Worldviews in Revolution, Preface
(manuscript)

We must come closer, reread, question...
Jacques Derrida

How large is the capacity of man, if we should dwell upon particulars!
St. Augustine


CONSCIOUSNESS. LANGUAGE. No two things are more intimately a part of what defines us as uniquely human. Yet in their complexly interwoven nature, no two things do we have less awareness of--because they are our awareness. As the means by which we know, they in turn mediate between the world and our understanding of it. They, in effect, serve as the prism by which it alone is apprehended on a conceptual basis.

In this light, this book will explore what it means to have consciousness and how it is that we do as language enables us. One of its chief goals is to bring into the forefront of the reader's conscious awareness the very nature and condition of his or her knowing as made possible by consciousness and its intricate alliance with language. Thereby can the reader gain a renewed appreciation for the unique condition of his or her knowing, more fully recognize just how and why our existence as humans is different from all other species. Similarly, it will concern itself with the ways in which both the modern scientific and post-modern worldviews fail to encompass the full complexity and uniqueness of both consciousness and language.

For instance, oddly enough many of the current scientific treatments available to the general reader in explanation of consciousness and of the place our species in the natural order neglect to treat in a substantial, conscientious manner the role and significance of language to each.[1] That this is nothing less than striking is evident when we consider that it is only by virtue of language that any of these accounts are made possible, indeed, that they themselves are embodied by language. A general oversight of the abundant complexity that is language, nevertheless, is in full accord with the values of a scientific-technological age which does not recognize its own biases. We will seek to examine these biases even as we celebrate the broader merits of modern science. Our goal, nevertheless, will be to identify those gaps where certain relevant phenomena may elude it, not be subject to its worldview frame. Inescapably, this means a closer look at language.

Indeed, given that language is the most important resource and tool in the possession of scientists, can we afford not to think about how it operates, how it may direct our perceptions? As linguist Derek Bickerton offers, "the ways we seek for knowledge may be determined more by the structure of language than by the structure of reality," affecting both "the ends as well as the means of our inquiries." To address such a question as this, therefore, may be extremely important at a time when many physicists express their belief that they are close to attaining a "Theory of Everything" in explanation of the entire universe.

On the other hand, the post-modern worldview as informed by modern critical theory similarly fosters its own omissions in important places, despite the ways it has challenged us to think of language and representation in new and creative ways. Generated out of the language-oriented philosophical movement known as Post-Structuralism, certain strains of post-modernist thought have, among other things, called into question the existence of the individual human identity, of the sovereign nature of the human "self." In short, human identity is suggested to be merely a product of language, to be a contingency that is subject and prey to the larger cultural forces which alone speak through it. Thus, to speak generally, instead of being an independent and autonomous individuality who is speaker, the human being rather is positioned as a plurality who is spoken by language. In contrast, the following will attempt to demonstrate the extremely especial quality of being a language-user, while arguing that the post-modernist vision of the deferred "subject," though insightful, fails to address in a tangible, fundamental way the full predicament of humanness.

To be sure, given that post-modern thought in, this, the last decade prior to the 21st century is the primary undercurrent shaping our cultural and intellectual worldview, it may be more important than ever to examine carefully its presuppositions to see where they may be preparing humanity falsely for the new millennium to come. In effect, we must indeed come closer and question where post-modern assumptions may fall short of an authentic picture of what is human reality. Just how fully aware are many post-modernist thinkers of their own position in the distinctive problem that is the context of human being, we will wonder?

Our ambition, then, will be to examine (as we will the modern scientific worldview), where post-modernism itself as a reference guide may be in need of reformulation and expansion. Likewise, we will speculate upon the ways in which the vision of both worldviews may participate in the very problems each considers void. Indeed, many scientists and post-modernist thinkers alike may have much to learn from the other.

The Primary Contention of this Book

In larger perspective then, both modern science and post-modernism as worldviews, it will be argued, in one way or the other miss central elements of what it means to be human, and between the two positions this work will attempt to present a more comprehensive field-of-vision which exceeds both even as it draws upon and is held in tension against the (pluralistic) suggestions of each. Indeed, the need for a detailed exposition and critique of both that is at once thorough, and yet accessible to the non-specialist reader is immense. Attempting this is this book's aim, which is certainly only a beginning, but one well worth initiating. This is especially true because of the ways both so subtly and insidiously inform the worldview of the present, limit the available vocabulary.

