Stefan SILLY / Stefan_fm7@hotmail.

com

Abstract:

―We are not bearers of consciousness – we are the whores of reason.‖ This essay deals with
the cause for the ecological crisis from a different viewpoint, as it tries to analyze how our
thinking about the world effects our natural environment and defines the crisis as a crisis in
consciousness. In the first part, the author undertakes an approach to the current crisis, and
discusses aspects of the human psyche. A description of several scenarios which could have
caused humans separation from nature, like totalitarian agriculture, shall give a clearer
picture of the development to the point of the present situation. In the second part, the culture
of consumerism and its implication on the natural world are discussed, and how it
perpetuates our disconnection to it. Aspects of the current worldview, like the philosophy of
reductionism and its implications on society, are taken into contrast with the benefits of
holistic thinking. The author shows that a restoration to a healthy relationship to nature lies in
the change of behavior. He analyzes the supposed solution to the crisis, namely Sustainable
Development, and asks how far it is merely a solution to symptoms than a treatment of the
origins of the crisis, which ought to be the mental separation from nature. The work shows
that several aspects of our unsustainable thinking have already been recognized by an ever
growing number of people. Therefore a specific grass-roots-movement, the Transition Town
Initiative, is introduced.

Key words: Consciousness, Reductionism, Society, Consumerism, Sustainable

Development, Transition Towns
The ecological crisis
defined as a crisis in
consciousness
The culture of consumerism, the impact of
reductionism on society and the holistic view
as a possible solution

Stefan Johann Silly,

Year 2009

2
 ―People who can cut through this many many illusions…the illusion of materialism, the illusion
of business as usual…the illusion of benevolent institutions carefully guiding us towards
reasonable destinies…if you cut through all that, if you disabuse yourself of all that, you will
empower yourself to eventually be able to stand up in delicate political situations and just say:
´Bullshit´!

Terence McKenna / Lecture: Taxonomy of Illusions

FIGURES and TABLES:

COVERPICTURE: www.images.google.com./ own adaption

FIGURE 1/page 7: own adaption
FIGURE2/page 90: http://lithgow-schmidt.dk/sherry-arnstein/ladder-of-citizen-
participation.html#d0e24

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Content

Introduction............................................................................................................................................. 7

I. AN APPROACH TO THE CRISIS: A CRISIS IN CONSCIOUSNESS ......................................................... 8

The Treatment of symptoms ............................................................................................................... 9

The crisis & The human psyche ......................................................................................................... 11

The disruption of the Self .................................................................................................................. 12

The Self & the ego ......................................................................................................................... 13

Artificial Environment &The Separation from Nature ...................................................................... 14

The Forgetting and misunderstandings of humanities development ........................................... 15

The Agricultural Revolution ........................................................................................................... 17

A scenario for the Separation from nature – Totalitarian Agriculture .......................................... 19

Further suggestions for the separation from nature .................................................................... 21

THE CULTURE OF CONSUMERISM ......................................................................................................... 22

Thinking outside of the box: A medium to get access to goods – Money & Consumption .............. 23

Consumerism & Society................................................................................................................. 24

The development of consumerism................................................................................................ 24

Evolvement of modern consumerism ........................................................................................... 27

The Consumerist revolution .......................................................................................................... 28

Advertising..................................................................................................................................... 29

Consumption & Self ....................................................................................................................... 30

Effects of Consumerism on the Environment – Cyclical Consumption ......................................... 31

Consumerism and Western countries ........................................................................................... 33

Further approach to the impact of consumerism ......................................................................... 34

OUR WORLDVIEW ................................................................................................................................. 37

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 Reductionism ..................................................................................................................................... 39

Types of Reductionism .................................................................................................................. 42

Positivism....................................................................................................................................... 45

History & Scientific Revolution .......................................................................................................... 47

The scientific Revolution ............................................................................................................... 49

The development towards the Scientific Revolution .................................................................... 50

Objectivity and the fall of subjectivity ........................................................................................... 52

THE IRRITATING CHARACTER OF REDUCTIONISM............................................................................. 53

Problems of Reductionism on Consciousness: The mind body problem .......................................... 55

Dualism .......................................................................................................................................... 56

Problems of Reductionism: Consciousness and Perception ......................................................... 57

Reductionism and Genetic Determinism .......................................................................................... 60

Behaviour ...................................................................................................................................... 62

Genetic Reductionism: Behaviour and Human Nature ................................................................. 62

IMPLICATONS OF REDUCTIONISM IN SOCIETY.................................................................................. 65

Reductionism and Nihilism: The existential neurosis........................................................................ 66

Noogenic Neurosis......................................................................................................................... 68

Meaning and Pleasure ................................................................................................................... 69

Reductionism and human values: An Analogy .............................................................................. 69

Materialsim ....................................................................................................................................... 72

HOLISM .................................................................................................................................................. 73

The concept of the Holon .................................................................................................................. 76

A holistic perspective on Earth ...................................................................................................... 78

The Gaia Hypothesis ...................................................................................................................... 79

The Gaian Worldview .................................................................................................................... 82

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................................................... 83

The concept of Sustainable Development ........................................................................................ 86

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 Development towards the Brundtland Report: Limits of Growth................................................. 88

Brundtlandt Report ....................................................................................................................... 90

The Promotion of Sustainable Developement: The Brundtland report and Equity ...................... 91

Participation & Agenda 21............................................................................................................. 92

The controversy of participation ................................................................................................... 94

Final aspects on Sustainable Development ....................................................................................... 96

Sustainable Development and Spirituality ........................................................................................ 98

TRANSITION TOWNS ............................................................................................................................. 99

What is the Transition Town - Initiatve? ......................................................................................... 100

The concept of Transition Town .................................................................................................. 102

Criteria for officially taking part at the Initiative ......................................................................... 103

Emerged types of Transition Towns ............................................................................................ 103

12 steps ....................................................................................................................................... 104

The Transition Towns Initiative and the connection with nature. .............................................. 106

TTFK - Transition Town Friedrichshain Kreuzberg ........................................................................... 107

Groups of TTFK ................................................................................................................................ 108

Group: Energy.............................................................................................................................. 108

Alimentation ................................................................................................................................ 110

Civil Parks..................................................................................................................................... 110

Culture, handcraft, education ..................................................................................................... 110

Mobility ....................................................................................................................................... 112

The Heart Group .......................................................................................................................... 112

Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 112

Literature: ............................................................................................................................................ 115

6
Introduction

While the first decade of the 21st century is coming to an end now, and people of past
generations might had a prosper picture of that time, mankind´s actions on the planet are still
ecological destructive and unsustainable. In the middle of the last century, a wide range of
scientists, scholars and politicians came together and tried to form a plan for a supposed
solution to the downgrading environmental situation on the planet, which became known as
Sustainable Development. Nevertheless, the question comes up why it is still the same state
of affairs, and if it is not Sustainable Development that could help, what is it then? Our
relationship to nature is obviously not productive because we live through a mental
separation from it and deny our connection and origin from nature. Thus, if humanity wants to
restore a harmonious and healthy connection to the planet, it has to face the source of the
problems: namely the deception of our worldview, of how we think about reality, and the
opinion of ourselves and the role we play in relation with nature.
Our mechanistic worldview, which is substantially based on reductionism, makes it easy to
exploit natural environment, as it is not capable of letting us recognize our deeper connection
to nature. Out of that thinking paradigm we created our unsustainable culture and civilization,
which are based on perpetual consumption and materialistic values, and is consequently
distorting our true Self. With that thinking – paradigm, we reached the limits, which we can go
in a certain direction as a society. This work describes several aspects of the crisis in
consciousness, such as the philosophy of reductionism and its implications on our
relationship to nature. The holistic worldview is suggested to describe reality more accurately
and leaves us healthier in life as it allows us to understand, that we are deeply, in any
thinkable aspect connected to nature.

7
 I. AN APPROACH TO THE CRISIS: A CRISIS IN CONSCIOUSNESS

Part of the content of the following pages derives to some extent from a speech of Peter
Russell, M.A., D.C.S. held in 1988 on the closing symposium on the subject ´Man, Health,
Environment´ on the European Year of Environment in Luxembourg. Peter Russell himself is
a British author born in 1946 and a popular speaker who studied experimental psychology
and theoretical physics. He devoted his work to the study of consciousness. A further source
for this chapter is another speech held by Craig Chalquist PHD from USA, ´The
environmental crisis is a crisis in consciousness – bringing the psychological dimension into
dimension´ held in November 2007 on the Sonoma State University.

The crisis humanity faces is in a certain way obvious. People in western civilized countries
are getting confronted with news reports of environmental degradation day by day. Mass
media reports on species, which are on the brick of extinction, on a forest fire, which covers
an area of thousands of square kilometres and even about seas that are supposed to carry
no live anymore in the near future. The common reaction to such news of any citizen
appears in a form of helplessness but also ignorance. What could one single powerless
individual do? - is an often heard response to questions concerning problems of the Whole
Earth. This refers to what in psychology is called ´psychic numbing´. This term for the
reduced emotional responsiveness associated with exposure to traumatic events. (The term
has been coined by psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, M.D.)1

Human beings do everything for not getting confronted with feelings about what is going on.
We go shopping, and read sport – statistics and get hooked to the entertainment media and
deny our real feelings.

Meanwhile we reached a state, where the mentioned environmental loss is no longer a

problem of nature. Appearances of natural destruction are not abandoned anymore to the
responsibility of the geographical location where it happened. All these events got the
predicate ´human´ - they are human problems, at least since the planetary danger of global
warming was accepted as real by the average human mind.
One aspect of the crisis is clear. Species are dying and earlier abundant landscapes are
turning into moon surface-like shades of grey, and we don´t know how to deal with it.
Problems we are facing affecting every species on the world‘s surface. Logically, if the

1
http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/path/numbing.htm
8
animal kingdom cannot survive human being cannot either. We tend to forget that we are
one of them. Our attempts of solving these certain ecological problems tend to fail in the long
run. The main problem is that our narrow view of the mentality of fixing the symptoms of an
ecological problem produces only a short term solution. By focusing on the ‗symptom –
solving mentality‘ we are slipping deeper and deeper into the mess. In fact, that‘s what we
are doing in any situation. From our problems in relationships with our friends to the more
complex problems in society and politics; we are somehow only willing to face the symptoms,
but not the source of a problem. Regarding environmental pollution we face, the problem of
deterioration of our food, which is a consequence of industrialization and environmental
degradation. Hence, our survival as a species is threatened. These threats are merely
symptoms. The essential steps towards solving these problems by governmental policies,
industrial practices and even sustainable developments are only solutions to these
symptoms. Thus, the long – term consequences of technological idealism are hardly
foreseen.

The Treatment of symptoms

To get a clear picture of what is meant by symptoms; one can compare the human species to
a human being that has fallen sick. According to this example, the definition of a symptom is
like the following: ―Any subjective evidence of disease: anxiety, lower back pain, and fatigue
are all symptoms. These are sensations only the patient can perceive. In contrast, a sign is
an objective evidence of disease. A bloody nose is a sign. It is evident to the patient, doctor,
nurse and other observers.‖2
3

A very common behavior pattern of our

ANALGESIC
ACTION + TIME DELAY society shall be indicated by the
following illustration – the effect system
BALANCING

diagram (Figure 1). A person with pain

+
-
TOOTHACHE SIDE EFFECT and fever, caused by a damaged tooth,
-
treated with pain relievers and
BALANCING something to suppress the fever would
not be considered as the best way
ROOT CAUSATION OF +
TOOTHACHE - TIME DELAY healing. It has always to be considered,
RESOLUTION OF
PROBLEM

Figure 1
2
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=5610
3
Own adaption
9
what the underlying root of the evidently seen symptom is, be it a damaged tooth, a bacteria
or a virus. By only treating the symptoms, the sickness might reappear with a time delay,
possibly in other forms (SIDE EFFECT) Human beings seem to be talented in displacing
problems and tend to solve only the symptoms of the problem. From a systematic view, it
can be dangerous to exclusivley focus on a symptom. The two blue feedback – loops with
the blue arrows are both negative, means balanced. The red arrows result from the side
effect, which arises, when only the symptom (TOOTHACHE) is treated and not the root or
the problem (ROOT CAUSATION OF TOOTHACHE – RESOLUTION OF PROBLEM) and
the whole cause-effect diagram turns into a positive – escalating – feedback loop.

In the same way it can be noticed at humanity. For instance, one is pulling a weed from the
top and two more will grow back in its place. Equally, if one is just curing a symptom it will
return twice as hard a little time later. In order to avoid an irreversible ‗positive feed back
process‘ in our environment, we have to be desperate to identify the environmental crisis as
the outcome of the human psyche. As our psyche is the source of the disaster, we have to
recognize that it is also the undeniable hope for restoration. The psychological dimension
has to be brought into the temporary environmental discourse. It has to be understood how
we have ended up in this situation: namely not by an observation of the superficial, but by the
exploration of the subtle.
Thus, if we tend to replace our current state with a peaceful sustainable future, we have to
reeducate ourselves in terms of our feelings which are dealing with the denial of the severity
of the crisis. Denial itself , for instance, is a useful defense mechanism in childhood.
Overflowing emotional pressure can be compensated by switching to something more
positive. The denial of negative emotions in adulthood has a far more serious impact. It can
frustrate the will for change, and most notably it deflects from reality.
Along the history of human beings these infantile behavior of pretending that the world is in
ease has been accompanying us.
Along the history of human beings these infantile behavior of pretending that the world is in
ease has been accompanying us. We are on the brink of a bifurcation-point where either we
are experiencing the last centuries of humanity or the beginning of new humanity.
Nevertheless, we are now living in times of where the implications of our acting have never
had before such a fundamental influence in our surviving as a human species. The scientific
and technological potentials are huge, and would promise to create a world of our desire.

10
The crisis & The human psyche

The crises we face are the result of decisions we make. By our unconscious behavior and by
thoughts and unrecognized actions, we have been creating the malevolence on earth.
Evolution gave us the ability of free will, which we did not adopt in a healthy way and in line
with nature. It is obviously more the way of our thinking which is in error. Therefore our
beliefs and values that underlie thinking are in error too. Every crisis humanity has faced so
far - from the current economic crisis to the cold war crisis - are the symptoms of a deeper
psychological dimension. Thus, our beliefs and our values are not in harmony with nature
and maybe result from a distortion of our understanding of ourselves. Our so called mind-
setting is determining who we think we are and with what we identify with. The destruction of
the biosphere by our ‗selfish and parasite – like behavior‘ originates from the error in our
programming and conditioning. While we are driven by our basic needs such as nutrition,
which is satisfied by eating, our mental needs are completely distorted. People think that they
can become happy and satisfied by accumulating personal wealth. By regarding our
materialistic possession which dominates our social value system, and the parallel occurring
degradation of happiness, we come to the conclusion that we have become stuck with a
variety of needs that are not really necessary (2.1.7). Compared to other beings on the
planet, humans have to care about their psychological integrity. It may sound absurd for
many, but the crisis roots in our understanding about what we think who we are. Many
psychologists throughout history attempted to define and to give an explanation of what the
so called ´self ´ might be. Most people in the western civilized world would say that the ‗self‘
or that sense of ´who am I´ comes from the experience and the interaction with the personal
environment and the world as a whole. The ´I am´ would therefore be everything what a
person is obviously connected with. Be it the personality, the character, the job, the social
status, the religion or the belief that is occupying a human being. In fact, these few things
mentioned above determine our status in our socio-economic system. At this point it has to
be taken in account that the system and the relationships in it – which is in a constantly state
of flux - rests on very vague columns. Nevertheless, none of the mentioned things, nor
religion or nationality defines our identity. They rather describe those things we have to do
and define our status in relation to other individuals. As a collective we are doing these things
to maintain the economic system. Peter Russell points out, that these things show how the ´I´
is seen, rather than they show the real meaning of ´I´. Logically, if in any way the system
would be threatened, these kinds of statuses would also be in danger to lose their meaning.
Consequently the identity, which ought to rest on these obviously unstable building blocks, is
in peril too. As fragile these things are, western people spend an incredible amount of time

11
and energy with it and sometimes even take absurd and infantile actions, to sustain and
protect their social statuses. Exactly this is where a part of our collective identity comes from,
and is responsible for many of our psychological requirements. These requirements can be
defined, for example, as the need to be in control of the world or the desire that everything is
predictable and safe, so that our status is reaffirmed. The consequences of such behavior
are observable all around us, in our physical and also biological environment, in the social
micro cosmos to the social macro cosmos.
A usual behavior, even from those who believe that they found the ultimate source of the
crisis, is the one of blaming others. We tend to blame the big business, the big corporations,
nontransparent actions of corrupt governments and last but not least we blame money for the
source of all evil. The truth is that we as a mass are a conscious or an unconscious part of
the exploitation. We are still living in the state of fear of change. The economic system, we
created so far, is on the broad scale nothing but unsustainable. It is us, who reinforce
incredible shipping ways of goods, which always take the cost of environmental degradation
based on our fear of the loss of psychological needs,. In a transfused sense, the whole
system is run by the specific part of the ‗self ‗– the ego - which is always in need for approval.

The disruption of the Self

The ´I´ as it is experienced by an individual is commonly referred to the ‗self‘. Among many
psychologists the Swiss Carl Jung (1875 – 1961) devoted the ‗self‘ to a big part of his
theories. According to him, the ‗self‘ is the totality composed out of two essential parts, the
conscious and the unconscious one. These two psychic entities impede the so called ´ego´.
A healthy personality could be achieved by the maturation of the ‗self‘ by an individuation
process. Human beings grow and evolve through levels of awareness, transforming the
former level into a higher reach of development. A certain part of the unconscious mind,
according to Carl Jung, is the shadow, or the ´shadow aspect´. It consists of the repressed
weakness, shortcomings and instincts everyone carrying around.

―Repressed drives and feelings are driven from consciousness, where they subconsciously
shape your life." 4

The more an individual embodies the ´shadow´ in his conscious psyche the less dense and
severe the ‗shadow‘ is. Jung pointed out that the shadow is instinctive and irrational and

4
www.integralbuddha.net/topic/psychology/shadow-the-hidden-aspects-of-self.php

12
hardly to face. Therefore, he said, the ´shadow´, a personal feeling of minor value is
unconsciously projected on someone else. The projection is a psychological defense
mechanism, where one individual projects his or her negative thoughts and values and
feelings onto another individual. These projections are creating a negative, but illusionary
relationship between individuals. The Ego which is maintained by the already mentioned self
– centering, finds itself separated from the real world. Humanity‘s problem is that reality has
become distorted by the illusion of the ego. Self centering attitudes govern our whole mental
live and keep us locked in the prison of the Ego. The very changes which would be
necessary to gain a prosper future are prevented by the Ego.5
Adherent of Carl Gustav Jung and other transpersonal theorists have suggested that
contemporary society has a - too limited - concept of ‗self‘, that is further not sufficient to
incorporate a harmonious connection with the world.

The Self & the ego

The question is where this egocentricity comes from, while it seems that it is an exclusively
human attribute. Another question is why we perpetuate our self centering and administer
our ego, though its results are that negative. What distinguishes us from all other creatures of
the planet is our highly developed symbolic language, which gave us the ability to exchange
our experiences. With the occurrence of language, we finally had the tools for development
which brought us in the state of now: We can make abstractions and define every kind of
phenomenon in the physical world. Indeed, scientists suggest that dualistic language
separates us from nature; while non dualistic language can effect connection. The question
arises, if language is really capable to describe anything like the entity that stands behind,
the self experiences and the sense of ´I´. According to Peter Russell, with language we are
able to throw more light on the physical world, but we seem to fail to describe the ‗self.‘
Literally, the humans search with conventional modes of experience, but cannot find the
‗self‘. He suggests that this is the very problem of humanity. We tend to describe ourselves
only by the outer rational self, the one which can be seen by our actions. Our sense of
identity, be it an evolutionary necessity or not, currently comes from our superficial values
and further from our bodies, our relationships and the perception of others. It can be
observed, that people of materially less – developed societies seem to have done good work
in integrating the needs of the ego and synchronized them successfully with the needs of the
group. Peter Russell further identified - beside language - the power of creating tools as the

5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_(psychology)#cite_note-2 /

13
inherent power which accelerated human evolution. Technology and its implications entirely
changed the surface of the earth in just a few centuries. We have changed the world into a
human world. Technology bears danger, according to Russell, when we identify it with our
will to reinforce and our will to change the outer world with the illusionary ´ego´ of individual
existence. Technology could amplify the error in our own mental programming. ―As soon as
the ever hungry ego consciousness starts using high technology, a species starts heading for
trouble.‖ In other words, high technology and an under-evolved psyche cannot coexist for
long. One of them must go. There is little chance of technology disappearing - and few would
want it to. It is our psyches that must change. It is the ego that must go.‖

However, the more technological solutions we might have found, the capability of freedom is
still missing. In our child-like behavior we pretend that by ignoring a threat, which is horrible
to face, it would go away from alone. Our mental separation from concerns of the nature as
from the nature itself is where we have to start to take action: We need to regard the dualism
between the self and the rest of the world, as well as between people and the planet as
outmoded. The ego is indeed an outmoded type. Of course, the ecological crisis cannot be
reduced to the explanation of psychological pathologies.
It is helpful to see psychological sufferings as a symptom and a of the sufferings of the
planet. In a certain sense, the mental separation can be compared to a state of belonging to
nowhere. ―Conquest is a failed solution to the problem of belonging here on Earth. 6

―Conquest is false homecoming. And so as the feeling of alienation from the land has
grown over the centuries, warfare has moved off the battlefield to drive people from
their homes and their homelands. Doing this economically goes by the name of
globalization.‖ 7

Artificial Environment &The Separation from Nature

As the ecological crisis has now been identified as a crisis of consciousness and as the
psychological crisis can be traced back to a delusion of the human ego, it has to be asked
when and how this disconnectedness has occurred.
By regarding the daily life of a human being in a western civilized country the separation from
nature becomes self – evident. In industrial societies all human interactions take places in an
unnatural environment. A city with its buildings and streets, its overall concrete environment

6
www.peterrussell.com/Speaker/Talks/Luxembourg.php
7
www.terrapsych.com/crisis.html

14
is a pure invention of the human brain. When walking down a mall street with its commercial
lights and sounds one resides in a total virtual reality, where in fact nothing is natural
anymore, but everything is artificial. Our daily human interactions are taking place indoors
with or without the use of human made artefacts.( An artifact could be defined as any object
made by human beings, esp. with a view to subsequent use or any mass-produced, usually
inexpensive object reflecting contemporary society or popular culture.8
Modern culture itself rather seems to be imposed upon our society by specific institutions
and establishments than produced by people themselves. Therefore most people spend time
consuming culture by modern culture devices, such as television and mass media. We are
addicted to these artificial short – term joy stimulating events so much that the need for a
natural environment got in some sense lost. It is claimed that physical separation from nature
leads to psychological disconnection and vice versa.
As in the last chapter already been examined, the mental disconnection from nature can lead
to several scenarios. One of those scenarios describes, in what we find ourselves nowadays:
The ecological crisis. The separation from nature on a cultural level is seen as the main
cause of the destructive behavior of humans against nature. The individual suffering, the
disruption of the ego from the self, which is described above, can also be a result of the
disconnection from nature. Furthermore, even all forms of collective social suffering and
distortion of community and harmony - be it every kind of ideology like racism, sexism,
classism - are emerging with the separation from nature. 9

The Forgetting and misunderstandings of humanities development

It seems that we have forgotten how humanity has developed and where it came from. Our
current culture seems to not scrutinize questions; wether our cultural mind setting is
fundamental counterproductive or not. The separation of nature and the disconnection of
humanity to its higher self are also called ´the forgetting´. Daniel Quinn (1935), an American
environmentalist writer determined this notion in his book, ´the story of B´. He proposed that
the cultural self – awareness, which is passed from past generations to further generations,
is built on a ´Great Forgetting´. He suggested that this ‗Forgetting‘ has occurred when our
civilization evolved. Neolithic farming communes turned into villages, villages turned into
towns and towns into kingdoms and that was accompanied by the development of regional
and interregional trade systems. A new consciousness of commerce has arisen. Thus, the
former consciousness where humans sustained their live by simple occasional and informal
relationships, was soon forgotten.
8
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/artefact.
9
www.awok.com
15
That the great forgetting took place was for sure evident, nonetheless there had been no
written documents about this era before the forgetting. No occasion for re -preparation of
hunter gatherer knowledge occurred. When people at that time tried to undertake a thought
about how it came to their present state of development, they did not have to strengthen their
mind on a high level: Things were just getting simpler and more primitive, when they
remembering the origin of civilization at that time – There was a time when there were no
crafts, no advanced tools and no commerce - was a logical result of thinking.
In a time where nor rationalism nor advanced scientific method for gaining knowledge, nor
agriculture and farming existed, it wasn‘t questionable, just like the human thought or
speech, and consequently regarded as natural and dogmatic. A hunter – gatherer past was
simply unimaginable. Quinn suggests that ´Forgetting´ was inherent in intellectual life from its
very beginning. He argues, that ´Forgetting´ can most notably be found in literacy, from its
beginning to the very now. Be it from the nameless scribes of ancient civilizations, from
teacher to disciple, to the writings of Newton and Descartes, in every work the Forgetting is
embodied as an integral and unquestioned postulation. Quinn further argues that the
question about the ´Forgetting´ cannot be found in the general academic discourse or in the
educational system. It is rather an essential question of life and that the future of mankind
depends on it.
What the Great Forgetting comprehends, is not the Forgetting about evolutionary questions,
such as humans derive from monkeys, but that humans had lived in a fundamental different
way before. Quinn has exactly found in that scenario the reason, why the Forgetting cannot
be found in evolutionary theory, but in Paleontology. Paleontology showed that humans had
been around a long time before the first domestication and before the first crops were
planted. What had been forgotten - and that is what Paleontology according to Quinn clearly
shows - is that Man had been around not just with the beginning of agriculture and civilization
– but millions of years before. Due to that fact that humans had been living in perfect
harmony for millions of years without agriculture or civilization, he concludes that if those who
wrote history would have got this fact straight we would be confronted with a totally different
report of our past. Nevertheless Quinn states, that when it became clear that the overall
pattern of thinking from the eighteenth over the nineteenth to the twentieth century was
based on a fundamental thinking error nothing has changed anyway.
That‘s where it comes to the foundational columns of the concept of ´the forgetting´ which
Quinn worked out. It has to do with the way knowledge has been passed on from generation
to following generations, which becomes a subject of his critics. ´The forgetting´ is in some
kind a way of doing nothing.

16
 ―And this is the remarkable thing that these thinkers did: nothing. Obviously they didn‘t
care to do anything. They didn‘t care to go back to all the foundation thinkers of our
culture and ask how their work would have changed if they‘d known the truth about our
origins. I fear the truth is that they wanted to leave things as they were. They wanted to
go on forgetting … and that‘s exactly what they did.‖ 10

The Agricultural Revolution

The so called Agricultural Revolution is merely just a compromise or a simple solution of
telling the rise of our civilization. By ignoring important sceneries, which would make up the
more expedient picture, the concept of the Agricultural Revolution was born. Though it
seems generally harmless that a false concept of the Agricultural Revolution is learned in
school, it can at the same time mean that it puts a limit on what we can understand about
ourselves and what has happened on earth. In general, the Agricultural Revolution is
described as an economic revolution, that was taken place in Africa about 10.000 years ago,
and shall be described shortly here:
A natural disaster which led to the circumstance that the north of Africa was undergoing a dry
phase, has forced people to make an improved use of a more narrow part of their
environment. As the desert spread more southwards, hunters settled beside water places,
such as rivers, and became fishermen. Further it is described, that Gatherers settled beside
lakes, where they improved their skills with seeding and harvesting in the more moist areas.
North Africa is determined to be the basis from where the food – producing revolution spread
around the world.
The agricultural revolution is divided into four phases. The first is marked by a new way of life
in northern Central Africa that is realized by a more systematic agriculture. Tools for
rearranging the soil, such as special digging devices were invented and people learned to
select the plant types and to control the outcome of the harvesting. The second phase had
an even stronger impact and spread all over wide areas of the tropical world. That phase is
defined as the acclamation of a new type of cereal farming and the cultivation of a special
tropical climate, which let them spread over to other continents such as India. The third
phase of the agricultural revolution is defined by an increase in the scale of food production
and in its quality. In that phase oil for cooking was created, health and nutritional quality was
improved and led to a population growth. New land had to be colonized and cultivated. The
fourth and last feature of the agricultural revolution in Central Africa is said to be the

10
http://www.awok.org/great-forgetting/.

