Paragon House books provide readers with the knowledge and insights to make a difference in a world of chaos, division, confusion, bitter politics, and individual and social dysfunction. Individuals and groups need to transcend egocentrism and ethnocentrism with higher levels of consciousness and knowledge. In a pluralistic world, group rights and responsibilities are important, but many religious, economic, and political groups have been unable to transcend group consciousness, causing genocide, religious hatred, and partisan politics.
Philosophical Imagination and the Evolution of Modern Philosophy
Would you like to get a conceptual overview of the history of philosophy in an easy-to-read-book that is hard to set down? James Danaher has just written that book.
Throughout history, the philosophical imagination has created our evolving perspectives on the world that shape our thought. Modern materialism, rationalism, empiricism, phenomenalism, historicism, existentialism, pragmatism, hermeneutics, and feminism are schools of thought have their origin in the imagination, however we all too often believe these perspectives give us access to truth itself, rather than being ways to make sense of our experience. Truth as something to know will always be relative to the imagination and the perspectives it creates.
However, another notion of truth as something to be has emerged over the history of philosophical thought from Socrates to the present that is not relative to the changing perspectives of truth as something to know. This book distills the evolution of these concepts into an easily readable history of philosophy.
How to Tackle the Fundamental Crisis of Our Times
by Nicholas Maxwell, author of Understanding Scientific Progress
The Danger of Science in a World Without Wisdom
One can imagine many contenders for the crisis of our times: climate change, nuclear weapons, rapid population growth, mass extinction of species, pollution of earth, sea and air, gross inequalities of wealth and power. All these are serious, but they are all consequences of an even graver, more fundamental crisis: science in a world without wisdom.
The astonishing intellectual success of modern science and technology has led to a vast panoply of benefits for humanity. It has made the modern world possible. But it has also made possible all our current grave global crises. Scientific and technological progress led to modern industry and agriculture, modern medicine and hygiene, modern armaments; these in turn have led to habitat destruction, extinction of species, pollution, gross inequalities, lethal modern war, nuclear weapons, and climate change.
There are those who blame science for this tragic state of affairs, but that misses the point. The real problem is science in a world without wisdom. The extraordinary successes of modern science and technology have bequeathed to (some of) us unprecedented powers to act, vastly in excess of anything possessed by earlier generations. Exercising these powers, often we do good, in curing disease, feeding the hungry, and providing all the amenities and luxuries of our modern world. But without wisdom, inevitably our unprecedented powers to act will do harm, whether unintentionally, as when modern life leads to global warming, or intentionally, as when modern weapons are used in war and terrorism.
A Needed Reset for Liberal Culture
By Gordon Anderson, President, Paragon House
The rise of Donald Trump, Brexit, Geert Wilders, and Marine Le Pen can be seen as a reaction to the failure of Western liberal establishment culture to successfully lead the transition to global society. These popular figures represent a return to the last successful level of social development—nationalism.
We could say that this a reset. The leading edge of Western liberalism has become dysfunctional. An integral worldview should supply the necessary elements that liberalism has so far ignored in its zeal to create a more just and inclusive world.
Liberal culture has over-reacted to the limitations of traditional societies that needed to be transcended and included. Those who led the social revolutions of the 1960s tended to “throw out the baby with the bathwater.” They reacted like children who had matured enough to sense injustice, but not developed a broad enough view to ask, “What values in our traditional societies enabled us to evolve this far?” Continue reading →
Welcome to Paragon House
Paragon House books provide readers with the knowledge and insights to make a difference in a world of chaos, division, confusion, bitter politics, and individual and social dysfunction. Nearly all these problems derive from a lack of adequately developed consciousness, knowledge and skills. Mature adults need to transcend egocentrism and ethnocentrism and acquire a holistic and responsible view of the world to be good parents, teachers, and social leaders. Today, human rights include group rights and pluralism but many religious, economic, and political groups have been unable to transcend group consciousness, causing genocide, religious hatred, and partisanism. Paragon House books explain these problems and how they can be overcome.
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