The means toward attaining the broader understanding we aspire to gain is, we will see, language itself, which irrevocably binds the two worldviews together. In fact, let us now recognize that whether scientific, historical, or philosophical, all human knowledge is indebted to and dependent upon the capacity for language, as it is the mechanism alone which gives structure to the "knowing" that is consciousness. As such, we will argue that a detailed consideration of the complex dynamics and nature of language is fully necessary before any attempt is made to comment upon the unique phenomenon that is mankind. As I suggested above, how can one proceed to explain human consciousness, knowledge, or existence without adequately explaining the means by which the very explanation is made possible? Such an explanation, in part, this book will make as its search.

Moreover, to date few treatments exist which attempt to bring together the above two monumental intellectual forces of the twentieth century. For the most part, this fact is readily attributable to the hyper-specialization of knowledge that has occurred during the Information Revolution now well under way, especially with fields as diversely technical and sophisticated as modern theoretical physics or modern critical theory and the semiotics of language. As a result, rarely does the practitioner of one field know of the advances or findings of the other, despite the relevant undercurrent of major parallels which in actuality may be present between them.

A secondary goal of this book is therefore to initiate dialogue where it before has not been toward the goal that we may better know ourselves and our world as we prepare ourselves for future inquiry, make further attempts to understand why things are the way they are. Can we afford not to attempt dialogue if we are at all interested in forwarding our universal knowledge (however one defines the term), especially when our lives and society are as intimately connected to and immersed in the Information Age as they are? And with a new millennium just on the horizon guaranteed only to be all the more technologically complicated? This book believes not.

The Position and the Means

Foremost, the main positions of this book number four, some or all of which will more than likely prove controversial to many, depending on the reader's background and training: first, it will argue, as phenomena in the known universe, both human consciousness and language exist and persevere as wholly unique events in both degree and kind (which I will attempt to demonstrate via an empirical model). Second, at the same time, their appearance further can be understood to have created both a new era for the earth (if not also the universe), as well as a new "region" for the world that remains unmatched in complexity. Third, even as it is unique, language may prove to be more of an elusive, troublesome phenomenon/-a than is generally recognized, particularly when it comes to scientific attempts to account for all its dynamics. And four, language, nevertheless, endures as a fundamental key to the identity of mankind, to answering the question "who are we?" at a point in the history of humanity when a stable answer can no longer be counted upon as certain. The steady erosion of our ability to answer the question confidently and with surety has simply been too great since the dawning of the Modern era, as we will see below. And yet many think the question definitively solved.

As a short introit to the subject matter of this book, however, I hope these claims will prove to be more than provocative enough to challenge persons on both sides of the scientific-humanistic divide that embodies modern systematic knowledge. My partial goal, of course, is to attempt to draw together this great divide, even as this book seeks to do the same for the huge gulf separating professional thinkers and the larger populace. Where, however, will these claims find their support?

Our means will be found in the insightful, fertile vision of post-modern thinker and writer Walker Percy. Percy's brilliance as philosopher and scientist of language-in contrast to his achievements as an artist-has in many ways been overlooked and underappreciated by many of the thinkers who have treated him. The following will attempt to rectify this situation by presenting (in Parts II and III) a distilled, yet thorough consideration of his primary reflections upon language and mankind. Throughout these writings, Percy argues for the unusual, unprecedented nature of human language, knowing, and being, and my hope is that through this book the remarkable insights he has left behind will open up new pathways of understanding which, until now, have remained unspeakable.

Indeed, Percy's synthesis of ideas and fields is unusually rich, if not wholly original, and as such deserves careful consideration, blending as he does science, philosophy, and semiotics together. Each helped shape a vision that is as singular as are its claims. To briefly introduce him, Percy believed that we must begin with language in any exploration seeking to come to terms with the nature of mankind and its relationship to the world within which it exists and participates. For as "symbol-mongerers," he would offer, the species homo sapiens has a peculiar relationship to and role in the cosmos, which together stand curiously unaccompanied. Rather than beginning with biology alone then, he believed we must begin with language, because it, after all, is what allows us to conceive of "biology." More to the point, he suggests that the strange ability to manipulate symbols demarcates for mankind an odd scenario relative to other organisms, one wherein humans must face the twin predicaments of "meaning" and of "self," as well as their related crises. Neither is of much use to a biological understanding, but can we simply dismiss them as unimportant components of the phenomenon that is humankind? This, we will consider in detail below.

