Quotes & Sayings
Friday, May 28, 2021
An Interview with Process Theologian Philip Clayton
Meet Philip Clayton, Process Theologian
https://www.philipclayton.net/ |
The present trajectory of life on this planet is unsustainable, and the underlying causes of our environmental crisis are inseparable from our social and economic systems. The massive inequality between the rich and the poor is not separate from our systems of unlimited growth, the depletion of natural resources, the extinction of species, or global warming. As climate predictions continue to exceed projections, it is clear that hopelessness is rapidly becoming our worst enemy. What is needed—urgently—is a new vision for the flourishing of life on this planet, a vision the authors are calling an ecological civilization. Along the way they have learned that this term brings hope unlike any other. It reminds us that humans have gone through many civilizations in the past, and the end of a particular civilization does not necessarily mean the end of humanity, much less the end of all life on the planet. It is not hard for us to conceive of a society after the fall of modernity, in which humans live in an equitable and sustainable way with one another and the planet. This book explores the idea of ecological civilization by asking eight key questions about it and drawing answers from relational philosophies, the ecological sciences, systems thinking and network theory, and the world’s religious and spiritual traditions. It concludes that a genuinely ecological civilization is not a utopian ideal, but a practical way to live. To recognize this, and to begin to take steps to establish it, is the foundation for realistic hope.
https://ecociv.org/our-mission/ |
Philip Clayton (philosopher)
Career
As an administrator in higher education, Clayton served as Dean of the Claremont School of Theology, and as Provost and Senior Vice President of Claremont Lincoln University, which at that time was an interreligious university.[3] He was Principal Investigator for the Science and the Spiritual Quest project from 1999 to 2003.
Within the natural sciences, Philip Clayton’s research has focused on emergent dynamics in biology and on the neural correlates of consciousness in neuroscience. He has co-authored or edited a number of publications with physicists, chemists, and biologists, analyzing emerging natural systems and exploring their significance for the study of religion. He works in particular on the philosophical and religious implications of emergence theory. In this field his books include Mind and Emergence: From Quantum to Consciousness and In Quest of Freedom:The Emergence of Spirit in the Natural World. He was also editor of The Reemergence of Emergence. He has also published extensively in the field of science and religion, and served as the co-editor for the Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science.
Philip Clayton received a joint PhD from Yale in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of religion. He has also held a variety of invited guest professorships at other universities, including the University of Munich, the University of Cambridge, and Harvard University.[4] As Fulbright Senior Fellow and Humboldt Professor he studied with Wolfhart Pannenberg in Theology and in Philosophy with Dieter Henrich and Lorenz Puntel. He later co-edited the English Festschrift for Pannenberg and translated Pannenberg’s work into English.
Philip Clayton has taught at Haverford College, Williams College, and Sonoma State University. His international lectureships include India,[5] Great Britain,[6] France,[7] and China.[8] He speaks and writes extensively on issues at the intersection of science, religion, ethics, and politics.[9][10]
Authored works
- Explanation from Physics to Theology, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.
- God and Contemporary Science, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdman’s, 1998.
- The Problem of God in Modern Thought, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdman’s, 2000.
- Mind and Emergence: From Quantum to Consciousness, Oxford University Press, 2004.
- In Quest of Freedom: The Emergence of Spirit in the Natural World, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2007 (English edition 2009).
- Adventures in the Spirit: God, World, and Divine Action, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008.
- Transforming Christian Theology: For Church and Society, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009.
- The Predicament of Belief: Science, Philosophy, and Christian Minimalism, Oxford University Press, 2011.
Select edited works
- Science and the Spiritual Quest: New Essays by Leading Scientists, London and New York: Routledge, 2002.
- In Whom We Live and Move and Have our Being: Panentheistic Reflections on God's Presence in a Scientific World (with Arthur Peacocke), Eerdman’s, 2004.
- Evolution and Ethics (with Jeff Schloss), Eerdman’s 2004.
- The Re-Emergence of Emergence: The Emergentist Hypothesis from Science to Religion (with Paul Davies), Oxford University Press, 2006.
- The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science (with Zachary Simpson), Oxford University Press, 2006.
- Practicing Science, Living Faith: Interviews with Twelve Leading Scientists (with Jim Schaal), New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
- Panentheism across the World's Traditions (with Loriliai Biernacki), Oxford University Press, 2014.
References
- ^ "Claremont School of Theology Faculty Profile". Archived from the original on 2011-12-30. Retrieved 2012-02-08.
- ^ "Claremont Graduate University Faculty Profile".
- ^ "Calif. University Introduces First U.S. Multi-Faith School of Theology".
- ^ "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF).
- ^ "Science and Beyond: Consciousness, Cosmology and Technology in the Indic Traditions".
- ^ "Faraday Institute Newsletter No. 2 - February 2006".
- ^ "Les 20 ans de l'Université interdisciplinaire de Paris" (PDF).
- ^ "The Process of Interfaith in China".
- ^ "Prominent theologian says Turkey in crisis with international community". Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-04-02.
- ^ "A Mystery of Body and Soul".
External links
Sunday, February 21, 2021
Toward Ecological Civilization, Introduction to Incompleteness
Ecological civilization is a term that describes the final goal of social and environmental reform within a given society. It implies that the changes required in response to global climate disruption and social injustices are so extensive as to require another form of human civilization, one based on ecological principles. Broadly construed, ecological civilization involves a synthesis of economic, educational, political, agricultural, and other societal reforms toward sustainability.
Godel's first incompleteness theorem states that no consistent system of axioms whose theorems can be listed by an effective procedure (i.e., an algorithm) is capable of proving all truths about the arithmetic of natural numbers. For any such consistent formal system, there will always be statements about natural numbers that are true, but that are unprovable within the system. The second incompleteness theorem, an extension of the first, shows that the system cannot demonstrate its own consistency. - Wikipedia
If a system only creates true statements and allows the construction of the sentence: "A: This statement cannot be proved" in the system. Then by definition it is a true statement, so that A is true and cannot be proved." - Kurt Godel. [As corollary, neither can that system demonstrate its own consistency.]
*The second part of this Introduction reviews Philip Clayton's Preface and
(1)What Is Ecological Civilization, by Philip Clayton, Preface
"We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature."
- Deep ecology
- Ecological crisis
- Ecological economics
- Ecological modernization
- Ecomodernism
- Environmentalism
- Environmental movement
- Sustainability
- United Nations Environment Programme Report: Green is Gold - the Strategy and Actions of China's Ecological Civilization
- Institute for Ecological Civilization
- Institute for Postmodern Development of China
- Pando Populus
- The size of the power set will always be bigger than any elements of that set
- Closed System logic games are exercises in absurdum
- Finite Systems cannot be used to prove Open Systems; this would be illogical
"If a truth theorem in complete, it's closed. If a truth theorem is incomplete, then it's open." - re slater