After the clockwork universe.docx

8/17/2019 After the clockwork universe.docx

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After the Clockwork Universe


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2 AFTER THE CLOCKWORK UNIVERSE 3

After the Clockwork Universe

The Emerging Science and Cultureof Integral Society

S. . !oerner

Triangle Center for the Study of Com"le# Systems$ %&&& S. . !oerner S. . !oerner has asserted her right under the Co"yright' (esigns and)atents Act of %&** to +e identified as the Author of this ,ork.

-irst "u+lished +y -loris ooks' Edin+urgh' Scotland' %&&&.-irst "u+lished +y the Triangle Center in August 2//0.

All rights reserved. 1o "art of this "u+lication may +e re"roducedwithout the "rior "ermission of the Triangle Center for the Study of Com"le# Systems' 30 ,esley Court' Cha"el ill' 1C' USA.

)rinted in the United States of America +y 4ightning Source' %2 5eil 6uaker lvd.' 4a 7ergne' T1' 30/*5

IS 1 &0*8/8&0&*5*38/85

4i+rary of Congress


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Contents-oreword &)reface %3

We# World ,-

I? A IT @- IST@9 2&

%? ig Change' )ast and )resent 3%On)e U on a Ti*e //The Ta estr% o! 0ods 'esign 12The T"rning 3oint 45 The 'ar$ Side o! the Enlighten*ent 'rea* -6On)e U on a Ti*e Revisited 56

II? ,E ,@94( *%

2? Crum+ling and Emerging *3 Ho &")h Co"ld Change7 64

Chaos8 9:Unveiling the Invisi#le Hand ,24

Co* le;it%8 ,,9 Intri)a)% and the Une; lored Real* ,:1Cr"*#ling+ #"t Still E*erging ,:9

3? Energy and asic )rinci"les of Change %3%What Ha ens When There


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'ee E)olog% :16 Rethin$ing H"*an Nat"re :4: Intri)a)% and O"r T o 'ee C"lt"res :49 'o*ination and the Age o! War :-/The Integral Challenge :-9The Str"ggle to Re>inherit the Earth :5: Li!e in the Learning Universe :5/

0? The Cycles of CiviliBation 20>Civili=ation


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FOREWOR' 0

-orewordWe are at a atershed in histor%+ a ti*e o! a B0reat 'ivide+ < as U.S. so)iet% shi!ts a a% !ro* the do*inant !or)e o! &odernis* ... 3eriods o! transition+ ho ever+ are inherentl% "n)ertain. On the )rest o! the 0reat 'ivide+ histor% *a% slide either a%.

)aul 9ay

A few years ago I wrote a nice academic +ook which descri+ed an immensesu+terranean change taking "lace across science' from anthro"ology to

"hysics. I e#"lained too that this scientific change was emerging in "arallelwith an even +roader social transformation which was somehow of the samenature. Then' after that +ook came out' a strange thing ha""ened. )eo"leinvolved in the social transformation started calling' wanting to know morea+out how the science s"oke to their work and their concerns. These "eo"lewere uite literally from all walks of life. They were +usiness "eo"le' youthgrou"s' "olitical reform grou"s' educators' religious grou"s' "hysicists'media consultants' ur+an "lanners' retired "eo"le' economists and a host of others too numerous to mention. 1ow I too stand amaBed. IDve +een arguingintellectually that an immense social change is in "rogress' +ut now I realiBethat it is real.

So' I am going to try to tell the story again in more human terms. ere isthe gist. A great turning is going on. It covers all s"heres of life. It is

+eginning to come together and it is +eginning to develo" a voice. If youlook closely you will see it all around. owever' what you will not see ishow the "ieces connect. In a s"ecialist world' no one has time for integration. As a result' we are in the midst of a ma or change which is +otho+vious' and yet still largely invisi+le and hard to understand.

I have also discovered a study which e#"lains why I found all those "eo"le and why they found me. So' let us start with a dose of reality. In %&&5sociologist )aul 9ay conducted a survey which revealed a remarka+le trend.Until ten years ago the U.S. "o"ulation was com"osed of two main culturalgrou"s' =odernists and Traditionalists. 9ay found that one uarter of theadult "o"ulation F >/ *illion ad"lts F now fit a third grou" which he callsCultural Creatives. =odernists ground themselves in science' technology'and industry. They tend to disdain older traditions. Traditionalists find their solidity in church and community and have dou+ts a+out the course that=odernists set. Creatives hear the call of +oth older traditions. They seek anew society in which science and s"irit' technology and community work together for the salvation of all. They re"resent a landmark change.,2 AFTER THE CLOCKWORKUNIVERSE

Creatives are found in every endeavor? medicine' art' science' +usiness'education' religion' and so on. -urthermore' these num+ers are American'

+ut the "henomenon is not. All over the world' "eo"le are trying to +uild anew society which works in ways that the old one does not. Using a looseamalgam of science and social activism' the Creatives constitute a "owerfulmovement whose great desire is to +ring a+out an Integral So)iet% F onewhose head' heart and soul are no longer at odds.

This movement is already larger than those which ignited any "revioushistorical shift. et' there is a "ro+lem. =ost of the "eo"le involved do notrealiBe that they are "art of a movement' es"ecially one of this siBe. 9ather individuals and small grou"s rally around s"ecific issues and work atrethinking in s"ecific fields. As a result' they talk in the language andconcerns of a hundred different fields. This makes them unintelligi+le toone another and invisi+le to the outside world. It also makes their "ower diffuse. ,e see only a few heretics "ounding their heads against the walls of


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various com"lacent esta+lishments. ,e hear only a Tower of a+el. et'world civiliBation is now filled with millions u"on millions of such voices'all aimed in the same direction.

-or civiliBation to save itself' Creatives must come together and realiBetheir commonality in a more concrete way. They already have a sense thattheir efforts are of a "iece. The cry' GSave the )lanet'D for instance' is heard

+y all and there is a common affinity for nature' s"irituality and holisticalternatives in medicine. et' Creatives need to +roaden their understandingof themselves and their reason for +eing. They also need +etter science toground their social and economic theory. These are the kinds of ga"s whichthe new science can fill. It is already +eginning to ste" in.

Creatives have always +een interested in cutting edge science' +ut for years they have had to work with snatches of new science whoseconnections to sustaina+le community were often haBy at +est. This nolonger needs to +e the case. @ver the last thirty years a host of mini8revolutions have +een going on in scientific field after field. These too areof a "iece. eneath a +ewildering variety of names and s"ecialist argon'lies a single' common and uite com"rehensive scientific shift. )uttingthese "ieces together creates a "owerful' em+racing and yet remarka+lyconcrete new view of the world' life and society.

It is this solid and increasingly well8synthesiBed "icture that theCreatives need to +ring a+out their new world. =any intuit that this is so.The need now is to make the new science clear and com"rehensive' whilekee"ing it honest' so that it does not go astray. That is what I am going totry to do in this +ook. =y goal is to create a clear' well8connected

understanding of the new science so "eo"le in the social transformationcan use it to remake their world.

,hat view is +eing +ornH -or a+out four hundred years ,esternciviliBation has +een dominated +y a way of thinking "o"ularly known asthe machine age or the clockwork universe. Today we are witnessing therise of the ,e+ view of the world. It is rising in +oth science and society for utterly "ractical reasons. It is rising in society +ecause clockwork ways arefailing F in education' economics' "olitics' and so on. It is rising in science

+ecause scientists finally have tools to e#"lore how interwoven systemswork. Thus' scientists have known that the world is dee"ly entwined for avery long time' +ut twentieth century electronics has finally "rovided toolswhich hel" them see what this really means. The result is a sudden olt.ScienceDs view as a whole F and that of virtually every field within it F ison the verge of a transformation. =any different words are emerging +ut the

+asic "rinci"les of change are all the same.Thus' all those heretics s"eaking all those languages are actually giving

+irth to a very coherent new view. As "ieces from across the s"ectrum cometogether' our view of life and the world is transformed. et' this new "ictureis also ancient. In it we rediscover secular and s"iritual insights that are as

old as the hills. @ld and new' scientific and s"iritual' "ractical andtransformative F all our "ieces +egin to fit in a wondrously seamlesswhole.

I' like others' call this change the rise of Integral So)iet% and itDsattending Integral S)ien)e +ecause +oth have everything to do withconnectivity. I call it G,e+ ,orldD +ecause' where for four hundred years wetried to descri+e everything as a machine' we are suddenly realiBing thatmost things are +etter descri+ed as we+s. -urthermore' we+s donDt work likesim"le machines. ,e are +eginning to understand what this might mean F from +iology and economics to social sustaina+ility and s"irituality.

4et me leave you with one more thought. The change we are facing can +e descri+ed as G ig ChangeD +ecause it occurs in all s"heres at once


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FOREWOR' & F social' "olitical' economic' s"iritual' and scientific. Every once in a

while a crescendo of change surges forth. 4ike a seventh waveswollen with streams from many directions' ig Change swee"saway the social reality that was' leaving a new one in its wake.That is what is ha""ening today. It has ha""ened +efore.

The o+ ect of this +ook is to make todayDs ig Change soundly visi+le soyou can udge. It is im"ortant to see clearly +ecause' on the crest of a,: AFTER THE CLOCKWORKUNIVERSE

!reat (ivide' history can slide either way. The +etter we see' the +etterour chances of +irthing a safe' sane and sustaina+le civiliBation.


