tom lombardo, ph.d. - · pdf fileprocess - evolution of evolution ... purpose & meaning...
TRANSCRIPT
Tom Lombardo, Ph.D.
Sunday, July 5, 2015
The Psychology of the Future:Flourishing in the Flow of Evolution
Sunday, July 5, 2015
The Question What is a Good Future and How Do We Create It?
Central Challenge of Human LifeCentral Question Motivating the Study of the Future
Sunday, July 5, 2015
The Answer
We create a good future, defined as flourishing in the flow of evolution,
through the heightening of future consciousness, which is achieved by developing a core set of character virtues,
most notably and centrally wisdom.
Flourishing in the flow of evolution is the good future & wisdom is the means to realize it.
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Evolution & the Evolution of Evolution
✦Theory of Reality: Foundation for Theory of the Future, the Good & the Human Mind
✦Evolutionary Reality: Dynamic, Creative, Progressive, Future-Directional, Interactive, & Filled with Possibilities
✦Evolution Pervasive: Hierarchy of Evolutionary Levels
✦Cosmic Evolutionary Framework of Past & Future
“Evolution is a light which illuminates all facts, a curve that all lines must follow.” Teilhard de Chardin
“Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.” Bertolt Brecht
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Evolution & the Evolution of Evolution
✦ Interdependency, Reciprocity, & Co-Evolution ✦Accelerative Evolution Involves an Evolution of Evolution ✦Humans/Human Civilization Embedded in Evolutionary
Process - Evolution of Evolution (Culture & Technology) - Counter-Proposal Future Consciousness Generates Acceleration of Evolution
“Evolution isn’t what it used to be.” Walter Truett Anderson
“We are moving!” Teilhard de Chardin
Sunday, July 5, 2015
The Evolutionary Nature of Human Psychology
“Evolution is the story of us all.” Peter Watson
✦ Human Nature (Human Mind) is Not a Constant but Evolutionary
✦ Developmental & Evolutionary Direction Expands Away from the Egocentric Here/Now to Cosmic Consciousness - Toward Heightened Future/Historical Consciousness - Learning & Memory Serving Anticipation
✦ Ongoing Integration of Bio/Psycho/Social Human & Tech - Evolution of Cyborg - The Extension of Mind & Body
✦ Self-Awareness/Self-Reflectivity & Self-Control
✦ Humans Envision/Engage in the Purposeful Evolution of their Minds & Ways of Life - Religion/Philosophy/SF/Psychology
Sunday, July 5, 2015
The Future-Directional Evolutionary Nature of Consciousness
✦ Future Directional Flow of Consciousness - Experiential Arrow of Time
✦ Integration of Past, Present, & Future - Consciousness Flows into the Future Contextualized in Memory & Anticipation - Foundation of Narrative Structure of Mind
✦ Consciousness/Conscious Behavior is Motivationally Future Directional - Purposeful
✦ Consciousness is Individually Developmental & Collectively Evolutionary: Flows & Grows
“The past is consumed in the present and the present is only living because it brings forth the future.” James Joyce
“We exist within the flow of evolution and the flow of evolution exists within us.” Tom Lombardo
Sunday, July 5, 2015
The Reciprocity of Consciousness and the World
✦Mind/World Puzzle - Ecological Reciprocity of Consciousness & Self (Self-Responsibility) within the Ambience of the World - “Ecological Cosmology of Consciousness” - Personal & Grand Narratives
✦Humans (Human Minds) Exist Embedded in Evolutionary & Interactive Reality as Participatory & Evolutionary/Directive/Purposeful Agents
✦What Facilitates & Guides this Psychological Reality?
“For things are things because of mind, as mind is mind because of things.” Hsin Hsin Ming
Sunday, July 5, 2015
The Psychological Dimensions of Holistic Future Consciousness
Perception
Purposeful Behavior
Learning/Memory Thinking/Planning/
Problem SolvingIntuition/
Imagination/Creativity
Motivation/Goal Direction
EmotionPersonal Identity
Social Interaction
Knowledge/Understanding
Ethics/ValuesForesight/
Anticipation
Sunday, July 5, 2015
The Essential Nature of Holistic Future Consciousness
✦Humans Engage All Dimensions of Holistic Consciousness in their Experience of the Future
✦Definition of Holistic Future Consciousness
“Holistic future consciousness is the total integrative set of psychological processes & modes of experience & behavior involved in our consciousness of
the future. It includes our hopes & fears; our planning & our goals; our visions of the future; the stories we tell ourselves about the future; & our
purposeful behaviors intended to create desired futures. It is the total Gestalt of our experience & engagement with the future.”