17
cultivation of the banana, which originated in Southeast Asia. With the growing of bananas
the usage of the textile fibers were installed. However, the banana flourished in specific
areas better than in others, such as the forests along rivers and in the mountains. The
banana became the staple carbohydrate in the nutrition for many Central African peoples.
The agricultural revolution is also defined by catching fish and its implications on village
communities and the development on special tools, and also the spread and further
development of language such as Bantu.11
The central idea of the Agricultural Revolution summarized here, is that ten thousand years
ago, people began to invent the search for food in abundance by the means of a new style:
Agriculture. Quinn found two profoundly misleading assumptions inherent in this concept.
The first one is that agriculture is allegorized as just one thing and therefore extremely
generalized, while in fact everywhere all over the world ten thousand years ago many
different styles were in use. The second is that it is implied, that the people started
everywhere at more or less the same time with agriculture.
In fact, our particular style of agriculture has emerged in the Near East and has been
identified as Totalitarian Agriculture which I will describe below. It is the typical thinking of
Western economies, that what we do, is what people everywhere have done from the
beginning of time. When it became obvious that this was not the case, Quinn claims that they
reduced it to the last ten thousand years. The study of pre – agricultural man is regarded as
not important. The lunacy of western history telling sees mankind before agriculture as
simply not existing. A bothersome fact is that the wisdom of ancients, which is suggested to
have tremendous importance for solutions of the ecological crisis of mankind now, became
disturbed. Pre – agricultural humanity has been simply excluded from history. The very core
of our false understanding about humanity is the fact that it is imagined that mankind had
been born to make agriculture and built up civilization. It is like mankind had a very slow start
– means the millennia before the so called agricultural revolution – and later became a
civilization builder – like it was humanities nature to become so.
The forgetting can be identified as an inherent misunderstanding of notions and terms which
led to false assumptions in our current thinking. Our linear thinking assumes that there were
the ´first humans´ and then there was ´us.´ which is Homo Sapiens. Further revisions of the
picture of human history in the nineteenth century made no differences in the linear overall
picture. Between the two mentioned kinds of humans they included ´Paleo´-, ´Meso´-, and
´Neo´-lithic Humans´. One is falsely invited to assume, that the whole human history lead up
to ´Us´ with our socio economic culture based on totalitarian agriculture. The more accurate

11
www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/102127/central-Africa/40635/The-agricultural-revolution)
18
picture is when beside ´Us´ there are at least 10.000 other cultures placed at the end of the
development line and before that, there was something like ´a great forgetting´.
However, Quinn states that the concept of Agricultural Revolution in History has tremendous
lacks and fails to be near the truth and therefore it can be characterized as what he called
the ´forgetting´. The millions of years, that came before the arbitrary agricultural revolution
where simply ignored, and simply a linear history telling – from town to village to kingdom
was established. Quinn concludes that the formation of knowledge which originated in the
political and social establishment at that time regarded the time before the agricultural
revolution as a time were nothing but a long period of nothing was happening. That period
however, make 97% of humanity‘s existence. It would be wrong to think that now, in times
when we are equipped with advanced communication technology, the lack in history could
easily be made clear and spread. The exact opposite is the case; the intellectuals of our
culture would have invested a lot of effort to re-tell the time of separation from nature, which
rests in completely false assumptions. The worrying fact is that there is no end in sight. We
still teach that humanity began just a few thousand years ago, and that had not existed
before. The current lacking understanding is that with the rise of history, which goes along
with the rise of civilization, humanity emerged. 12

A scenario for the Separation from nature – Totalitarian Agriculture

Among the many possible scenarios of the origin of the separation from human nature is, for
example, the domestication of plants and animals. Others placed the separation, in the
further development of the agriculture, or what is already mentioned as ´Totalitarian
Agriculture´. This type of agriculture is supposed to be originated among hunter – gatherer
tribes in Near East 10.000 years ago, when the human population was only doubling every
19.000 years. It is the exact kind of agricultural culture that is being used in every civilization
except for the few tribal people of the world.
In simple words, it subordinates all life – forms to the harsh, single minded production of
human food. The concept of totalitarian agriculture is explained by the violation of an ethical
principle, that all creature of nature have a right for food. That is the law of limited
competition that is also called animal ethics. It is characterized by the fact, that natural
competitors may not hunt down their competitors or destroy their food, or deny them access
to food. It is not the ´kill or be killed´ fiction, it is a natural competition and not waging war on
competitors. The law of limited competition suggests that it is a natural factor, inherent in
every species, for biological success.

12
www.awok.com
19
We as we exert totalitarian agriculture on nature, deny food, which is supposed for us, to all
other species. Totalitarian agriculture is also characterized by the fact, that all other species
which compete on human food may be destroyed at will, and also to make room for the
production of human food. Maximum food productivity is allowed by totalitarian agriculture,
and the purpose is to turn all food on earth into human food.
One one hand, this style of agriculture generated an enormous food surplus and therefore it
generated also an exponential population growth. All other styles of agriculture have been
obliterated in its path. On the other hand it spread at the beginning of the fifteenth century all
over the world, and generated an overall decrease of biodiversity and is recognized as highly
unsustainable.
Currently totalitarian agriculture is determined by genetic modification of crops and livestock
and is by and by spreading into the formerly unfarmed regions, such as the Amazon,
Indonesian and equatorial African rainforests. The obliteration of alternative agricultural
styles by the totalitarian one is still going on and is reaching native tribes by now. Many
aboriginal tribes in underdeveloped areas of the world still follow the law of limited
competition that is indeed the fundamental way people got the wherewithal to live from the
beginning in the West as well as in the East. The beginning is meant to have taken place ten
thousand years ago. There is, according to Quinn, no difference between Western and
Eastern civilizations. For him, totalitarian agriculture is the most laborious but also the most
effective lifestyle ever developed on this planet. In other words, no one works harder to stay
alive than people of western civilizations do. Before 10.000 years, Quinn suggests people
came into existence and lived by the law of limited competition like all other creatures in
harmonious biological symbiosis. From then on, people of a particular culture in the Near
East started to put in practice a form of agriculture which contrasted extremely with the law of
limited competition at broad scale. That was when humanity‘s war on nature began, which is
in our culture still in practice
Quinn states that it is not humanity that is in error, but our mind setting and our culture. The
crisis in consciousness has been already identified as a disruption of the human self. Our
culture we created is the result of this disruption and it perpetuates and maintains the current
state. It is not us as a species that is harming the planet - it is more our misdirection of the
free will. Finally, it is our culture that has to be changed. .13/14

13
http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/886685/
14
www.wowessays.com/dbase/af4/seg61.shtml / http://www.awok.org/great-forgetting
20
Further suggestions for the separation from nature
Further suggestions for the separation are, for instance, the appearance of the first cities in
the prehistoric era, the beginning of the use of tools or even the use of language. Some
scientists even proposed that the separation from nature is a result that is rooted in human
nature. That at least this suggestion has little chance to be verified, is discussed later in this
paper. (See 3.5). While other scientists claim that the Judeo – Christian tradition might have
been a main cause for the mental disconnection from nature, others see the separation going
in a line with the rise of Greek Rationalism. The rise of rationalism, the European
Enlightenment and the industrial revolution, which led to the further changes in the European
culture such as colonialism and capitalism, are also very often seen as a main cause for
mental separation from the natural environment.
All these suggestions, rooted historical and prehistoric, share the common belief that
contemporary agricultural and urban civilizations were at one time connected with nature, but
have now lost that former connection. That would also suggest that there are still tribal
groups on the planet which have ecological wisdom that mainstream industrial societies fail
to have. The exploring of non – western cultures is indeed a source of important knowledge
and also wisdom, which is nowadays seen as the only way out of the ecological crisis by a
crescent number of scientist wich try prepare its way. Some scientists suggest, that the
separation of nature is not a no – way out scenario, but a necessary step in evolution
towards consciousness of humanity. If human life is seen as process of growth and
evolvement, rather than - from the reductionist view – as an overcoming of infant traumata,
the state in which humanity finds itself now, makes sense.

―As a hypothesis, I propose that humanity may be undergoing a rapid transition from
the biological to the psychic phase of species evolution in the next few years. The
inertia of physical forces, chemical processes and cellular mechanisms, precisely
coordinated over billions of years, has brought us to this make or break point. In order
to continue our evolution, we need to reach a deeper level of species consciousness
and self-awareness, transform our planetary culture and social systems so they serve
the entire community of life, and integrate and anchor psychic capacities as part of a
new paradigm and mythological substrate‖ 15

This hypothesis was developed by New Yorker author on consciousness Daniel Pinchbeck.
Human consciousness is suggested to evolve and expand from unconscious to an individual

15
www.realitysandwich.com/extravagant_hypothesis
21
– to an ecological – to an universal self. We may have put ourselves unconsciously by
ourselves in this situation of separation, to gain a higher level which we can move towards to.
Lower level consciousness results in disconnection from nature. In opposite, a connection
with nature is seen as an altered state of consciousness. Psychological and cultural
separation, which is supposed to be found in most contemporary societies, is thought to be
passed on to every new generation. Advertising and the already mentioned economic
incentives may separate us from nature at large. By regarding the implications of capitalism
on our social life, it seems obvious that the consumer society is more a cause than a result of
the psychological separation from nature. 16

THE CULTURE OF CONSUMERISM

There are many possible scenarios part of the general discourse of the disconnection of
human beings from the higher human nature. For example, it is suggested that human‘s
suffering is not caused by the separation from nature, but that it is maintained by the current
state of our system, which is based on institutions. We are perpetuating the idea of
continuous investing, producing and consuming, directed to the individual. In fact, among the
many propagated amplifiers, it has been argued that consumerism is an important example,
seen as both aswell as a consequence and as a cause of separation.

First of all, I want to point out, that the purpose of this chapter is not to describe all
consumerism as bad and evil, but the chapter shall show and encourage people thinking how
far consumerism affects our global society and our natural environment. We found out now,
that it is our culture which is responsible for the ecological crisis where we find ourselves.
Everyone exerts culture to a certain degree. Our culture we practice is a direct outcome from
the crisis in consciousness, which inhabits our psyche and which is further characterized by
our insufficient understanding of the self.´Overpopulation´ is often blamed as the major cause
of environmental degradation, but in fact the problem lies rather in about how and for what
purpose resources of a land are used. Land is used to produce food for the western world.
This has an enormous impact on the environment and on sustainability. However, the most
populated regions in the world use far less recourses than the wealthiest nations. Even if
pollution is occurring in poor countries, a large portion of it is to meet this consumer demand
in rich countries.

16
The Separation from More-than-Human Nature, 1999, John Scull, pages 1 – 8
members.shaw.ca/jscull/separate.htm
22
The chapter should serve to show, that the observation of our consumption patterns, which
contribute to inequality in the world, are suggested to be the core problem of the critical
current situation.

Thinking outside of the box: A medium to get access to goods – Money &
Consumption

To address the problem of consumerism in our culture and how it is related to the ecological
crisis, it needs to take one step outside of the box and make a general approach to the basic
human needs, which we require to survive. ´Thinking outside the box´ means basically to
think of things unconventionally - from a new perspective. In this case, it means to think of
humans and their basic needs to survive, which is basically the distribution of food and water.
Humanity has reached a state where it is capable of distributing enough material goods to
feed, to cloth to give shelter and to educate every single human being on this planet.
Obviously, we as a species have not accomplished this possible goal, where our advanced
technical tools could provide a total different scenario on this planet. Our current
management of food and material goods is certainly far away from a state where every single
being can benefit from. Our present existence is described as a ´first´ world, where material
overload with mental degradation can be observed, and a ´third world´ where the opposite –
scarcity in nearly every belonging of human needs – is making up reality. This reality is
perpetuated by our way of how we distribute goods. Our rules for the distribution of
commodities, which determines who gets and who does not get, are basically the rules of the
monetary system.

Money is the exchange – medium in which prices and values are expressed. The general
function of money should be to enable buying to be separated from selling. That means it
allows getting goods, without the act of barter, which is the act of exchanging goods. If a
person has something to sell and wants something else in return, the use of money avoids
the need to search for someone able and willing to make the desired exchange of items. The
person can sell the surplus item for general purchasing power—that is, ―money‖—to anyone
who wants to buy it and then use the proceeds to buy the desired item from anyone who
wants to sell it.17
A basic mechanism in the monetary system is consumerism, which basically determines our
whole culture. We are living in a culture where consumerism, the amount of goods we can
have, measures our worth and well – being. An adequate perspective to see how

17
www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/389170/money
23
preposterous our rules for distribution of goods are, can be achieved by letting apart the
reality of money. Considering a scenario, where money is from one day to another not
available or is simply disappeared, the world would still be the same: Acres and fields for
growing and harvesting crops as well as goods in the stores and everywhere else would still
exist. From such a perspective, it becomes clear, that it is apparently our rules of distribution
that cause disparity. Money is just the hindrance between what one needs and what one is
able to get. People therefore need money to get access to resources.

Consumerism & Society

The act of exchanging money for material goods is called to consume, a consumer therefore
is a person who buys goods and uses services.18 Consumerism is the theory that a
progressively greater consumption of goods is economically beneficial. It is further described
as the attachment to materialistic values or possessions.19

A specific attribute of our consumer society is that people live with the idea, that well-being
can be accomplished by the materialistic view of what we have and what we can buy.
Another characteristic of the consumer society is the philosophy of having more than others
have. This idea is perpetuated by pseudo realities of movies, television and mass media in
general. Personal worth is determined of how ones material possession relates to the ones
of others. The status symbol is defined as an item which is not acquired for its utility, but
rather for its use as a visible sign of membership in a particular social class or group. It is the
center of personal desire20 It is pretended that the promises of a consumer society were real,
but they are not. Money, the material possession, in fact does not give satisfaction with life
and does evidently not make psychological happier.
Environmental degradation is a direct outcome of how we deal with our resources. 21

The development of consumerism

The approach to the mechanics of consumerism shall give a picture of how the behavior of
participants of the consumer culture is responsible for the inequality between us and also for
the ecological crisis

When examining the development of consumerism, it shall be considered that there has
been a time, when there was no such an incongruous method of exchanging goods like

18
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/consumer
19
http://dictionary.reference.com/dic?q=consumerism&search=search
20
www.businessdictionary.com
21
The high price of materialism, 2003, pages ix – xiii
24
today. Before the period of modern consumerism, there have been cultures around, which
practiced alternatives to consuming, which provided meaning and pleasure without being a
consumerist. Indeed, even in modern times, there are groups, which reject consumerism.
While traditional cultures in pre-modern times were characterized by widespread poverty in
lower classes, consumerism in higher classes was not advocated like it is nowadays. It was
rather cultural belief which opposed consumerism and material possession. Care of public
goods, the value systems as religion were meant to be more important than consumerism,
which in pre – modern times appeared mostly among aristocrats. A form of consumer life
style could be observed before the 18th century among the upper class, which gained this
status through heroic deed in wars and special political service. At that time, consumerism
appeared only among the upper class. Nevertheless, these people could be hardly described
as consumers. In times before the 18th century those rulers lived in bedraggled mansions
and wore sleazy clothes, and only appreciated objects such as swords and jewelry.
Consumerism and upper class could not be put in one pot at that time. It appeared that even
among aristocrats groups were in dispute. Some praised material goods, some were
contemptuous about it. The common interests were fancy clothes and imports like sugar.
While they were hard to get in that specific area, still there were aristocrats who preferred
simplicity. Consumer products of the upper class such as Chinese silk, porcelain, spices from
India or gold from Africa for jewelry were the main part of international trade.
Still, consumerism was just a phenomenon in the aristocratic society to make distinction
between classes, which were largely poor compared to modern standard. This poverty was
one obstacle for the application of consumerism of the whole society. Village economies
were often self – sufficient and trade was limited to the local regions. Nevertheless, these
local village economies were not poor, among farmer and peasant existed a certain
hierarchy. An important argument to be pointed out for the purpose of what shall be
described in this chapter is that peasants, who were not necessarily poor, had non –
consumerist values.

Artisanal guilds, grouping craft workers in Japan, the Middle East or Western Europe,
deliberately discouraged profit maximization and individual display in favor of group
solidarity.22

In general it can be stated, that some people of the upper class had interests in goods
beyond survival, but did not think in consumerist terms. Moreover, there wasn´t even a
religious or spiritual value system before the 18th century which could be the basis for

22
Stearns, 2001, page 17
25
consumerism. Major Religions, for instance, such as Buddhism or Christianity, Chinese
Confucianism and also the Islam even proposed spiritual values and personal
accomplishment rather than worldly pleasures such as wealth. They were not welcome and
stood for separation with the holy. Consumerism would have been clearly rejected. However,
these major religions did not reject consumerism completely. After some time they ´tolerated´
material wealth and let it be the concern of the adherent. Displaying goods for showing the
grade of success on achieved became more and more popular, but that did not mean to be a
ground for consumerism. Nevertheless, even major religions expressed consumerism in a
certain way: Catholics arranged their churches with expensive goods to glorify god.
Traditional value systems such as the major religions had in a certain way a connection to
consumerism.

Pre modern consumerism does not apply to societies that were not agricultural.
Hunting and Gathering and nomadic societies societies simply did not generate a great
deal of durable surplus.23

That fits to the description of totalitarian agriculture and its exploiting character of the last
chapter.
Also, no patterns of modern consumerist habits can be found in history before the fall of the
classical empires of Rome, Han China, and Gupta India. In that time, luxury existed, but no
kind of consumerism. That changed when new trade routes between Europe and Asia were
established in the period between 500 – 1450. By then, Islamic merchants, businessman and
of course aristocrats developed some kind of what we call nowadays consumerist habits. In
general, mainly merchants became clear consumerist. By the 16th century, in many cities
quarters of consumption have been established, especially in Europe and China. In other
words, wealth and trade were concentrated in cities. Before modern times it was specifically
wealth, which created consumerism. Therefore, even in the richest cities, consumption was a
habit only referred to the wealthy, not to the poor.
A big difference between consumerism today and the one of that time was that new products
instantly became traditional. Equipment became standardized and clothes were chosen to be
worn by traditional values and rules.
The first attacks on consumerism, mainly on the one in prosperous cities, came from
dominant value systems such as religions. Be it that, for instance, the use of certain goods
was not mentioned in the Holy Scriptures, or that religious reformers sporadically attacked
luxury and consumption. A fact that consumerism did not evolve in pre – consumerist times,
is that there were simply no sufficient infrastructure for trade. Ordinary people lived near
23
Stearns, 2001, page 7
26
material scarcity. As already mentioned, most peasants and farmers produced goods mainly
for themselves. They acquired land for security and did not think about consumption. Few
had enough for subsistence. On the markets only a few goods, which use was beyond
necessity, were available. The process of trade did not encourage consumerism.
In the pre – consumerist world, it was a matter of course to contribute to the community,
spending goods and work toward the collective. Displacing goods, which would encourage
individualism, was a contradiction to their traditional group norms. Festivals in the pre –
consumerist times were meant to emphasize solidarity and repetition and people did not
have to goal to express their individuality by fetish consumer products. The search for a
deeper meaning for living together in communities, and not the will for consumption, resulted
from economic struggle. Societies far and wide built meaningful behaviors as an alternative
to consumerism. 24

Evolvement of modern consumerism

The following page shall give a general picture of how consumerism as we know it evolved. It
was the well developed cities and regions with prosper commercial economy with access to
global products where the form of consumerism, as we know it, evolved first. It is
documented that by the middle of the 18th century in Britain, France, the Netherlands and in
parts of Germany and Italy consumer societies existed. Consumerism in the United States
developed slightly different. The development of consumerism is described by some special
goods which triggered marked mechanisms. The first mass product consumed is said to be
sugar, which wealthy people in Europe since the middle ages saw as luxury. The increased
need for sugar led to the development of a broad market for a product – sugar – which was
indeed not necessary for surviving. With the ongoing development of consumerism, the
overall quality of life, such as housing and clothing increased. At the end of the 17th century
colonies were extraordinarily high in trait and profit, perpetuated by the trend of coffee and
tea consumption. The coffee consumption for example, led to the prosper establishment of
coffee houses in 18th century and further caused the consumption of additive products such
as more beautiful serving sets, coffee and tea sets. Soon, the producing – consuming
mechanisms spread over continents, and the number of shops and new marketing strategies
increased. There was a clear demand for non – essential products.
The initial factor of what caused the revolution of consumerism to the form we know today is
not quite sure. Some historians suggest that it were the shopkeepers, who distorted the
consumer needs by displacing consumer goods in the windows. Consumerism in Western

24
Stearns, 2001, pages 1 – 14
27
Europe in fact involved revolutionary change in the new way goods were sold and promoted
and most important in the goals people set in their daily lives. Between 1800 and 1920
consumerism influenced administration and institutions. Department stores spread over
Europe and the U.S and advertising institutions and mail order catalogues were spread.25

The Consumerist revolution

The consumerism explosion took place in 1920 – triggered by a change in the psychological
profile of society. A transition from pre – consumerism to the one we have nowadays took
place. A new type of person emerged – the consumer.

―On or about December 10 […] human character changed. The change was not
sudden and definite […] but a change there was nevertheless and since one must be
arbitrary, let us date it about the year 1910.― 26

Products were no longer needed to subsist but became a necessity, essentially when they
were specifically promoted. The human Self – which has already been discussed – became
involved.

―Acquiring goods was becoming part of individuals identity, their measurement of what
a satisfactory live involved‖ 27

The change in the human psyche concerning needs affected both, the wealthy and the poor.

―The consumer Revolution is a strange chapter in the ethnographic history of the

species. For what may have been the first time in its history, a human community
willingly harbored a nonreligious agent of social change, and permitted it to change on
a continual and systematic basis virtually every feature of social life.‖28

Those who were unable to indulge their needs began to steal. It is said, that theft is an
intrinsic characteristic of the consumer revolution. Another characteristic is that material
objects were more and more symbolizing emotions and new ideas and conceptions of
comfort arose. Last but not least, the idea arose, that consumerism might be a cure for the
state of mind of boredom. However, it is not sure if consumerism is a natural phenomenon
and if it does occur naturally or spontaneously in us. There is a certain mechanism in the

25
Stearns, 2001, pages 13 ff./chapter II
26 Richard H. Robbins, page 12
27 Stearns, 2001, page 21
28
Grand McCracken, 1990, page 29

28
society which perpetuates consumption. Otherwise, without that mechanism the desire for
non - essential products would exhaust. Products required to be continual promoted.29

Advertising
The reinforcement of needs in the public happens in general through commercials and
advertising, they serve to convince the public of many needs of which they were previously
unaware.
Advertising is defined ―as the act or practice of calling public attention to one's product,
service, need, etc., esp. by paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio
or television, on billboards, etc.: to get more customers by advertising.‖ 30
Needs which were previously unaware can generally be called false needs. The advertising
industry meant that consumption is not guaranteed, but can be promoted, therefore they
invented powerful methods such as constant stream of commercials in mass media. Beside
the business community also more official participants such as for example the U.S.
Government were interested in promoting needs for goods which were not essential. The
intent was of course to strengthen the economy.
The promotion for ´optional purchases´ strengthened the need for perpetual new wants. With
that development the need for ´Status symbols´ arose. The traditional meaning of worth of an
individual was the involvement in society and its tribute to community. From then on the
value or rather the owning and possessing of a product is required to categorize an individual
place in society of a person. Initially advertising was meant to promote a product, but then its
purpose moved to promote consumerism itself – to manipulate society that consumerism is a
way of life. Alienation, mental loss and emptiness became the principal factor for
consumption - Consumption shall be the answer to spiritual emptiness.
Another phenomenon accompanying modern consumerism was that humans lost sight of
where their products of desire originated from. With technological advances in transportation
and logistics, it became easy to place a product over a long distance in short time. Therefore
nature became a consumer product, and was easily exploited.
Americas Society which practiced a culture where needs and services could never be met,
and hardly recognized that they created a problem with tremendous implications on the
future. Industry at that time rooted in the religious ideology of the domination over the
resources of the earth, which were thought to be inexhaustible. While consumerism was not
fully established before the Second World War, it fully exploded in the years afterwards.
Consumerism has been masked as a form of patriotism to boost the U.S. economy in the

29
Emerald, 2004, page 3-4
30
www.dictionary.com
29
years after the war. For those who experienced a loss from the war, consumption should
serve as the ultimate answer to refill their souls. While the numbers of economic growth were
prospering, psychological sickness and mental degradation were measured to be immense.
The mental separation from nature and the lack of awareness of connectivity of man and
nature were stronger than ever. Mankind, from then on headed onto an ecological disaster.
Nowadays an average consumer has a complete false understanding of his needs.

Nature is no longer a synonym of life on earth and becomes ´the environment‘, whose
main feature is being the resource bank for fulfilling human needs, and the creation of
new ones. 31

A happy life is imagined by the collection of material goods. An even a happier life is seen as
the attraction of even more and bigger material objects. The bombardment of advertising in
mass media in daily live, which promote consuming as the ideal in life, creates a false self.
Advertising creates the illusion that there is a product for each problem in life. 32

Consumption & Self

The deception of the human self has already been mentioned. Here it shall be explained how
it is related to consumerism and also the characteristics of the false self.
The false self is on the one hand related to the infant and its relationship with the mother and
on the other to external impulses. The primary instinct of the baby is survival. Therefore it
recalibrates and sets its expression to gain maximum attention to the mother. As the baby
gets more and more involved with that specific communication it subordinates its ―true self‖ in
favor to a more effective ―false self‖. The false self´s purpose is to interact with the mother.
When the infant matures, the dichotomy between the true and the false self continues. Now it
is the social rules, customs and protocols as well as conventions the individual contributes to.
The mature infant defines itself how others see it.
Society becomes the autopilot of our self and praises the false self. Instead of establishing
and evolving its own self, it follows the conditions and constraints of these other worlds,
mostly illusory worlds of TV and mass media. Fashion in its many different forms are a good
example for the representation of the ´false´ self. The fashion commercial industry
manipulates human beings for their own purpose. Fashion brands are disposed on clothes
on a conspicuously place, where they can be well recognized. Values are manipulated in a
form, that the individual believes it resembles a certain social status, but is truly expressing a

31
Osorio, Lobato, Castillo, 2004, page 14
32
Consumerism, Nature and the Human Spirit, 2004, pages 4 – 19
30
company`s purpose for advertising. If there are enough people manipulated in that way, a
´trend´ comes up. A trend is a general course or prevailing tendency. (www.dictionary.com).
Trends can become so powerful that they unconsciously are been taken as the general
reality. Those who do not contribute are seen as outlaws and alienated individuals. If the
individual deals with those external impulse of society, a kind of buffer arises, where the true
self can hide itself. However the now – adult‘s world is defined as a lack in stability and is
fragile and always close to breakdown. The true self hides behind the false self, which is
practicing social roles, and is regarded as the authentic self. The consumer self can be
regarded as the false self. It is the terrific distortion of authentic human needs and desires.
The focus on external impulses to maintain the self comes from childhood, where parental
approval and love was awaited. Patriotism and Religions are classical examples for external
indoctrination at an early age. Children are conditioned to feel closely related to its Nation or
to its Religion. Mass media and advertising created a worldview, in which center are lying
individual self interests such as Greed, Jealousy and Ego. These are the outcomes of this
conditioning and not merely the human nature, as it is often suggested.33

Effects of Consumerism on the Environment – Cyclical Consumption

The current culture we practice can be seen as a culture of consumerism. The implications of
creating artificial or rather false needs on the human psyche have been already examined,
and can easily be empirical observed in our society. The next question is, as it already might
have been recognized, how consumerism affects our environment. In the last half decade,
the most part of the industrial society became aware of environmental degradation caused by
human action. The most frightening scenario that can be observed is the Global Warming
which is believed to be caused by us. Many people start to change their behavior in the
justifiable expectation to ease the pressure of our system on nature. Exerted actions of the
society, like the saving of CO2 emissions or the use of public transport are the believed small
steps to a saner future of mankind. Still this can be seen as a dealing with symptoms.