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3REFACE

,/

)refaceToda% e live a))ording to the latest version o! ho the "niverse !"n)tions. This vie a!!e)ts o"r #ehavior and tho"ght+ "st as revio"s versions a!!e)ted those ho lived ith the*. Li$e the eo le o! the ast+ e disregard heno*ena hi)h do not !it o"r vie #e)a"se the% are B rong < or Bo"tdated. < Li$e o"r an)estors+ e $no the real tr"th.

Da*es ("r$e+ The 'a% the Universe Changed

ig Change has ha""ened +efore. Thus' a+out four hundred years ago'western civiliBation underwent a remarka+le transformation? themedieval world of knights' "riests' and commoners unraveled and themodern world of ca"italists' scientists and laymen emerged. At that timeseemingly immuta+le +eliefs a+out science' "olitics' economics' socialrelations and religion +roke from their +indings' shifted' intertwined andmoved out again' "roducing a whole new ta"estry of life. ,esternciviliBation changed from to" to +ottom and the world we call theclockwork universe emerged.

Since science as we know it also emerged at this time' we tend todismiss the seventeenth8century transformation as a one time event' theend of su"erstition. ut a""arently it was not. 1ow we of the modernworld are facing a similar transformation. Seemingly immuta+le +eliefs

have already +roken from their +indings and are shifting. If we are lucky'and if we take care' they will intertwine and move out again' "roducingyet another new F and ho"efully im"roved F ta"estry of life. This +ook is a+out those shifting threads in science' "olitics' economics' socialrelations and s"irituality and the "ossi+ility that they are all "art of onegreat movement' the reweaving of ,estern and "erha"s worldciviliBation. The clockwork version of the world is unraveling and theta"estry of the world as a dynamic interwoven we+ is taking form. Thisis the story of that new ta"estry and the what' why and how that go withit.

)ersonally' I +elieve the transformation is underway. I see my maintask as making that clear and e#"laining why a swee"ing change couldtake "lace. I use three threads F history' science and society at large F to do so. Each is necessary to the overall "icture.

istory is relevant +ecause it shows how our current story of theworld came into +eing and how societies change. ,e are the "roduct of a

"revious reweaving. To see the "arallels +etween then and now' we mustsee how the "ast too is a we+.


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3REFACE %%

,1 AFTER THE CLOCKWORKUNIVERSE

Science is relevant +ecause it is the main reason modern "eo"le feeltheir ta"estry reflects Greal truthD ;no credulity' ust facts< and +ecausescience too is undergoing a +road and encom"assing transformation.,atching this "rofound change move across science and understandingthe reasons for it hel"s make the social change vastly moreunderstanda+le. -our hundred years ago a )olish "riest named

Co"ernicus changed the earthDs "lace in the solar system and with it "eo"leDs "erce"tion of how they fit in the universe. Today' des"ite our so"histication' we are facing an e ually radical rethinking.

ut for all the fascinating as"ects of history and science' what drawsme to this su+ ect is the final thread' society at large and the "otential for change there as well. Clockwork assum"tions now "ermeate everythingwe do' from how we educate our children and run a +usiness to how weimagine !od. =ost "eo"le have no idea that this is the case. -ew realiBehow different the world seemed +efore the clockwork world and fewer still imagine that something much different could come after. @n theother hand' many of those same "eo"le +elieve that something is wrong.,hether it is governmental a+surdity' economic malaise' increasinglyhorrific violence' or religions that do more to create +igotry than love F our world seems to have gone awry and a sense of dis uiet haunts most

"eo"le. The only thing that kee"s most of us running in our usualtreadmills is that no one seems to know what else to do.

This is where my story +egins' a civiliBation on the cus" of change.=any "eo"le sense it' +ut little in our "hiloso"hy "re"ares us for this

change. @r does itH IDve thought a+out the change we are facing for along time' "articularly with an eye as to how to e#"lain it. Is sciencea+out to change our view of the worldH Is this a s"iritual resurgence'

+rought a+out +y a realiBation that there is something more to life thancan +e "ut on a data sheetH Is this a social rethinking +rought on +yeconomic fragility' loss of community' and rage at "ower structures thatseem to have gone "rofoundly astrayH =y answer is that it is all o! these.These issues are interwoven' not se"arate. ,hat is interesting is thatwhenever I give talks a+out this change I find that most "eo"le knowthis. They know our crisis is multi8faceted and that the facets are related.I show how the facets connect' +ut in doing so I am mainly givingcoherence to an already dee"ly felt +elief. A""arently the average lay

"ersonDs "hiloso"hy is uite "re"ared' even eager' for this change. So'though in theory the ideas e#"ressed in this +ook are radical' mye#"erience is that most "eo"le do not e#"erience them as such. Theye#"erience them as a clarification of something already sus"ected anddee"ly desired.

So let me make a distinction. I am not going to descri+e the unraveling

of western civiliBation nor the end of science. ,hat we are facing is theunraveling of our cultureDs dominant "hiloso"hies' a tightly8wovenmutually8reinforcing we+ of +eliefs that got their start four hundred yearsago and are highly institutionaliBed today. ecause they areinstitutionaliBed' these +eliefs dominate "u+lic discussion and e#ert

"olitical' economic and social influence. They are so intertwined' thatthey form a monolithic' seemingly immuta+le com"le# F which oddlyenough is e#actly how the medieval com"le# of Catholic Church'medieval no+ility and the theory of !odDs design seemed +efore them. As

+efore' the dominant com"le# is giving way.Still' though this dominant we+ forms the "rism through which most

of us have +een taught to view the world' it should not +e mistaken for all that "eo"le know or +elieve. 9ather' as urke says' it is merely the


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latest model of how the universe functions' re"lete with +enefits andshortcomings. If you "ro+e a little +it' you will find that many "eo"lehave +een waiting for and working toward a +etter model for a long time.It is now coming together.

The shock is the degree of change. =odern ideas' des"ite their so"histication' are not an almost "erfect "icture of the world' +ut merelyanother latest version of how the world works F one that is a+out to goaway.

,hat lies on the other sideH =uch that is e#"ected and much that isnot. The core change centers on the image of we+s and uses terms likeinterde"endence and connectivity. =ost "eo"le already see this. !lo+alvillage' eco8systems and "lanetary consciousness? images of connectivityalready a+ound. et' current images of connectivity +arely scratch thesurface. The new science will add a s"ecificity and "rofundity not yet

"o"ulariBed. 1ew understandings' for instance' "lay out rigorously in "laces not "reviously imagined. Societies' economies' and your +ody' for e#am"le' are all we+s which follow similar rules and "atterns of change.=any seemingly immuta+le scientific images will also melt away. -or e#am"le' many of the dreadful images of (arwinian evolution will goaway. A lot of e ually dreadful +eliefs a+out human +eings will go withthem.

The meta"horic shift from clock to we+ is thus +ut the ti" of a verylarge ice+erg. A lot of im"ortant s"ecifics go with the new meta"hor andthese have "rofound im"lications for all that we +elieve. To hel" handlethese s"ecifics' IDm going to introduce the +ook +y giving a +rief summary of the whole story F a little gestalt to hold on to as the detailsof the story unfold throughout the +ody of the +ook. The ne#t few "ages%5 AFTER THE CLOCKWORK UNIVERSE

"rovide a condensed "icture with "ointers to cha"ters where thediscussions take "lace.

,e+ ,orldThere are no se arate ro#le*s an%*ore.

ohn 4ove oy' C S =orning 1ews' 2/ &2

ow could a "rofound change swee" the modern worldH 4et me start +ydescri+ing how the change is actually taking "lace F in a way thatincludes society and science.

-or a long time now a very large num+er of "eo"le all over the worldhave +een working' driven +y a sense that something is not right F scientifically' socially' economically' s"iritually F and that a new way isneeded. The "icture IDll descri+e is the result of work +eing done in an

endless num+er of "laces all over the glo+e. Some of it was done recentlyand some long ago. 1o one "erson or grou" commissioned all this work.Each "articular effort started as a result of someone facing a thorny

"ro+lem F in "u+lic "olicy' in +usiness' in religion' in +iology' in humanrelationshi"s and even in "hysics. ut the result is striking and odd.Individuals' driven +y "ro+lems in their dis"arate fields' are coming u"with remarka+ly common insights. They find themselves in une#"ectedharmony with a vast common effort. 1ow transformations in +usiness'government' science' s"irituality' and health ;to mention a few< are goingon in "arallel and writers like myself can come along and say Ga vastmovement is afoot. D A com"le# tissue of work now all seems to "ush inthe same direction.


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3REFACE %3

Thus' the social e#"lanation of why a change is ha""ening is that thegreat hive mind we call humanity has +een at work. It is reaching criticalmass on a new common view. This view was not invented +y one great

"erson' +ut +y many great "eo"le' some famous and most o+scure. It isan act of the great GweD or' as the Chinese would say' of Gthe we+ that hasno weaver.D -urthermore' though this e#"lanation is unusual' it shouldnot +e too sur"rising. After thirty years of the ecology movement' mostof us are already conditioned to think in terms of com"le# we+s withsu+tle connections and invisi+le order. Even schoolchildren think interms of glo+al connections. A hive mind is already easy to imagine. Thisease of imagining is' in fact' an indication of the change.

Still' it is hard to imagine why "eo"le working on incredi+ly different "ro+lems should come u" with common insights. ,hat could +ecommon +etween "hysics' "u+lic "olicy and religionH @ddly enough'science


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"rovides the easiest and most concrete "ath to answering thisuestion. The answer' however' re uires that we go +ack in history to see

why we view the world as a machine whereas our ancestors did not.Thus' five hundred years ago most educated "eo"le still saw the world

of the =iddle Ages' a world in which rocks were alive' angels were realand everythingDs "lace in nature was fi#ed +y !odDs design. ut themedieval world was crum+ling as cynicism grew a+out who +enefitedfrom fi#ed "ositions.