Sunday, July 5, 2015
The Essential Nature of Holistic Future Consciousness
✦All Humans Possess, as Integral to their Overall Psychological Functioning - Imagine if Missing
✦Degrees of Holistic Future Consciousness (FC) - Can be Strengthened/Heightened
✦ (Heightened) FC is Holistic - All Factors Impact Engagement/Creation of the (Good) Future
“Future consciousness is absolutely essential for normal human psychological functioning. Without future consciousness we would be aimless, lost, mentally
deficient, passive, and reactive. We would not seem intelligent or even human.”
“Everyone is a futurist.” Alvin Toffler (?)
Sunday, July 5, 2015
The Evolution of Future ConsciousnessContemporary Futurist Thought
✦FC has a Deep Bio-Psycho-Social History within the Evolution of Mind & Consciousness
✦FC Drove the Evolution of Human Civilization (Bonding/Child Rearing, Hunting, Technology, Art, Trading/Negotiation, Agriculture, Habitation, War/Conquest, Religion, Ethics/Law, & Science)
✦There are Diverse Modes of Expression/Consciousness (Primordial, Mythic, Rational, Theoretical, & Intuitive) & Numerous Theories, Paradigms, & Grand Narratives within FC (Past & Present) - Competition & Integration
✦Ongoing Evolution of FC
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Future Consciousness & Purposeful Evolution
✦ Key/Central Dimension of the Human Mind
✦ Holistic Future Consciousness Drives:
✦ Purposeful Human/Civilizational Evolution
✦ Individual Development of Self/Consciousness/Mind
✦ Future Evolution of Consciousness
✦ Evolutionary/Developmental Process (Inclusive of Consciousness) is Brought Under Informed, Self-Reflective/Evaluative, Ethical, Visionary, & Purposeful Guidance Through HFC - Evolution in Evolution - Inclusive of Psycho/Social/Bio/Techno/Eco Developments
✦ Given this Vision of (Human) Reality, What is the Good?
“... the ultimate gift of consciousness is to navigate the future in the seas of our imagination...” Antonio Damasio
“We are nothing else than evolution become conscious of itself.” Julian Huxley
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Flourishing: A Theory of Happiness, Well-Being, & the Good
✦ Multiple Theories of Ethics & the Good (Ethical Theories Always Assume Theories of Reality & Human Nature)
✦ Flourishing: Positive Psychology - Benchmark of Psychological Well-Being - Holistic & Dynamic/Progressive Theory of Well-Being & Ethics Commensurate with Dynamic, Evolutionary, Purposeful, Future Directional (Human) Reality
✦ Happiness is Conscious (Progressive) State Associated with Flourishing
✦ Flourishing & Happiness is an Purposeful Accomplishment
To flourish: “to grow well ...to do well, to prosper, to thrive, and to be highly productive.”
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Flourishing: A Theory of Happiness, Well-Being, & the Good
✦ Directional Growth & Accomplishment/Achievement
✦ Overall (Deep) Purpose & Meaning in Life
✦ Self-Creation/Determination
✦ Transcendence (Social, Natural, & Cosmic)
✦ Emotionally Positive & Cognitively Expanding Conscious States
✦ Creativity
✦ Experience of Beauty
✦ Active Engagement & Contribution/Impact/Mastery with Respect to the World
✦ Mutually Beneficial Social Functioning & Relationships
✦ Physical Health/Vitality & Environmental Supportive Conditions
✦ What Facilitates Flourishing? Excellence/Well Being in a Purposeful, Dynamic, Future Directional, Evolutionary (Human) Reality - Heightened Future Consciousness - How Do We Describe Excellence in This Capacity?