The economic system we practice is maintained by a certain mechanism which could be

seen as the motor of our economic system and actions we take on the planet. This
mechanism is called cyclical consumption.
Everyone who is a participant of our socioeconomic culture embodies a certain role which is
generally the ´employee´, the ´consumer´ and the ´employer´. The employee exerts actions

33
http://phenomenologicalpsychology.com / www.thezeitgeistmovemt.com / Observations and Responses –
Activist Orientation Guide.
31
for his chief, which is the employer. He does that for an earning, which is money. The
employer, who is also a producer, sells goods or services to the consumer. By doing that he
aims to achieve a Profit. Profit is the fiscal gain resulting from the employment of capital in
any transaction. It is further the ratio of fiscal gain to the amount of capital invested.
(www.dictionary.com). The employer as the employee are both in the role of the ´consumer´
by purchaseing goods and services they need for their survival and to make profit. Therefore
it is required to make the act of consumption, to assure the survival of both – the one of the
employee as the employer‘s. This mechanism maintains our economic system; otherwise the
entire structure would fail. Without cyclical consumption no one of these protagonists would
be able to afford his survival.
The next step of the explanation of the mechanics of cyclical consumption gives the general
reason for environmental degradation and its pollution: To maintain our system through
consumption, goods have to be exchanged. The lifespan of a product must not be any longer
than the economic intactness can endure. Financial circulation would not be possible if a
product would not break down in a certain amount of time. This breakdown of a product is an
intentional value of it. Consequently, industry uses cheap material and poor design to save
money and therefore create ongoing consumption.
Beside the degradation of a product, there is a psychological relationship between the owner
and the material product. A product passes several cycles of exchange, which are driven by
cycles of attachment that is meant to be the pleasur of the product‘s owner here. A consumer
is attached to a product to some types of pleasure. These types are Sociological Pleasure,
Psychological Pleasure, Physiological Pleasure and Ideological Pleasure. These types of
pleasure deal with certain kinds of moral values (ideological pleasure) and status in society
(sociological pleasure). When products pass owners, they age and they become
unfashionable and may decay. There are items which can be graded up and restored, such
as houses, and become sustainable and maintain into the future. There are products or
items, which are not meant to be restored and upgraded. These products are inferior,
because, for instance, producers use plastics for electronics enclosures. That saves money,
for both the consumer and the producer, but is completely unsustainable. The durability of
materials for a specific purpose such as the enclosure of electronics is important. Durability is
short when using plastics instead of a stronger material such as metal.
This is the important fact to point out here. Waste and pollution and the therefore also
exploitation of environment is a byproduct of the need to keep cyclical consumption ongoing.
A new product is introduced and replaces the ´old´ generation of a product even if it is not
necessarily functional or needed. Pollution of the environment is accelerated by the ever new
introduction of a product. Advertising has already been identified as a manipulating – tool of
32
human needs. Environmentally sustainable practices cannot be maximized, due to the need
for cyclical consumption as the motor for maintaining the current state.
To get a clear picture, one has to change the perspective and imagine a world, where only
the strategically best and most efficient materials and techniques are used to create a
product. If things like mobile phones or mp3 - players were made to last eternally,
consumption would decline and so would also pollution of nature and waste landfills.
Advertising turned luxury into necessities in order to increase consumption.

―Only by producing and selling things and services does capitalism in its present form
work, and the more that is produced and the more that is purchased the more we have
progress and prosperity.― 34

Obviously our system rests on very fragile and questionable columns.

Consumerism and Western countries

Due to the incredible amount of waste our culture produces, there are ―hidden‖ costs of
convenient items to society, to the environment and to individuals, and there are also various
sociopolitical and economic effects on those who do consume. For those who are unable to
consume: someone has to pay for our high degree consumption levels.

―The problem is that in 1990, worldwide there were only 1.7 hectares of ecologically
productive land for each person. […] the deficit is made up in core countries by drawing
down the natural resources of their own countries and expropriating the resources,
through trade, of peripheral countries‖ 35

Inequality in consumption is always linked to the roots of consumption. In simple words, our
system is structured to create waste, not speaking of the waste which is not measured. By
eliminating the roots‘ cause for waste, the entire system would have to be changed, and
consequently consumption on the level we know today would decline. Waste is so much
involved in the system, that entire types of jobs and industries would not be necessary any
more. 36

With the ongoing development of consumerism, new trends can be observed. The waste and
rubbish of a consumer society such as disposal cameras, plastic garbage bags and other
inexpensively produced items lead to a so called ´throw away´ society. Insufficient treatment

34
www.globalissues.org
35
www.globalissues.org
36
http://www.globalissues.org/article/238/effects-of-consumerism
33
of waste in our system is an important factor to the throw away mentality. Great Britain for
instance was a country, where until the 1960´s recycling was an ideal and people watched
out that they can avoid as much waste as possible. The use of glass bottles instead of plastic
bottles for milk delivery or the uses of own bags for shopping were an example. Campaigns
for waste reducing in cooperation with soft drink firms, such as the re-use of bottles, led to
appearance of the first bottle banks at the end of the seventies. While some goals for
reducing waste were successfully achieved, other waste appeared due to the enormous rise
in consumption at that time. The failure of certain waste reducing policies is claimed to be the
reason for the growing amount of garbage. Nevertheless, it must be for everyone obvious to
see that there is not infinite place for the disposal of waste. Although there are certain EU
policies and that the domestic waste is comparatively low, governments do little to confront
big corporations and their business interests. Most of those policies are regarded as not
transparent and irregularly enforced. Regulations and laws often rather create new problems
than they solve them.
The adjustment of every individual‘s behavior to the specific regulations and laws, instead of
acting and deciding on their own of what action is adequate in a specific situation may be a
core problem of our culture. In fact, capitalism unavoidably produces waste just as it
produces separation and inequality among human beings. The ´throw away´ society is
characterized by a short-term use of an item: getting rid of it instead of repairing it. Nowadays
goods are produced to be obsolete almost as soon as you buy them.

It has to be mentioned that not only resources are used wastefully, but also human labor and
effort.37

Further approach to the impact of consumerism

Experts say that most of the environmental issues we have to deal with are linked to
consumption. Our current way of business, if not changed soon, could cause mass
extinction. According to studies, more than a million of plants and animal species could be
extincted by 2050. Climate change causes a terrific pressure on a number of natural habitats.
This is an extrapolated number, according to a study on the impact of global warming on

37
www.thezeitgeistmovement.com
/ http://www.essex.ac.uk/chimera/publications.htm /
http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2008/08/waste-supercapitalism-policy /
http://www.globalissues.org/issue/235/consumption-and-consumerism
34
natural habitats, where it was estimated that 15 to 35 % of the observed 1103 species could
be wiped out. Some scientists say that even this horrifying numbers are optimistic.38

The highly unsustainable aspect of our system, which is cyclic consumption, has already
been explained. It is reported that circa 1.7 billion people on the world practice modern
consumerism and belong to the so called consumer class. In a global view, there is an
inequality in consumption. In 2005, the wealthiest 20% of the world accounted for 76.6% of
total private consumption. The poorest fifth accounts only for 1.5% of private consumption.
Further, the poorest 10% accounted for just 0.5%, and the wealthiest 10% accounted for
59% of all the consumption. Due to the Human Development report in 1998, the richest fifth
consumed 45% of all meat and fish, (the poorest fifth consumed 5%), 58% of total energy
(the poorest fifth consumed less than 4%), had 74% of all telephone lines (the poorest had
1.5%), 84% of all paper (the poorest fifth had 1.1%), and they owned 87% of the worlds
vehicles (the poorest fifth less than 1%) 39

The increasing prosperity leads to incurring depts and longer working hours in ordre to be
able to afford the high – lifestyle. That means one spends less time with friends and family.
The problem is, that developing countries are overhauling fast and establishing the same
unsustainable consumer habits, such as the desire for bigger houses, bigger cars – simply:
lifestyles devoted to the accumulation of non – essential goods. China and India, with a 360
million people consuming, are the most potential 3rd world candidates for expansion.
The impact of this expansion is dejecting hope for the recovering of the natural world. If
emerging nations such as China and India follow the same path as today‘s rich countries,
their consumption patterns will also be damaging the environment. The advances in
communication, transport technologies and politics for open markets, make previously out of
reach items and products suddenly available for people in 3rd world countries. Former
luxury, such as cell phones and computers are becoming necessities. In China for instance
the number of cars jumped from 5 million in the year 2000 to approximately 24 million at the
end of 2005. The impact of the growing number of cars on the environment and on
exploitation on recourses is self evident. Another issue is the habits of alimentation of the
average consumer in industrial countries. The meat consumption for instance requires an
enormous amount of resources. To provide enough beef, chicken, and pork to meet the
demand, the livestock industry has moved to factory farming. Producing eight ounces of beef
requires 6,600 gallons (25,000 liters) of water; 95 percent of world soybean crops are

38
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/01/0107_040107_extinction.htm

39
http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr1998/
35
consumed by farm animals, and 16 percent of the world's methane, a destructive
greenhouse gas, is produced by belching, flatulent livestock.
(http://news.nationalgeographic.com/) Most of these can be led back to fast food
corporations. Industrial agriculture is using more monocultures and the loss of biodiversity is
leading to more resource usage. Drugs are required for animals, due to the horrific state of
affair on breeding animals for food production. Further, as consumption increases so does
waste and therefore the resource base of the earth has to expand to meet growth and related
demands. If the resource base expands to other people‘s lands, then those people don‘t
necessarily get to use those resources either.

According to the human developing report of 1998, the real problem is not consumption itself,
but its patterns and effects. Consumption nowadays is exploiting nature on a high degree
and it is amplifying inequalities among consumers. The gap between rich and poor is getting
bigger. If humanity continues to celebrate business as usual and does not change the
behavior, the future cannot be expected to be sane. The most significant aspect about the
incapability of creating a saner culture is shown by the following numbers of global priority in
1998.
While 6 billion US Dollars were spent for basic education for all, 9 billion USD for water and
sanitation for all, 12 billion USD for reproductive health for all women and 13 billion USD for
basic health and nutrition for all – 8 billion USD were spent for cosmetics in the US, 11 billion
USD for ice cream in Europe, 12 billion USD for perfumes and 17 billion USD for pet foods in
Europe and the US, 35 billion USD in business entertainment in Japan, 50 billion USD for
Cigarettes in Europe, 105 billion USD for alcoholic drinks in Europe, 400 billion for narcotic
drugs in the world, and 780 billion USD for military spending in the world were spent.

The numbers show, that our basic needs have been widely fulfilled. We spent most of the
money and our energy on luxury items. The problem is that the overall part of consumer
does not ask essential questions, which would make the environmental impact more clear.
These issues should be raised by the consumer: the origin and pre –treatment of the
products and resources, the impact of production on environment and wider society, the role
and influence of advertising, pressure groups and business interests, the role of media and
government, the necessity of luxury, basic consumption mechanics in international scale,
materialism and the influence on our relationships. 40

40
Human development report, http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/hdr_1998_en_chap1.pdf /
http://www.globalissues.org/issue/235/consumption-and-consumerism
36
 ―However, the production, processing, and consumption, of commodities requires the
extraction and use of natural resources […] it requires the creation of factories and
factory complexes whose operation creates toxic byproducts, while the use of
commodities themselves (e.g. automobiles) creates pollutants and waste. Yet of the
three factors environmentalists often point to as responsible for environmental pollution
— population, technology, and consumption — consumption seems to get the least
attention. One reason, no doubt, is that it may be the most difficult to change; our
consumption patterns are so much a part of our lives that to change them would
require a massive cultural overhaul, not to mention severe economic dislocation. A
drop in demand for products, as economists note, brings on economic recession or
even depression, along with massive unemployment.‖ 41

OUR WORLDVIEW

Indeed, humanity finds itself in a fundamental ecological crisis. Our actions on the surface of
the earth tend to create more and more irreversible feedback loops which tend to bring
natural cycles of the biosphere out of balance. Be it the ruthless destroying of the rainforests,
the immense reduction of fish population in the seas of the world, western civilization seems
to have lost connection to nature as the understanding of how far we are implemented in
nature and not excluded. As the content of the last chapter suggests is the crisis, we find
ourselves in,a crisis of consciousness.
Beside the consumerism paradigm, it is the paradigm of how we see the world, which is not
sustainable. Our interpretation of the perception of the world we live in is the one of a
mechanistic worldview - and manner of creating knowledge.

The mechanistic approach of understanding our world is a powerful philosophy and is the
base for the ongoing scientific development so far. Therefore this established understanding
has turned to be the blueprint for reality in western civilization. If we cannot explain a certain
phenomena we are trying to reduce it to a level which we can understand - that is real for us.

―We search for what is ―really real‖ […] we must get down to the reality that is the
source or substance of the phenomenon. We take it apart to see what makes it thick, or
we re-trace the development of the phenomenon to its roots.‖ 42

41
Robbins, 1999, page 204
42
Jones, 2000, page 13
37
Humanities need of understanding nature is satisfied, when at least the more basic part of a
phenomenon can be explained. If we would say that ´heat´ is achieved, by one hot object
heating another, we would not be satisfied. The explanation for ´heat´ itself would not be
fulfilled, and by repeating this on and on, we would end in an endless chain of causality. It is
more useful to explain heat by more basic phenomena, such as the result of kinetic energy,
which is produced by the movement of molecules. One can say that ´Heat´ is the movement
of molecules, and not the result of it. Therefore the phenomenon of heat is ´reduced´ to the
action of tiny particles.
Science has made ´reduction´ to the only valid form of explanation. What might seem at the
one hand as a purpose- and powerful kind of generating knowledge is on the other hand a
questionable approach, mainly when it come to the reduction of ´life´ itself. Regarding
chemistry as nothing but laws of physics, or saying a machine is the sum of its parts seems
to be convenient, but when saying life is nothing but a product generated by non-living
material, reductionism reaches its limits and more and more people are feeling displeased
with it. That is understandable, if life is called ―nothing but‖ the sum of motorized interactions.
Therefore humans are nothing but robots, mind is nothing but the activity of our brain and our
life is determined by our genes. These definitions make up the modernist view of a human
being, where there is an immense similarity to a machine.43

―We asked ourselves, what is a human being? And we answered by saying, human
beings are advanced animals. And what are animals? They are systems of life
processes. And what are these life processes? Well, they are dynamic systems of
atoms and molecules. And so, in a few simple steps we reduced our idea of a human
being to a set of material, atomic, phenomena‖44

The philosophy of reduction merely doesn´t end in the established scientific community, but
is part of the general thinking process in different fields outside of science in western society.
The thinking, that ´the whole is the sum of its parts´ makes up reality and the parts are more
real than the whole.

―It is not unusual to hear that all that is real is only the physical, the rational, the
programmable, or whatever is given primacy.‖45

Be it that the culture of a society is nothing but the effect of the interaction of its individuals,
or as mentioned above, an organism is nothing else than complex life processes. The same

43
Jones, 2000, page 13ff
44
http://www.realitysandwich.com/return_being_human
45
Jones, 2000, page 13
38
thinking method is applied when perceiving our whole natural environment. Nature is rather a
composition of quantitative objects than qualitative subjects. This is where the idea of
reductionism becomes for many irritating, and where it comes to the crisis of consciousness.
It is easy to exploit nature, if it is regarded merely as a dead machine, than a symbiosis of
vital entities.

Reductionism

"A simplistic model of human beings as self-seeking, almost robotic, creatures plus an
overriding belief in human selfishness have created "a cage" for human beings in
modern society.46

In the following chapter I will give a general explanation of reductionism and also describe its
different types. Further I will go into other established philosophies, which are closely related
to it, such as positivism. Specific examples should serve to understand the limits of
reductionism and where its concept as an established way of thinking throughout the world
becomes questionable. I want to show that a holistic viewpoint of existence makes more
sense, especially when it comes to humanities relationship with nature.

Before I go into the topic itself, I find it necessary to clarify the terminology briefly.
Reductionism, in short, is the belief that complex date, phenomena, etc. can be explained in
terms of something simpler. 47
Obviously, the word reductionism bears the verb ´to reduce´, which resembles a constant in
our habitual language. Etymological explained, the word comes from Latin from ´re - ducere´,
which basically means to lead back.
It first appeared in the 14th century, when Middle English was the common language spoken.
The word itself can be used in many different ways. For example, if searching for the
meaning of the word in a usual online dictionary, beside others the following definitions are
stated: to diminish in size, amount, extend, or number or for instance to tread analytically a
complex idea.48 (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reduce)
However, the word ´reductionism´ has in comparison very particular meanings, and stands
for merely complex meanings, rather than to diminish or trim some particular thing down or to
cut down the number of descriptive entities. In modern discourse, the word is often not well
defined and also misused for contempt from disputants.

46
www.realitysandwich.com
47
www.dictionary.com
48
Kim, 1996, page 89
39
 ―To call someone a ´reductionist´ in high culture – press if not in serious philosophy,
goes beyond mere criticism or expression of doctrinal disagreement; it is to put a
person down, to heap scorn on him and his work.‖

As the word ´reduce´ can be found in ´reductionism´ so can be the word ´reduction´.
49
´Reduction´ is declared as the direction and goal all science should take. . The following
definitions should explain what is meant by that.

The Definition of reductionism in an ordinary online-lexicon says that the term denotes any
intellectual strategy for reducing apparently diverse phenomena to some primary or basic
50
explanatory principle. With other words, reductionism is an approach to understanding the
nature of complex things like objects, phenomena or even explanations, theories and
meanings. By reducing them to the interactions of their parts, or to simpler or more
fundamental things, a better understanding of the whole should be reached.

Simple examples for explaining reductionism are already mentioned above. Others are for
instance that the measured intelligence of human beings or the understanding of social
differences between men and women that could be determined by their genetic patterns.
Habitudes in social and political life could be fully reduced to the economic system which
they are embedded.

A second definition explains it with other words: Reductionism is a philosophical view that
asserts that entities of a given kind are collections or combinations of entities of a simpler or
51
more basic kind . Therefore, reductionism is a philosophical view, which says that a
complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of the whole can be
reduced to the accounts of individual constituents.52

Obviously the term, for understanding reductionism, represents a rather complex set of
ideas. There still remains confusion and a lack of understanding by the mere use of the term.
Even simple definitions like above are not sufficient to get the full picture. Troubles in
understanding the concept of reductionism can be eased, if some other important terms are
understood. One of them is ´Levels of organization´. If entities of a given kind are reduced to
a simpler or more basic kind we are speaking of dividing a whole (living system) into different
levels, one above (cells) or below (atoms) another. Of course, the ´level´ is an abstract
human idea, which does not exclusively appear as a natural phenomenon.

49
Jones, 2000, page 22)
50
www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O88-reductionism.html).
51
www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/494866/reductionism
52
http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/31511
40
Another important term is emergence. It is for example a superficial outgrowth of plant tissue,
such as the prickle of a rose. 53
To connect it with the idea of ´level´, emergence is the appearance of higher levels of
structures, which is the result of so called ´lower – level´ processes. To explain the function
and the property of caused higher level phenomena, it is necessary to gain knowledge from
the level or organization below. Important to mention is, that properties of the higher level
must not necessarily be found or caused by the lower one. ´The higher levels depend upon
the lower but not vice versa´54 Parts do not show signs of the whole, therefore knowledge of
the whole is necessary to understand the parts. The concept behind this is called holism,
which I will discuss further in an own chapter. Holism has found to explain things more easy
and sufficient, where the concept of reductionism bears lacks or simply fails.

´Causality´ means the relation between two temporally simultaneous or successive events,
when the first event (the cause) brings about the other (the effect).55 Causality is closely
related to reductionism, it implies the need for the explanation of another important term,
which is needed to have a better understanding of reductionism. Phenomena of a minor
complex level, which can explain phenomena of a more complex phenomenon, are called
epiphenomena. Important to mention is, that the ´secondary phenomenon´ which
accompanies and is caused by the other, the ´primary phenomenon´, has often no causal
action of influence on the fundamental – the primary phenomena – which serves to explains
it. Therefore the mind, thought, feeling and emotion is the epiphenomenon of released
action-potential of billions of nervous cells in the brain.

The term ´reductionism´ is all too often used when a phenomenon is nothing but analyzed.
Analyzing means to ―to examine methodically by separating into parts and studying their
56
interrelations‖ and for that reason differs from reduction – which means identifying the
whole with its parts, abstracting it in ´levels´. Analyzing is helpful to simplify and bring order
and explanation to a complex and confusing situation. This is where the term ´reduced
phenomenon´ comes in. This approach can be clarified and better understood by the
following statement: ´ the heat of gas is really only the motion of its molecules´. The mind is a
result of interacting nervous cells in our brain.57

53
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/emergence
54
Jones, 2000. Page 21
55
www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/100434/causation
56
www.thefreedictionary.com/analyze
57
Jones, 2000, pages 26 – 31
41
Types of Reductionism
To get a clear picture, it is necessary to make a difference between certain types of
reductionism. It depends on what is being claimed to be reduced, be it an object, a scientific
concept or a simple method. Richard H. Jones in his book ´Reductionism´ distinguishes five
types with the aim to prevent confusion under proponents and its opponents. The five types
are Substantive, Structural (or causal), theoretical (or epistemological), conceptual (or
descriptive), and methodological reduction.

Nowadays many researchers try to develop a unified-field theory to explain the ultimate
building blocks of the universe. The search for a unified-field theory, like also Albert Einstein
did, comes close to a certain philosophical issue, which is ´Ontology´. It is the belief that
reality is composed of a minimum number of forms of entities, such as a unified field which
would connect all in existence, though that claim is generally regarded as metaphysical or
spiritual. It is the study of being and existence in general.58
However, the first group of reductionists relating to this is substantive reductionists. They are
generally obtaining the opinion that the universe is made out of only one type of substance –
such as a field which connects all in universe. Be it matter or something non – physical like a
spirit. Materialists in the west would say, the ultimate substance is matter, and it is the sum of
its parts and nothing more. Matter is the ultimate reality, everything else, like the mind is just
an outcome of material interaction. Observable differences in our reality therefore arise in
quantity of the same stuff. In the western scientific community, the material approach on
ontological substantive reductionism forms the most established understanding of reality.

―It is also the philosophical position which gives physics the greatest weight.‖ 59

Closely related to substantive reduction is structural reduction. If substantive reduction

means to trim down the universe to a certain substance, structural reductionists are asking,
what might be the fundamental pattern of creation? Ontology wouldn´t be fulfilled if it would
not be suggested to ask for a most general structure which underlies a most general
substance. If matter is a fundamental substantial reality, it has to be admitted that there must
be a fundamental structure which gives matter its form. The structure may be enforced by
gravity or electromagnetism and constitutes another undeniable reality of existence. The two
realities, substance and the organizing structure are irreducible to each other. Just like
language is made up of two building blocks, vocabulary and grammar. But, those who
proclaim the idea of these two irreducible realities, are consulted with an explanatory

58
http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/31511
59
Jones, 2000, page 25
42
problem concerning complexity. In system sciences, an organism or machine, whose
interrelated entities or elements produce a behavior which is difficult to explain is often
regarded as complex. For instance; there are complex systems like the internet, whose
structure is very easy to understand, but its properties and behavior is impossible to predict.
The human brain is the most complex agglomeration of nervous cells in the universe to be
found so far, it‘s a system where both, structure and behavior is hard to understand.60

Structural and substantive reductionism therefore says that all that exists is matter organized
by physical structuring alone.

―All properties at apparently higher levels of complexity have to be explained as effects

of the properties and interactions of the presumably structures of matter at the most
basic level‖61

Therefore higher-level phenomena, like a living organism or mind is nothing more than
events at the most basic level – reality is the product of molecules and atoms, they are.[…]

―[…] nothing more than the pictures emerging from the dots of a newspaper‖ 62

In the well developed western scientific community, substantive reductionism is regarded as

common sense and is indeed a general topic in philosophy when it come to the question,
what makes up reality. Nowadays, with the progress in quantum-physics this issue of what is
real is the primary difference of opinion in the whole area of reductionism. And
simultaneously, this is where it comes to another form of reductionism which is also closely
related to ontology. It has less to do with the components of reality itself but more with our
knowledge of it. It is called the theoretical or epistemological reductionism.
Epistemology is defined as the study of knowledge and justified belief. It is understood as the
science which asks for the sources, the conditions, structure and limits of knowledge. It is the
study which proves a scientific belief to be justified or not, and tries to give answers of how
the concept of justification can actually be understood.63

For that reason, established science is concerned with important questions, concerning its
organization: Which science is at most capable to explain the most general building blocks of
our reality? How do we organize our knowledge to serve this effort equitable? How do
different theories from different sciences relate to each other when they are explaining the

60
www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/130050/complexity/129416/The-science-of-complexity
61
Jones, 2000, page26
62
Jones, 2000, page 26
63
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology/
43
same phenomenon? Therefore, theoretical reductionism is also called explanatory
reductionism. The scientific laws and theories for a higher level phenomenon could be
explained as special cases from a more fundamental theory. Theories of biology could be
explained by theories of chemistry, which in turn could be explained by theories of particle
physics until a fundamental level is reached to put an appropriable theory of reality into
words. Nowadays it is clear, that particle physics serve to describe reality more than any
other field of science.

