Pierre Teilhard De Chardin: Being, Critical Thresholds, and Evolutionary Thought

PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN: BEING, CRITICAL THRESHOLDS, AND EVOLUTIONARY THOUGHT PETER L. McDERMOTT* Recent analysis ofa meteorite discovered in Antarctica in 1984 has drawn some sectors of the scientific community to consider the possibility of life on Mars [I]. Preliminary and tentative as this information may be, the discovery of the fossilized remains of what appear to be life forms is likely to revive and refuel old controversies. Pure science, abstract though that concept may be, should have no difficulty dealing with the empirical nature of the discovery and the evidence of more than one locus for the emergence or creation of life. Pure philosophy, anomalous though that concept may be, may be in for another bout of retrofitting. Real people in real time and space rarely compartmentalize their thinking into tidy abstract packages. Assumptions, personal philosophies, and systems of faith inform—some might say contaminate—perceptions of scientific discoveries . Both scientific knowledge and some religious dicta do evolve, however, and in 1995 Galileo was "rehabilitated" by the Roman Catholic Church. In 1996 the "theory of evolution" was granted a new level of respectability by Rome. Revolution and Evolution In the 15th century Nicholas of Cusa speculated that the earth was in motion and that life existed in other worlds. A few decades later a new world was discovered, and philosophers and natural scientists had to incorporate the knowledge of strange plants, animals, and people into their understanding of nature, their world, and "the underlying directional pattern of history" [2]. And the Darwinian synthesis forced scientists and biblical Correspondence: 141 La Patera Drive, Camarillo, CA 93010. The advice and encouragement of Professor Michael A. Osborne is gratefully acknowledged . *University of California, Santa Barbara.© 1997 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0031-5982/97/4003-1015$01.00 564 Peter L. McDermott ¦ Being, Critical Thresholds, and Evolutionary Thought exegetes into a grudging dialogue on the nature of beginnings and the place of purpose in the cosmos. Causation and the determinate nature of being are problems to be contested at the center of human knowledge as well as on its perimeter. In light of these exciting new possibilities, the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), Jesuit scientist and speculative naturalist, merits reconsideration. Going beyond the neo-Darwinian synthesis, which explained speciation and the adaptation of life forms to their environment, Teilhard extended his vision to include matter, energy, life, consciousness socialization of all beings in unity, and an ultimate arrival at what he called an Omega point where all existence converges in love. This paper will examine Teilhard's use ofevidence and scientific laws in support ofhis grand vision; it will consider the ideas ofearlier evolutionary thinkers, particularly Jean Lamarck and Charles Darwin, and the uses to which he put their arguments ; and it will assess the impact of Teilhard's flawed, but invaluable, synthesis and its effects upon science and philosophy. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was born in the province of Auvergne into a large, aristocratic family. He entered the Jesuit order in 1899, and from 1905 to 1908 taught chemistry and physics at theJesuit high school in Cairo, Egypt [3]. He was transferred to the Jesuit house at Hastings, England in 1908, where he began a lifetime of paleontologie studies. Ordained a priest in 1911, he served four years as a stretcher bearer in the First World War, refusing all promotions and earning commendations for gallantry. He began to prepare his doctoral thesis at the Sorbonne in 1919 and completed all requirements by 1922. By this time Teilhard had published several significant scientific papers, and he had achieved sufficient recognition in academic circles to be elected president of the Société Géologique de France. Early in 1923 he was sent to China to establish the French Paleontogical Mission. Returning to Paris in 1924, he ran afoul of theJesuit Order and Rome for opinions he had expressed on original sin two years earlier. His view of sin as a disorder of "mankind in process" lacked the rich flavor of evil and guilt traditionally associated with sin, original or otherwise. Teilhard had begun to synthesize scientific evolutionary theory, Bergsonian neo-Lamarckism, and the concept of the biosphere...