Then' four hundred years ago' the Scientific 9evolution came to therescue' "ulling western civiliBation out of the era of credulity anda+usive authority into the modern world of 9eason and Scientific 4aws.Science and western society have +een inse"ara+le ever since. 7irtuallyevery as"ect of western civiliBation F from family relationshi"s andeconomics to !od sitting Goutside the systemD F has +een colored +y theswee" of reason and science. In urkeDs terms' science defines our Glatestversion of how the universe functions.D This tacit coloring of everythingwe do e#"lains why commonalties lie hidden in "hysics' "u+lic "olicyand religion. ;Cha"ter % e#"lains why this ha""ened and outlines thehistory of how it took "lace.<

So' nowadays' it goes without saying that when you say Gmodern' Dyou also mean Gscientific.D Similarly' if you say a view is different fromthe modern view' you also seem to +e saying it will +e different from thescientific view F or at least currently dominant scientific views. Thislast is a "ro+lem for a +ook like this one. Science has +een so +rilliant'

"owerful' and demonstra+le that it often seems essentially com"lete'which is why its latest theories are often taught as if they were Truth;with a ca"ital T


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itself. ou see' there is a core flaw woven throughout the fa+ric of dominant scientific views. It is no+odyDs fault really' and it has little todo with 1ewton or mechanism er se. So' let me redirect you. The other name for the dominant scientific view is Ganalytic.D Analysis means Gstudying things +y +reaking them a"art. D ence' four hundred years ago'when science as we know it was +eginning' its great thinkers foundedtheir endeavor on a seemingly indis"ensa+le set of strategies? control'isolate' +reak down. These are core scientific methods even today and'given the state of the art in the %5//s' they were indeed indis"ensa+le.Unfortunately they did sha"e scientific and hence social +eliefs. Analyticassum"tions now "lay out in an un+elieva+ly diverse array of social andscientific +eliefs. I e#"lore some of this array in Cha"ter 2' includingeffects on +eliefs a+out weight loss and whether we can "redict thefuture. ;Cha"ters 38* follow how analytic assum"tions "lay out in +eliefsa+out what makes a +usiness run well to how life evolved


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analytic assum"tions +eing overthrown +ecause their inade uacies havereached the level of a+surdity and dysfunction.

So' five hundred years ago Co"ernicus rocked the medieval world +yshowing that the sun was the center of the solar system. 1ow we can seethat the center of science as a whole is shifting from a view +ased oninde"endence ;studying se"arate things< to one +ased oninterde"endence ;studying how things are woven together


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"lanning to "lanetary motion. It is the one over8arching insight that +indsall fields together. It is the reason we+8thinking is +ecoming morea""roacha+le and more useful. ow does a +rain with its we+ of neuronsworkH ,hy do fire8flies flash and tree8toads croak in synchronyH ,hatare the "atterns +y which e"idemics s"readH 1ew answers are cro""ingu" everywhere. ,e+ science comes of age +ecause we have tools toe#"lore the order which rises from interwoven e#change.

There is one last im"ortant "iece to the new view. This new a+ility tosee the order which "ervades the universe is naturally s"urring arethinking of the origins of that order' from the earliest +eginnings downto our daily lives. A host of new insights a+out how organiBationsemerge and evolve are also "o""ing u". ere we +egin to understand the

"ressures that drive we+s and the cycles they follow.As we +egin to understand these ideas in a rigorous way' we

suddenly find that one huge thing wrong with our current views is thatwe have +ut the +arest com"rehension of why organiBations emerge andevolve as they do. ,hy did life emergeH ,as it an accidentH ,hy dogreat societies rise only to crum+leH Are these accidents tooH ,e alsofind that the science that we have +een using F and which we thoughtwas nearly com"lete F is' in fact' crude and naKve. ,e realiBe this most

"oignantly +ecause we discover that we have misconstrued humannature' "articularly how we came into the world and what we must do tosurvive and thrive.

The most im"ortant im"lication of the new science' therefore' is aradical rethinking of evolution itself. 1o longer a crude outcome of accidents and selfish genes' evolution now a""ears to +e a massivelyinterwoven ordering "rocess which runs from molecules to man.

1euro"hysiologist 9oger S"erry "ut the idea this way?

In the eyes of science ... manDs creator +ecomes the vastinterwoven fa+ric of all evolving nature ... A cosmic scheme thatrenders most others sim"listic in com"arison.

If we add energy' therefore' we find that life and the intricate world in allits wondrous forms is a result of we+ dynamics and energy flow. It is not22 AFTER THE CLOCKWORK UNIVERSE

so hard to imagine. ,hat makes a tornado rise u" and what makes awhirl"ool organiBe into a funnelH Energy flow gives we+s sha"e and

"ushes them to move. ;I descri+e energyDs role in Cha"ter 3.<ut there is more. ,hat made the cauldron of chemical sou" on early

earth coalesce into the first living cellsH 4ife itself was +orn of energyand intertwining. The swirl and flow then continued. Early life +reathedout' +reathed in and the atmos"here' oceans and land shifted' linked andstructured themselves into we+s and cycles +oth large and small. All that

GisD on this earth F grass' trees' air' oceans' animals' and human +eings F is linked' +ound in a design whose intricacy we are ust now comingto com"rehend. ,e will "ro+a+ly never fully fathom it.

4ifeDs own intricacy then grew. ,hat made early cells +and togetherinto little collectives whose mem+ers took on s"ecial tasks F +lood'nerve' lung' and feet F to make a +etter wholeH !rou"s survive +etterand can do more than individuals alone. Indeed' colla+oration seems to

+e a main source of evolutionary lea"s. Underneath' however' energyflow and we+ dynamics still set the +eat and "ushed the "attern. The

"ulse continues today. -or four +illion years life has +ecome moreintricate' and +etter flowing F until today' when we can see in the

"hos"horescent glow of com"uter8gra"hics e#actly how interwoven


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systems +end and twist to give rise to +rains' eyes and feet. ; I descri+ethe new view of evolution in Cha"ter .<

Increasing intricacy also did not sto" with living organisms. 9ather there is strong evidence that similar "ressures and "atterns "lay out insocial evolution ;see Cha"ter 0


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The result is e#actly like what ha""ened with Co"ernicus and thesun8 centered model of the solar system' only on a much larger scale.4ike an o"tical illusion that can +e seen two ways' weDve +een looking atthe world one way only to realiBe suddenly that there is another F #etter

F way to see the world hidden in the same set of s"ots. All the facets of the world that you know remain' +ut they now trace out a "rofoundlydifferent form.:1 AFTER THE CLOCKWORK UNIVERSE

The contrast in vision is easy to see. =achine science created animage of the world which was sterile at +est. The "hysical world was a

+illiard +all universe of colliding "articles going nowhere. 4ife was anaccident that "roceeded through a nature red in tooth and claw. umanhistory was a sound and fury signifying nothing and the events which

"o"ulate the world were mostly random. umankind was alone and "artof nothing much larger than itself. 1one of these images will survive thechange.

In their "lace is emerging the "icture of a su+tly structured world. Thisworld is at once old' new' and vastly more a""ealing. ,here currentscience "romotes the image of randomly8+um"ing "articles' the newscience sees a self8organiBing universe. ,here the old +elievedeconomies could +e "lanned and controlled' the new +elieves economiesmust +e grown' "articularly at a grass8roots level. ,here the old sawnature as Mred in tooth and claw'N the new finds nature a su+tleseamstress who sews eings great and small into chains and circleswhich make the world flow. 4ife was not an accident ;at least not

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2/ AFTER THE CLOCKWORK UNIVERSE 3REFACE

:4

civiliBation and "erha"s world civiliBation is on the cus" of ametamor"hosis. And "erha"s' ust "erha"s' the civiliBation that willemerge will +e not only more +eautiful' +ut also more rigorous and saner than any that has "receded it. That is the ho"e and the movement afoot.

ow to 9ead this ook U on this gi!ted age+ in its dar$ ho"r+ !alls !ro* the s$% a

*eteori) sho er o! !a)ts.The% lie "nG"estioned+ "n)o*#ined.Wisdo* eno"gh to lee)h "s o! o"r ill is dail% s "n ("t+ there e;ists no loo* to eave it into !a#ri)...

Edna St 7incent =illay

Today there is a new loom and we can weave a new fa+ric. ,e need tosee whole cloth' +ecause uncom+ined "ieces give us no vision. ,e need

+etter vision +ecause our times are "recarious. ,hat I am going to do isintegrate at least some of the meteoric shower of science' history andsocial change that fills our world.

Synthesis' however' can +e daunting. Connecting threads re uires Itouch on a lot of su+ ects. ecause some to"ics will interest somereaders more than others' I have written each cha"ter as something of astand alone and ended each with a +rief summary of its main ideas.Thus' though there is a general +uilding of conce"ts' it is also "ossi+le toread a+out the to"ic that interests one first' to see how it may +e affected

+y the tide of new thinking. I ho"e these arrangements hel" "rovide a +alance +etween the need to see the whole' and the need to include thes"ecific. I strongly recommend you e#"lore areas that interest you first'if tackling the whole s"ectrum seems too overwhelming.