Explanations and descriptions are reaching into another field of reduction, which is the
Conceptual or Descriptive one.
It is the cutback from a more complex to a less complex scientific explanation. The terms of
the already reduced view have to be translatable into the vocabulary of the new reducing
view. It is in fact a semantic reduction, where the language of different sciences depends on
one and the other. One scientific explanation of a certain phenomenon can be used to
explain a phenomenon of another scientific field – Sciences such as biology or psychology
could be defined by a more fundamental science, such as physics.64

―How we describe something may be affected by what we take to be in fact real and thus
affected by how we ultimately explain it‖ 65

Generally speaking, it is about the information which is received by observing reality, and
how it could be re - described when going to things one level below – like those which might
only particle physicist have discovered. The process of arranging knowledge is also called
logical Positivism. It is basically the philosophy behind organizing knowledge. Logical
positivism contributes to be more or less the commonsense of understanding reality. I found
it necessary to go into it a little deeper below. Finally, there is the methodological
reductionism. When theoretical reductionism is about information and knowledge,
methodological reductionism deals with the act of analyzing as the act for studying a
phenomenon. It is more or less about generalization. The generalization states that, if there
are a number of explanations for observed phenomena, the simplest explanation is
preferred.66

Important to mention is, that this kind of reductionism is not implicitly a reduction. Analysis is
a neutral method. As already discussed above, analyzing elements of a system and the
interactions between them is a neutral process and it is not a contribution to the idea of a

64
www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O88-reductionism.html).
65
Jones, 2000, page 28
66
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Methodological+reductionism
44
―…substantive, structural or theoretical reduction […] and without claiming that such an
approach is in the end the only legitimate approach‖ Therefore methodological reductionism
describes an exception among the mentioned types of reduction. Controversially,
ambassadors of the analytical method in turn claim to have the only valid form of examining
reality, apart from of the question of how it is composed.67

Positivism
Beside the forms of reductionism described above this, there is a very common form of
reductionism that has been developed by philosophers in the early last century, called
Positivism. It comprehends all forms of reductionism. The information of experience, which is
received by the direct observation of an existing thing or state of affair, is a general factor in
describing the philosophy of logical positivism. Below I will give an overview on the
development of Positivism.

Logical Positivism excludes all kinds of metaphysical speculations and states that scientific
knowledge is the only kind of factual knowledge. Therefore Positivism regards scientific
progress as the only valid source of information. The People behind that Philosophy were a
group of people in Vienna who gave themselves the label ´Vienna Circle´, established by
physicist and Philosopher Moritz Schlick in 1922. They saw themselves as a reaction of
nineteenth – century German Romanticism and Idealism. Over the years the ´Vienna Circle´
had more and more famous/significant members in its rows, who claimed their new approach
of thinking about the world – logical positivism – is a turning point in philosophy.
Nevertheless, they acknowledged the influence from former thinkers, mostly from those who
showed anti-metaphysical or anti-speculative tendencies in their works. Ernst Mach, Bertrand
Russell, and Ludwig Wittgenstein are important members to mention. Ernst Mach for
instance suggested that all phenomena could be reduced to complexes of interdependent
singular actions. Bertrand Russell was the author of the ´Principia Mathematica´ ‗(1910 –
1913) where he went for the monumental work of trying to show that mathematics is nothing
but an extension of pure logic. Scientific assumptions, which have not pure underlying logic
in its framework, are therefore regarded as insufficient and have no need to be introduced
into the scientific community. 68

67
Reductionism, 2000, pages 24 -28
68
www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404705635.html
45
Ludwig Wittgenstein was the author of the monumental ´Tractatus logico-philosophicus´,
which had profound influence on the Vienna circle´s views, and was widely discussed in
1926. After some further important publications throughout the following ten years a logical
positivist movement was born and reached over to the United States. Despite the Second
World War and other dramatic incidents, such as the murder of earlier positivist Mach by a
student, which led to the disintegration of the Vienna Circle, the positivist movement held a
strong continuing influence on the philosophy of science and other disciplines.
Important to mention is, that at that time, the members of the Vienna Circle felt that they had
discovered the true mission of philosophy […]

‖ …which was to analyze knowledge statements with the aim of making such propositions
clear and unmistakable‖69

…and that all metaphysical thinking systems is meaningless. According to them, the aim of
philosophy is logical analysis.
They stated, that…‖there is knowledge only from experience, which rest on what is
immediately given‖ […] and […] ―the scientific world conception is marked by the application
of a certain method, namely logical analysis. The aim is to reach unified science, by applying
logical analysis to the empirical material.‖
That was a major aspect of the positivists and resulted in their ´unified science´ program. The
aim of that program was to establish a universal language for science as well as to establish
a unity of theories. To gain that goal, they set up rules for an abstract reduction for all
scientific terms so far. The attempt was to reduce all statements about theoretical entities to
statements about regularities in experience, means on a foundation of observational terms.
Only the second of the two unifying – attempts had success. Only scientific considerations
were valid, which take the criterion of observation, as mentioned above, into account.
Metaphysical statements, which can´t be verified of falsified by empirical tests were regarded
as meaningless, but not as false or without influence in daily live. Moritz Schlick, founder of
the Vienna Circle says that

―The empiricist does not say to the metaphysician ´what you say is false´ but ´what
you say asserts nothing at all! He does not contradict him, but says ´I don´t understand
you´.‖ 70

However, the effort to establish a new language for science did not work, without the loss of
content for a full explanation.

69
Caldwell, 1982, page 13
70
Caldwell, 1982, page 14
46
Logical Positivism reached a dogmatic level, as one of their member claims:

―A sentence had empirical meaning only if it was capable […] of complete verification
by observational evidence […] to what could be observed by the speaker and his fellow
beings during their lifetimes.‖71

A statement could only be verified if it could be tested if it is true or false. That is the
´Verifiable Princible´ and the ´Testability Criterion´. As the logical positivism reached a
dogmatic state, problems arose, most notably the observation criterion:
72
―No one had ever observed atoms, protons, or magnetic fields‖ Therefore proposals to
develop the principle of Positivism further on were introduced, as voices came up that
considered Positivism as nothing else than the simplest and most economical abstract
expression of facts.
The American physicist Percy Williams Bridgman (1882 – 1961) developed the position
known as Operationalism. ―He was saying that scientific concepts must be defined in terms
of the operations by which they are measured or applied‖73. (―We shall no longer permit
ourselves to use as tools in our thinking concept of which we cannot give an adequate
account in terms of operation.74 (However, even that further development had its confines,
and implied controversy. Such as phenomena in the natural world, which are untouched by
experiment, would be undefined and meaningless.75

History & Scientific Revolution

For the last 400 years science has advanced by reductionism [...] The idea is that you
could understand the world, all of nature, by examining smaller and smaller pieces of it.
When assembled, the small pieces would explain the whole" John Holland76.)

Reductionism can be seen as a philosophy of explaining the physical world. It is regarded as

common sense in the established well developed institutional scientific community nowadays
and has its origin in the earliest philosophies, such as in the ancient Greece. The term
´reductionism´ itself was introduced in the middle of the 20th century. Beside other
Philosophers in the ancient Greece, Leucippus and Demokrit were important representatives.
They had the idea that everything is made out of tiny, indivisible parts – the atom – and

71
Caldwell, 1982, page 14
72
Caldwell, 1982, page 14.
73
www.philosophyprofessor.com/philosophies/operationalism.php
74
Caldwell, 1982, page14)
75
Caldwell, 1982, pages 1 – 14
76
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/reductionism
47
between them, he suggested is nothing but empty space. The word atom in fact means
´indivisible´. Important to mention is, that this thinking don´t has to be reductive in its very
meaning. The conclusion that everything is made up of small unbreakable parts of matter –
the atom – was inherent in human thinking throughout history. It is the result of a logical
thinking process. People at earlier time thought, if you could divide matter endlessly then it
would not be possible that larger, visible parts of matter could ever occur. However, the
philosophy of Demokrit and his fellows was the first approach of substantive reductionism –
the thinking that reality is composed of a fundamental substance, such as matter. An adverse
position to the materialistic approach held Aristoteles (384-322 B.C.E), a disciple of Plato. He
had the idea that the explanation for harmony in nature and in the universe we have, works
only, if one concludes that there is something like a final cause or purpose inherent.
The study of evidence of design and purpose in nature, the explanation of phenomena by
final causes is called Teleology. It is the idea that natural processes are directed toward an
end and that they are driven by a purpose. 77
This is a form of antireductionism, since it cannot explain higher-level phenomena as an
outcome of lower-level phenomena. In that time science and philosophy were not divided
and both, the material view of Democrit and the holistic view of Aristoteles were present.
Indeed, the holistic approach of Aristotle was taken to be more important and it dominated
over the atomic view since the essential scientific findings in the modern era.
This Aristotelian approach gave also ground for other philosophies which emerged in the
middle ages, such as Naturalism.

―It is a philosophical position that all phenomena can be explained in terms of natural
causes and laws. In its broadest and strongest sense, naturalism is the metaphysical
position that nature is all there is and all basic truths are truths of nature‖ 78

Whether the ancient philosophers argued about that the world was made out of water or air
or something completely different, the idea of reduction as such, was part of thinking ever
since. The idea to divide reality into smaller parts per se to reach the ´real´ parts has been
always present since the beginning of western civilization.79
Before the beginning of modern sciences there was ―natural philosophy‖ and lasted till 1840,
during the Renaissance. Even Isaac Nweton with his findings in motion and gravity (Principia
Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis) was regarded as a philosopher.

77
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/teleology
78
Naturalism in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Macmillan, 1996 Supplement, 372-373.
79
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democritus
48
(http://www.friesian.com/hist-2.htm). During the scientific Revolution ―natural philosophy‖, as
well as the dominated view of Aristotle came to an end.

―[…] the analytic and mechanistic approaches of breaking down continuities in

manageable units and examining their interactions began to gain dominance and
became the sources of important discoveries in physics.‖ 80.

The thought that everything is a result of mechanical interaction of lifeless matter was finally
fully established by the 18th century.

The scientific Revolution

―Considering a ―worldview‖ role of science, one at once notices a substantial share of
science in creating models of the world. The contents of scientific theories inevitably
spill out, although with a considerable delay, and form so called world views or general
pictures of the universe and our place in it. The overwhelming majority of people
believe now that the Earth is a sphere and know that bright points on the night sky are
Stars much like our Sun‖.81

This change of thought, which was identified as ―systematic doubt, empirical and sensory
verification, the abstraction of human knowledge into separate sciences, and the view that
the world functions like a machine‖, was called the scientific revolution.82
To mention is, that the Scientific Revolution wasn´t something like a cultural discontinuity,
where from one day to the other everything has changed, it was rather a crystallization of
trends which preceded the 18th century far beyond. It wasn´t just a change of thought of the
intellectual part of society, it influenced the general human experience in daily life, from the
single person to the whole civilization. It was a change of thought and belief which led to
change of social and institutional organization between the period of 1550 and 1700. It began
with the findings of Nicholas Copernicus (1473 – 1543) who found out that not the earth
(geocentric worldview), but rather the sun is the center of the cosmos (the heliocentric
worldview). The end of the scientific revolution is regarded with the already mentioned
publications of Isaac Nweton´s (1642 – 1727) Principia Matematica. Though historians aren´t
quite sure about the chronology of when the Scientific Revolution started and ended, Isaac
Nweton marks an endpoint of one period to another. A change of a paradigm had occured.
Newton unified with one single equation the heaven and the earth. The movement of the

80
Jones, 2000, page 38
81
Kaluszynska, 1998, page 135
82
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ENLIGHT/SCIREV.HTM
49
bodies and the falling of an apple from a tree could be described with the same formula, F=
MA. It also replaced the empirical laws of his precursors Kepler and Gallileo. Following
arguments in Principia Matematica were regarded as fundamental: He claimed that the
universe was mechanistically because the movements of the bodies could be explained by
the laws of mathematic in a completely rational and predictable way.
Therefore he claimed that the need for religion or theology to explain the movement of
physical bodies is not necessary any more. He found out, that there is a force which explains
the physical attraction of the objects in the universe which is called gravity. Altough Newton
regarded the whole universe as a machine; he argued that there was ´something´ in the
beginning, which set everything in motion. The general physical approach in the scientific
revolution was that a moving body continues to be in motion forever with same speed and
direction, until a specific force influences it. As we live in a world with motion, it seemed
obvious that if there is movement there must be a kind of entity which keeps everything in
motion. That was meant to be God. With the new scientific approach and the laws of motion,
no God was necessary, everything keeps moving by itself. He removed the spirit from the
world of matter. Heaven or sky in the middle – age and in the agricultural phase of humanity
was literally associated as the place where the gods live. Before Newton, the sky or heaven
and the earthly realm remained separate. The perfect harmonic bodies in the heaven, such
as the moon influencing the tide and flood, orchestrated the live on the surface on the earth.
That is why heaven with its perfect order was associated with god.
Newton´s view of the universe became the predominant model in European thought, and all
in all, these arguments were the base for the mechanistic function of the universe. The mind
of man was now capable to reveal the deepest secrets of nature. Civilization finally arrived
from a closed, finite, hierarchical, qualitative, organic cosmos into mechanical, infinite
Universe.

The development towards the Scientific Revolution

The new approach of how to see the world was strengthened with the mathematical findings
in the 19th century. The typical expression for mathematical thinking in that time was
Euclidian Geometries, introduced by the Greek mathematician Euclid (300. B.C). It is
characterized by the need of correct insight into the subject or rather by the ability to
generalize from known facts, which are only valid if they can be mathematical proven.83 It
allowed precise measurement of phenomena in nature.

83
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/194901/Euclidean-geometry
50
In that time, quantity and objectivity gained more and more dominance in the explanations of
the world. Therefore the interest shifted from the Aristotle view of what is the ultimate
substance of the universe, to the need for knowledge of how objects are composed and how
they interact with each other. The focus laid on analyses. Inspired by Nweton, the scientific
community in that time was infected by this new method of gaining knowledge. Every new
kind of information was put into rational mind patterns, pure speculation wasn´t valid
anymore, though it certainly had its limits. This is still valid today.
We try to understand the world by gathering data and manipulating that data according to
mathematical models. Nature therefore was made controllable.
The scientific revolution was also marked by new technical inventions, which dominated life
the following centuries. The optical microscope is an example for that. With that tool, the
science of biology was catapulted immensely forward. Scientists now, were able to look in
the micro -cosmos of our world and found cells and tiny organisms which were unknown
before. The Swedish botanist Carlus Linnaeus (1707 – 1778) invented what is called the
binomial nomenclature. His book Systema Naturae (1767) is the groundwork for the
cataloging plants and animals into a single system, where he drew up rules for drawing up
distinctions between species based on their morphology. He introduced the standard
hierarchy of class, order, genius and species. According to Linnaeus, animals of a different
morphology are called ´species´ (for instance animal), animals which morphological relate to
each other are called ´genus´ or ´kind´ (for instance bird). The two definitions are used as a
name, for instance Homo Sapiens. This system is still valid, although modified, today.84 .

How useful this nomenclature might seem, and tough it is still in use till today, this rational
systemization of living beings had its lacking. Linneaus didn´t consider the concept of
evolution. The reason for differences between ´species´ and ´genus´ wasn´t described until
Darwin´s theory about evolution. Beside Biology as a field of knowledge, in the period of the
Scientific Revolution, slowly every other field of science was transformed. At that time for
instance, chemical phenomena could not be fully explained. That changed, when Henry
Cavendish (1731 – 1810), an English chemist and physicist, made with his findings of
hydrogen a big contribution to the development of science. He didn´t know that he found
hydrogen; due to its igniting character he called it ´inflammable air´.85

In 1774, English chemist Joseph Priestley (1733 – 1804) discovered oxygen. As they carried
they knowledge together, the first of them found out, that water the basic element of all life is
´nothing more´ than made up of two gases, hydrogen and oxygen. A new worldview was

84
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/584695/taxonomy/48693/The-Linnaean-system
85
http://www.chemistryexplained.com/Bo-Ce/Cavendish-Henry.html
51
born. If water was made up of compounds, so the whole world must be a conglomeration of
basic elements. Antoine Lavoisier (1743 – 1794), who introduced the ´Law of conservation of
mass´ and wrote the first bigger list of elements, put the picture together. It was him, who
argued that in fact all living processes were at their heart chemical processes. With that
understanding, medical practice changed entirely .The human biological process could from
then on be regarded as a rational predictable machine. Therefore logically, a disease was
regarded as a malfunction of a machine. Pathology, which is the study and diagnosis of
disease through examination of organs, tissues, bodily fluids and whole bodies, was born.86 .
This understanding of the human body is present till now.

Another considerable representative of the Scientific Revolution was René Descartes (1596
– 1650), who considered the world as a machine, rather without qualitative, but more
quantitative values. The ´machine´ could be understood by studying its separate pieces, and
the full understanding could be achieved by putting these pieces back together to see the
larger picture. He believed that such a kind of view is valid for both, organic and inorganic
things. How René Descartes influenced the overall thinking pattern in western societies will
be discussed below, in the chapter of ´the irritating character of reductionism´.

Objectivity and the fall of subjectivity

So to say, except of some untouched places on earth, believe was obtained that the universe
is essentially a machine. With the Scientific Revolution, Spirit, Soul or God was completely
removed from the world of matter. Human beings with the powerful tool to gain knowledge –
the scientific method – were becoming the world´s masters. What did not fell under the
power of measurement was simply not real, because science and its methods were regarded
as the study of reality. Technology can be regarded as the amplifier of humans will to create.
The amount of force directed in the intended way, which equals technological progress,
determines how much power we have over the universe. The accurate way to a successful
application of technology is given by quantitative and objective description of reality, which
science provides. Quality, from now on had no place in reality anymore, and therefore either
subjectivity. The importance of how we experience the world subjectively is denied and not
regarded as real. Science nowadays tries to keep distinction from any individual subjective
experience.
The intense examination that subjectivity does not exist and that matter is the only thing that
exists had gone so far, that it is a definitive component of our language, objectivity is
enforced most obviously in ´is – sentences´.

86
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathology
52
The ideology of objectivity in these days achieved in general a very positive approval among
people. It liberated the broad crowd from narrow and restrictive thought which was taught in
mind – paralyzing scholastic traditions of the church. Scientific knowledge was from then on
accessible for everyone; all knowledge could be verified by everyone. Initially the scientific
revolution freed thought, and the belief in dogma became obsolete. It is not the case, that
that prosperous view formed a trend which is observable in the present. Nowadays
institutionalized science reached a tremendous state that it appears that experimental results
which contradict the official view are often neglected and disqualified from publication. The
normal citizen has to get through a certain learning progress to understand scientific text,
which seems to be restricted only for the scientists. 87

―We don´t have to look far from miracles, because they are all around us. Everything is
astonishing. The universe on its surface is a life with mystery. How did we make our
way toward that? We live in a culture, practice a language embody a philosophy –
scientific rationalism – which is entirely designed to suck wonders out of reality, to turn
everything into shades of grey, to subvert all hope that lies outside the realm of career
accomplishment and material possession.‖ 88

THE IRRITATING CHARACTER OF REDUCTIONISM

―…by putting the pieces together again, whether in reality or just in our minds, can yield no
complete explanation of even the most elementary living system. 89

As reductionism is the established form of gaining knowledge in the last 400 years, it is
barely capable to give adequate explanations of certain phenomena. Opponents or anti-
reductionist are mostly irritated by a certain quality of reductionism: It always goes from the
complex to the simple.
As it serves to describe and to reduce not only natural phenomena but also social issues and
topics which relate to the phenomenon of the human mind, a certain discontentment arises

87
Washington State University, http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ENLIGHT/SCIREV.HTM / Scientific Revolution - Dr.
Robert A. Hatch, http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/rhatch/pages/03-Sci-Rev/introduction.htm / Reality Sandwich,
www.realitysandwich.com/sojourn_science

88
Terrence McKenna, Lecture given in November 1991 at the ´Whole Life Expo, Los Angeles California,
http://lmc-l.blogspot.com/2009/03/terrence-mckenna-seeking-stone-14300.html
89
Jones 2000, page 7)
53
on the site of opponents. What we call human values is what reductionism says is the result
of what is less distinctly human. The mind, which is certainly the most human aspect of our
species, is seen as an epiphenomenon of interacting molecules.

―Reductionists reduce the more valuable to the less valuable, the more meaningful to
the less meaningful, and never the other way around‖ 90.

All that we call human values like culture and art, or even consciousness, are less than they
seem. What we devote special about our species, like the fact that we are aware of our own
being, is nothing special anymore, it is the simple outcome of lifeless matter. We are no more
the most complex life forms to be found so far in the universe, inhabiting a unique planet; but
we are advanced animals, living all alone in infinite space on what complies with
reductionists on ´spaceship´ earth.

―Spaceship Earth is a world view term usually expressing concern over the use of
limited resources available on Earth and the behavior of everyone on it to act as a
harmonious crew working toward the greater good.‖91

It obviously seems that reductionism as the dominated scientific view of life seems to explain
our human qualities away. The situation is getting more eccentric, when it appears that there
is no place for subjectivity. All we experience subjectively, like color, sound or smell is in fact
the outcome of sensory input of physical reality existing separately from us. Matter is
declared as the only reality. The truth is our nervous system is the creator of qualities like
sound, color and shape, therefore everything is subjective. The question is if reductionism
seems to reduce experience and perception as a result of sensory input, how does that
influence the rest of our lives? How can human values be preserved and not abandoned
meaningless, if even our own mental reality or image of the world is merely nothing more
than the reality, called physical matter?

Human Values is the universal concept that preserves and enhances Homo Sapiens as a
species, this applies to every human being on the present universe, anything against this
values brings the consequence of a Self Species Extermination Event (SSEE) like hate,
racism or war.92

Some of these values may seem relative to whom it applies it but throughout the time we, as
specie, sooner or later we react to a negative value because the consequences begin to

90
Jones, 2000, page 15
91
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceship_Earth
92
www.dictionary.com
54
present an imminent danger to the specie, like racial hate in USA or Europe where both
regions are making efforts to toughen anti-hate-crimes to alleviate social tension.93

Problems of Reductionism on Consciousness: The mind body problem

A very popular topic on reductionism and its irritating or rather insufficient explaining
character for a certain phenomenon is the so called mind – body problem. It is more or less a
metaphysical subject and deals with the problem of how our mentality is related to our
physical nature. The mind – body problem is discussed a long time and has its origin at the in
the late 1950 and 1960s. In general it is said, that two papers released independently by J.J.
Smart, a professor of philosophy in Australia, and Herbert Feigl, a member of the Vienna
circle, disengaged the whole debate of the mind – body problem. The paper of J. J. Smart
was called ―The mental and the Physical‖, the paper of Feigl ―Sensations and Brain
Processes‖. 94
The mind – body problem deals in fact with the question, which is already mentioned several
times in this chapter. In modern western thought the problem is represented by the concept
that at least two different kinds of things exist in our world, the mental and the physical. While
everyone would suggest, that these two things exist without a doubt, it is obviously difficult to
present a plausible explanation of the relation between those two entities. There have been
several explanations been given throughout since the rise of this topic. One is for instance
given by the philosophy of ´Psychophysical parallelism´. This certain view insists on a non –
connection of the mental and the physical. Advocates of that theory exclude all causal
interaction of the mental and the physical. Two substances which are obviously totally
differently could by no way influence each other. They are seen as two completely
correlated, synchronized events. Physical actions like a man lifting his foot to reach the next
step of the stair, is perfectly synchronized by the mental will of the man to lift his foot.
Parallelism states, that there is no obvious connection between the two events. They are just
like two perfect harmonized clocks that keep faultless ticking time. 95

93
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Humanism%20in%20the%20Twenty-first%20Century.-a078889721
94
Kim, 2000, page 3
95
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/481798/psychophysical-parallelism
55
Dualism
The view that there is causality between mind and body is called Dualism, even though the
relation is unknown since today. It was questioned since Egyptian civilization and beyond. It
was most clearly formulated in Western culture by its most famous advocate René Descartes
who is already mentioned above. He imposed a sharp division between a material body and
an immaterial soul, influenced by the promise of the propagated belief of the New Testament,
that the soul was immortal.
Dualism can be divided into Substance dualism, in property dualism and predicate dualism.
First indicates that mind and matter are completely distinct kinds of substance. Proberty
dualism relies on ontological distinction, which relies in the differences between properties of
mind and matter. Predicate dualism says that mind cannot be reduced to physical things.
In fact, René Descartes saw the body as a machine and his formulations of the mind – body
problem exists in that form still today. For instance he claimed that the vegetative system or
digestion and nutritive events in the body do not belong to the soul at all but are explained in
purely bodily terms. In fact he ignored more or less the existence of a mental world and tried
to explain everything as an outcome of physical matter. Concerns of the soul belonged to the
church, concerns of the body to science. This established view had massive implications on
what we regard as a living animate being and an inanimate one. A short extract from his
work La Description du Corps Humain (written in 1647 – 1648) illustrates how he described
how the human body grows:

―When one is young, for example, because the fibres which make up the solid parts are
not joined to one another very firmly and the channels along which they then flow are
quite large, the movement of these filaments is not as slow as when is old, and more
matter is attached to their roots than is detached from their extremities, which result in
their becoming longer and stronger, and their increase in size is the means by which
the body grows.‖ 96(Crane, Patterson, 2000, page 120)

Remarkable is, that Descartes described operations of living bodies in same terms as the
working of clocks and other machines. This view on the mind – body dualism is also called
Cartesianism, which generally proposes that some of the special functions of living things
have no connection of what we call a soul. Therefore all living things as well as humans are
in a certain way the same as the lifeless, inorganic world of rocks or rainbows, and further on
– what irritates and threatens most – the same with the artificial world of pure functional
machines, like clocks. All living things, relating to Descartes are complex organic machines.

96
Crane, Patterson, pages 126 - 128
56
The soul exists in his worldview, but is completely separated from the body. This was a direct
denial to the ancient religion of animism. It is the religious, spiritual or philosophical idea,
mostly of tribal people and hunter – gatherer cultures, that everything in existence is full of
soul and quality. Inanimate objects are treated like as if they were animate ones. Indeed, in
the anima world view – there is no space for objects, only for subjects. Animism in fact
comes from the Latin word anima, which means soul or life.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animism)
After this, problems of an accurate definition of the soul occurred. The soul, relating to
Descartes is a whole entity and its function is identified by the different roles persons play, its
only power is the one of thinking. One state of the soul, be it an intellectual thought or a state
of pain, is regarded as a certain ´mode´, so the wholeness – character of the soul could not
be harmed. Nevertheless, this explanation could not give an accurate answer of how for
example the power of seeing comprehends with the power of remembering. Descartes
assumed that the only power of the soul is thinking, and that thoughts are conscious acts.
The question remained, where the soul might be located. In that time, where the Catholic
Church gained much power over the whole society, Descartes theories had to sustain the
view of the church, that human individuals are beings composed out of body and soul.
Therefore he said, like a pilot of a ship, the soul drives the body till it comes to an end. God in
some sense was removed from the world of matter and matter is inherently dead. As already
mentioned, the Cartesian view on the world is still valid today, tough contemporary
philosophers don´t align with everything Descartes claimed. They agree with him on terms
that states we are conscious of, be it a thought, a judgment or an emotion as an attribute of
the mind. .

