Paul Richard Blum: Teleology in Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Michael Polanyi

Teleology in Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Michael Polanyi

Paul Richard Blum

published as: Teleology in Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Michael Polanyi, in Paulo Floss octogenario. Filosofie v dejinach a soucasnosti, ed. Otakar Bureš, Lenka Jedličková, and Tomáš Nejeschleba (Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, 2020), 142–161.

Almost at the same time, the Jesuit scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) and the scientist Michael Polanyi (1891-1976) wrote works that addressed the phenomena at the basis of the real world that escape empirical scrutiny. Teilhard, as a paleontologist professionally delving deep in the prehistoric past of human existence, searched for a guiding principle of human reality. Polanyi as a chemist diagnosed that personal satisfaction drives theories in natural sciences. Both came to the conclusion, however diverse, that aiming as such drives the development of human understanding. Consequently, humanity is embedded in an objective teleology, which the individual thinker, as well as human community perform and sustain. 

This was a lecture at Letní Filosofická Škola Víra, věda, kultura Velké Losiny 5. – 15. July 2019 https://letnifilosofickaskola.webnode.cz/zaznamy/

Audio available at  

https://archive.org/details/audio2019/Paul+Richard+Blum%3A+Teleology+in+Pierre+Teilhard+de+Chardin+and+Michael+Polanyi.ogg

Now published: Paul Richard Blum, “Teleology in Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Michael Polanyi,” in Paulo Floss octogenario. Filosofie v dejinach a soucasnosti, ed. Otakar Bureš, Lenka Jedličková, and Tomáš Nejeschleba (Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, 2020), 142–61.

https://www.academia.edu/44435168/Teleology_in_Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin_and_Michael_Polanyi