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Virtue
✦ Virtue Theory of the Good, Well-Being, & Happiness - Historical & Modern Versions
✦ Virtues are Values Internalized & Lived - Good Merges with Desire & Habit
✦ Virtues are Holistic Character Traits & Accomplishments Based on the Belief, Aspiration, & Practice Toward Excellence - Active Agency Theory of the Good/Happiness
✦ Positive Psychology: Virtues Defined as Character Strengths Can be Defined, Measured, and Enhanced
✦ Virtues as Foundation for Defining Excellence in Heightened Future Consciousness
“Happiness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself.” Spinoza
“This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.” Confucius
Sunday, July 5, 2015
The Evolving Character Virtues of Heightened Future Consciousness
✦ Self-Awareness, Self-Control, & Self-Responsibility (Empowered Personal Narrative)
✦ Realistic Idealism (Belief & Pursuit of Excellence)
✦ Self-Growth (Progressive Personal Narrative)
✦ Skill & Love of Learning (Honesty, Wonder, Curiosity, Humility, & Quest for Truth & Understanding)
✦ Skill & Love of Thinking & Multiple Modes of Understanding (Self-Reflectivity)
✦ Expansive Temporal Consciousness (History & Future - Grand Narrative - Imaginative, Visionary, & Thoughtful)
✦ Cosmic Consciousness (Awe, Global/Ecological Consciousness, Reciprocity, Justice, & Transcendence)
✦ Hope, Courage, & Optimism
✦ Love (Gratitude, (Passionate) Appreciation, & Compassion)
✦ Deep Purpose & Tenacity (Discipline)
✦ Ethical Pragmatism (Practical Wisdom)
✦ Creativity & the Adventuresome Spirit
✦ Balance & Temperance (Wisdom as Integration)
Sunday, July 5, 2015
“Wisdom is the personally internalized, continually evolving understanding of & fascination with both the big picture and personal dimensions of life, and
what is ethical, & the desire & creative capacity to apply this understanding to enhance the well being of life, both for oneself & others.”
Wisdom: The Synthesis of the Character Virtues of Heightened Future Consciousness
Sunday, July 5, 2015
A Future Focused Holistic Theory of Wisdom
✦Future Focused - Creative - Open & Evolutionary
✦Holistic Capacity
✦Holistic/Empowering/Ethical Vision of Heightened Future Consciousness - Integrative Set of Character Virtues
✦Highest Expression of Holistic Future ConsciousnessSunday, July 5, 2015
WisdomThe Guiding Light on Education, Evolution,
Heightened Future Consciousness, & the Good Life
✦ Ideal Because Key to Happiness & the Good Life - Flourishing as an Accomplishment Facilitated by Wisdom - Limitations in Alternatives
✦Highest Expression of Self-Development - Drives Evolution of Personal Consciousness - Ideal in Spirituality/Philosophy/Psychology
✦Preferable Future Evolutionary Direction of the Human Mind - The Wise Cyborg & the Age of Wisdom (Wise Society) - Holistic/Self-Evolving/Ethical Ideal Vision
✦Central Goal of Education
“He who searches for wisdom is wise; he who thinks he has found it is a fool.” Al-Farabi
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Self-Responsibility & Self-Creation within the Ecology of Mind
✦ Self-Responsibility is the Cardinal Virtue - Virtues are Accomplishments
✦ Self-Responsibility for the Future is Critical & Psychologically Empowering - Reverse is Psychologically Depressing
✦ Will Power/Internal Locus of Control Evolves - Will Power Develops through Practice & Psychological Knowledge
✦ Exercised in Context of Selectively Guided & Constructed Environment - Ecology of Self/Self-Responsibility & World - There is No “Given Environment” - Reciprocity & Possibilities
“The evolution of man is the evolution of consciousness & ‘consciousness’ cannot evolve unconsciously. The evolution of man is an evolution of his will, & ‘will’
cannot evolve involuntarily. The evolution of man is the evolution of his power of doing, & ‘doing’ cannot be the result of things which ‘happen’.” George Gurdjieff
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Hope & Optimism: Emotional/Motivational Virtues
✦ Primacy of Emotion in FC (Consciousness)
✦ Controversy over Hope: Primary Positive Anticipatory Emotion - Generates Approach, Happiness, & Enthusiasm versus Fear & Despair
✦ Broaden & Build Theory: Positive Emotions Produce More Expansive, Sensitive, Creative, & Transformational Experience/Cognitive States