Problems of Reductionism: Consciousness and Perception

The problem of how the nature of perception works and what consciousness consists of is
like mentioned above, even nowadays a question which a range of philosophers,
psychiatrists and psychologists are trying to find a solution of. Consciousness in western
culture is more or less regarded as an abstraction, though without a doubt, everyone claims
to have something like a self - conscious experience.
J. R. Smythies gave a lecture on the aspect of the mind – body relation, on the Alpach-
Symposium in Tyrol in Austria 1968 which was held to gain a new view beyond reductionism
in the life sciences. He suggested that consciousness is not just a set of thoughts and
images formed from sensory input, but merely a collection of thoughts and images which
some kind of I or Ego is aware of. One is aware of his own existence independent from one´s
thoughts and sensory input. Thought and image, he suggests, is a relation between the so
57
called ´Ego´ and sensation. A conscious experience is scientifically rather hard to describe,
but it would not be necessary to define, since everyone is aware of his own self –
consciousness. For every human being his own consciousness is reality, from one´s own
standpoint every other people´s consciousness is an abstraction. If a scientist would deny his
own consciousness, ―he would saw off the branch on which all science rests.‖97

The view that Descartes obtained, that a human being consists of his physical body and his
mind which is made up of thoughts is insufficient. For Descartes, physical objects were
extensions in space, and mental objects were no extension in space. This view, which
became in the last hundred years dominant in western sciences and philosophy hardly
describes a simple problem which arose: How could a physical brain with a non – physical
mind interact? While for Descartes the mind however in a certain way existed, western
sciences had gone through the scientific method of gaining knowledge one step further. ―All
thoughts, all feeling, all perception and the control of behavior are mediated by the complex
electro – chemical events in the brain and the Cartesian ´mind´ simply do not exist‖ 98

The very idea of the reduction of perception to electro – chemical events in the brain bring up
certain questions if not lacks in explanations. Perception theories deal with the question of
how we perceive the real world. Smythies illustrates the problem with the example of an after
– image, which arises when an object was observed. An after image is a retinal impression
which persists after taking away the object, etc. which stimulated the impression. A well
known afterimage is for example, the spot of light one sees after a camera flash has been
fired. It is also known as aftersensation or aftereffect.
(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/8548/afterimage) This after image is not really a
kind of entity, but it obviously exists as a colored entity in ones visual horizon. Now the
question is, if it is a result of a brain mechanism, or if it is just a belief or one´ s conviction
that this visual sensation is occurring. Obviously, a visual sensation is more than a belief.
The theory of Psycho – Neural Identity suggests that events in our consciousness are
identical with certain brain events; the afterimage is a collection of activated neurons in the
brain. Pain for example is regarded as just some not yet fully understood process in the
brain. The Psycho Neural Identity let us identify the physical with the physical to make
possible the reduction of the psyche to some physical theory of the body, most likely
neurophysiology. 99

97
Koestler, 1968, page 235
98
Beyond Reductionism, 1968, page 253
99
Rosenthal, 2001, page 80
58
An advantage or benefit of such a theoretical reduction is apparent it unifies and simplifies
scientific theory. The only question beyond the success of gaining knowledge in such a way
is, if the mental is really identical with the physical.
In our society and in our daily life, most people believe the idea of direct realism, which says
that everything one sees in front of his or her eyes is exactly and literally the object of the
physical world. This is in fact not the case. Science now can tell us, that visual perception is
a far more complex process than most people think. Light strikes an object and the reflected
light stimulates the retina of the eye, which sets a complex of electrical events in process. It
has to be noted, that not the visual organ is the necessary element of this chain but the brain
event. Another considerable fact about perception is the famous time gap, which makes
direct realism more insufficient for an adequate view on awareness. The time gap resembles
the time which light takes to conquer the space between the reflecting object and the strike of
the visual organ. Another consideration according to the time gap is, the time which the
electrical impulse needs from the visual organ to reach the nervous system.
The common representative theory, states that all events of our five senses which affect
consciousness are constructions of the nervous system. Therefore, what we believe to be
the real world is rather a representation of the external world and is located inside the brain.
That means further on, according to this theory, that everything including even one‘s own
observed body, is located in one´s brain. This is for many people a rather unwell fact to
acknowledge.

This is exactly where the established western reductionist view lacks and bears
contradictions. Consequently it appears that essential question have to be asked, which
Walter Russell Brain, (1895 – 1966) an English neurologist formulated like this:

―How can the brain be in the head if the head is in the brain?‖100

René Descartes stated, as already mentioned above, that the body as a physical object has
spatial qualities and, mental events do not. Obviously it does not make sense to say that a
thought, feeling or emotion have spatial property. Apparently an after image and all other
visual forms of input have something like a spatial property. By regarding the appearing after
image after a flashlight one can give the attributes ´above´, ´below´, or ´under´ to the
phenomenon in our visual field. This is where the Cartesian view lacks in some sense; as he
said only physical objects have spatial attributes.

100
Koestler, 1968, page 238

59
As western thought has been conditioned over hundreds of years by the Cartesian view, it is
difficult to imagine any other alternative view. As in history it has already happened, that a
common worldview had to be overthrown, like classical Newtonian mechanics by the findings
of the new quantum mechanics and relativity. Mankind maybe has to face certain changes in
the future, when the new findings in science bear to much contradictions with the orthodox
view. Many approaches exist already to explain the mind – body problem.
Consciousness could be defined as not located in the brain at all, but outside it in a space of
its own. Not only that the physical has a spatial location, but also the mental. The difference
to theories like direct realism or to the established view would be that both, the mental and
the physical are spatial, but had different spatial locations. One space, contains the physical
reality with our environment and physical objects, and the other contains for each individual
human being his or her thoughts and mental objects. The brain could be regarded not as the
host of the entire consciousness but merely a part of the whole mechanism. Functions of the
brain are to mirror or to receive consciousness, just like a cinema projector throwing pictures
on a screen. As the brain would be regarded as the projector, it cannot project the film by
itself. The visual field could be regarded just like the screen of a television set, and similarly
for the other sensory fields.
However, this theory is just one which goes beyond the usual reduction method of explaining
a certain phenomenon. Remarkable is, that this theory if true or not, is an adequate model for
overcoming the gaps which reductionism brings up. These gaps are indeed loop-holes,
where the limiting character of reductionism could be overcome and if argued clear enough
even the whole concept of reduction becomes questionable.101

Reductionism and Genetic Determinism

But perhaps the biggest challenge to reductionism comes from the concept of
information. In biology, information is carried and received by molecules, which is fully
consistent with reductionist principles of physics and chemistry. Yet natural selection
has often produced multiple chemical and physical ways of conveying the same
message, so that by looking only at the molecules, researchers may be missing the
message. "Information is not reducible," […] About 50% of the genome of a
multicellular organism may code for proteins involved in cell signaling […] hence,
organisms can be viewed as complex information-processing systems, where
molecular analysis alone may not be sufficient. "There's a need to realize that
information may be transmitted in ways that may be lost by studying molecules alone,"

101
Beyond Reductionism, 1968, page 24
60
 […] "It may not be possible or even necessary to explain all cellular phenomena in
terms of precise molecular interactions." 102

The reductionist view of life tells us that human behavior can be forecasted just like the
actions of the different parts of a machine can be predicted and determined. Nowadays
scientists tell us, that our whole live and behavior is determined by our genes. The
widespread thought is, that genes determine everything about us. Observed characteristics
of a human being, be it physical or behavioral such as shape or size and color can be led
back to the configuration of our genes. This is what is generally called phenotype.
(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/455632/phenotype) We reached a state where
quantity and quality of human behavior could be reduced to the composition of one´s genetic
material. ―Genetic determinism says that the genotype completely determines the phenotype,
that is, the genes completely determine how an organism turns out.‖103
Genes serve to explain, along with much other human behavior patterns, ―the male sexual
orientation, schizophrenia, alcoholism, autism, reading disability

[…] manic depression, neuroticism, spatial and verbal reasoning and even alleged
differences in intelligence.‖104

It is seriously discussed that if one who committed a crime, he or she did it because of his
genetic disposition and could have been avoided if his or her genetic pattern was known
before.

―A genetic predisposition to everything from cancer to diabetes to novelty- seeking

behavior or homosexuality are being reported almost daily in the scientific literature
(and regrettably often overstated in the popular press), a new and dangerous brand of
genetic determinism is subtly invading our culture.‖105

All in all, the fact that all human phenotypic phenomena can be reduced to their types of
genes is more or less genetic reductionism. The questions arises, how far genetics are really
responsible for human behavior. Are there any other factors influencing human actions or
could society completely rely on the fact, that genes influence the way our life will tend to
choose. If so, we could lean back and watch what is happening and behave like passive

102
http://www.cog.jhu.edu/courses/203/BiologistsCutReductionist.pdf
103
http://www.philosophytalk.org/pastShows/GeneticDeterminism.htm
104
Sarkar, 1998, page 2
105
Peters, 2003, page 10
61
observers, rather than active participants. If dealing with genetics determine behavior, it is
necessary to examine the characteristics of it a little bit. What is behavior in general?

Behaviour
Behavior is a necessity for individuals to survive in a complex society. In a more basic level,
an individual needs a certain behavior to find food successfully. In an advanced society,
behavior has to be adjusted to maintain the sophisticated level of living together. Behavior is
on the one hand thought and educated; on the other hand it simply occurs naturally. Is a
certain behavior not right attuned to the common behavior of the society, or in some way
extreme different it is regarded as pathologic. If a behavior works contrary to the needs of the
society it is called criminal. In fact, behavior influences directly or indirectly the state of health
and therefore the longevity of a human individual. Every individual is different, physical and
behavioral, thus contributes slightly different to each other to the society. Those who take
genetic determinism for granted, should consider another important factors which contributes
to the behavior. It is very careless do not take the factor of environmental influences on the
individual into account. In fact it is obvious that environment plays an important role, as well
as non – genetic mechanisms such as inheritance. For instance an infant knows without
learning how to suck milk, and with the ongoing life process, the feeding behavior gets more
and more adjusted to environmental influence and individual experience. Behavior is
controlled by the nervous system, which is orchestrated by the Genes which translate DNA
into proteins. Logically genes affect the molecular structure at every level of organization.
Environmental influences on the brain, be it physical or a certain behavior, modify genetically
encoded actions too.

Genetic Reductionism: Behaviour and Human Nature

An example illustrates how a gene might be responsible for a certain behavior: Individuals
with a mutated gene, which cannot brake down alcohol, get sick when drinking alcohol and
therefore change their alcoholic attitude. Not only biological factors, but also social factors
from the environment influence behavior. Environment here is regarded as the social
surroundings, with culture and tradition, experience with family and friends and also
accidents and incidents, as well as prenatal influences, a person is embedded. As we
observe physical objects and its interactions in our everyday live we tend to forget to see that
this interconnectivity also exists between human beings. There are cultures which repress,
and some which allow certain behavior. These are so to speak non-genetic relations.

62
All these external factors have effects on the nervous system. These facts show that our
behavior and way of live is not entirely determined by our genes. It has to be considered that
that does not mean that therefore the reduction to those two, genetics plus environment,
influence to a full extend our behavior. There exists a mental entity which cannot be
substituted by genetics or environment, which is free will. The Human Genom Project, which
was a 15 year and 3 billion dollar undertake, is interpreted to affirm this matter of fact. Its
primary goal was to determine the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA
(Deoxyribonucleic acid) and to identify and map the approximately 20,000-25,000 genes of
the human genome from both a physical and functional standpoint.106 Defective genes, which
are responsible for diseases can be located. Concerning human wealth and well – being,
medicine should be transformed from a reactive to a preventive manner. This initiated the so
called myth about genetic determinism, that genes define who we are and even further: who
we can be. For a certain amount of money, companies offer the service to have a look inside
its own genetic material.
By knowing the risk for a certain disease, one can lead a safer life. The myth about genes
wants to tell us that genes are the ultimate explanation of the human being. We are no more
the beings which are defined by free will but we are the outcome of how our DNA
programmed us to be and to act. Personal freedom, logically, according to the myth is only
an illusion, we are not responsible for what we are doing, but our genes are. The ´I´ or ´Me´
is a non existing entity; it can be reduced to the composition of our genetic material.
That this is not actually the reality of the role the genes play is getting clear when examining
the nature of human behavior. By reducing behavior to those mentioned factors, it bears
danger to forget a fundamental law of existence, which is that everything is in motion and not
static. That is valid for all living beings, and so it is valid for the human brain and also for the
environmental influences.

―What an organism is today depends on what it was yesterday and is a substrate for
what it will be tomorrow.‖107

As change is the only constant in existence we can be sure about, it becomes decrepit to
think of something like a human nature. In western society the general understanding of
human nature is that we are born with certain values like prejudice, greed, anger or envy.
Human nature is defined as ―…the shared psychological attributes of humankind that are
assumed to be shared by all human beings‖
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/human%20nature) or as the …‖fundamental nature

106
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Genome_Project
107
Genes, Environment and human behavior, 2000, page 22
63
and substance of humans, as well as the range of human behavior that is believed to be
invariant over long periods of time and across very different cultural contexts.‖ 108
If the believed concept of human nature was true, humanity would find itself still in some kind
of a feudalistic social order were progress, development and learning are rather strange
concepts than inherent values of life.
In 2002, John Dupre, a professional philosopher of science at the University of Exeter in his
talk ´Beyond Human Genetics´ pointed out that developmental and environmental
considerations are a very important factor to understand …the full complement of genetic
material within an organism (Genom).109 He argued that the genom has only 10% genes
which give instructions. It is a rather new understanding that, despite the incredible length of
the DNA sequence when uncoiled there are only a few genes.
The concept of a gene as it was originally defined in the 19th century would be no longer
useful and is even problematic in terms of evolution theory. It can no longer be said that
there is a gene for this and that, like the misconception which can be found primary in the
Media stories. They relate to stories such as a ´gay –gene´ or ´genes for violence.´ Genetic
dispositions exist of course, and also the concept for describing body features like eye or hair
color, but the enormous biological and environmental influences have to be considered, and
according to him genetics is not a useful basis for any kind of human typology.

―The differences between a Native American, a thief, and a banker are not found in
their genes, but instead reflect the environments in which they were raised.‖
(Designingthefuture.pdf / www.thevenusproject.com)

All understandings which inhabit humanities superficial thinking, just like biologically based
classifications of people, like race, becomes trivial. The debate about genetic determinism
and the reduction of a human being to its genes could seize to exist and declared as myth. If
there is something like a human nature, it is an interaction of three things: Genetics,
environment and free will.110

108
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_nature_(disambiguation))
109
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/genom
110
Designingthefuture.pdf / www.thevenusproject.com) / Peters, 2003, pages IX – XIII /
http://www.thegreatdebate.org.uk/BlankslateCH.html / Genes Environment and human behavior, 2000, pages
19 – 22
64
IMPLICATONS OF REDUCTIONISM IN SOCIETY

According to a general opinion, one of the most justified tasks of science is to provide
us with true and valid knowledge. It is said that science should faithfully describe the
world, profoundly account for its various events effectively predict further processes.111

Viktor E. Frankl, 1905 – 1997 was an Austrian psychiatrist and psychotherapist. He

developed the so called Logotheraphy, which is a psychological approach of Viennese
psychotherapy dealing with the individual´s search for the meaning of life. The primary
purpose of the Logotherapy therefore should be to help the individual to find a meaning in
life. Frankl was from 1942 to 1945 a prisoner in German concentration camps Auschwitz and
Dachau where he suffered immensely. By observing the cruelty and the unbelievable
dreadful conditions around him, Frankl came to the conclusion that those victims who had
some meaning in their lives were more likely to survive. His experiences from that time are
published in the book ―From Death – Camp to Existentialism‖. In the 1968´s Alpach
Symposium in Austria ´Beyond Reductionism – new perspectives in life sciences´ initiated by
Arthur Koestler (1905 – 1983), Frankl also took part and gave a lecture on Reductionism and
its limiting and devaluing character.
As a psychiatrist he was confronted with many patients who lived in a narrow mental
labyrinth with no positive perspective in general. Viktor E. Frankl called the state of mind of
inner emptiness and ultimate meaninglessness the existential vacuum. An average individual
in our society confronted with many reductionist perspectives and social values. Most human
beings do not scrutinize such values and simply accept them as ´normal´ and as ´the way it
is´.

In his lecture he pointed out that we are living in the age of specialization, due to the way of
how we in the west tend to organize knowledge and education places just like universities. If
the long goal of all science would be to unify knowledge and to put all knowledge to a bigger
picture together we may find ourselves still far away from it. Frankl said that a specialist
could be defined as someone who misses to gain a healthy and holistic view of the world by
the overwhelming amount of pure facts which tend to distort his picture of reality. Our socio-
economical system is more or less composed of specialists. It bears danger that every
representative of a scientific field, for instance biology, has the totalitarian claim to
understand human phenomena only on biological terms. Biology tends to become biologism,
sociology becomes sociologism and science becomes ideology. Ideology is defined as ―the
body of doctrines, philosophical bases, symbols, etc., associated with a particular social or

111
Kaluszynska, 1998, page 135
65
political movement, large group, or individual‖112. Frankl identified the problem not in
specialization, which is indeed helpful, but in the fact that scientific constituents tend to
generalize. He saw this problem also in the field of psychology appearing. Frankl gave
examples, of how reduction and generalization in the field of psychology entails irritation.
Psycho analysis of Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939) for instance suggested that the primary
motivational human energy of life is sexual desire.113 . Human behavior in every facet could
be reduced to a specific sexual longing. According to Freud, friendship can be defined as a
sublimation of homosexual attitudes.
Devotees of Freudian psycho – analysis undertook examinations in the field of art. The work
of the great artist and writer Goethe, according to Freud´s psychological teachings, can be
reduced and described as the product of a ―manic – depressive, paranoid and epileptoid
disorder, of homosexuality, incest, voyeurism, exhibitionism, fetishism, impotence, narcissm,
114
obsessive compulsice neurosis, hysteria, megalomania and so forth.‖ We are invited to
think that Goethe´s work is nothing but the outcome of one of those attributes. What shall be
expressed here is that artistic values, from every type of artistic expression to artistic
masterpieces of any sort, are reduced to psychological fixations and mental dispositions.
The most obvious human phenomena, like the invention of values and meanings, the ability
to be creative, to make something total new is reduced to a ´nothing but´ character. Frankl
stated in his lecture, that meaning and value, more than Freud´s pleasure, is an inherent
tendency in man to evolve in life. Despite this important identification of what it means to be
human, those phenomena are defined merely as a matter of form. ―Values and meanings are
115
nothing but defense mechanisms and reactions formations‖ () and in another definition the
role of meaning is found in the human bodily development and socialization. Meaning is
nothing but the ―external source of gratification associated with the human erogenous zones
and their respective modes.‖ 116
(

Reductionism and Nihilism: The existential neurosis

Frankl came finally to the conclusion, as he kept reductionism in perspective, that it can be
identified as nihilism. The word nihil comes from Latin and means ―nothing‖. In general
nihilism is equated as a philosophy of skepticism, and can be characterized as a social

112
www.thefreedictionary.com/ideology
113
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud
114
Koestler, 1968, page 367)
115
Beyond Reductionism, 1968, page 389
116
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Meaning+(non-linguistic))

66
menace, that through devaluing a negation of all moral principles can occur. According to
Nihilism, value and meaning do not exist but are a false interpretation of our existence. No
meaning, no value and no intrinsic purpose are connected to life. (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilism) For Frankl nihilism was no longer connected with
´nothing´, he mentioned that it is more a philosophy of ´nothing – but- ness´. That is
becoming clear when unique human phenomena of any sort, are regarded as a mere
epiphenomenon. The social implications of this view, which is doubtless an existing
phenomenon in our world and an inherent understanding in our civilization and education
system cannot be overlooked.

―When I was a Junior High – School Student […] our science teacher used to walk up
and down the class explaining to us that life in its final analysis is nothing but
combustion, an oxidation process [...] Now imagine what it means that thousands and
thousands of young students are exposed to indoctrination along such lines, taught a
reductionist concept of a man and a reductionist view of life.‖ 117

At that time, when the lecture was held, Frankl insisted that the state of mind of the
existential vacuum was not only a phenomenon of the so called Western civilization, but
according to scientific papers, he argued, this specific state of mind could be found also in a
broader part of the world such as Eastern Europe. This meaningless in life was described
and interpreted in many ways. It was seen as the outcome from the feeling of alienation of
the synthetic cultural environment humans created. If western culture is represented by
dehumanization, a single human being doesn´t count for more than his Social Security
Number.
Frankl also made research among college students in Europe to study the existential vacuum
in the younger generation. He found out that in America, the number of students with a so
called ´abyss experience´ is unlike higher than in Europe. He insisted that the difference is
the outcome…
―…due to the exposition of the average American student to indoctrination along
reductionistic lines. By being offered such reductionistic concepts of man, this
existential vacuum is reinforced.‖ 118

The existential vacuum is in a way a transmittable or infectious disease, because the

existential vacuum in the young people is amplified by the existential vacuum they sense in

117
Koestler, 1968, page 399

118
Stropko, 1975, page 3
67
their teachers. Students suffer by the fact that they are offered no meanings. And also, there
should not lost sight of some forms of social activity which disturb the search for meaning,
such as mass media.
It has to be considered, that for instance the talk between logical positivists, who call in
meaningless all questions referring to a higher intelligence in man and the universe, is not
just a dispute among philosophers. It certainly reaches the public mind at a large scale. The
media and communication system, and the interconnectivity of institutes, broadcasting
stations, journalists and reporters and the internet arrange a widespread of reductionist
thought. It can be suggested that there are organized forces and specific elements of the
social economic system, which conscious or unconscious, suppress meaning and the
freedom of expression.

Noogenic Neurosis
Frankl described the existential vacuum as the outcome of three factors which are inherent in
our social system: Conformism, Totalitarianism and neurosis. Last of these, he particularly
defined as noogenic neurosis. ―A conformist is a person who uncritically or habitually
conforms to the customs, rules, or styles of a group.‖119) and ―by definition conformism
presents the antithesis both of creativity and of innovative leadership and hence opposes
120
change and / or progress itself‖. . Secondly, in simple words, if someone only does things
which other people want him to do, one can speak of totalitarianism. Plenty of examples of
totalitarianism can be found in history, a well known form is the totalitarian regime such as
Fascism or Stalinism. More general, totalitarianism is autocracy in one of its several varieties.
(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/totalitarianism). According to Frankl, those to factors,
conformism and totalitarianism constitute the noogenic neurosis. Compared to the common
type of neurosis, noogenic neuroticism is mainly the result from the existential frustration. By
the elaboration of scientific research, such as a public ´Purpose in Life – Test´, Frankl could
evidently define noogenic neurosis as indeed a new type of neurosis. This new type of
syndrome existed apart from the conventional diagnostic categories and is has not the same
patterns as any of the known diagnostic syndromes. Frankle further described the existential
vacuum as an abyss experience and he estimated that the existential vacuum is 55% of the
general, non-clinical population. He argued that this was the characteristic phenomenon of
the twentieth century and a neurosis of collective character. Existentialistic neurosis is
regarded as the experience of a lack of meaning and purpose in one´s personal life which
creates a feeling of emptiness which is further manifested in boredom.
119
www.thefreedictionary.com/conformism
120
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformism
68
 ―It is not a mental or emotional illness, but is characterized as the human condition of
our times‖121

Meaning and Pleasure

Pleasure as the ultimate life source, which Freud stated, was not sufficient for Frankl. He
meant that it is meaning that brings and let stay life in motion. Be it a meaning to fulfill, or
another human being to encounter. If a certain meaning in a specific life situation is fulfilled,
or a desired human being is encountered, automatically a reason for being happy is given. In
simple word, happiness is a side-effect of meaning fulfillment. The pure pursue for happiness
does not bring the awaited result of joy, happiness turns into the state of unsteadiness and
collapse. The more someone tries to be happy, the harder it is to reach it. The act of trying
results in a fixation and pleasure becomes the target of someone´s intentions, and the
fulfillment of a meaning gets lost. By having the fix intention of becoming happy, a blockage
in the mind appears and the reason for being happy gets lost. It is the same with self-
actualization. There is no longer any basis for self – actualization given, if human beings
directly and forceful try to reach for it.

Reductionism and human values: An Analogy

As a professor of neurology, and having to do with degraded human values, the concept of
reductionism appears obviously irritating. He pointed out that reductionism is more than the
´nothing – but´ character it bears. For him clearly, reductionism was a philosophical approach
and thinking process which deprives the very human uniqueness. This happens by reducing
a unique human phenomenon to a lower level of organization, to a sub-human phenomenon.
Examples, like mind is the mere outcome of electro – chemical impulses, are already
examined. As everything concerning human – values, is downgraded, Frankl insisted
reductionism may be defined as ´sub – humanism´.
By reducing everything to some kind of mechanism, the humanness in human phenomena
has necessarily disappeared. In his work he often got confronted with the comparison of the
human nervous system with a computer. In that reduction he found the attitude ´nothing but´,
but in the same way, he insisted, man is dimensional more. That can be made clear by the
inspection of the example or rather the analogy of geometrical bodies and dimensions.

A cube, which basis is a square can also be regarded as a square. If we do so, a whole
dimension is ignored. Nevertheless, the square or so to say the lower dimension is inherent

121
Stropko, 1975 page 5
69
in the cube. The slight but profound difference arises by saying the cube is ´nothing – but´
the square. If we do so, the whole third dimension is removed and regarded as not existing.
That example shows, that reductionism is also a kind of projection.
Human phenomena, even such universal ones like love or conscience, are projected into a
lower dimension. Human oneness is opposed to the pluralism in science we find today,
which he called the ´nourishing soil on which reductionism flourishes´. 122
By examining the analogy of geometrical bodies further, a contradictory pattern of the
reductionist concept appears. Imagine a cylinder. If light is projected from above, a circle
might appear on the plain below the cylinder. In the same way, if light is projected from
horizontal, a rectangle or as the case may be, a square appears beside the cylinder. So
these two resulting pictures, the circle and the rectangle are an evident contradiction.
According to the almost unsolvable mind – body problem, it can at least be stated that mind
and body are two different entities of the same thing. The human oneness is evidently not
invalid, the ´two different aspects of the same thing´ to not contradict the oneness of man.
That explains why the mind – problem in that way is unsolvable. If that analogy is transcribed
into a practical example, or if the cylinder is replaced by a cup, the fact that the projected
result is obtaining even less information of the outgoing body is getting more obviously.
In a second analogy a further example for the limiting character of reductionism can be
found. The shadows of three different bodies, but which have an identical base area, be it a
circle or a rectangle, are all the same. They are equal and therefore interchangeable, and it
is not possible to examine the body on which the light was reflected.
The profound meanings of these analogies become clear, when they are transcribed into the
practical life, into the science of man. If a human being projected into a purely biological or
psychological structure of reference, the result from a biological view would be pure somatic
or body data. In the case of psychology, the result would be only psychic data. The
contradiction is apparent. If the projected object might have been an open system, like a
vessel or the heart, the result would though depict the object is a closed system. The analogy
of projected dimensions operates not only on human and sub – human level, but when going
from any level of organization to a lower one, it operates in whole of science. Now we know
that the entire natural environment, including humanity, consists of open systems and
positive feed – back loops. Responsibility has to be taken of how to deal with reduction and
in the same way with projections. When one of the mentioned objects would be projected by
light, a shadow of a circle or a circle of a rectangular would appear. If the same object was
projected by X - rays it would have resulted in a quite distinct projected pattern. A rectangular
shadow with a darkened edge, or a circular shadow with a darkened edge may would have
122
Koestler, 1968, page 404
70
been appeared. If the methods of projections can be improved, few information of the object
gets lost and the human – dimension stays safe. The treatment of a human being, as if it
were a closed system of chemical or biological reactions and responses should be avoided.
If the analogy is turned over in practical life, it shows that what is really important is the way
of projection. It would be very useful to think about how far reductionism is legitimate as an
analytical technique in the solution of limited technical problems. This openness of human
existence, mental or bodily, necessarily disappears, when man is projected into a dimension
lower than his own.
Frankl says that the unity of a human being cannot be found within the lower dimensions, we
must seek for it in the human dimension. Evidently, due to the analogy, the higher
dimensions obtain the lower dimensions. In other words, reductionism has to be re –
humanized. For example, lower level phenomena, like electro – chemical impulses in the
brain do not need to contradict and to neglect human dimensions as such.

