MAN AND EVOLUTIONARY MONISM IN THE CHRISTIAN- PHILOSOPHICO ANTHROPOLOGY OF TEILHARD DE CHARDIN (original) (raw)

This work is going to center on the philosophical and anthropological thought of Teilhard De Chardin. This essay is going to concentrate on his life, philosophy and influence today. The first chapter deals with life, works and the aim of his philosophical career. The second chapter will elaborate on a simple scientific explanation of the origin of life and consciousness i.e. thought and the third will focus on Teilhard’s synthesis of the two realities (matter and spirit) in man. As a philosopher, Teilhard has been widely read especially among believing-scientists with a passion for the evolutionary theory of creation or of origins. His works remain a towering example of a complex and necessary synthesis of science and religious belief. He endeavored to convey an understanding of the whole of nature under energies that drive reality to a definite end. With regard to man, De Chardin holds that man holds the key to the future. Man, is the only being with the capacity for reflection or self-consciousness. Only man can harness and comprehend the ambiguities and complexities of evolution. De Chardin therefore places man a threshold ahead of others. But this is not in order to isolate him but that nature might be understood in the manner in which God, the Spirit behind the Cosmos intended . Irrespective of all that can be said about Teilhard, this essay will merely try to outline his exposition on the origin of life, the breakaway of man from matter through noogenesis , the eventual synthesis of matter and spirit and the implications that it has had on the Teilhardian understanding of Man.