✦ Critiques of Hope/Optimism - Optimists: Confident, Persistent, & Meet Challenges – Higher Subjective Well-Being – Less Negative Feelings Facing Problems – Approach Coping – Reality Focused - Self-Fulfilling Prophesy Effect
✦ Optimism is a Virtue - Requiring Sustained Cognitive & Behavioral Effort & Courage
“I am all for realism when there is a knowable reality out there that is not influenced by expectations. When your expectations influence reality, realism sucks.” Martin Seligman
“I feel therefore I am.” Antonio Damasio
“Since man is above all future-making, he is, above all, a swarm of hopes and fears.” Ortega y Gasset
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Temperance & Balance: The Yin-Yang of Wisdom
✦ Principles of the Golden Mean & the Middle Way - The Balance of Yin and Yang
✦ Intellect & Emotion; Self & Others; Unity & Diversity; Humility & Commitment; Gratitude & Desire; Change/Risk & Stability/Security; Discipline & Play; Order & Chaos; Success & Pain (Creativity a Balance & Integration of Opposites)
✦ Development of Multiple Modes of Understanding (Rational/Analytic & Intuitive/Holistic) - Culturally/Gender Balanced Vision of Wisdom - Nisbett - The Circle & the Line
✦ Fanaticism as Vice & Cognitive Deficiency; Integration & Balance of Values & Virtues - Integrative Expansion of Decisional Consciousness
“The Tao that can be described is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be spoken is not the eternal Name.” Lao Tzu
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Tenacity & Deep Purpose
✦Tenacity: High Self-Discipline - Passionate Persistence in the Face of Adversity - Deep Optimism
✦Tenacity is More Important than Talent - Amplifies Talent & Skill
✦Deep Purpose Drives Tenacity
✦Deep Purpose is Overarching Direction in Life (Zimbardo) - Motivational Expansive Temporal Consciousness - Connected with Transcendence (Seligman) - Self & Grand Narratives
“What you do everyday matters more than what you do once in a while.” Gretchen Rubin
"The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one's feet." Lao Tzu
Sunday, July 5, 2015
The Self Narrative & the Grand Narrative
I am evolution self-conscious, purposeful, & evolving. I self-create myself through the ongoing future-directional, self-reflective personal narrative I tell myself about
myself within the context of the grand narrative I tell myself about the world.
Power of Narrative
Personal & Grand Narratives
Past & Future - Ideal Future
Narrative
Connecting Ideal Personal & Grand
Narratives
Dynamic Self-Reflective/Creative Purposeful Self
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Science FictionThe EvolutionaryMythology of the
Future
Tom Lombardo
Futures Narratives Stimulating & Enhancing Holistic Future Consciousness
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Futures Studies & Science Fiction: The Visions & Wisdom of Olaf Stapledon
✦ Grand Futures Narratives - Visionary: Cosmic Consciousness & Expansive Temporal Consciousness
✦ Humanity & Intelligence in Cosmic Evolutionary Context
✦ Mental-Social Evolution - Purposefully Evolving Minds (Communal/Individual/Cosmic/Aesthetic Values)
✦ Preferable Futures in Context of Reality - Wisdom Narratives (Struggles & Learning)
✦ Deep Purpose in Participants & Author (Enlighten/Inspire)
✦ Unity of FS & SF: Plausibilities, Possibilities, & Challenges with Reflection - Lessons: Stapledon & FS? Synthesis of Intellect/Imagination/Ethics - Wisdom Exemplar/Internalization - Power & Credibility
"Probably the most powerful work of imagination every written." Arthur C. Clarke
Sunday, July 5, 2015
“If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself.If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world,
then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself.Truly, the greatest gift you have to give
is that of your own self-transformation.” Lao Tzu
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Wisdom: HFC & Preferable
Human Future
Flourishing:Dynamic Vision
of the Good
EvolvingConsciousness
Holistic Future Consciousness
Power of Narrative
Character Virtues
Visionary ExemplarTeachers
“Be, Lead, & Teach the Vision We Want to Become.”
Exemplars of Wisdom & Holistic Future Consciousness
Evolution
Sunday, July 5, 2015
The End
Sunday, July 5, 2015