The Phenomenon of Man
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| Author | Pierre Teilhard de Chardin |
|---|---|
| Original title | Le phénomène humain |
| Translator | Bernard Wall |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Subject | Speculative philosophy, evolution |
| Publisher |
Éditions du Seuil (France) Harper & Brothers (USA) William Collins (UK) |
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Publication date
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1955 |
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Published in English
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1959 |
| Pages | 347 (French) 318 (English) |
| LC Class | BD512.T413 |
The Phenomenon of Man (Le phénomène humain, 1955) is a book written by the French philosopher, paleontologist and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. In this work, Teilhard describes evolution as a process that leads to increasing complexity, culminating in the unification of consciousness.
The book was finished in the 1930s, but was published posthumously in 1955. The Roman Catholic Church initially prohibited the publication of some of Teilhard’s writings on the grounds that they contradicted orthodoxy.
The foreword to the book was written by one of the key scientific advocates for natural selection and evolution of the 20th century, and a co-developer of the modern synthesis in biology, Julian Huxley.
Teilhard views evolution as a process that leads to increasing complexity. From the cell to the thinking animal, a process of psychical concentration leads to greater consciousness. The emergence of Homo sapiens marks the beginning of a new age, as the power acquired by consciousness to turn in upon itself raises humankind to a new sphere. Borrowing Huxley’s expression, Teilhard describes humankind as evolution becoming conscious of itself.
In Teilhard's conception of the evolution of the species, a collective identity begins to develop as trade and the transmission of ideas increases. Knowledge accumulates and is transmitted in increasing levels of depth and complexity. This leads to a further augmentation of consciousness and the emergence of a thinking layer that envelops the earth. Teilhard calls the new membrane the “noosphere” (from the Greek “nous”, meaning mind), a term first coined by Vladimir Vernadsky. The noosphere is the collective consciousness of humanity, the networks of thought and emotion in which all are immersed.
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