The +ook itself is divided into four sections. The first section' GA itof istory'D e#"lores the last ig Change and sets the stage for thecurrent one. The second section' G,e+ ,orldD outlines the scientificchange from math to mind. The third' GThe uman )redicamentD looks athow the new view hel"s reframe history' economics and human nature.The fourth' GIntegral SocietyD looks at reform efforts +u++ling u" today.It also e#"lores the reconciliation of head' heart and soul looming on thehoriBon.)art I? A it of istoryCha ter , (ig Change+ 3ast and 3resent This e#"lores the rise and fall of the medieval world and the rise ande#haustion of the clockwork view. It shows how ig Change works as aninterwoven "rocess.

)art II? ,e+ ,orldCha ter : Cr"*#ling and E*erging This e#"lains why scientific views are changing in mundane and e#oticways' from diets and ant trails to chaos and fractals. It also +egins toe#"lain why there is a larger design at work in the world.

Cha ter / Energ% and (asi) 3rin)i les o! ChangeThis descri+esenergyDs under8re"orted role in evolution and organiBation. It outlines

+asic "atterns of change using sim"le systems and summariBes the main "rinci"les of the new dynamics.

Cha ter 1 The Creative Cos*os


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This descri+es how we+ dynamics "lay out in the creation of life and theevolution of all things on earth. It e#"lains how (ynamic Evolutiondiffers from (arwinian Evolution and why (arwinism has tended tocorru"t our view of life.

Cha ter 4 The &ind o! 0od+ &an% and OneThis e#"lores the evolution of +rains' minds and consciousness. Itdevelo"s a dee" understanding of why human societies are acolla+orative learning system.

)art III? The uman )redicamentCha ter - The Nat"re o! H"*anit% and the World This summariBes how Integral Science changes our view of the worldand ourselves.

Cha ter 5 The C%)les o! Civili=ationThanks to the way our +rain evolved' human +eings are "redis"osed totwo cultural "atterns' one colla+orative and one domineering. (ominator culture dominates today' +ut it is also unsta+le. This cha"ter outlines thestandard cycle of dominator civiliBation and e#"lores the causes of regression and colla"se in terms of the new science.

3REFACE

:5

Cha ter 6 The E)ono*i) 'e#ateThis looks at why clockwork thinking is failing in economics and whatsome of the alternatives might +e.

)art I7? Integral SocietyCha ter 9 Seeds o! a Ne Wa%In the end' the uest to create a safe' sane' sustaina+le civiliBation must

+e the uest to +uild an intricate and ro+ust human ecology. This cha"ter looks at some of the efforts afoot to reweave social fa+rics andreinvigorate human ecologies.

Cha ter ,2 The A a$ening This looks at why our head' heart and soul might reasona+ly come +ack together.

A endi; A Co erni)"s Again8)rovides a summary of some of todayDs Co"ernican changes' that is'seemingly indis"uta+le +eliefs which undergo radical revision.9eductionism and materialism' for e#am"le' will +oth disa""ear.

A endi; ( Contrasts in S)ienti!i) and C"lt"ral VisionsSummariBes thecontrasts +etween clockwork and we+ science and culture' in ta+ularform.

A endi; C Oneness and the 3erennial 3hiloso h%SummariBessome of the "arallels +etween the "erennial "hiloso"hy and the newscientific vision of the "hysical world.


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I A (IT OF HISTOR? :9

)A9T %

A IT @- IST@9

Thro"gho"t the )ent"ries there have #een the a))e ted !a)ts+ the)onventional isdo* ... and o!ten *")h o! it t"rned o"t to #etotall% rong. Then the visionaries ste ed in+ e; anded o"r vision and )hanged the i)t"re.

ames urke


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C A)TE9 %

I! C A1!E' )AST A1( )9ESE1T Alas+ all is Ne tonian. &agi) is gone !ro* the orld.

Character in television "rogram' Northern E; os"re

In the +eginning !od created reality. Shortly thereafter "eo"le +egancreating models to e#"lain how that reality worked. In the late %>//s'scientists struck u"on a "articularly "roductive model F the world as amachine. This model F also called the clockwork universe' the modernworld' mechanism' and 1ewtonian science F is' of course' e# uisitely

"owerful. It has sent men to the moon' it has "ut com"uters on our desksand it is now ma""ing the human genome. It is fre uently taken to #escience and it is closely associated with "hysics' "ast and "resent. @ur

everyday e#istence is so cluttered with the wonders of this science thatmost of us find it hard to imagine what life was like without it. Indeed' the "ower of the machine view is so o+vious that mentioning it is trite.

@n the other hand' the machine sense of the world has +een decriedalmost as often as it has +een "raised. =achine science is commonlyassociated with dissection' control' mani"ulation' cruelty' sterility and theo""ressive kind of future envisioned in !eorge @rwellDs ,961 or Aldous

u#ley D s (rave Ne World. It is regularly characteriBed as either hostileto' ina""ro"riate for' or com"letely +affled +y certain things' "articularlyhuman things. =ovies ha+itually "ortray scientists as socially ine"t'having technical facts and know8how' +ut out of "lace with illogical thingslike emotion ;remem+er =r. S"ock in televisionDs Star Tre$ . In fact' theimage of scientists discounting human concerns like warmth' caring'consciousness and s"irituality F calling them illusion' e"i"henomena' or su"erstition F is formula. And this formula is +ased on fact. Thus' thedistinguished twentieth8century "sychologist' ohn ,atson' gave thefollowing machine8age advice?


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There is a sensi+le way of treating children. 1ever hug or kissthem' never let them sit in your la". If you must' kiss them once onthe forehead when you say goodnight and shake hands with themin the morning.

ut it is not ust emotive areas like caring and s"irituality that eludemachine science' com"le# things like economies and societies are also 32

AFTER THE CLOCKWORK UNIVERSE

"ro+lematic. The disci"lines that study these to"ics use machine sciencetechni ues' +ut the results are soft. The so8called soft sciences canDt

"redict' they canDt control and they seem to have +ut a "oor understandingof what makes their systems change. ,hether it is the clichQ of economists giving contradictory advice or the s"ecter of "olitical e#"ertsfailing to "redict such ma or events as the colla"se of the Soviet Union F you donDt have to look far for e#am"les of the machine viewDs "oor relationshi" to the human world.

Everyone knows these images. In fact' they are so common' that fewof us ever sto" to think how odd it is that our cultureDs single greatestknowledge8making machine is commonly "ortrayed as antithetical to thehuman world. The "eo"le who do think a+out such things have largely

+een stum"ed. =achine scienceDs conflicting faces F +rilliant' +eneficial' "owerful' ugly' o""ressive' and inade uate F defines a dilemma that has "lagued "hiloso"hers for the last two hundred years. ow is it that amodel this "owerful could +e other than fact and yet' if this model is fact'how is it that it is so "oor at almost all uestions concerning human +eingsfrom what gives meaning to life to why economies and civiliBationscolla"seH

So "hiloso"hers decry +ut' when "ush comes to shove' machinescience usually wins. It sim"ly seems too true. The modern version of thereal truth is that science is very good at "hysical things' very "oor athuman su+tlety and its tendency to "roduce alienation and amorality issim"ly "art of the high cost of looking o+ ectively at the facts of the real


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world. =any "eo"le wish it were otherwise' +ut few really +elieve thesecharacteristics of science will ever change.

@n the other hand' there is now a very re"uta+le and ra"idly growinggrou" that does +elieve science will change and that it will change in awholesale fashion in the relatively near future. This grou" is com"osed of scientists in disci"lines ranging from mathematics and +iology toeconomics' and anthro"ology and it is +eing oined +y "hiloso"hers'social activists' artists' mystics and humanists of many stri"es. This +ook is an attem"t to make it clear why they +elieve science

F and society F will change and what they imagine the universewill look like on the other side of the change. The machine view'the clockwork universe' is ending in +oth science and society.This ending constitutes a huge change with im"lications for allthat we know F or think we know.

Still' in order to understand why we may +e facing ig Change' we

need more than a fairy8tale understanding of how and why societiesreinvent themselves. Thus' I +egin my story with a tour of two earlier ig,. (I0 CHAN0E+ 3AST AN' 3RESENT //

Changes' the +irth of the medieval world and the +irth of the clockwork world. These are not sim"le stories of the trium"h of science' of course'

+ut com"le# stories of civiliBations in change. 4et us +egin with the ideathat our ancestors saw the world very differently than we do.

@nce U"on a Time

@nce u"on a time' the world was a very different "lace. It was full of angels and kings. And then suddenly' in a relatively short "eriod of time' itwasnDt. In roughly the seventeenth century' ,estern civiliBation underwenta remarka+le change. A large num+er of "eo"le in all walks of life +eganto agree that their world worked like a machine and they +egan toreconstruct their world in this image. =achine themes F a focus onmaterial reality' lawfulness' rationality and logic F emerged in all areas of human Endeavour from the EnlightenmentDs +elief in a lawful'


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controlla+le universe to the industrial revolutionDs remaking of economics.All of these elements were "art of a general shift whose various "arts fedeach other.

=achine science was +orn during this "eriod +ut it wasnDt ust sciencethat changed' it was the entire structure of western civiliBation includingthe way everyday "eo"le lived their lives and e#"erienced their world. Infact' y ou could say without e#aggeration that what changed was "eo"le D score e#"erience of the world. In the year %5// most educated "eo"leliving in ,estern Euro"e still looked out on the world of the =iddle Ages.In this world' all creatures were "art of a !reat Chain of eing' with man

+etween the angels and the lower animals. The universe was e#"eriencedas alive' im+ued with "ur"ose and infused with s"irit. The world wasenchantedR there was am"le "lace for miracles and (ivine intervention.

ings were instituted +y !od for the "rotection of their "eo"le.et' +y %0// most educated "eo"le "erceived a very different world.