Consequently, in Percy's vision, nothing less than a thorough consideration of the "singularity" that is language would lead us then, he argued, to an encompassing viewpoint upon the human species in all its unusual, enigmatic complexity, and his ideas serve to clarify lucidly and rigorously just exactly why human existence is distinctive (if not also problematic). In addition, given that he sets his model of language in a cosmological context as seen from the twin vantage points of both science and philosophy-rather than one or the other alone-Percy's ideas have an unusual substance to them, wherever one eventually decides to take them, and despite any errors he may have committed along the way.

But creative thought such as his requires nothing less than such risk, and some of humanity's boldest advances are indebted to attempts like his by individuals who, like him, strive to think in new ways, strive to develop a new vocabulary by which to define and envision the world. The writer's opinion is that Percy just may do this in a successful manner, and it certainly has been true more times than a few that a thinker has only been recognized for his or her brilliance after death. Could the same be true for Percy and the resources he has left us? Only the future will tell. But at the present moment, the reader is encouraged to establish for him or herself alone to what extent Percy's ideas speak to their experience of the human condition.

Outline of the Book

As for the overall course of this book, we will begin our exploration in Part I by discussing the general historical development of the modern worldview of science and post-modernism. By its end, the reader should have a very strong sense of the values of each.

Of particular concern to us, however, will be the tracing of humanity's rising level of uncertainty in the face of the trends of the Modern Era. The ideas of Copernicus, Newton, Darwin, Freud, Einstein and others, each in their own way radically challenged the identity of mankind, even as the emerging Industrial Revolution itself drastically altered the face of the world. Moreover, the trends begun by all come to a head in the technologically mature twentieth century with events and occurrences which substantially raise the level of anxiety within civilization, both on a collective and individual level. Our goal will be to identify how this is so to the present.

Having identified the general fruits of the modern era, we then will turn to examine its philosophical and historical roots by comparing its values with those from the Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance worlds. This exercise in comparative analysis will lead us into a greater appreciation not only for the values and advanced state of knowledge of the present day, but also the responses of two significant intellectual movements of the twentieth century, Marxism and Existentialism. Both, in turn in their own way, anticipate the Modern Critical Theory movement of the late twentieth century, which itself serves to usher in the present Post-Modern Era in which we now live. In end result, however, none of these movements lead us into a more solid understanding of who we are. Indeed, some only further exacerbate the issue, as we will explore. Overall, then, our aim will be to identify the major trends of human history so as to best set the context for the material on Percy that follows.

Some of the significant questions we will address in Part I are as follows: How has humanity's general worldview changed as a result of scientific discoveries from Antiquity to the Present? In what ways has the triumph of technology only made many matters worse? What are the origins and connections between science, Marxism, and Existentialism as philosophical movements? What is Post-Modernism, and how has it further dislocated our sense of ourselves? And lastly, why is it so difficult to answer the question of who we are, despite all the major advancements in our knowledge of the world? Having set the general context, we will conclude this part with a few words and caveats about the nature of paradigm shifts. In sum, Part I will present a brief overview of the historical development of human knowledge and its relationship to worldviews.

Part II will introduce the reader to the fundamentals underlying Percy's perspective as found primarily in his Message in the Bottle (1975) and takes the following route: As it is within the universe in which we exist, we will first look to isolate and analyze the phenomenon of language and consciousness in such a context. After more fully defining language as an intentional "triadic" event, we then will consider the disparate relationship between human experience and that of other organisms. In particular, we will be interested in identifying the unusual manner by which language forces us to confront the world.

Next, we will proceed to consider mankind's ability to share consciousness and our leap into the realm of "meaning," among other significant features and products of both consciousness and language as they relate to science. In terms of this last subject, we will explore the relationship between science and language in detail. This portion will include a careful analysis of scientific methodology and demonstrate where it is unable to account for language. And lastly, we will meditate on the major differences between humans and chimpanzees.

Overall, then, some of the questions we will consider in Part II are the following: What is language? What is its relationship as a phenomenon among other phenomena? What exactly does it enable us as a species to do? How does it "orient" us to the universe? What kind of relationship does it establish between its users? Where does language elude science even as the latter is dependent upon it? And what are the similarities and differences between humans and chimpanzees? For the ease of the reader, Part II is divided into some ten semi-independent sections, each of which begins with a lead-in question. The final section provides a summary of Part II, which is the background for all critical commentary that follows. Part II should thoroughly acquaint the reader with Percy's ideas about the unusual nature of human consciousness.