The narrowing and simplifying character of reductionism can also be verified by Gödels
Theorem. Kurt Gödel was Czech-born mathematician. He demonstrated that within any given
branch of mathematics, there are always some arguments, which could not be proven to be
wrong or false by simply using the given rules and axioms provided by the specific branch of
mathematic itself. It would be possible to prove every statement by going outside of the
system of the mathematical branch, but by doing so you will form a larger system with new
improvable statements. This means in general that all logical systems are, be it a branch of
mathematics or a language independent from its complexity, incomplete. ―Each of them
contains, at any given time, more true statements than it can possibly prove according to its
own defining set of rules. ―123 It amounts that no mathematical system that is completely
closed can serve as an universal language and it implies that you´ll never perfectly and
entirely can be able to understand yourself. That is because the mind, like any other closed
system can only be sure of what it knows about itself, by relying on what it knows about itself.
By the use of a single closed consistent language, no one can have a universal description of
the universe. So hard we may try, humanity has a single track mind. It appears that the
universe is unimaginable more complex then we could understand.124

123
www.miskatonic.org/godel.html
124
Koestler, 1968, 396 – 427
71
Materialsim

Reductionism and its implications on human thinking and more on society relate and give
ground for the wide and well known established philosophy of materialism. Materialism is the
philosophy which lets the machinery of consumerism work and it makes up societies general
behavior pattern. Logical Positivists agreed upon that all that exists in reality is the same inert
substance, which is physical matter. They disagree with statements like there is something
like a non-physical supernatural entity or substance. Materialism is defined as the
philosophy, that matter is the only reality, that it is everything, including thought, feeling, mind
and will which can be explained in terms of matter and the physical.125.
At the same time as materialism focuses on physical matter it denies the non – physical,
things we cannot see and ignores opposing facts – like the illusion of separation - in scientific
progress. It explains everything in physical terms. The term itself as it is used in
contemporary language is on the one hand associated with values and on the other hand
with ontology. Value characterizes ―the mentality of people who desire only material wealth,
bodily satisfaction, and sensuous pleasure‖ and the ontological aspect…

―…signifies the doctrine that all human thoughts, ideas, judgments of value, and
volitions are the product of physical, chemical, and physiological processes going on in
the human body‖ 126

Materialism shapes the pattern of our behavior and common worldview.

―All apparent biological and mental phenomena are only aggregates of matter,
regardless of the dispute over structuring. All social and cultural phenomena – such as
numbers, languages, morals and indeed even the simplest facts (e.g., that Paris is the
capital of France) – are in some way substantively reducible to the physical or are
totally subjective illusions.127

The impact of materialism on humanity is profound, and can actually be observed all around
in western civilized countries. The distraction of the self and human values in relation to
consumerism and advertising has been already discussed above. Author Tim Harris, asks in
his book ―The high Price of materialism‖ how far materialistic values work against our
psychological health and diminishes our freedom tough freedom and capitalism should go
hand in hand – and also – can consumer goods express our individual identity? He says…

125
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/materialism
126
Rothbard, 2007, page 94
127
Jones, 2000, page 48
72
 ―…if every person truly expressed his or her identity through consumer goods, no
company could survive, profit margins rely on mass production and on mass
consumption‖ 128

He further suggests that advertising is playing the role of giving false individuality. Harris also
gives a picture on the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in life. A study
clearly showed that those who are focused on materialistic values have it difficult to satisfy
self-autonomy.

―Yet the conclusion from more than 20 years of psychological and social research is
crystal clear. Those people who are driven predominantly by extrinsic goals (money,
relative status, exhibitionistic affluence and so on) are far more likely to experience a
lower quality of life than those driven by intrinsic goals (such as good relationships,
personal growth, a meaningful job, and being ´at home´ in the community and useful to
others)129

When a society is composed out if individuals which focus on materialistic values, mainly
those people who are in power, it becomes harsh, especially in modern times where we are
all interconnected through modern communication devices like the internet. Materialism
separates rather than encouraging cooperation in a community. The situation in corporations
between workforces and business executors is self evident. Considering the implications of
society on natural environment, Harris came to the conclusion that

―materialistic values negatively affect the health and happiness of others […] less
empathy and intimacy are present in relationships, and materialistic values are more
likely to be transmitted to the next generation. Finally, Earth´s health suffers as these
values lead individuals to consume at unsustainable and damaging rates.‖ 130

HOLISM

―If we focus only on the parts and their interactions, a central mystery about reality will
always be missed!‖ 131

128
Harris, 2003, page 73
129
Porrit, 2005, page 317
130
Harris, 2003, page 95
131
Jones, 2000 page 36
73
In the chapter before, I have given a definition of reductionism, described its different types
and its origins and illustrated the implications on society and on the general human thinking.
As it described the ecological crisis as a crisis in consciousness, I identified reductionist
thinking as the general source of our error in understanding our reality. The reductionist
thinking gives us a distorted pictures of the means what it is to be human, hence about our
picture of our self and further on with our relationship with the environment.
If the picture of ourselves is distorted, what can be recognized as the crisis in consciousness,
our sense of our needs will also be distorted.
The subdivision of holes into parts is what the concept of reductionism in a broad sense
means and is exactly where it apparently fails to give an adequate and life respecting view of
the world. The helpfulness of reductionism in generating knowledge helped on the one hand
to develop sophisticated technologies on the other hand it limited our ability to find solutions
to the problem of technological impact. The contrary of taking things apart and describe them
by their parts is what is called ―holism‖. It is with simple words a ´view that the whole is
greater than the sum of its parts´. It is also the theory that the parts of any whole cannot exist
and cannot be understood except in their relation to the whole.132
Therefore the concept equals a holistic exploration of reality and it is closely related to
general system theory. On the contrary, reductionism generates knowledge proficient to
disassemble the whole. The whole can be practically regarded as our environment and
further as the whole biosphere and even the whole universe. The problem is that
reductionism does not work the other way round. When we take an everyday object such as
a machine apart, and examine their parts, we assume that their properties will tell us how the
properties of the whole machine come together. We can see exactly how the parts come
together to form the machine. That approach works well with machines and lets us expect
that it works the same with living organisms. Holism in contrast, is the theory that the whole
is more than the sum of its parts. It is related to the idea of non – separability. This
understanding of the interconnection and wholeness of existence shall be the right way
towards an adequate understanding of reality.

Human beings feel separated. Our current social – economic structure which is in fact our
culture, has several intrinsic factors, which perpetuate the feeling of separation. Money,
which is our medium of exchange for our system of distribution of goods, is a major amplifier
for separation.

132
www.thefreedictionary.com/holism
74
 ‖Money, it seems, is inextricably wrapped up in the very essence of selfishness -- a
clue to its deep association with self. Hence the intense sense of violation we feel upon
getting "ripped off" (as if a part of our bodies were being removed) when from another
perspective all that has happened is pieces of paper changing hands or bits turning on
and off in a bank computer. Money is self. Meanwhile, conditioned by science and the
origins of separation underlying it, we see other people as essentially just that, "other."
[…] the more of life we convert to money, the more territory falls into one of these
dichotomous realms, mine or yours, and the less common ground there is to share life
and develop unguarded relationships. The conversion of life to money reduces
everything to an economic transaction, leaving us the loneliest people ever to inhabit
the planet.‖133

Nevertheless, money in its current state can be identified as a symptom we brought upon us
as a cause of our psychological illness, of our lack of understanding ourselves, and who we
are. It has to become clear, that this separation is merely an illusion. Indeed, everything is
linked and connected, be it on a superficial level or on the very subtle levels of organization
of life The following approach to holism shall show that indeed, everything is one whole, and
shall make it easier to understand that from the right perspective our connectivity to nature is
a matter of course.

Holism, as already mentioned, is closely related to system theories, where it is the best way
to study manners of a complex system by dealing with it as a whole. That kind is called
methodological holism, and directly opposes methodological reductionism. Methodological
Holism is described a certain kind of complex system can be best understood at the level of
principles governing the behavior of the whole system, and not at the level of the structure
and behavior of its component parts. That is exactly what methodological Reductionism
stands for. It is the understanding of a complex system at the level of the structure and
behavior of its component parts. To describe the difference between reductionism and holism
a little better, following example might be helpful. A complex system is for example a society
composed out of individuals or an organism composed out of cells, proteins and DNA. A
reductionist would argue that the right way to approach the study of a society is to examine a
single individual or in case of an organism the single cells, Proteins or even the DNA. In
contrast, a methodological holist would suggest examining the society or the organism as a
whole.134

133
Money and the turning age, Charles Eisenstein, www.realitysandwhich.com
134
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/physics-holism/
75
 ―It is important to note that the holistic sense allows us to see differences between
mechanistic actions and holistic ones. It also allows us to see that mechanistic actions
are often appropriate in certain and indeed many circumstances. But the holistic sense
prevent us from being trapped in or unknowingly bound to mechanistic actions‖135

The concept of the Holon

The concept of the Holon shall make the argument of the illusion of separation more clear.
The notion ´holon´ derives from the Greek and equals ´whole´. It is something that is at the
same time a whole and a part. The word was defined by Arthur Koestler (1905 – 1983) in his
book ―The Ghost in the Machine (1967) and was also presented in the already mentioned
Alpbach Symposium (1968) – Beyond Atomism and holism – the concept of the holon. In
general, the holon represents a very interesting way to overcome the gaps in explanation
between parts and wholes. The holon supports the self – determinism and integrative
tendencies of an organism. In the mentioned paper, Koestler illustrates the Holon by a
parable. The parable is about two watchmakers, Hora and Tempus. Every one of them
produces watches, composed of a thousand parts each. Hora is mounting his watches bit by
bit. When Hora would to make a pause or drops a watch by accident before he would be
finished, the watch falls apart and he would have to start from the very beginning. The other
watchmen Tempus, puts his watch together similar, tough slightly different: The difference
lies in the fact, that Tempus puts together sub – arrangements by ten parts each. Ten of
those sub – assemblies make up a larger sub – assembly of hundred parts and by that way
he makes up the whole watch. The advantage is obvious: In case of an accident, Tempus
has to repeat only few and at best no assembling operation. By an average accident number
of one in a hundred operations, Hora will take almost infinite times longer to put together his
watch. This parable transformed in biological terms, would mean that life evolving in the
manner of Hora would take exorbitant times. The author of the parable concludes that
complex systems would evolve much faster from simple systems when there are stable in-
between forms than if there are not.
Koestler claims that this idea can be found in nature everywhere, and even humans have
adopted this idea from nature. Motor manufactures found out that it is not worth to always
design a new model from the drawing board, but they make use of already existing motor
components. Evolution does the same. It has to be remarked that the patented structure, be
it an organ or a motor component or any other sub - assembly, has to be regarded as an
autonomous existence. This principle, that every sub – assembly or sub – organ is self

135
Haynes, page 29
76
directed, can be found throughout in evolution. The relativity of the terms ´parts´ and
´wholes´ become clear when the self – government of these sub –entities -organs is brought
in mind. A characteristic of hierarchies is that a whole organ, such as a heart or a tiny cell
can function as a quasi independent whole, even when it is isolated or transplanted into
another organism. This sub – assemblies are by Arthur Koestler called as the aforesaid
holon. Koestler described the relative character of our reality, especially when it comes to the
use of our language. The notion ´part´ for instance, is defined as a portion, division, piece, or
segment of a whole or as any of several equal portions or fractions that can constitute a
whole or into which a whole can be divided. We generally use the word part as something
fragmentary and incomplete, which by itself would have no legitimate existence. On the other
hand, the word ´whole´ is regarded to describe something complete in itself, which needs no
further explanation. It is defined as ―…containing all components…complete, as not divided
or disjointed. A whole unit.136
Koestler argues that ´wholes´ and ´parts´ in these absolute definitions do not exist anywhere,
either in the field of living organisms or in social organizations. We are merely living in a
relative reality, where it depends on the point of view what we´ll see. Order in complex
systems can be seen in many. The concept of the holon suggests a missing link between the
atomistic worldview and the holistic worldview. The term is meant to substitute our dualistic
thinking which is obviously deeply engrained in our mental behavior. There is also no place
for a reductionist approach. A complex system cannot be reduced to its elementary parts, but
it can be laid open into its constituent holons. Koestler pointed out, that the concept of the
holon could be applied to any stable sub – whole in an organic, cognitive or social hierarchy.
In biology the holon could be regarded as a self – regulating open system, which is governed
by a set of rules which accounts for the holon´s general function. This set of rules determines
the invariant aspect of the open system, the dynamic equilibrium. The rules do not limit the
freedom of the system, their impact depend on occasional impulses from the local
environment. The role of the environment has already been discussed in the chapter ´The
mind body problem and the myth of genetic determinism´. He called the rules of the holon
the canon of the holon and meant that it represents the constraints imposed in any rule –
governed process or behavior. The relation between the sub – assemblies or holon in any
hierarchical level of a system, be it in a government or in a human body can be defined by a
system of relations which is represented on the next higher level as a unit. The unit itself is a
relative entity. .137

136
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/part
137
Koestler, 1968, page 198
77
A holistic perspective on Earth
The concept of the holon gives insight into the character of interconnectivity and wholeness
of our reality. It also shows the narrowing aspects of a reductionist point of view on things we
perceive. It shows somehow that things are not separated from each other like we believe,
but merely interleave and intertwine into each other.
Obviously, if someone verifies the holistic viewpoint for him or herself, he might come to the
conclusion to have found a more compassionate way of seeing. Also, such a kind of person
might realize, that the shift in perception did not come from the five senses. After all, the
previous concept of reality has been perceived as well with five senses. If someone
recognizes the truth of a certain concept, and if the new understanding cannot be tested by
any of the five senses, it is suggested using a metaphor. If a new perspective is achieved it
can be seen like it arose of a new sense which has been added to the five senses. To
understand the rise of a new perception better, one has to…

―…consider a situation, where the senses have somehow been miss – wired, such that
one sense is experienced as if it was another sense. In this case we have a change in
perspective without strictly speaking adding any new sense, but clearly a new kind of
sensing capacity has arisen and in which case we can appreciate what could happen in
the event of an entirely new sense‖. 138

The author of this metaphor wants to advise that every of the five senses are related to a
paradigm – shift. For example, people who are deaf and blind, achieves learning goals
without the contribution of the missing senses, the same level as others. The missing link is
suggested to be imagination.

―It is as if the imagination becomes the underpinning for that reality and what the
physical senses see and hear are just some superficial relationship to that reality.
Imagination, in other words, is far more powerful than meets the eyes and will always
be far less understood to be so while ever people use their physical eyes (and other
senses) at the expense of their imagination.‖ 139 .

As we all have the capacity to perceive reality like it is an agglomeration of separated

entities, we have the capacity to a holistic thinking. That does not mean that holistic thinking
is right, and mechanistic, linear thinking is wrong. Thus holistic thinking is a more peaceful
perspective on life. That becomes clear by the fact that it recognizes its sense in the co –

138
Haynes, 2000, page 27
139
Haynes, 2000, page 28
78
existing nature of mechanistic and holistic thinking itself in terms of their cooperative
contribution

.‖I make the claim that in order for Homo Sapiens Sapiens to survive the growing
complexity of life on this planet and all of the destabilizing forces which that complexity
has unleashed, once a sense of holism, collectively, has reached critical mass, then
cumulative selection will be set in place. Such ―selection‖ will take place in a natural
and for once, compassionate way. Compassion being a primary characteristic of a
sense of holism‖ 140

Opponents of the holistic perspective argue that this certain kind of seeing the world is not
capable of perceiving the aspect of chaos in the universe. Chaotic systems appear to be fully
random and therefore do not let themselves pack to a uniquely view. Nevertheless, the
holistic view is meant to subtly situate between simplicity and randomness. However, all
disputes - for or against – holism have something in common. It is ´the point of view´ or more
general ´the perspective´ seemingly depends on.

―I would go so far as to say that we will begin to understand the universe when we
begin to understand perspectivalism. One way of beginning to understand perspectives
is to recognize their properties (however subtle)‖ 141

And so it is with holism, it is the synthesis of every kind of view, be it be the objective and
subjective or the one of separation or connectedness.

The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of
thinking about them 142

The Gaia Hypothesis

―[…] on the basis of that evidence, I reanimated the view that we were standing on a
super organism rather than just a ball of rock […].‖ 143

By that matter of understanding, I will show an alternative view on planet earth, other than
the conventional mechanistic view. The holistic perspective allows seeing the earth as a
totally different appearance, and when that view is once realized, it makes the role and place

140
Haynes, 2000, page29
141
Haynes, 2000, page 35
142
Koestler, 1968 / Haynes, 2000, pages 25 – 42
143
Lovelock, 1988, page 487
79
of humanity on the planet and our connection to nature far clearer. The new look on earth is
underpinned by a scientific and holistic hypothesis, which is called the ´Gaia Hypothesis´.
"The entire range of living matter on Earth from whales to viruses and from oaks to algae
could be regarded as constituting a single living entity capable of maintaining the Earth's
atmosphere to suit its overall needs and endowed with faculties and powers far beyond those
of its constituent parts.

Gaia can be defined […] as a complex entity involving the Earth's biosphere,
atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback of cybernetic systems
which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet."144 .

In short, the hypothesis says, that the earth is a living organism. The name Gaia derives from
the ancient Greek who named the earth after this goddess. The founder of the Hypothesis is
chemist and biophysicist James Lovelock (1919).
In the early 1960´s Lovelock as a chemist, was employed at NASA, where he and his
colleagues had the occasion to study space pictures from earth. Initially he wanted to detect
life on other planets by analyzing their atmospheres.

―That vision of stunning beauty, that dappled white and blue sphere stirred us all, no
matter that by now it is just a visual cliché. The sense of reality comes from matching
our personal mental image of the world by that we perceive by our senses. That is why
the astronauts view from earth is so disturbing. It showed just how far from reality we
had strayed.‖ 145

He suggested that the atmosphere of a planet which is wearing life must differ from the one
of a lifeless planet, in terms of its chemical constitution, which changes as it is the bearer of
the material, produced from the metabolism of living organisms. Therefore he compared
Earth´s atmospheres with that of Venus and Mars, which appeared to him static and dead.
Their atmosphere is in equilibrium, while he observed that Earth´s atmosphere was in deep
disequilibrium. He asked himself how far life on the earth could be capable to regulate and
maintain the constant composition of the atmosphere. By this thought, Lovelock found a
whole range of life supported mechanisms on earth, that have deeply influenced the
atmosphere suchlike to live on would not be possible without that influence. One of those
mechanisms for instance is the carbon cycle:

144
Quoted from A new look on live on earth1979 - James Lovelock,
www.kheper.net/topics/Gaia/Gaia_Hypothesis.htm
145
Lovelock, 1988 page 486
80
Carbon is one of the building blocks of life, every organic substance is partly composed out
of it. As Gaia is regarded as an interaction of the biota and the abiota, Carbon travels around
the Earth in a major biochemical cycle, which is divided in the geological and the biological
cycle. Both operate in different timescales, the geological runs over millions of years, the
biological up to thousands of years. The biota plays an important role through the process of
taking up carbon by photosynthesis and respiration, which is the reverse of photosynthesis.
The amount of carbon going through the biological cycle each year is 1000 times greater
than the amount of carbon moving through the geological cycle. Since the formation of Gaia,
when Carbon accumulated from outer space, carbonic acid (reaction between CO2 and
water), has in a constant process combined with calcium and magnesium in the earth´s
crust. There it formed through weathering carbon containing chemical compounds
(carbonates) which are insoluble. The process of erosion washes this carbonates into the
oceans, where they sink to the bottom and form layers of sediments on the seafloor. The
carbonate materials continue the cycle at the zones where the tectonic plates undercut
others (subduction zones) and with them the carbonates. The immense heat and pressure
disintegrates the molecule of the limestone structure of the carbonat and by volcanic eruption
CO2 returns into the atmosphere, where it reacts with some minerals to form calcium
carbonate. This cycle controls atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and lets earth´s
temperature stay constant over periods of hundreds of millions of years, while solar output
was not constant. Before there was life on the planet, scientists found out that the
concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide was circa one hundred times lower than now146.

Homeostasis, which is a relatively stable state of equilibrium or a tendency toward such a

state between the different but interdependent elements or groups of elements of an
organism, population, or group147, which is a property of living organisms, has also been
observed at the earth. In other words, the property of homeostasis supposes that the earth is
alive.148

―Gaia as a planet sized entity has properties that are not necessarily discernible by just
knowing individual species or populations of organisms are living together.‖ 149

146 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/CarbonCycle/
147 www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homeostasis
148 Midgley, 2001, pages 14 -16
149 Lovelock, 2000, page 19

81
The Gaian Worldview
Proponents of the Gaia Hypothesis and opponents of it generally occupy two exact opposed
worldviews on the spectrum of human thought. This spectrum inhabits on the one side
reductionists, who oppose the hypothesis and on the other end holists which generally speak
for the Gaia hypothesis. Robert Wright, in the publication ´From Gaia to selfish Genes´ calls
it also the right brain (proponents) and left brain (opponents) or the weird (proponents) and
nonweird spectrum of human thought. He suggests that holists see the universe as a more
connected and purposeful place than reductionists do, though second might have their
prober philosophy to see a prosper world . (Barlow, 1992, pages 243 -245) The reason why it
is hard to grasp the idea of the Earth as a living being by combining imagination and the
scientific viewpoint, is the intellectual tradition and the importance of scientific thought in our
life. We practice a culture were facts and values are harshly separated which turn our
thought into a fragmented framework.

―Our moral, psychological and political ideas have all been armed against holism. They
are both, too specialized and too atomistic‖ 150

The already discussed Mind Body problem, therefore appears to be the major trouble of
dualism. The role of the fathers of materialistic thinking such as René Descartes, which
propose the earth, is a machine is self evident. The ´war against Nature´ is an outcome of
this thinking, as we did not think that the earth is vulnerable capable of health or sickness,
fullness or hurt. 151.
Human beings are part of the great living being, which we call earth. By our mental
separation from nature we disturbed important life cycles (or mechanisms) which contribute
to the health of the Planet. One is for instance our influence in the carbon cycle.
Before the influence of humanity, huge amounts of carbon were undisturbed stored in fossil
fuels, which represented a kind of dead end of the cycle. Humanity arranged it to launch the
flow into the atmosphere. The increased use of coal, oil and natural gas – the burning of
fossil fuels – by the industrial revolution caused an immense break – down of carbon to CO2
and water. At the beginning of the 21st century humans burned about 5.1 million (4.6 million
metric tons) short tons of coal, 28, 1 billion barrels of oil and 89 trillion cubic feet of natural
gas which equals 6.5 petagrams (6.5 billion metric tons) of carbon to flow from the fossil fuel
storage pool the atmosphere. Also in equilibrium before economic activity was the amount of
Carbon stored in the biota, taken up through photosynthesis and emitted through respiration

150 Midgley, 2001, page 18

151 Midgley, 2001, pages 16-20

82
Human activity reduced over the last several hundred years the biotic storage pool of carbon,
mainly through a process known as deforestation, and released it into the atmosphere. This
caused a disturbance of the equilibrium of the carbon cycle from the ocean to the
atmosphere and vice versa. By that the concentration of carbon relative to the ocean has
been increased and carbon flows spontaneously from the atmosphere to the ocean, which
reduces the ocean´s ph and makes it more acidic. The lower pH slows the rate at which
carbon dissolves in the ocean. Currently, the flow of carbon from the atmosphere to the
ocean is about 2 petagrams (2 billion metric tons) greater than the flow of carbon from the
ocean to the atmosphere.152
James Lovelock sees the earth as a living being which we are a part of. We are not the
owner or some kind of passenger on ―spaceship earth‖. He argues that our acting of
exploiting the nature is irresponsible dumb. He compares it with like we consider our brain
ultimate and the cells of other organs of our body expandable.

―We are so alienated from the world of nature that few of us can name the wild flowers
and insects of our locality or notice the rapidity of their extinction.‖ 153.

Our seemingly disturbed role of the organism has to be rearranged. Gaia involves action on
a personal level. He said tough he lost faith in humanity in present time, that we can
contribute to a healthier planet, when we all become aware of our implementation and
connection to nature. 154

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

As now the first decade of the 21st century is reaching its end, mankind still finds itself in
situation where environmental degradation through unsustainable, short term decisions is still
a major problem. The culture of consumerism and the untenable view on life it promotes is
directly and indirectly destroying important life supporting systems on earth, which the most
part of humanity is not even aware of. In the middle of the last century people gradually
became alert of the impact of their actions on nature and also on the life of future generation.
It became clear that there are indeed limits of economical motivated exploitation on nature.
In this chapter I will describe the concept of the supposed solution on the ecological crisis,
namely Sustainable Development and ask further how far it implements the issues which are
already discussed in the chapters above.

152
www.eoearth.org/article/Carbon_cycle
153
Lovelock, 1988, page 489
154
Lovelock, 1988, pages 486 – 489
83
If Sustainable Development is a solution for the crisis which everyone concerns on the
planet, how do we participate? The critical viewpoint in this chapter shall not be ignored and
serve as a device to keep the subject in perspective.

Porritt Jonathon in his book ´Capitalism as if the world matters´ claims that humanity at this
moment is bounded to two imperatives. On the one hand there is the biological imperative;
on the other hand there is the political imperative. He points out that the first of the two –
the biological imperative – is an absolute one which is determined by the laws of nature and
we must not ignore this imperative in order to survive as a species: The imperative says that
we have to learn how to live sustainably on this planet.
The second imperative is a very different kind: it is the striving for improvement of material
well being. This imperative is relative and not absolute in its nature, because there are many
different possible scenarios for developing and gaining material wealth. These two
imperatives, as contradicting their content may seem, have to be brought together, hence a
healthier future could be achieved. Such intentions have been around a long time; though
have not always been taken for serious. Diverse branches of mass media took scientists and
activists who wanted to reassure people about environmental and social problems for
preposterous - such people have often been accused to spread fear without reason and also
for overstatements. Nowadays there exist controversies about who to trust in terms of
information on the serious environmental situation, most notably at the issue of climate
change. Who is it to believe, scientists or politics?
After all, most of the information about the state of the physical environment and situation in
poor countries come from governments departments or the United Nations (UN). These
institutions reveal in constant interval the state of current affairs around the globe. The
Millenium Ecosystem Assessment report, released in April 2005 is one of those. ―From 2001
to 2005, the Millenium Assessment involved the work of more than 1,360 experts worldwide.
Their findings provide a state-of-the-art scientific appraisal of the condition and trends in the
world‘s ecosystems and the services they provide, as well as the scientific basis for action to
conserve and use them sustainably.‖ 155. In general this report reminds that human well being
is connected to the healthy functioning of our planet. The loss in the diversity of Earth for the
needs of a growing human species, the still growing degradation and unsustainable influence
of 60% of ecosystems, the chance of non – linear changes in ecosystems and irreversibility
of human action are discussed in this report. The human species is the only one on the earth
known, which is able to conceptualize the conditions we need for our own survival and able
to shape our behavior patterns in order to optimize our survival chances. If we don´t learn to

155
www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.aspx
84
live sustainably within the natural systems, also in a holistic perspective, the future of
mankind is unsure. Nevertheless it seems that the awareness about how to life on earth
rather than being selfish comes back slightly, though it appears that the source of the
ecological crisis has not been identified and neither the degree of priority and
interdependence of different human action.

―With great respect to those who assert the so called ´primacy´ of key social and
economic goals (such as the elimination of poverty or the attainment of universal
human rights), it must be said loud and clear that these are secondary goals: all else is
conditional upon learning to live sustainably within the Earth´s systems and limits. Not
only is the pursuit of biophysical sustainability non –negotiable, it´s preconditional.‖156

Social sustainability is entirely reliant on ecological sustainability and vice versa. The author
points out, that wherever a specific actor or organization promoting sustainable development
starts to act, the emphasis should be set on the social question and behaviour. In this work,
the role of human behavior and its implications have already been worked out.