They saw a rational universe' constructed and set in motion +y the Creator +ut with su+se uent events accounted for +y mechanical forces and lawful +ehaviors. =an was se"arate from nature and had the "otential to controlnature through scientific knowledge and technological "rowess. Angelsand the !reat Chain of eing were "art of religion' not the "hysical world.

ings were "olitical +eings with "ersonal interests that were often given "recedence over the needs of their "eo"le./1 AFTER THE CLOCKWORK UNIVERSE

This core shift s"read out from Euro"e and eventually transformedevery institution and much of the way of life in most of the world. Itmarked the transition from the medieval to the modern era. It marked the

+irth of the now infamous clockwork universe.istorians looking at such a switch are "ressed to e#"lain why it

ha""ened. @ne standard story has emerged. ,hy did the modern worldariseH @ur children are usually told that the scientific revolution "roduceda non8su"erstitious' correct view of the world and the medieval viewcrum+led +efore the terri+le clarity of its logic.


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There is some truth to this view. et' if it were com"letely true' a ma or scientific transformation would no longer +e "ossi+le. @ur current versionof how the universe works would indeed +e' in urkeDs terms' Gthe realtruthD and its grim im"lications would +e inevita+le. ut this is not so. Asthe +ulk of this +ook makes clear' there is am"le evidence that science isagain in the midst of a Co"ernican revolution of e"ic "ro"ortions. Thecurrent scientific view is not a final truth' +ut an ageing one a+out tosuccum+.

So' let me suggest that the standard story of why the modern worldarose is incom"lete' not so much wrong as woefully sim"listic. The realstory is a tangled we+ F which' in fact' is the whole "oint. ig Changeinvolves "olitical' economic' social' scientific' and s"iritual issues all atthe same time. To avoid naivety' then' we must understand why a wholesocial fa+ric rises and falls as a "iece. To avoid chagrin later on' we mustalso start with res"ect. So note? the "eo"le of the =iddle Ages also

thought their +eliefs were +uilt on unshaka+le science which had stood thetest of time. I start therefore with a more accurate view of this science.

Ordinar% O#servers and C"lt"ral Weaving @rdinary o+servers gaBing at the night sky' see stars roll "ast in a longslow swee". Stars near the )ole circle around the 1orth Star and never disa""ear. Somewhere around 33/ C' Aristotle e#"lained this celestialmotion using a model of the universe made u" of eight crystalline s"heresu"on which the sun' moon' "lanets and stars were em+edded. The earth satat the center' encased within. The sun circled "ast each day and the starsfollowed each night +ecause the s"heres revolved gently around their central core' the earth. The universe was closed and the heavens were

"erfect and unchanging in their circular or+its. And' as the ordinaryo+server could see' the earth was stationary and the stars moved around it.

1ow AristotleDs model was scientific' it was +ased on o+servation andlogic. It even evolved like a good scientific model should. Thus' ordinaryo+servers also noted that there were times when the "lanets seemed tochange course. =ars' for instance' would sometimes sto" and go

+ackwards. Clausidus )tolemy' an Ale#andrian astronomer' "ut forth the


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first convincing e#"lanation of this anomaly in the second century A(. esuggested that each "lanet sat on a smaller crystal s"here which was itself turning within the main one. This meant that there would +e times when amini8s"here turning within its larger s"here would make a "lanet a""ear tomove +ackwards. ackward motion came from e"icycles within the larger whole.

Elegant indeedJ -itting o+servation and a""earing to +e common sense'this modified Aristotelian view held sway virtually unchanged for over athousand years.


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/- AFTER THE CLOCKWORKUNIVERSE

Then' starting in the % //s common sense +egan to change. y %0//the average educated "erson viewed the Crystal S"heres as a sym+ol of su"erstition and an affront to reason. ow did this ha""enH If you readmodern accounts you will hear a+out the scientific revolution starting with

Fig"re ,. Aristotle


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Co"ernicus. The sim"le version of the story is that the "oor "re8 scientific "eo"le of the si#teenth century thought that the earth was stationary andsun revolved around it. Co"ernicus demolished this "rimitive view +yshowing that the earth actually moved around the stationary sun. @n theother hand' the earth8centered view fits what ordinary o+servers see andno one can call Aristotle' one of the founders of !reek science' a fuBBy8headed thinker. ,hy then would his model +e considered an affront toreasonH There must +e more to the story.

The key to the larger story has to do with the way science and asociety D s story of itself +ecome entwined over the years such that +eliefsin one +olster +eliefs in the other. The Crystal S"heres is a case in "oint.The "eo"le of the =iddle Ages cared a+out the Crystal S"heres' not

+ecause of its science' +ut +ecause it sym+oliBed their im"ortant "lace in!odDs (esign. Thus' medieval clerics had told their flocks that !od had

"ut them on earth +ecause it was the center of universe and +ecause they

were the a""le of is eye. This sim"le e#tra"olation e#"lains the rest of the now famous story of those times. In setting the record right'Co"ernicus destroyed "eo"leDs sense of having significance and of +eingem+raced in an ordered and loving universe.

The first ste" in freeing ourselves from todayDs +rave' yet tragic storyis to see that we are like our ancestors. ,e +elieve our story of the worldwill never change +ecause we assume it is +ased on science which willnever change. ut science is a+out change. The Crystal S"heres' therefore'teach us an im"ortant lesson. To understand history' one must realiBe thatit is the h"*an story which is most im"ortant. Then' as now' most "eo"ledonDt care much a+out science er se. ,hat "eo"le care a+out are thestories which e#"erts tell a+out what a scientific idea *eans for them intheir daily life.

istory thus suggests that science and society evolve together in atwo8way "ush8"ull with stories leading the way. -urthermore' over timethe interlacing +etween the two +ecomes massive. So' let me state theo+vious. Co"ernicus is not famous +ecause of "lanetary motion' +ut

+ecause his model challenged the social fa+ric of the times. Somehow'

over many years' the Crystal S"heres had +een converted from a model of


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celestial motion to a mainstay of the whole society' with far8flung "olitical' economic and s"iritual connections. Indeed' +y %>% ' when

,. (I0 CHAN0E+ 3AST AN' 3RESENT /5

Co"ernicus +egan his work' Crystal S"here images e#tended to everynook and cranny of medieval life. ence' it wasnDt ust manDs "lace in theuniverse which was at stakeR it was an entire conce"tualiBation of how theworld worked including social relationshi"s' economic relationshi"s'

"olitics' government' art' and even how cannon+alls flew.The Crystal S"heres +ecame a mainstay of medieval social fa+ric +y

a "rocess I call Gcultural weaving.D ence' +y %>// F after a thousandyears of acce"tance and refinement F the Crystal S"heres had come toseem like an unchangea+le "illar of fact. And' ust as we tie our "illars of fact into many as"ects of our world' so this model had +een woven into

many things. Clerics' for e#am"le' used the Crystal S"heresD "erfectunchanging motion as an e#am"le of the unchanging "erfection of !odDs "lan for the world. In !odDs "lan each o+ ect had a fi#ed "lace in anunchanging hierarchy from rocks' "lants and man to heavenly +eings' and'finally' !od' the )rime =over ;another Aristotelian invention


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down and sideways in the direction the earth was moving F as' for e#am"le' a rock dro""ed from a moving wagon would do. The earth must

+e stationary +ecause dro""ed rocks didnDt move sideways. The logic wasim"ecca+le. As a result' the stationary earth' and the naturalness of downward motion +ecame one tightly +ound com"le# which "eo"lea""lied to everyday "ro+lems such as cannon+all theory. Thus' accordingto si#teenth8century theory' cannon+alls flew out in the angle the cannonwas "ointed and then fell straight +ack down to earth as +efit naturalmotion on a stationary earth.

It all seemed very reasona+le F at the time. And' +y the %>//s whenCo"ernicus came around' Crystal S"here logic and images were woventhroughout the entirety of si#teenth8century reality. ing ArthurDs 3*


ta+le was round' for e#am"le' +ecause roundness sym+oliBed "erfection

in heavenly or+its and chivalryDs sacred "lace in !odDs (esign.-urthermore' so many connections had +een made' some meta"horic andsome logical' that the resulting "icture seemed incredi+ly unlikely tochange. Thus' to the si#teenth8century "erson on the street the e#istingsocial "attern seemed as "re8ordained and unavoida+le as the starsmoving in the skies. ,hether they liked it or not' this was the way theworld worked F or so they thought. Science' life and religion all agreedJ

ence' without anyone "lanning the result or engaging in grosslyirrational thinking' cultural weaving "roduced a tight' consistent we+which connected incredi+ly divergent "henomena F literally the gamutof society. )eo"le started with some o+serva+le facts' created a story toe#"lain them and then wove an entire society in its image. The result wasa $no ledge e#+ a self8reinforcing "icture of the world woven out of what seemed to +e solid knowledge.