Part III will explore the semiotics of "self" as it has been formulated in the wake of Post-Structuralism. Here, we will begin with discussion of Descartes, father of modern philosophy, before turning to Freud to consider his discovery of the unconscious and the radical implications it suggests about the nature of the individual's relationship with himself. Then, after presenting a basic introduction to Saussure, founder of semiotics, we will pick up with the ideas of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan who first blends the discoveries of both Freud and Saussure. Lacan re-interprets Freud's thinking in light of a greater emphasis on language in novel and controversial ways which revolutionize one step further our understanding of the unstable human "subject." We conclude our consideration of language proper with a discussion of the ideas of philosopher Jacques Derrida, whose work proves only further to undermine the stability of language, and who many consider the most important philosopher of the late twentieth century.

With the general context of the Post-Structuralist conception of "self" demonstrated, we then will turn to see how Percy's ideas bear on the issues at hand as they have been expressed in his later book, Lost in the Cosmos (1983). His insights frame a broader perspective on the predicament of the human self and lend a pragmatic dimension to what is often an idealistic vision of human existence. Nevertheless, Percy's ideas remain thoroughly post-modern just as they do scientific, and we will look to explore with what options he sees language to present the human organism.

Important questions upon which we will dwell in Part III include the following: What is the Post-Modernist conception of "subject" as bred of the thinking of Freud, Saussure, Lacan, Derrida, and Post-Structuralism? What do their discoveries suggest about the nature of human knowledge? What do they each suggest about one's relationship to oneself and to others? And then in what ways does Percy's thinking expand our understanding of the "unspeakable" nature of "self"? How does he reveal the available options in light of the tenuous nature of personhood? In sum, this chapter will introduce the reader to the forefront edge of issues as addressed by modern critical thought on language, while relating the ideas of Percy to the general debate.

Lastly, Part IV will provide a recapitulation and conclusion for the material we have covered, while also reflecting upon how what we have covered may bear on both the Artificial Intelligence and Extra-Terrestrial debates. Likewise, it will attempt to speculate in what directions we must turn to further our insights into the workings of the universe, as we continue to search the horizon for the answers we long to have.

Finally, Appendices A and B (tentative) conclude the book and contain resource information of use to the Percy scholar. Appendix A gives a critical review of the response of other thinkers to Percy's ideas, while Appendix B offers an extended Percy bibliography for the reader wishing to work further with Percy or his ideas. The reader is encouraged to make use of any or all parts and sections as they meet his or her interests and needs.

A Note to the Reader

So as to make the book as fully accessible to the general reader as could be, the author has sought to presuppose as little as possible about his or her background knowledge. Careful attention has been given to the definition of all new terms, and simple diagrams and tables have been included to aid in interpretation. Overall, the book has been carefully structured into semi-independent sections presenting content in manageable"info-bytes." A glossary of important terms has also been included, while footnotes are provided for those interested in following up on resources and (optional) miscellaneous commentary offered there. For those who are new to the figure of Walker Percy, a brief biography of the thinker (written with special emphasis as to his interest in language) is included at the end of this work.

My hope is that the book, as a result, will prove useful to all interested parties, whether they be the non-academic, educated reader; the theoretician reading outside his or her discipline; or the Percy scholar. Likewise, this book could be useful as a collegiate (or above) text for the course whose scope in part or whole treats the relevant issues contained within, which the reader should find to be many and varied. In approaching them, I have sought to write in the same vein of scope as that of the emerging field of "universal history."

Though it draws heavily from numerous scholastic fields and works, this book is not primarily a work of scholarship; that is, it is written in the interest of bringing ideas from the realm of the esoteric into that of the public, much as the abundance of works treating scientific topics have done. That way a wide range of persons can profit from the exploration. Though it clearly presents a thesis relative to the ideas, figures, and fields it treats, its aim is to explain its subjects with careful step by step illustration, without compromising the subtlety of ideas insofar as it is possible. For those cases where I cannot help but disappoint the specialist, I ask forbearance.

At any event, I hope all will be challenged in some way by the book which follows. Its writing certainly has been one, though a project immensely rewarding for the wealth of human thought and inspiration with which it has brought me in contact. Such is the gift of language, and the poetic landscape that is consciousness. May it only equally do the same for the reader.

Henry P. Mills
Austin, TX
August 19, 1993

Go to The Walker Percy Project
Go to The Society for the Advancement of Creative Scientific Thinking