―It is human behavior and the resulting social dynamics that lie at the heart of today´s
social and ecological problems‖ 157

As we now experience the financial crisis which could cause further the economic meltdown,
and as we reached the limits of how far we can go as an highly unsustainable society there is
a transition necessary – a transition towards a sustainable society. Porritt Johanthon
proposes that in terms of how development accelerated in the younger history of humanity
that such a transition will rather go fast than slow. A coming together of the two mentioned
economies must happen in predominantly capitalist economies. A new sustainable economy
must be marked friendly, if it is meant to be successfully implemented in society. Difficulties
of the reconciliation of the two imperative, according to Porritt, may arise in the necessity of
the widespread political acceptance within this democratic systems and their elected leaders,
which set boundaries to a transition.
Since freedom, diversity and open exchange and the expression of individuality are believed
to be embodied in the structure of capitalism, and ecological reality is usually ignored when it
is identified as any kind of serious barrier to material prosperity, it has to be asked if change
comes from top or from the bottom of the hierarchy of the society. Another barrier to the full
transition of a full implementation of a sustainable society now is the state of fear of change
we live in. How do our lives change in a Sustainable Society? Sustainable Development

156
Porritt, 2005, page 10
157
Porrit,2005 page 10
85
must comply with the need for addressing people´s desire for a higher quality of life,
emphasizing personal and not material well being and also fulfill the challenge to live within
natural limits. 158

In the following I will try to give an answer to these questions. Further I want to find out how
far diverse concepts of Sustainable Development are rather solutions for symptoms than for
the source of the ecological crisis, all under consideration of what has already been
examined in this work – from the unsustainable culture of consumerism to the benefits of
holistic thinking.

To emphasis on these questions I try to give a general description of Sustainable

Development and its concept.

The concept of Sustainable Development

In principle the term ´Sustainable Development´ consists of the notion to ´sustain´ and
´development´. First of both is defined as: to support, hold, or bear up from below and further
bear the weight of, as a structure or to keep up or keep going, as an action or process. For
instance: to sustain a conversation. Development is defined as the act or process of
developing; growth; progress: child development; economic development.159

Both words together define the term ―Sustainable Development‖ which constitutes a new,
and as yet little analyzed semantic element in the discourse of economists and
environmentalists. Beyond the broad consensus which has evolved around this notion, the
various currents and schools of thought are competing to establish which theory will prove
best adapted to explicate the concept and to render its contends usable‖ 160

Under the uncountable different existing definitions for Sustainable Development, following
definition has nowadays achieved authoritative status and it derives from the Brundtland
Report:

―Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains
within it two key concepts. The concept of ‚needs‗, in particular the essential needs of
the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and the idea of limitations

158
Porrit, 2005, pages 3 – 20
159
www.dictionary.com
160
Facheux, Connor, Straaten, page 57
86
 imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability
to meet present and future needs.‖ 161

Due to the acceptance Brundtland-definition of Sustainable Development can be said that

―It has achieved authoritative status in international environmental and development

discourse and international environmental governance structures and legal
162
frameworks.‖

In general, Sustainable Development is meant to be an effort to combine the mentioned

biological and the political imperative.

It is ―a comprehensive concept involving many disciplines, giving it both, a

philosophical base and a pragmatic approach. It appeals to a wide range of interests
from nations to corporations to stakeholders because it combines economic
development and environmental protection into a single system‖ 163

The term ´sustainable development ´ appeared as a precursor of the Brundtland definition

first in the document ´World Conservation Strategy in 1980 by the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. The notion itself at that time has been
defined as an integration of preservation (nature protection) and development to provide a
planetary change which can ensure safe survival and welfare of people. Then, development
was defined as ―a modification of the biosphere with the use of human, financial living, and
non – living resources to satisfy the humans needs and improve life standard‖. The origins of
the phrase ´Sustainable Development´ can further be traced back into the year 1983, when
the UN General Assembly constituted the World Commission on Environment and
Development (WCED), which released its report to the UN Assembly in 1987. The document
was regarded as a global program for change. It was called the ´Brundtland Report´ (named
after the chairman Gro Harlem Brundtland, later Norwegian Prime Minister) or alternatively
´Our Common Future´. Again, the expression means to incorporate policies and processes
based on the interdependence and complementary character of the two imperatives,
economic growth and environmental preservation.

161
www.wikipedia.org
162
Baker, 2005, page 25
163
Schmandt, Ward, Hastings, 2000, page XV
87
 ―Apart from this, the document shows the necessity of reforming institutions and laws in
the frame of sustainability in order to face the challenges of the future with the overall
purpose of achieving inter- and intra-generational equity.‖164

Nevertheless, criticism on that specific formulation of the Brundtland report focused on the
different concepts that form the phrase ´sustainable development´, which are generally two
different systems of thought and abstraction, which is economic growth and the idea of
sustainability. Economic Growth and development on the one hand finds its definition in the
field of monetary aggregates and fiscal belonging. Sustainability comes from the natural
heterogeneous physical processes. These two are completely different schemes. The
concept of economic growths is claimed to be total disconnected from the physical world and
has no other real and quantifiable meaning than National Income. That is, in monetary
aggregates which, by definition, are abstracted from the heterogeneity of the physical natural
processes that generates them. Therefore, they lack in information and criteria to judge the
sustainability of the latter.165

Development towards the Brundtland Report: Limits of Growth

Before ´Sustainable Development´ in modern times became established and a synonym for
´thinking green´, not the full term, but the concept of ´Sustainable Development´ and concern
about sustainability can be traced back to thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth century,
like Malthus (1766 -1834) or William Stanley Jevons (1835 -82). They worried about resource
scarcity in terms of overpopulation and also deforestation. In only two generations, the
industrial revolution changed human life entirely. At that time, Malthus published his work
ideas in the ―Essay on principles of population‖ which became widely noted.

One century later, in the 1960 and 1970 the issue became general interest, where the
majority of the society started to make concerns about the environment and the ignorance of
big corporations and their one – dimensional economic needs. In Stockholm in 1972 at the
U.N. Conference on the Human Environment this concern was formulated at the first time at
an international level. This led further to the first responses, mainly in the academic field,
such as the Club of Rome, which is a global think tank that deals with a variety of
international political issues. It was founded in April 1968 and raised considerable public
166
attention in 1972 with its report The Limits to Growth. . The report concluded that if the
trends at that time in population growth, food production, resource use and pollution

164
Osorio, Lobato, Castillo, 2004, page 2 / (Krapivin, Varotsos, 2007, page 23
165
Osorio, Lobato, Castillo, 2004, page 3)
166
www.wikipedia.org
88
continued, it will come to a transgression of the carrying capacity of the planet within 100
years. The results predicted in this book would be ecosystem collapse, famine and war.
Nevertheless, tough the book can finally be regarded as a trigger for the maturity of
environmental awareness ´Limits of Growth´ was subject of much criticism. Beside that the
report presented for some reviewers a general pessimistic view of humanity, it was claimed
for instance that the report ignored the possibility of technological innovation for more
efficient production which would lead to alternative ways of life. Other critics claim, that the
report was an ideological motivated project which wasted a lot of money and alongside the
specific semantic method which was used in the report lead to impeach the credibility of the
statements presented.

―The trick they pulled in their notorious report, The Limits to Growth, was so
transparent, that nobody should have fallen for it. The trick consisted of using the word
―growth,‖ for something which is, in reality, only ―multiplication. […]True growth includes
a quality that transcends mere multiplication. The clearest example is the growth of a
human being in the first year after the fertilization of the egg, from which he or she
grows. In this process, it is not so much a question of multiplication of cells, but rather
permanent differentiation, reorganization, and the development of new organs, which
are the substance of true growth. The quality of change of the growth process becomes
particularly obvious with the singular event known as birth. Yet, in principle, the same
qualitative transformation is true for any growth process that is capable of maintaining
itself over any length of time. Naturally, that is especially the case for economic
processes.‖167

The reason why almost all politicians, economists, and scientist have fallen for the content of
the book, is said to be deeply rooted in the dominant free market economic thinking process,
- which is Profit: Buy low and sell high - and also the idea to be fixed in thinking about
quantities and terms of measurement and ignoring qualitative growth, like creative power. 168
At the UN conference on the environmental problems in 1972 a declaration was accepted
and the U.N. organization on environmental problems (UNEP) was created. In 1974 at the
Ecumenical Conference on the problems of the socio-economic society and the conception
of a sustainable society were presented organized by the World Church Council (WCC). The
issues that have been raised there, such like ´social sustainability cannot be reached without
a uniform distribution of deficit or without possibility of combined participation in resolving the
social problems´ or ´global society cannot be stable if not the level of pollutants emissions is

167
www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/articles/spring02/NoLimits.html
168
Baker, page 17 -18
89
below the ability of accumulation by ecosystems´ became later the cornerstone of the
Brundtland report. 169

Brundtlandt Report
―The Brundtlandt Report is built upon a belief in the common heritage of humankind,
trust in our technology, and optimism about our willingness to engage collectively in the
protection in our common future‖ 170

As already mentioned, at the international Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources in 1980 the ´World Conservation Strategy ´ was developed and the term
´Sustainable Development´ and its definition reached the first time the public. Their attempts
for succession to reach broader awareness were rather limited, as they did not connect
ecological sustainability with the complex concerns of social and economic sustainability.171 .
The links between the ecologic and economic dimensions and also between the social
dimensions were explicitly made in 1987 when the WCED released the report ´Our common
future´ or the Brundlandt report.
Examples which illustrate the linkage between these three dimensions are for instance soil
erosion caused by deforestation which further causes accumulation of mud and try riverbeds
and lakes or agricultural policy that leads to overuse of chemical fertilizers which further
pollutes land and water. The social linkage is illustrated by the emancipation of women which
could lead to reduction of birth rate.
The Brundtland report provided a solution and an alternative path to the current development
standard. The new paradigm of development, which the Report promotes was meant to
address several important issues: Reviving Growth (making it less material and energy
intensive), population and human resources (reducing population growth to sustainable
levels) food security (Reducing agricultural subsidies, addressing inequalities in access to
and distribution of food), loss of species and genetic resources (maintaining biodiversity for
moral, ethical, cultural, aesthetic scientific and medical reasons), energy (using renewable
energy resources and reducing inequality), industry (producing more with less, promoting the
ecological modernization of industry) and human settlement and land use (developing
settlement strategies to guide urbanization and shifts from the countryside).
The Brundtland definition became the dominant concept because it allowed reconciling
issues which until then weren´t favor to discuss in society. The Brundtland concept gained

169
Krapivin, Varotsos, 2007, page 23
170
Baker, 2006, page 46
171
Baker, 2006, page 19‘
90
also dominance because it met topics high on political agenda at that time and it helped 3rd
world countries to catch up with western countries. All in all, the Brundtland approach to
sustainable development can be summarized to this issues.
Remarkable is the propagated three – pillar approach, which means to connect the ecologic,
economic and social dimensions. Further it promotes the idea that environmental protection
and economic development can be mutually compatible goals and even support each other
and it finds the source of the ecological crisis in nonsufficient technological and social
organization. Consumption, which is observed to be driven by wants and not needs, at a high
rate cannot be supported by nature and also claims that there are biophysical limits to
growth.172

The Promotion of Sustainable Developement: The Brundtland report and Equity

To promote Sustainable Development at a global level, and to bring the idea into the public
mind, focus has been set on equity. Therefore, the Brundtlandt Report focuses on specific
kinds of equity, which is the ´Inter-generational equity´ and the ´Intra – generational´ equity.
First of both terms refers to the equity between generations. Current policies shall account
for the needs of future generations. What is meant by that is that it is believed that our
actions of today which can be compared to – we borrow environmental capital from future
generations – have an impact on the world of our children, who have to deal with that losses.
However, it is hard to define obligations for that, because it cannot be measured how far into
the future, and how many future generations are affected by our actions today. Another
problem is, how future generations can be given some form of voice or considerations on
current policy making, as they are not even born. Beside that, it is not only the humans which
are dependent on present actions, but also animal and plant life and the whole natural world.
Intra – generational equity is a more complex issue and deals with concerns about justice
and resource use. Intra – generational equity on the one hand refers to distribution of basic
social goods, like liberty and opportunity, on the other hand it refers to the equity of resource
use between north and south, the rich and the poor. Poverty is claimed to be a basic factor
for environmental degradation, in terms that the poor exploit their near environment for
immediate needs, and also for the development of slums resulting in health and
environmental hazards. Poverty is even seen as ´an evil in itself´, thus it shall be the major
concern for Sustainable Development to deal with, because it requires meeting the basic
needs of all. Considering that it is not only the poor and the 3rd world countries who overuse
environmental resources, but also the rich and the process of cyclic consumption (see

172
Baker, 2005, 18 – 25
91
chapter: 2), it becomes clear that at least that part of intra – generational equity is
questionable.
Both, intra- and inter- generational equity take into account that environmental degradation
affect men and women differently, because of the different social tasks they practice. So,
another aspect of equality is the consideration of gender equity. ―Prompting sustainable
development without consideration of the need of the female half of the world´s population is
an empty gesture‖. 173

Participation & Agenda 21

As Sustainable Development has now been introduced as a supposed solution for the crisis
and as also the characteristics of the concept have been a little discussed I want to go into of
how every single individual is supposed to participate: A short approach to the Agenda 21
shall examine where the connection between the population of the planet – the ´we´- and
Sustainable Development is drawn.
The preamble of the official document of the Agenda 21 states:

Humanity stands at a defining moment in history. We are confronted with a

perpetuation of disparities between and within nations, a worsening of poverty, hunger,
ill health and illiteracy, and the continuing deterioration of the ecosystems on which we
depend for our well-being. However, integration of environment and development
concerns and greater attention to them will lead to the fulfilment of basic needs,
improved living standards for all, better protected and managed ecosystems and a
safer, more prosperous future. No nation can achieve this on its own; but together we
can - in a global partnership for sustainable development. 174

The Agenda 21 is described as ―a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally,

nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and
Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment.” It can be seen as
a blueprint for actions which have to be taken on different levels. The number 21 refers to an
agenda for the 21st century.

At the UN conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992, the full text of the
Agenda 21 was revealed. Beside this, the ´Rio Declaration on Environment and

173
Baker, 2006, pages 38 – 46
174
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter1.htm
92
Development´ and the ´Statement of principles for the Sustainable management of forests´
by more than 178 Governments was adopted. Focus is laid on a Sustainable Development
implemented at the local, national and regional as well as on international level. The CSD,
which is the Commission on Sustainable Development is ought to have a monitoring role and
gives reports on these implementations. The CSD also acts as a forum on sustainable
development whereby the implementation by member states remains essentially voluntary.
An important event for the Agenda took place in 2002, in South Africa Johannesburg, where
the Agenda 21 and programs for further realization were strongly reaffirmed.

The text of the Agenda 21 consists of 40 chapters, and is divided into four main sections.
Section 1.is ´The Social and Economic Dimensions´ (poverty, consumption patterns,
population dynamics, integrating environment and development into decision making)
Section number 2 is ´Conservation and Management of Resources for Development´(climate
protection, combating deforestation, protection fragile environments, conservation of
biological diversity, pollution control), section number 3 is ´Strengthening the Role of Major
groups´ (including the roles of children and youth, women and NGO´s, local authorities and
workers) and section number four is ´Means of Implementation´(science, technology transfer,
education, financial mechanisms) 175

To promote the ideas of Sustainable Development, participation is regarded as a very

important and indispensable factor.

Susan Baker, in her book ´Sustainable Development´ (2006) points out, that there are
normative and functional reasons why participation is necessary.
The normative perspective, she claims, is essential for representing authenticity of a
democracy as everyone is thought to have influence on decisions which affect one´s life. The
normative perspective, the paper claims, is ´institutional´. Such normative decisions for
example would be reducing consumption levels, introducing taxes on goods that affect the
environment harmfully. Normative decisions would also constrain certain behavior of a
society, as the random displacement of waste could be prohibited. Such restrictions and
corrections in the system can only be validated by the increased participation of the society.
It is supposed that a broad spectrum of actors participate, such as the broader public, non –
governmental organizations, the scientific community and also the industry. As policies have
objective character, it could be said that through the participation of the individual, the
subjective realm with every individual´s value on nature, is introduced.

175
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/index.htm
/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agenda_21)
93
The functional character of participation on Sustainable Development is ought to be found in
the effective participation in the decision making process by local communities. However
contentious its effectiveness is, it should help to enforce common interest and is also
regarded as the only approach to policy - making that involves the need of all parts of the
society.
It is argued, that actions by government alone will not solve the problems underlying the
trend of global environmental breakdown. Local and national participation therefore is
regarded as the heart of an integrated policy – making of Sustainable Development. 176

The controversy of participation

Participation, of course, opens up a range of conflicts, and the participation process is in
general a complex and an enduring process. There are a range of examples that could be
mentioned, such like the appearance of different, contra dictionary development goals of
neighboring regions, which could result in a conflict in demands on a specific resource base.
Another problem is the question of who can at what scale participate in decision making?
What if there is groups having a conflicting view on the concept of Sustainable Development
at all? The issue of participation contradicts in some form the principle of democracy, where
elected representatives and assemblies should be responsible for the decision making and it
raises the questions if these new procedures have even democratic legacy.
To get a little clearer picture about the participation it might be helpful to see the process of
participation as a kind of redistribution of power to the citizen, simple: Citizen-power. The
citizens which are excluded from the political and economic processes are ought to have
now a chance to co – create a common future, and share the benefits of considerable social
reforms.
However, participation of citizens can also be an empty process. It is claimed that there is a
critical difference between such an empty sort of obligatory ritual of participation, and the real
power which would be needed to have an effect on the outcome of a participation-process.
The important fact to point out is that participation without the redistribution of power is a
drain and wearisome process for the powerless.

―It allows the powerholders to claim that all sides were considered, but makes it
possible for only some of those sides to benefit. It maintains the status quo.‖177

176
Baker, 2006, 41 – 45
177
http://lithgow-schmidt.dk/sherry-arnstein/ladder-of-citizen-participation.html#d0e24

94
The true character of participation on our system is better recognized, when there are
several gradations of citizen-participation are seen. If that is realized, than it is possible to
understand and see through
overstatements and pure promotion of
participation and understand two sides:
The powerholders as well as the
participants.
Sherry R. Arnstein created the ladder
of particenship, which on the one hand
is a simplified illustration, but which is
on the other hand an important tool to
understand the process of participation
better.
The bottom of the ladder shows (1)
Manipulation and (2) Therapy: As the
image shows, these two rungs
describe levels of "non-participation"
that have been contrived by certain
actors to substitute authentic
participation. Their real objective is not
to enable people to participate in
planning or conducting programs, but
to enable powerholders to "educate" or "cure" the participants. Rungs 3 and 4 progress to
levels of "tokenism" that allow the have-nots to hear and to have a voice. Tokensim is
defined ―as the practice or policy of making no more than a token effort or gesture, as in
offering oppurtunities to minorities equal to those of the majority. It is further defined as any
legislation, admission, policy, hiring practice, etc.., that demonstrates only minimal
compliance with rules, laws, or public pressure. (www.dicitonary.com) (3) Informing and (4)
Consultation: When they are proffered by powerholders as the total extent of participation,
citizens may indeed hear and be heard. But under these conditions they lack the power to
insure that their views will be heeded by the powerful. When participation is restricted to
these levels, there is no follow-through, no "muscle," hence no assurance of changing the
status quo. Rung (5) Placation is simply a higher level tokenism because the ground rules
allow have-nots to advise, but retain for the powerholders the continued right to decide.
Further up the ladder are levels of citizen power with increasing degrees of decision-making

95
clout. Citizens can enter into a (6) Partnership that enables them to negotiate and engage in
trade-offs with traditional power holders. At the topmost rungs, (7) Delegated Power and (8)
Citizen Control, have-not citizens obtain the majority of decision-making seats, or full
managerial power.178
The fact that this is just a simplified illustration of the participation-process of the real world,
abstracts away that both, those who want to participate and those who are in power are not
homogeneous in structure. Both groups have different or contrary view points, and consist
out of subgroups. To understand, why the illustration is nevertheless valid, lies in the field of
human perception: Those who ´have not´, perceive the powerful or the elite as an
incontrovertible block, and those who are in power actually see the other side as the
´perceiving mass´. Additionally to this, it can be assumed that several ideologies and ´- Isms´
we have in our society, are also not regarded in that model.

Final aspects on Sustainable Development

The dimension of perception also plays a role in the concept of Sustainable Development.

Sustainable development and its concepts, as it has been examined in this work, have
indeed its lacks and is subject of a lot of criticism. It seems that the concept of it bears too
many contradictions and is too complex that it can accepted prompt by the broader society.
The enormous amount of publications to the subject for explaining or criticize Sustainable
Development is self-evident. This heterogeneous character of the concept becomes clear,
when shown that there is even a difference between the terms `Sustainable development´
and ´Sustainability´.

―Whereas sustainability refers to the capacity of keeping a state, sustainable

development implies a process, which is integrative in essence, and that tries to
maintain a state of dynamic balance in the long run. Therefore, integral sustainability
may be considered as the central idea of sustainable development: the origin, the
spatial and temporal character, and the contexts or reference systems integrated in a
development process179.

It is argued, that the term Sustainable Development refers to two different thought-systems,
the one of development and the one of environmental preservation. The term is observed to
not specify and differentiate if it is biological, economical, social or cultural development or on
the other hand it is not clear what shall be sustained. It has to be accounted that the

178
http://lithgow-schmidt.dk/sherry-arnstein/ladder-of-citizen-participation.html#d0e24
179
Osorio, Lobato, Castillio, 2004, page 8
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dimension of perception of reality of the different value-systems of different cultures does
play a great role.
For instance, due to 3rd world countries ―it cannot be said that underdevelopment is a
by-product of development, not even that the concept in itself exists beyond the
frontiers of the Western world. It is the Western‘s interpretation of the world that has
been imposed because of the pursuit of economic growth at the basis of Western
thought and development.‖180

Every value system of every different culture emerges from a different perception of reality.
Due to the spread of western culture, which seems to turn the whole surface of the earth – to
express it in a narrower sense - into a shopping mall, it can be said that

―the lack of interest in knowing our way of seeing and understanding our world in depth,
and the levity with which we commonly accept as our own doctrines and ideologies like
that of sustainable development/sustainability, are a sign of the process of global
cultural homogenization in which we participate unconsciously.‖181

However, beside the questionable aspects of Sustainable Development, it can be observed

that there is indeed a progress and overcoming of ideological barriers in connection with
Sustainable Development, such as in the field of science. The complexity of the concept of
Sustainable Development needs new scientific approaches, which are more and more
incorporated. These new approaches are for instance Complexity Theory, System Dynamics
or Inter- and Trans- disciplinary sciences, which is characterized as a new scientific age that
could be further characterized as the overcoming of disciplinary limits and new models to
describe reality. A notion to represent this new scientific approach on reality is ´Postnormal-
science´ It should represent a criticism and at the same time an answer to the reductionist
concept of classical science. ´Postnormal-science´ seeks to integrate hard and soft sciences
and shall be focused on contemporary problems and so the holistic model of the world shall
rise above the reductionist models of classical science. `Postnormal´ science also seeks to
adopt a systemic, synthetic and humanistic approach, and recognizes the connectivity of
humanity to natural systems. As classical science has the attribute of rejecting uncertainty,

180
Osorio, Lobato, Castillo, 2004, page 5
181
Osorio, Lobato, Castillo, 2004, page 5

97
´Postnormal´ Science puts it into its concept and manages it by interactive dialogue and
integration of the subjective dimension. 182

―Postnormal science does not oppose classical science and its methodology, but aims
at the complementariness of both cosmovisions in an integral model that allows for the
integration of phenomenal uncertainty. Classical science undervalues uncertainty, but it
is an intrinsic feature of reality itself.‖ 183

Sustainable Development and Spirituality

To make the logical connection from the introduction of this work, where I stated that all
actions we take are merely solution to symptoms rather than a solution to the real problem,
to Sustainable Development, another dimension has to be mentioned which shall not be
ignored. That dimension is directly linked to the core of the subject of this work – the crisis of
consciousness – and it is the connection of spirituality and sustainability. Notably, as it is
examined in this work, it is the linkage between consumerism and spirituality.
The now growing group of people who oppose consumption praises at the same time
ecological values. People who are conscious or unconscious part of the cyclical consumption
treadmill consider a healthy environment as secondary. Some scientists suggest that we are
on the leap to a sustainable society and the only obstacle which could hinder us may be
spiritual emptiness. It is also argued, that only on a level of higher spiritual awareness, the
complexity and the challenges of the situation could be understood and comprehended. It is
supposed that it is not science, pure rational knowledge but the men - nature relationship
which can express sustainability.

As a concept, spirituality provides the foundation for decisions on how we conduct our
lives. It affects the choices we make in all facets of life, including decisions we make on
consuming products and resources. Current rates of consumption are ultimately
unsustainable, both spiritually and ecologically.184

It is said, that only if the public fully understands the connection of wildlife preservation and
economic growth, sustainability is possible. Still, the public values material wealth more than
nature conservation. In order to make a change on this planet we have to change our
behavior. That change is ought to develop from a more spiritual approach to life. In simple

182
Osorio, Lobato, Castillo, 2004, pages 4 – 10
183
Osorio, Lobato, Castillo, 2004, page 9
184
Emerald, 2004, page 24
98
words, we have to consume less and more conscious – we have to ask why we consume. In
such a way, the impact of our actions on nature can be lowered. If the mechanisms of
consumerism are understood, and how it affects our individual life and empowers the false
self, it might be easier to endure fulfillment of the true self. All that by exploration of nature.
and by regarding business as usual as outmoded.
Obviously what is needed is a behavioral change of humanity, which is a very slow process.
It is important to point out, that a source for change in behavior shall not be seen only by the
rational means of science. It is foremost wisdom, love, compassion and understanding and
empathy which shall be taken into account.
It has to be understood, that there is no kind of medicine which could heal the spiritual
emptiness and the disruption of the self. A cure has to start with the treatment of (false)
beliefs of the individual and with finding ways to help the individual to explore the own
spirituality. The education system would have to be changed, where no more dead facts, but
an interdisciplinary approach on ecology is tought.

― Education should not aim at a passive awareness of dead facts, but at an activity
directed towards the world that our efforts are to create.‖185

Self actualization, spiritual exploration and renewal of the human spirit is the basis for the
development of the true self, the change of behavior and the solution for the global crisis.
The lies of the false self have to be challenged and the identification of qualities when the
individual is connected with nature shall be enforced. Without bringing the deeper
understanding of our self and our nature in dimension true sustainability might not be
possible. So it can be said that an awakening is needed in order to restore our connection
with nature.186

TRANSITION TOWNS

Throughout this work it has been examined by several examples, that the ecological crisis
humanity is facing, is merely a crisis of consciousness. The degradation of the environment
is a symptom of, so to say, of false human thinking Even the concept of Sustainable
Development turns out to be a treatment of those symptoms. The consumer culture we
practice is perpetuating that way of thinking and determines our behavior. In this last section,

185
Russel, 1992, page 411
186
Emerald, 2004, page 24 - 27
99
which should serve as a case study, I want to examine how far these circumstances have
been recognized by the broader public and what kind of undertakings have been developed
to make a change. At my research for a movement with joint effort to face the problems of
now, and which tries to overcome the gaps, which are connected with the promoted
Sustainable Development, like the problems with citizen participation, I stumbled across an
initiative which is called ´Transition Town Initiative´. It is a movement on a grass-root level
that can be defined as ―people or society at a local level rather than at the center of major
political activity.‖ 187

The content of the following pages derives from www.transitionnetwork.org

What is the Transition Town - Initiatve?