4et me also em"hasiBe that this we+ is more than ust a mentalimage. ,hen "eo"le live according to the latest version of how theuniverse works' they +uild everything in kind. ence' as urke "uts it'fifteenth8century Euro"eans GknewD that the sky was made of closed

concentric crystal s"heres' rotating around a central earth. It was


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su""orted +y o+servation and science that had stood the test of time. Kno ing then led to doing8 4iterature' music' art' "olitics' economics F soon everything +egan to mirror what "eo"le Gknew. D Threads from allover +egan to reinforce each other. The system eventually +egan to seemim"ervious "recisely +ecause everywhere one looked' everyone and everything agreedJ

Cultural weaving is' of course' also alive and well today. ,hether itis the )o"e asking Ste"hen awking to e#"lain how his theories su""ortreligion or social (arwinists using survival of the fittest to e#"lain whythe "oor deserve their "light' human +eings are always on the lookout for a heavy8duty idea that they can use to strengthen their own +eliefs.

nowing has also led to doing. Social structure' religion' economics F everything inside our society now reflects clockwork +eliefs. y the%0//s' for instance' feudalism was ending and the industrial world

+eginning. The world was alive with Enlightenment +eliefs a+out manDs

a+ility to order his world and the rational +eingDs need to create a fair andharmonious society. It was an era of o"timism and unlimited faith in "rogress. It was the century of the American and -rench revolutions F li+erty' e uality' fraternityJ All of this was "art of the new social system

+eing +uilt around a new "illar of fact F 1ewton and his model of thesolar system.

,e are like our ancestors. ,e ust use 1ewton and (arwin instead of Aristotle and )tolemy. ,e donDt +elieve the earth is at the center of theuniverse. ,e donDt +elieve cannon+alls fly u" and fall straight +ack downand we donDt +elieve that !od fi#es "eo"lesD "laces in the social order ;atleast not most of us


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and find machine8thinking a+surd. ecause knowing leads to doing' "ost8modern society will "ro+a+ly also +e as different from modern society asmodern is from medieval.

Root &eta hors A ne *eta hor *"st )hannel needs o! the resent+ drea*s !or the !"t"reand *e*ories o! the ast into one or$a#le hole. D.S. &a%

nowledge we+s also usually reflect a root meta"hor' such as Gworld asmachineD or Gworld as a living organism.D The reasons for this too areunderstanda+le. =eta"hors are easily communicated and give coherenceto what seems to +e a um+le of unrelated facts. They "rovide aconce"tual framework that can +e shared not only +y a community of scientists +ut also +y a community of human +eings engaged in all formsof endeavor.

Cultural weaving does the rest. The meta"hor sha"es the logic usedand +ecomes "art and "arcel of a hidden consistency that connectsincredi+ly divergent "henomena. As a result' social fa+rics are alsota estries hi)h tra)e o"t a design. ,e find these designs at work in the

"ers"ectives that sha"e the institutions and daily life of cultural grou"sfrom the ancient =eso"otamians to the AmaBonian Indians' from

ottentots to the nation states of our own time.The mainstay model serves as a great and concrete e#am"le of the

root meta"hor' a kind of keystone' and the two +uild themselves u"together. Ste"hen )e""er' a "hiloso"her8historian who studies such things'calls the result a world hy"othesis' a tacit theory of Ghow the

world worksD that unites a long thread of thinking and is invaria+lytied to a root meta"hor. Thus' a cultureDs knowledge we+ is woven arounda meta"hor and e#em"lified +y a mainstay model.

ere is the ru+. Societies assume that their meta"hor is e uivalent tothe facts' +ut this is not true. =eta"hors are a way to organiBe facts.)eo"le use them +ecause without them o+servations form only ameaningless hea". et many meta"hors will work. The one which rises at


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a given time is sha"ed +y memories' dreams' hatreds and a host of other cultural artifacts too numerous to mention.

-acts ;o+servations< do not change' +ut the way "eo"le organiBethem' the lens they choose' does. istory is a game of trying to findmeta"hors which fit the facts while also making the society work +etter.The conce"t of working +etter is key. istory shows that' when societiesreorganiBe themselves around a new meta"hor' they are driven "artly +ynew facts' +ut mostly +y h"*an needs. I cannot em"hasiBe this lastenough. To understand ig Change' therefore' we must understand howand why real "eo"le with real needs leave their old ways. The ne#t sectione#"lores how this worked in the +irth of medieval society.

The Ta"estry of !odDs (esign

The medieval world also had a root meta"hor. It was not the Crystal

S"heres. 1o' the medieval meta"hor was of a hidden organiBing master "lan' the world laid out according to !odDs (esign. !odDs (esign was a "al"a+le real truth for our ancestors' ust as the clockwork universe is tous. ,hy did they choose itH Clockwork thinkers dismiss !odDs (esign assu"erstition. In fact' it was a necessary and "owerful meta"hor whichs"oke to the needs of the time. This is how it ha""ened.

At the height of the 9oman Em"ire' Euro"e ;or rather 9omeDswestern "rovinces< had +een secure under an efficient government andconnected +y roads along which commerce and social e#change flowedfreely. ut then 9ome crum+led and the long +ar+arian nightmare +egan.Commerce and e#change fell a"art rather ra"idly after the fall. 9ome wasgone and security had gone with it. Invasions +y =uslims' 7ikings' and=agyars in the eight' ninth and tenth centuries set the tone of the age F Christian kingdoms surrounded and harassed +y foes. The medievalta"estry was a "roduct of these times F a world which hacked outsurvival in dangerous times and clung longingly to memories of a moreciviliBed era long since shrouded in the mists of time.,. (I0 CHAN0E+ 3AST AN' 3RESENT 1,


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In the +eginning' "eo"le receded into human "ockets whicheventually +ecame so isolated that dialects develo"ed +arringcommunication +etween "eo"le even fifty miles a"art. (ense forests'im"assa+le roads' wild animals' raiders and +andits F small wonder inha+itants turned inward and looked +ackward' clinging to increasinglyshrouded images of a golden 9oman "ast. Eventually' a "atchwork of

+astions grew u" reflecting' as one historian "ut it' their ownersD Gever8 "resent e#"ectation of violence and attack. D =emory and danger' thus' setthe tone for the medieval world which rose from the dust of an older order.Emerging slowly with +ar+arian conversions to Christianity from // A(on' a distinctive Christian Euro"ean society evolved out of what was oncea motley collection of tri+al "rovinces.

Christian missionaries s"reading the word of their !od during andafter the fall of 9ome +rought the meta"hor of !odDs (esign aroundwhich the new society +egan to form. This meta"hor came most clearly

from one of ChristianityDs greatest "hiloso"hers' St Augustine. utmeta"hor is too light a word. AugustineDs vision of !odDs (esign was aconcrete and elegant theory which was com"letely a""ro"riate to thetimes. ,riting after the sack of 9ome in %/ A(' AugustineDs vision of !odDs (esign was an e# uisitely reasoned +asis for ho"e and a descri"tionof how a new civiliBation should +e +uilt. e argued that' through all theu"s and downs of transient human em"ires' !odDs saving grace of wasworking in the hearts of men. A struggle was +eing met. Two societies' hesaid' were com"eting through the centuries for the allegiance of men. @nesociety' the community of those who loved !od' would find their finalhome in heaven. These "eo"le formed the City of !od. The other society'the City of the ,orld' was formed +y those whose minds and hearts wereset only on worldly things. !odDs (esign called those who loved !od to

+uild !odDs City on earth and oin the struggle +y which this must +edone.

AugustineDs theory was' thus' not a vague vision of !odDs (esign +utan integrated theory of history' life and state. It advocated mutual su""ortand care for the weak' and called for a righteous struggle against in ustice.

It re ected money and worldly things as an evil +ecause these had +een


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+ehind 9omeDs fall. It offered "ersonal salvation in the afterlife +ut it alsosought a new world which would +e +uilt through commitment to the Cityof !od on earth. This "owerful vision of history' life and state still stirs

"eo"le today. ack then it "rovided a meta"horic core that s"oke to thetimes and gave direction to an emerging social fa+ric. nowing led todoingJ Across Euro"e an em+ryonic cultural we+ took hold which +lendeds"irituality and reality into a functional whole.1: AFTER THE CLOCKWORKUNIVERSE

Threads from the old were used to +uild the new. Christian' 9oman'and tri+al elements all contri+uted to the weave. -irst came the Church.Survivalist times had made life an arduous and usually +rief struggle.G4ife'D wrote )etrarch in the fourteenth century' Gwas nothing +ut a hardand weary ourney toward the eternal home for which we lookR or' if weneglect our salvation' an e ually "leasureless way to eternal death. D It was

a dark mood that fit dark times. Stressing the inscruta+ility of !odDs(esign and the su"eriority of life in the afterworld' the Church s"oke tothe dark times and offered ho"e. All was orderly' a "lan lay underneathearthly flu#R it was ust +eyond human ken. Eventually' the Church

"rovided an em+racing matri# of life for the new society. It gave rules for how to "roceed and a reason for e#istence' effort and all that was.

The remnants of 9ome also left their trace. =onasteries "reservedwhat was left of classical culture. ence it is not sur"rising that "riestsused AristotleDs model to illustrate their !odDs (esign. It fit. )eo"le

+elieved in !odDs (esign +ecause it hel"ed +ring order to the chaos of their lives. The "erfect motion of the Crystal S"heres illustrated theineffa+le workings of that order in a "al"a+le way.

-inally' tri+al elements also fed the fusion. At the time of the fall'Euro"e was inha+ited +y an array of semi8tri+al societies most of whomstill +elieved that the "eo"le were an organic whole. These societies' for e#am"le' +elieved that law ought to +e a natural outgrowth of the wholelife of the "eo"le' not merely a set of rules im"osed from a+ove as it had

+een with 9ome. Their kings were not so much rulers' as chieftains wholed the "eo"le. -urthermore' in tri+al society warriors voluntarily "ledged


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their life and skill to their leader. onor8+ound warriors' allied to achieftain' "rotected the tri+e and ravaged their enemies. In convertingthem to Christianity' clerics taught these warriors to fight not for +ooty +utfor glory and for !odDs City on earth. This +lend of Christian and tri+al

+eliefs eventually "roduced the conce"t of chivalry F honor8+oundknights fighting for !od' for ustice and for the good of the community.

