thought back when I was a youngster. I think this is certainly his best book and a very interesting thought process.
December 1, 2009
Over fifty years has passed since "The Phenomenon of Man" was initially published, posthumously because at the time of its writing, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a Jesuit priest who took his vows of obedience to the Catholic Church hierarchy seriously. At that time, his perception of the what can only be called the spiritual evolution of life on our planet coinciding with material evolution was simply too comprehensive, and did not fit in with the narrow-minded views of "Creationism" as perceived by religion.
None-the-less, as a young graduate student in Chemistry and a new Catholic convert at the time of Vatican Council II, I read this book with extreme excitement because it did so much to make sense of what I perceived then and still believe to be the way in which the Divine has infused creation with the reality Teilhard called "complexity-consciousness". Teilhard believed this Divine presence is guiding our universe towards a culmination of awareness that he designated "the Omega Point", which others have recognized as what theology calls "Christ Consciousness".
What caused me to revisit this book, and to purchase a new copy since my own from those early days seems to be lost in the clutter of my home, was the awareness brought into sharp focus by recent events: The "Thought Envelope" or Noosphere surrounding the globe that Teilhard posited has indeed come to fruition with the advent of the Internet, satellite communications and cellular telephone technology. It is now possible to instantaneously communicate with people anywhere on earth, and the potential of this for good AND ill is incredible. I believe with all my heart that what Teilhard defined as a new "critical point" has arrived, and it is essential that if human evolution is to continue in a positive direction, we accept the challenges he has placed before us in his insightful writing.
None-the-less, as a young graduate student in Chemistry and a new Catholic convert at the time of Vatican Council II, I read this book with extreme excitement because it did so much to make sense of what I perceived then and still believe to be the way in which the Divine has infused creation with the reality Teilhard called "complexity-consciousness". Teilhard believed this Divine presence is guiding our universe towards a culmination of awareness that he designated "the Omega Point", which others have recognized as what theology calls "Christ Consciousness".
What caused me to revisit this book, and to purchase a new copy since my own from those early days seems to be lost in the clutter of my home, was the awareness brought into sharp focus by recent events: The "Thought Envelope" or Noosphere surrounding the globe that Teilhard posited has indeed come to fruition with the advent of the Internet, satellite communications and cellular telephone technology. It is now possible to instantaneously communicate with people anywhere on earth, and the potential of this for good AND ill is incredible. I believe with all my heart that what Teilhard defined as a new "critical point" has arrived, and it is essential that if human evolution is to continue in a positive direction, we accept the challenges he has placed before us in his insightful writing.
June 19, 2019
Recommended to me by a University Professor and PhD in an attempt to short-cut deep debate into life and its meaning, the Phenomenon of Man will take the reader through a thought-provoking journey back in time from the formation of the living cell to the ultimate self-awareness of the various combinations of those cells. Although it is all speculative and never able to be scientifically tested, it is plausible and worth the read, albeit long winded and thorough.
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