The name Transition Town associates with something like a shift from one state to another.
The notion ´Transition´ means a passing from one condition, form, stage, activity, place to
another. Transition means further the period of such passing. (www.yourdictionary.com).
Considering this definition, the meaning of a Transition Town is becoming clearer. More
precisely it marks a period from an oil dependent society to a post oil society. The Transition
Town should serve to provide a bland crossover to a sustainable, post oil future, from an oil
dependency to local resilience. (Resilience is the ability to recover from or adjust easily to
misfortune or change or the the ability of a system or community to withstand impacts from
outside.188
The Transiton Town network is regarded as a social experiment on a massive scale, where
the outcome is unsure. The understatement is the one of if waiting for governments it would
on the one hand too little, on the other hand too late. Second, the ego and individuality is
regarded as outmoded, but the philosophy of acting as communities may be working out.
The Transition Town idea is brought from people actively engaged in the Transition Network
to people who are willing to learn all the time, all that by the motto: Learning by doing.

Further, the Transition Town Movement is the result of real work undertaken in the real world
with community engagement at its heart.

There's not an ivory tower in sight, no professors in musty oak-panelled studies churning
out erudite papers, no slavish adherence to a model carved in stone189.

187
www.thefreedictionary.com/grassroots
188
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/resilience
189
htransitiontowns.org/TransitionNetwork/TransitionInitiative
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The Transition Initiative should serve as a catalyst to within a community to get people to
explore themselves in terms of their response to Peak Oil and Climate change. The threat of
Climate Change and also the circumstance of Peak Oil and its possible implication on
civilization have let many people around the world to the decision to change their lifestyle
and take action. While the first one of these threats is well documented in the mass media,
the second, Peak Oil, is still strange for most people.

―Once it takes an oil barrel's worth of energy to extract a barrel of oil, the exploration,
the drilling and the pumping will grind to a halt. Peak Oil is about the end of cheap and
plentiful oil, the recognition that the ever increasing volumes of oil being pumped into
our economies will peak and then inexorably decline. It‘s about understanding how our
industrial way of life is absolutely dependent on this ever-increasing supply of cheap
oil. Peak Oil recognizes that we are not close to running out of oil. However, we are
close to running out of easy-to-get, cheap oil. […] As peaking is approached, liquid fuel
prices and price volatility will increase dramatically, and, without timely mitigation, the
economic, social, and political costs will be unprecedented190.

Practically, there are many actions and solutions are taken to solve the problem of Climate
change. Actions which could diminish a profound impact of Peak Oil have also the ability to
reduce the change of the climate and vice versa. Activities to counter the impact of Peak Oil
and Climate Change are closely related. The most important fact which is made clear in the
initiative is that the key elements of an industrial society (transport, manufacturing, food
production, home heating or construction) are totally reliant on oil.
The notification that the availability of fossil fuels are declining may challenge the economic
and social stability which is essential for the protection of the climate. The Transition Town
movement with its currently 170 communities all around the globe turns out to be the most
promising way of engaging people and communities to take actions for a more sane and
more sustainable future.

The reduction of the carbon footprint is an example for many different measures taken in the
household and daily life. ―Some pioneering communities in the UK, Ireland and beyond are
taking an integrated and inclusive approach to reduce their carbon footprint and increase
their ability to withstand the fundamental shift that will accompany Peak Oil.‖
(http://transitionnetwork.org/Primer/TransitionInitiativesPrimer.pdf). The self imposed mission
of the Transition Town network is to create awareness about the current unsustainable
situation of our system. Further it wants to inform mainly support and coach communities

190 www.transitionnetwork.org
101
which decided to adopt and practice out a Transition Initiative - which is in fact a community,
working together on many levels, to address the implications of Peak Oil and Climate
Change. The network offers a range of information materials, workshops and special events
where tools and techniques are presented to help such communities to make the leap to a
Transition Town.

The concept of Transition Town

Transition Initiatives demonstrate the attitude of while thinking globally one must act locally.
That makes it easier to face problems of such a gigantic scale like Peak Oil, and while acting
in such a way in a community, one inspires other members of the community where small
contributions can multiply and result in a big change. The Transition Initiative plays a
significant role on the local level, by reanimating all essential elements that a community
needs to sustain itself.

―The Transition Model is a loose set of realworld principles and practices that have
been built up over time though experimentation and observation of communities as
they drive forward to build local resilience and reduce carbon emissions.―191

For a successful adoption of the TT model in one´s community, several underlying aspects of
a general awareness of the current situation are promoted. To underpin the transition to a
post oil society people should be conscious about the fact, that Climate Change and Peak Oil
require urgent action, that living with less energy is inevitable, that industrial society has lost
resilience to be able to cope with energy shocks, and that people have to act together and
act now. If necessary steps are taken early enough, and the use of creativity and cooperation
within local communities is taken, then a far more fulfilling and enriching society and lifestyles
than practiced today could be achieved.
Beside the efforts of raising awareness of Peak Oil and Climate change and the reduction of
carbon, the network sees itself implemented in a creative process. By that process several
important challenges shall be addressed: A few examples are for the ongoing connections
with already existing groups in the community, or the creation of a loyal relationship to the
local government. The forming of groups in each community, where each group addresses a
key issue of life in our system is also part of this creative process. The key issues could be
food, energy, transport, health, heart & soul, and economics. All these groups devote heir
work to these areas of life result in a coordinated range of projects that endeavor

191
www.transitiontowns.org
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understanding of resilience which we have lost by the unsustainable way of living of cheap
oil, and also understanding of community engagement.
It is pointed out that the key is the understanding of the potential of creativity. If creativity was
used to built up the unsustainable system we have now, we could use it also to built up a
way of living, that‘s significantly more connected, more vibrant and more in touch with our
environment than the oil-addicted treadmill that we find ourselves today.192

Criteria for officially taking part at the Initiative

For adopting the Transition Town idea on the home community and to be an official
Transition Town, several criteria have to be kept. The set of criteria which the Transition
Town network established, should indicate how ready a community is for a transition to a low
energy future. Towns which want to become an official Transition Town should regard these
criteria as unaccommodating guidelines and as something to focus on.

There are currently 14 different criteria noted on the Transition Town Network website, like
for instance that it should be made conscious for the members of a community, that Peak Oil
and Climate Change are interrelated factors. Another criterion that is noted has to do with the
organization of a Transition Town, like a group of 4-5 people should be ready to step into
leadership roles, which will form a core team. Two of this core team should be ready to
attend a special training course. Other criteria say that the connection to the local council
shall be cultivated. A good relationship with the local government is regarded as
advantageous. Other criterias are, that the information platform on the web should be
regularly updated and that neighbor communities should be informed by at least two
presentations per year on the progress made so far. One important criterion is dealing with
concerns of extreme political groups or interests which might get involved into the initiative.
Therefore the criteria gives a possibility to deal with such a problem, in a way like to explicitly
state the support to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which could be added to the
constitution.

Emerged types of Transition Towns

When the conditions described above are kept, an official Transiton Town can be
established. It appeared that after some time four different kinds of Transiton Towns
emerged by itself. These four types were given the names ´Local Transition Initiative´, the
´Local Transition Hub´, the ´Temporary Initiating Hub´ and the ´Regional Coordinating Hub´.

192
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103
The Local Transition Initiative is the heart of the so called Transition, where people form
groups and organizes the local community. It is the most frequent and simple form of a
Transition Town. It is where the real change happens, driven and ignited by the local people.
The second type, the local Transition Hub is regarded as a center of a network, like a city. It
has the role to appoint the surrounding area of it, which means the periphery, and inspire,
encourage, support it. Initially the connection with the periphery should be informal, and
those communities shall later become mutually supportive and interconnected. It shall act as
a focus for communications with the local initiatives in a given area.
The ´Temporary Transition Hub´ is some kind of a type of group which is made up of a
collection of individuals from separate locales in the same region, who are working together
on activist capacity. It is temporary, because it disintegrates after it has helped to support
Local Transition Initiatives to establish. They do that by inspirational work.
To have a structure which could engage with the government at all levels – the local, regional
and national level - the ´Regional Transition Hub´ has emerged. This type is connected to a
specific kind of criteria by which a TT initiative will be recognized, just like a Initiative have
been emerged from a significant proportion of already active Transition Initiatives.

Once, a town decided work towards to become a Transition Town it can decide and choose
what form it should take. It could be an unincorporated Association, a Charity, a Trust
Company limited by guarantee, a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, a Community
Interest Company or a Workers co-operative. The form a Transition Town takes depends of
course on the laws of the country in which the initiative is situated.

These criteria and also forms were developed because of several reasons. As there are
projects in progress were funders and trustees due to fiscal relations are involved, and due to
formally categories, it is necessary to promote only those communities which reached a level
of being ready to move into additional levels of support. Another reason is, because it has
been reported that there were communities that did not have the right mindset for
understanding what the concept is all about.

12 steps
As the Transition Town Initiative evolves totally naturally and is driven generally by intention,
several patterns have been recognized in the emergence of the initiative. Therefore, to make
the leap to a Transition initiative for new communities easier, 12 steps of non – authoritarian
and non conjunctive character have been formulated. ―Nevertheless, these 12 steps have
grown out of the observation of what seemed to work in the early Transition Initiatives.‖

104
These 12 steps are regarded as key elements in the ongoing progress of the initiative and
should be a helpfully assistance. To get a small picture about how the process of
implementing a transition Initiative in one´s community and the necessary work in that
direction, I describe a little the 12 steps gradually. It shall also serve to get a bigger picture
about the character of the movement in general.

Step number one is called ´Set up a steering group and design its demise from the outset´,
which means to put up a core or steering team, to drive the project forward during the early
phases. After some time the core team disbands and a minimum of four sub groups, where
in each a member of the core group is part, should be created. Step two is ´Awareness
raising´, which should serve to identify the key allies, to build vital networks and prepare the
community for the start into a Transition Initiative. Understandings in the treatment of both
Peak Oil and Climate Change should be developed. For further awareness raising the
screening of key movies is recommended, specific lectures to certain topics shall be given
and even the participation on local radio shows could be recommended. Step 3 which is ´Lay
the foundations´, is generally about networking with existing groups and the exchange of
important information, cooperation and identification with them. Step 4 is ´Organise a Great
Unleashing´. Unleashing as the word says is about ´bring the message to the men´, it is
about the need to bring people up to speed on Peak Oil and Climate Change in a positive
and motivating kind of way, where cooperation is appreciated and the psychological barriers
to personal change are discussed. The Unleashing could take place in form of a festival or
workshop, and is recommended to take at about six month to one year after the first
awareness raising action. Step number 5. is ´Form working groups´, where an Energy
Descent Action Plan should be created and every individual should be aware of this Plan.
Therefore it is necessary to form a number of smaller groups for all aspects of life to focus on
specific aspects of the process. Examples of these are: food, waste, energy, education,
youth, economics, transport, water, local government. Step number 6 is ´Use Open Space´
which should point out an approach to running meetings for Transition Initiatives in an
intelligent way, where logistically the most effective steps are taken for people coming
together and discuss and bothersome obstacles (bureaucracy) are prevented. Step number
7 is ´Develop visible practical manifestations of the project´ and focuses on being in the mind
of the public as a serious intent and motivating them to participate. Being literally visible, like
for instance by workshops, is necessary. Step number 8 is ´Facilitate the Great Reskilling´ is
about making aware how a lower energy society might look alike. Therefore, skills which are
long forgotten, like gardening, practical food growing, have to be re-activated. Step nine is
´Build a Bridge to Local Government´ and it is about a productive relationship with the local

105
authority which is needed for the Initiative to persist, also for funding and providing
connections. If that cannot be accomplished, the chance that the initiative will not progress
prosper is great. Step 10 is ´Honour the elders´ and is to rebuild the picture of a lower energy
society and therefore it is necessary to engage with those who have already been alive in the
period between 1930 and 1960 where the extreme use of energy was not the case. Step 11
is ´Let it go where it wants to go…´ is about not having fixed and static ideas of what the
initiative should look like, but it is about acting as a catalyst for the community to design their
own transition. The last of these steps proposed by the Transition Town Network is the
suggestion to ´Create an Energy Descent Plan´, where each working group has a specific
goal to focus on and all combined together shall result in a potential step against Peak Oil
and Climate change. Therefore it is necessary to build a picture of the local resource current
and potential availability, to work together with professional scientists, building resilience and
set up indicators for resilience. These indicators could be for instance the percentage of food
grown locally or number of business locally owned, percentage of food locally produced.193

The Transition Towns Initiative and the connection with nature.

The Transition Town movement understands that the oil dependent system and
unsustainable culture we are practicing, which is driven by a paradigm of endless growth,
have reached its limits and that necessary steps have to be taken. In the ´Transition Initiative
primer´ it is pointed out that ―if we want to stay living on Earth, we'll have to weave ourselves
back into the fabric of the planet, and comprehend that the "humans are separate from the
earth" duality underpinning our industrialized societies is false, misleading and a one-way
ticket to a hell on earth far hotter than we can handle.‖ It is encouraged to also take the effort
to see the individual, non – rational connection with the planet. The connection with nature in
the paper ´Transition Initiative Primer´ for instance is illustrated by the already mentioned
carbon cycle (chapter: 4.1.2). It is pointed out that

―If ever you thought you were unconnected to the planet, […] you have around
700,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 carbon atoms in your body (representing 10%
of your mass), each of which has already performed countless dances not unlike the
one you're about to read.‖Now look at your hand – a scar perhaps, or a fingernail.
Think of it as less of a hand, more of a temporary resting place for countless carbon
atoms. A place where they're taking a mini-break before they continue on a vast never-

193
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106
 ending journey that encompasses the depths of the oceans, the highest skies, the
dinosaurs before you and creatures we can't even dream of that will come after us.‖194

TTFK - Transition Town Friedrichshain Kreuzberg

The content of the following pages derives from lectures of different members of the
Transition Town Friedrichshain Kreuzberg ‗(TTFK) movement from the event ´1.
Zukunftswerkstatt´ which I attended. `Zukunftswerkstatt´ can be translated into ´future –
workshop´ or ´future –conference´, where citizens of the community can come together and
participate and to have one´s say. Practical representative participation is an important factor
for the TTFK movement therefore the movement presented itself for the first time in such a
way. It takes the 12 steps described above as a non – binding guideline and is midst of the
evolving steps of a Transition Town.
It took place in Berlin on the 16th of May 2009 in the district of Friedrichshain on the so called
RAW – area, it started at 5 pm and lasted till circa 10 pm.

At the beginning of the event, one member (Jörg) gave an general introduction to the event
and described in a view words the movement TTFK, where parts are already mentioned.
Transition Town is a network with meanwhile 170 initiatives and communities. It started in
Irland and spread to England. The idea of Transition Towns is, as the name says, to provide
and to establish a framework for sustainable living together, on a grassroot level for the
transition from an oil to a post oil society. The goal is as well to get connected and organize a
platform for acting together and develop and promote a sustainable lifestyle to prevent a
deeper impact of climate change. Resilience, he mentioned is a key term and represents the
intentions from the Transition Town movement. In other words, the act of working together
towards a common goal is key underlying concept. The Transition Towns movement´s goal
is getting independent from restricting obligations and refinements of big corporations which
goal of gaining profit is preventing higher level of sustainable development. Beside the fiscal
obstacles in the structure of marked mechanisms, it is also an objective of getting
independent from Governmental obligations. The most important step towards some kind of
an independency and to gain a saner future without the threat of a social breakdown caused
by the financial crisis, is communication and the willpower to work together as a community
of people sharing the same interest! Therefore it is necessary to strengthen the autonomy of
every individual community. In simple words: think global act local!

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The transition town movement Transition Town Berlin - Friedrichshain Kreuzberg (TTFK) had
its first meeting in 2008. In the beginning of the TTFK they started to spread information
about important subjects concerning the movement, sustainability and also from the outcome
of important discussions. Documentaries and lectures about Peak Oil and Climate Change
should serve for every participant to get a picture about the current unsustainable situation
our society finds itself.

At the end of December 2008 they met again and started to get organized for taking action
for the future in a manner of participative organization. Therefore they decided to form
groups and each group is devoted to a specific subject (energy, nutrition, mobility…) to go
about. Questions arose about the specific subject of the group, due to the fact that the TTFK
movement is generally an adoption from the movement in England, where by way of
comparison rather small groups of people working together. Due to that reason questions
came up. What kind of issues subjects are ideal for a group to go about, because the
communities Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg are part of a big city, unlike other Transition
Towns which are far smaller in size. The fact that TTFK is indeed a city district with
approximately 269.767 inhabitants (www.wikipedia.org) living is a big dimension which needs
a different approach.

The speaker also went a little into the general consciousness: The feeling of helplessness of
a single individual being due to the overwhelming problems of a society was the typical
expression and that shall be washed away. TTFK is not meant to invent the wheel from new,
but it wants to make it easy to understand the complexity of our time and therefore focus on
community, group thinking and on working together.

Groups of TTFK

After the foreword and explication of the TTFK movement to the audience, the speaker (Jörg)
introduced different representatives of the several groups they have organized. Up to now
there are the groups energy, alimentation, civil parks, culture – handcraft – education,
mobility and a ´heart´ group. The first group, which represented itself, was the Energy Group:

Group: Energy
In the energy group, emphasis is set on renewable energy supply in the Transitions
movement´s districts of Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg. First, a general overview of the
current situation on renewable energies was given - like there are several contemporary
obstacles for the broader establishment of renewable energy supply. For instance the fact
108
was mentioned that there is a decline from center of an urban area to the peripheral
hinterland. Beside the aspect that renewable energies are focused to establish, a special
emphasis is set on Solar Panels. To illustrate the progress of the ´Energygroup´ so far, there
were some projects presented where the group is involved:

The University of Berlin for example, has installed on its housetop Solar Panels, which
deliver 60 KW of energy. The project was financed from both students, and professors.
Students accounted with 250 euro, professors with 500 euro. Another initiative is called
´Solar initiative 30°´. The energy attained at this project is 1, 05 Mwatt.
A third project mentioned is the allocation of Civil Solar Panels which are installed in a
decentralized manner on rooftops. Therefore they gain the free allocation of roof tops from
for instance schools and other education accommodations for the installation of the Solar
Panels. The idea is that civil people can profit from the abundant energy of the sun, which is
unfortunately far to less in use. That‘s why the people from the town should have the
possibility to participate. The benefits are self evident: The community contributes to the
protection of climate change and further the image of the community would also be
ameliorated. Last but not least, unused roof tops then are used meaningful. In a wider sense,
fossil powerhouses should become not necessary anymore. Also the costs for the solar
panels are carried by the collective and the profit is directed back to the community. The
foundation of a official lawful organization, such as an association, would be necessary,
where the citizens are the participators and contribute to the investments by specific share
certificates. Members of a honorary association would plan the displacement of the panels
on adequate places in cooperation with competent suppliers. They would also arrange
contracts and agreements for the use of roof tops and give general information on the
commission of charge – in the general energy network of the whole town. For a successful
project they search for citizens which would participate with a deposit of 500 euro for 20
years on a solar panel. Therefore the major concern is the search for private rooftops, where
the solar panels can be installed. That is also necessary for acting in a legal framework.
Each participant gets a share certificate for 20 euro. They have calculated that according to
the current solar energy charge – in – commission, after 20 years the costs for the solar
panels will be amortized. There are advantages for the inhabitant in both, financial terms and
in terms of climate protection.

An important challenge is the development of awareness of energy situation on the world

and specifically in the community TTFK. Education on energy balance and also energy
budget are organized. In future they want to organize more workshops, even on schools.
Lectures specifically on energy and related topics should serve to raise public attention.
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Alimentation
´Reclaim your food´ is a slogan to express the means and goals for this group. From what
part of the world does the food I eat come from? They organized learning groups to give
education on domestic farming in gardens, on rooftops, in yards, balconies, and also on
community gardens. The ultimate goal of the ´TTFK alimentation group´ would be a global
agriculture network. An important step towards that, in that very beginning of the existence of
the movement, is of course education, public information and networking. The goal is to give
a picture about the un -sustainability of the current food supply and its connections to CO2
production and Oil waste and also the production on waste. They organize workshops which
are dealing with questions such as ´What is the problem´? ´What would be ideal´? ´How can
the goals be achieved?

Projects, in which the group is involved are for instance the planting of fruit trees in the city.
There are several reasons, why it would be necessary to regain local economic structures,
such as Peak Oil and Climate Change.

Civil Parks
In big cities such like in New York there exist always an amount of areas which are fallow
and not in use. In Berlin there exist several fallows, which are not in use and therefore are
becoming stunted. Since years, there is a fight for these areas. Mostly, private owners come
and casting people and their work away and these areas turn into concrete landscapes.
These areas, as they are not under use, are in a certain sense connected to Climate
Change. In summer they are acting as warmth islands, as they are absorbing radiation due
to their dark surface and not reflecting the radiance. So they act as a heater of the anyway, in
average, warmer city climate. The Idea would be, to confront the official administrations with
the intentions for reactivate these fallows and use it in a sustainable way. Which fallow is
advantageous and which is bad? The common goal is of course again to raise public
attention to the potential of such parks, suchlike they could be turned into gardens.

Culture, handcraft, education

The issues treated in that group are of immense necessity. The goal is to create a Transition
culture which will turn later into a post Oil culture. The representative lecturer of that group
raised several fundamental questions, for instance, what factors would contribute to a culture
that it is able to survive in a post Oil era. It has been recognized, that the meaning is to
combine and connect the old culture with the new culture. The amount of different

110
peculiarities of our culture we are practicing, such like youth culture, job culture, leisure time
culture should be analyzed and then meaningful brought together. The goal is to form a
platform, where the supposed contrary different cultures can act together and identify with
each other. So the question they are following is, how can an intercultural dialog be
established. The ultimate Goal would be of course to reach a broad spectrum of the society.
The greater the spectrum, the broader and powerful is grass root movement. It is Identity and
the Self which influence a culture. Therefore the behavior has to be changed, which has
been several times examined in the run of this memoire.
The energy turnaround society and culture emphasizes on the most intrinsic aspect of a
human being, which is creativity and imagination. Fairy tales and narrative stories should
serve to ignite the imagination for the Transition Town culture. One idea concerning
imagination, which was presented on that evening, was a fictional newspaper that would be
published in 2030 in a supposed Post oil society. People should imagine how ´The all-day
after the oil´ would look like. What would people do? How would they behave?
The most important aspect, I recognized so far on that evening, especially on the
representation of this specific group was to bring information to the man – to raise
awareness. The broader public shall adopt the idea of a new culture - Both in theory and in
practice. What does it mean to live without the massive use of Oil?
Another feature mentioned by the lecturer due to aspects of culture is the space where
culture is practiced. This could be virtual space but also physical space. Attention has to be
raised, that no closed up cultural space should be created, in which it is unable to
communicate, to identify and to share with the rest of a society. Education serves to develop
consciousness. The Transition Town movement is regarded as a democracy from bottom up.
This specific kind of democracy, with all its mechanisms in communication and interactions
and peculiarities in organization has to be educated. Therefore, more knowledge means
bigger consciousness. Both, awareness of our current situation close to a Peak Oil scenario
and Climate Change and it solutions have to worked out, educated and spread to the public.
The feeling of helplessness of an individual human being shall be no more. The potential of
the individual shall be made conscious and therefore empowered. The philosophy of a
Transition Town culture emphasizes on synergy and communication among the participants,
which shall be the whole society.
As the individual shall be empowered, get strong in self – consciousness it shall be on him or
her to create forms of culture. People shall reclaim their mind and empower their imagination
and their creativity. Culture is not just meant to be theoretical and to be imposed upon us and
created by a few corporate culture architects – it is more a practical handwork and needs the
participation of the individual.
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The Transition Town Culture Group considers about creating a specific kind of product, in
what form ever, which can be displaced elsewhere on public space and could be used from
the public. The reanimation of the ability of handworking in its own sense and in connection
to Renewable Energies shall be promoted. In general, a new culture is demanded, but this
demand is not directed to a small group of people in institutions but it is directed to every
single member of the society, and of the Transition Town community.

Mobility
A subject mentioned on that evening by the representative speaker of that group was the
idea of special bicycles which can be charged with goods and would serve as transport units
for goods meant for a small distances. General questions, which every citizen attempted to
live a more sustainable lifestyle could investigate were mentioned. How mobile are you? How
mobile do you believe to you have to be? The car cannot be abandoned, but a shift would be
possible for a bigger use of bicycles and public transport. Therefore the use of public
transport, car sharing offers, or the organization for demand responsive transport is
promoted. Also, mobility should not always be focused on the transport of an individual, but
should be gathered in its broader sense. Where does my food come from? Like in every
other group presented on that evening, education for building awareness is emphasized

The Heart Group

Last but not least, a group which is rather a necessary part for an efficient collaboration of
every participant was presented. This group can be regarded as a communication platform
for the whole Transition Town movement. It is the heart of the Movement, where people can
come and communicate, get to know each other better, diminish barriers between individuals
and enforce the group thinking and instead of Ego, individuality is promoted. Heart in its very
sense means subjectivity and grace of charity.

Conclusion

By examining the Transition Town Initiative it became clear that the basic principles for a
solution for the global crisis have been recognized. The crisis has indeed different faces one
can call it the environmental crisis, the economic crisis etc. but in fact these are different
aspects of the same thing. It should be clear that we are living through human crisis, the
environmental degradation and even the economic crisis, are symptoms of the crisis in
consciousness. That is in fact the quintessence of this work. The Transition Town Initiative

112
seems to have recognized that a change to a healthier and more sustainable future lies in
the change of our behavior which further means a change in our thinking about the world.
This initiative is by far not the only one movement that can be observed at this time, more
and more people are getting connected by the Internet, and interchange useful information in
order to create collectively a saner world. Remarkably at the Transition Town movement in
connection with Sustainable Development and its problems with participation is, that it leaves
behind the ´Them vs. Us´ mentality and realizes that there is only ´we´. It is pointed out in
this work (chapter 4.1.1) that imagination and creativity are an appropriate underpinning of
how we can perceive reality more accurate. Also, these aspects can be found to be
emphasized in the Transition Town process. The embedment of the human species in the
biosphere, which means we are totally interrelated and interconnected to nature, seems to
be conscious fact and is passed on. Slowly but slightly the dualism of human & nature is
transformed into a ´we are nature´ mentality. The awakening which is needed (5.3) can be
observed, although it may take place very slowly. If human behavior in not just determined by
the genes (3.5.1), but also from environmental influences and from the most human aspect
of our species – the free will – its upon us, from where we start to change our behavior:
Whether we change our environment in order to ignite change in us and embrace the ´true
self ´ and see through the deception of the ego (1.3.1. / 2.6.1), or we start to make change
within us, in order to make a change in the world.
H. G. Wells seems to have it taken away when he wrote in his book ´Open Conspiracy´
nearly one hundred years ago: ―We aim at a particular sort of unification […] the unity we
seek must mean the liberation of human thought, experiment and creative effort.‖ (Wells,
1928). This book was ought to be a blueprint for a world revolution, and was claimed to
exaggerate but he wrote further

―Mankind released from the pressure of population, the waste of warfare and the private
monopolization of the sources of wealth, will face the universe a great and increasing surplus
of will and energy. Change and novelty will be the order of life, each day will differ from its
predecessor in its great amplitude of interest. Life which was once routine, endurance and
mischance will become adventure and discovery. It will no longer be ´the old story´.195

195
Wells, 1982, page 85
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114
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