All of these threads fit the times and the new design served inune#"ected ways. -or e#am"le' the new Christianity argued that faith inworldly things destroyed civiliBations as well as individual souls and theChurch cast an anathema against money. ut since e#tensive trade did note#ist' lack of currency served to kee" "eo"le focused on home and theorganic whole. Christian lords' who were honor8+ound to "rotect thecommunity' com"leted the fa+ric. The result was feudalism' a system

+ased on the need for self8sufficiency and held together +y honor and thevision of !odDs (esign.

And a +eautiful vision it was. In the theory of !odDs (esign' thewhole community was "art of a great mystery that +ore the +reath of the(ivine. uman +eings great and small were interwoven with each other and the world in the hidden design. !od had esta+lished three Estates'each with a given task for the good of the whole. The first Estate' theclerics' served as guides to faith' u"holders of ustice and cham"ions of the o""ressed. The second Estate' the no+les' governed +ut they also gavetheir lives to "rotect the community. Chivalry +ound them +y honor to

"rotect the weak' fight for the right against in ustice and to "racticecourtesy and humility. The third Estate' the commoners or serfs' +elongedto the land owned +y their lord "rotectors and worked it for the +enefit of all. The lord was +ound to maintain them in sickness and in health andright their o""ressions as directed +y the Church. Thus' in the +eginning'serfs were viewed as stewards of the land' not slaves as 9ome had used.The tri+e was still @ne' des"ite different functions. Together !odDs threeEstates formed an organically8whole community whose various "artsworked together in a design that served the needs of the times. In historian

ar+ara TuchmanDs words? Gthe clergy was to "ray for all men' the knights

to fight for them and the commoner worked that all might eat.D


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Rising Ti*esThe medieval ta"estry of !odDs (esign was functional and "al"a+le. Andfor a time it seemed to +e working well. The new society was well8esta+lished +y the eighth century and seemed "re8ordained +y the tenth.

y this time feudal society' with everyone "laying their role' seemed to +esurviving the invaders' o"ening u" the world and e#"anding the economy.

y the eleventh century the tide was turning. ar+arian raids +egan totrail off and as they did Euro"ean contact with the rest of the world grew.As Euro"ean +astions and their "rotectors +ecame more "owerful theymoved to take +ack land from the =oors in S"ain and Italy and to seek con uest as far as the holy lands in the Crusades.

The seas +ecame safer and overland routes o"ened. As they did'commerce e#"anded starting in Italy around &>/ A( and s"readingthrough Euro"e with the first crusade in %/&5. As an e#change economyreturned' s"ecialiBed craftsmanshi" was revived and guilds emerged.

=oney +ecame more common. Christian theory cursed money and ithadnDt +een very im"ortant in early medieval life' +ut now money hel"edim"rove things. Commoners often used money to +uy "rivileges fromtheir lords. These included freedom from the serf s +ond to the land. -ree


towns and free men emerged as no+les granted charters for li+erties as freecommunes to towns F in e#change for money' of course.

Secure in its theory and +asking in an e#"anding economy withnovelties and lu#uries "rovided +y im"orts' the medieval view floweredinto "erfection in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Commercestimulated a surge in art' technology' guilding' learning' and e#"loration

+y land and sea. 4eaders of church reform movements tried to resha"ehuman society into an ordered unity that would reflect the universalgovernment of !od. 9eligion was e#"ressed e ually in the gentle

"reaching of St -rancis and in the soaring cathedrals rising arch u"onarch. These igh =iddle Ages +rought the com"ass' the s"inning wheel'the windmill' watermill and treadle loom. Universities were esta+lished at)aris' ologna' )adua' 1a"les' @#ford' Cam+ridge' Salamanca'


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=ont"elier' 7alladolid' and Toulouse to teach the new ideas coming inwith e#"anded contact. !iotto "ainted human feeling' (ante framed hisgreat design of human fate and 9oger acon delved into e#"erimentalscience declaring that the "rogress of human knowledge was +eingim"eded +y "hiloso"hersD reluctance to admit their own ignorance.

Creativity' technology' and faith flowered. In TierneyDs words? GIn%20> a medieval man might reasona+ly ho"e that his society was on theway to creating a serene civiliBation that could endure for centuries.D ut itdidnDt. So let us e#"lore the other side of ig Change' the downward roll.

The Unraveling o! 0od// A( to %5//A(. !odDs (esign was not a su"erstition' it was a social reality. So' whatha""ened to itH

In the sim"le version of the story' the scientific revolution created acrisis. Somewhere +etween Co"ernicusD model of the solar system ;%> 3<and !alileoDs trial for heresy ;%532


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,. (I0 CHAN0E+ 3AST AN' 3RESENT %ut is that itH (id the medieval world end +ecause scientists

discovered the Greal truthDH 1o' the story is still sim"listic. So IDm goingto suggest a different answer. The medieval world did not end +ecauseCo"ernicus challenged the Crystal S"heres' nor even +ecause of thescientific revolution er se. 9ather' +oth Co"ernicus and the scientificrevolution emerged #e)a"se the *edieval e# !ailed.

The theory of !odDs (esign sto""ed working. It ceased +ringingorder and started creating chaos instead. As it did' the social fa+ric thatits creators had woven so +eautifully +egan to unravel. And a greatunraveling it was. Social relations' economics' religion' science' "olitics

F all of these threads +egan to fail. -ailure created crises and aneed for a new foundation. uman needs eventually drove anew social we+ into +eing ;in this case' the clockwork one// the ulian calendar was eleven days wrong onthe moonDs cycles.

This situation was visi+le and of great concern to the average

+eliever. Since the Church "rovided the matri# of medieval life' holydays were much more than holidays' they had an effect on a wide rangeof s"iritual and legal issues. Inheritance' for e#am"le' was affected +ywhether a child was +orn on a holy day' as was "ardoning of certaincrimes. ,orse' missing holy days lessened a "ersonDs chance of salvationand salvation meant the difference +etween the golden afterlife andendless torture in hell. Something had to +e doneJ

In %>% ' under "ressure from a wide range of constituents' the )o"egave the urgent task of calendar reform to a )olish "riest mathematiciannamed 1icklaus o"ernig' +etter known as Co"ernicus. Co"ernicus saidthat the task would re uire resolving anomalies in the relative motions of the sun' moon and earth and that this might mean a model with the earthmoving around a central stationary sun. ut the ChurchDs hesitation was

+rief' the "ro+lem was urgent. Two years after its "u+lication in %> 3'Church authorities acce"ted Co"ernicusD model without a""arentreaction and +y %>*2 it had +een used to reform the calendar ust asoriginally intended.

7alued for its mathematical elegance and its a+ility to make the

heavens availa+le to accurate o+servation' !emma -risius' a (utchastronomer' e#"ressed the official view at the time?

It hardly matters to me whether he claims that the Earth moves orthat it is immo+ile' so long as we get an a+solutely e#act knowledgeof the movements of the stars...

So Co"ernicus created the heliocentric model on +ehalf of the Churchand his work was acce"ted as a convenient mathematical fiction. ThemoonDs cycles +egan to match the calendar which su""orted the idea thatCo"ernicusD model was in some way +etter than AristotleDs.

@n the other hand' this was the start of the scientific revolutionJindsight says that the Church should have reacted with horror and one

might su""ose that its unruffled acce"tance reflected com"lacency'arrogance or naivety. Indeed' these were "resent. ohn of andunarticulated the com"lacent view succinctly? G1o one will ever +elieve itis actually "hysical.D


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et' there was more to this lack of fluster than naivety or com"lacency. ou see' the idea wasnDt e#actly new. Co"ernicus hadnDtinvented the heliocentric idea any more than Colum+us had invented theidea that the world was round. oth men were actually demonstrating thevalidity of ancient ideas which were already circulating in undergroundcircles. oth re"resent eru"tions in a "ot slowly +eginning to +oil. Thus'

+y %>// the times had +een changing for a very long time and' under asurface that seemed im"ervious to change' the medieval status uo wasalready +eginning to +u++le and +reak.

@ne reason for simmering change was the rediscovery of the +roader world all +ut forgotten in the long centuries of darkness. Theuniversities of the igh =iddle Ages were +uilt "rimarily to teach thelogic' science and law coming from new translations of !reek' 9omanand Ara+ works which had +een +rought in +y trade' fleeing refugees andca"tured =oorish li+raries. 1ot sur"risingly' the medieval +elief system

+egan to +u++le and churn as startling new ideas +egan to flow in.9ediscovering the world "roduced a "owerful interest in the study of classical literature. The study of such classics' called humane studies'flourished from the twelfth century on. This lead to an age of humanism

"re8dating the 9enaissance +ut echoing the same Gdiscovery of the worldand of manD that would mark the later age.

In a curious uirk of fate' first hand knowledge of AristotleDs fullrange of thinking stimulated an intellectual renaissance that wouldeventually end the Aristotelian Crystal S"heres system which had

+ecome calcified during centuries of isolation. GCalcifiedD is the word' of course. y the %2//s' the Catholic Church had +ecome the well8institutionaliBed ar+iter of truth and it took this role seriously.-urthermore' Church authorities held that knowledge came throughdivine revelation and they were ske"tical a+out sense data which theythought could mislead. Their main a""roach to knowledge was toe#"lain all things in terms of their "lace in the (esign. It was the worldof ScholasticismJ Thus' though it shocks the modern mind' there was noo+servation' analysis or search for causes. 9ather' to find the nature of athing' medieval scholars invaria+ly looked heavenward where' in thewords of one historian they Gwould lose themselves from the very start inmoral generalities and Scri"tural cases.D Aristotle' on the other hand' heldthat the human mind could attain truth a+out the natural universe +ylogic and reflection on sense e#"erience. e em"hasiBed natural law'curiosity and o"enness to thought F all of which stood in stark contrastwith the increasingly rigidified modes of medieval thought.

The new thinking was hard to su""ress' however' +ecause so muchof it was so very useful. y the % /s the rediscovery of Aristotelianma"s of the earth hel"ed generate the revolution in cartogra"hy thatwould lead to Colum+usD e#"edition to the 1ew ,orld. A new way of thinking a+out the world and its "lace in the universe +egan to take form.,riting during this "eriod' thinkers such as the !erman mathematician

1icolas had "ondered what a more o"en universe would +e like?

If the universe is infinite' then the Earth is not necessarily oreven "ossi+ly at its center. And if that is so' the Earth may well

+e circling the Sun. It is only the view"oint of the o+server as hestands on the Earth that makes him think it the center of theuniverse.

!reek science em"hasiBed logical thinking and o+servation and e#altedthe "ower of the reasoning and creative in uisitiveness over dogma andunchallenged authority. These were heady and dangerous ideas in a timewhen institutionaliBation had led to entrenched authority that was lessand less a""reciative of challenge. y %>// the intellectual e#"ansionwhich had +een growing in small circles met u" with the "rinting "ress;invented in the late % //s< and "a"er im"orted from China to create a

+oom in thinking. The change that started in the universities and smallintellectual circles s"read to an ever wider "u+lic as +ooks +ecameafforda+le and literacy s"read.


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,. (I0 CHAN0E+ 3AST AN' 3RESENT 3 Fro* Fe"dalis* to Ca italis*Intellectual em"owerment gained way "artly +ecause it hel"ed solve

"ractical "ro+lems like calendars and cannon+all flight. Still' ig Changewas also aided +y a growing "ush toward social em"owerment comingfrom a com"letely different direction.

-eudal theory was +reaking under the strain of an increasinglycom"le# society. -eudalism had +een meant for the time of +astionswhen survival de"ended on mutual su""ort in the organic communityand +ond to the liege lord. In that time Christian hatred of money andlaws against interest and +anking worked well +ecause money was notnecessary. Increasing trade went against all this. 1o+les' clergy andfinally even commoners +egan to develo" a taste for something +etter

than could +e made +y local "easants. This created an incentive to "roduce sur"lus goods that could +e used in e#change. It also created anincentive for the return of money which had +een all +ut a+sent in feudalsociety. As s"ecialiBed "roducts +ecame more valua+le' a morecom"licated commoner class +egan to emerge. The sim"le world of

"riests' knights and "easants +ecame com"licated with merchants's"ecialiBed craftsmen in guilds and new "rofessionals such as doctorsand lawyers coming out of the universities. 1one of this fit in theoriginal "lan.

ut' then' the "lan had changed too. -eudal society was no longer amutual su""ort system +ased on social contracts and organic wholes' +uta sim"le classist society' fi#ed +y +irth and with conflicting interestsamong the classes. The golden theory of !odDs (esign was nowtarnished and dark.

The theory still guided institutions' however' so the money 8e#change economy grew like a tumor hidden inside the still8dominantfeudal "attern of life. It was the incu+ation of +a+y ca"italismJ In the

+eginning enter"rising "easants used money from sur"luses and

s"ecialties to "urchase freedoms from their lords. 1o+les who wanted tomake money' sold them charters for li+erties for free communes.-reemen living in free towns emerged.

y the %3//s' however' +a+y ca"italism was +eginning to reveal allthe ugly sides that we think of today. 1o+les often sold mills and other means of "roduction to get more money for war. ourgeois owners whocontrolled the tools of "roduction emerged and +egan to e#"loit their

+rethren. The guild of masters' ourneymen and a""rentices' once united +y a common craft' slowly s"read a"art into owners and hired handsdivided +y class hatred. @wners develo"ed into a "atrician class whichtook control of town government. They then used their "ositions tofurther their own interests. They favored each other in governing grou"sand set ta#es that fell most heavily on the "oor.

The (irth o! the Nation>StateAccording to medieval theory the lord should have res"onded to sucho""ressions +y ordering the necessary reform' for in A uinasD words?G)rinces are instituted +y !od' not to seek their own gain' +ut thecommon good of the "eo"le.D ut this "rincely theory' too' corres"ondedless and less to reality. The ruling class was +uilt on what Tuchman callsGthe ha+it of violence. D The knightDs reason for e#istence was the gloryof com+at. Unfortunately' the no+ility of com+at ustified endless "rivatewars +etween no+les in8 and outside a monarchy long after the waves of infidels and invaders tailed off.

Chivalry' however' made an odd kind of war. Chivalry +ound allChristian knights into a transnational +rotherhood. ence the goal of fighting each other was not killing er se or even the ac uisition of land'

+ut demonstration of "rowess and su"eriority. Thus' the +est way toconduct a Christian8against8Christian war was to ca"ture o""osingno+les and then allow their su+ ects to ransom them +ack. ;9emem+er the legends of 9o+in ood where ing ohn +leeds the "easants for ing9ichardDs ransomH< The other way to conduct cam"aigns was to ruinoneDs o""onent +y destroying his means which largely meant killing or maiming his "easants. Either way' the cost of war fell more and more


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dis"ro"ortionately on the "easants and a""eared less and less a service tothem.

The growing taste for finer things "lus the increasing cost of war ;horses' retainers' +astions' armaments' etc.< also meant that no+les feltan increasing need for money. Selling charters to serfs and raising their ta#es hel"ed some' +ut des"ite the Christian anathema against money'war +ecame more and more of a +usiness. 9ansoms "roduced income. So


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myths. owever' as Christianity +ecame dominant' success +redinstitutionaliBation' "articularly in 9ome. As various )o"es struggled tocentraliBe clerical "ower in 9ome' "luralism +ecame less tolera+le' evenamong Christians. Control +ecame a ma or issue and the term GCatholicDmeaning Gone' true' universalD +elief' emerged to distinguish theincreasingly centraliBed and tightly controlled version of Christianityfrom the many variants that still e#isted.

So' not too sur"risingly' the righteous killing of heretics +ecame acom"le# +lend of cleric and "olitical "ur"oses F as in the case of the

+urning of oan of Arc. Thus' though many clerics tried to reform theChurch' eventually the main 9oman strategy was to classify o+ ectors asheretics and invoke their e#termination in the name of righteousness. Themost horrific e#am"le of this took "lace in the ruthless e#termination of the Cathar Christians in the south of -rance. The Cathars ;meaning Gthe

"ureD< "reached a +ack8to8+asics kind of Christianity which took rootreadily in "laces where a+uses of "ower among the Catholic clergy werecommon. After several attem"ts to restore Catholic control' )o"eInnocent III declared the Cathars heretics and called a crusade againstthem which drenched the south of -rance in +loodshed' essentiallyde"o"ulating the "rovince of 4anguedoc. (uring the massacre of thecitiBens of eBiers' when a soldier suggested that many good Catholicslived within' the +isho" is said to have re"lied' G ill them all. !od willknow his own.D

The killing of heretics also +ecame more and more of a +usiness.Since "urification often re uired investigating large num+ers' an efficientecclesiastical organiBation was needed. So the mass destruction of theCathars' the ,aldensians and other re+ellious Christian grou"s also ledto the develo"ment of the In uisition. @ften fully +elieving in the honor of their task' In uisitors "roduced a fanaticism toward heretics that ledthem to violate the ChurchDs own rules a+out torture' voluntaryconfession and surrender to the secular government. The torture and

+urning of heretics' common throughout the =iddle Ages' reached newlevels +y the late fourteenth century. -anaticism com+ined with "oliticaland even "ersonal motives led to a weakening sense of religiousshe"herds guiding men to salvation and a clearer image of enforcers of a+solute authority who destroyed anyone who dissented.

G,hether'D as Tuchman "ut it' Gtheir "retensions to +e men of !odmade their sins more distur+ing or +ecause "laying on their "arishionersDfear of hell made their treachery "articularly vicious' the "easantDs senseof +etrayal +y the clergy was "articularly shar".D y the mid8%3//s anti8clericalism was rising and s"oradic attacks on clerics +urst out. Scornedyet feared +ecause as Tuchman says' Gthey might' after all' have the keyto salvation'D the relationshi" +etween "riest and "easant class changed.

Cr"*#ling and E*erging Theory and fa+ric were +oth +eginning to fail. )easant revolts against the

+etrayal of the no+les and clergy occurred s"oradically throughout thelate =iddle Ages. ut the fourteenth century added the ultimate insult tothe now well tarnished theory of an organic whole under !odDs (esign.The undred ear ,ar occurred in this century as did severaldevastating famines. Carnage "roduced +y +rigandage was at an all8timehigh. Then human destruction met its match. In %3 08>/ and %35*80/'two out+reaks of the lack (eath killed half the "o"ulation. oung' old'rich' "oor' righteous and wicked F all died and the second out+urstseemed "articularly aimed at children.

As one historian "ut it? G Survivors of the "lague' findingthemselves neither destroyed nor im"roved could discover no (ivine

"ur"ose in the "ain they had suffered. This scourge had +een too terri+leto +e acce"ted without uestioning.D -altering under the +urden of

"lague' famine and war' the flowering of the "revious two centuriescrum+led and Euro"e fell into a "rofound stu"or.

The medieval world view shifted with a olt. Among other things'!od changed. efore the lack (eath' !od was mysterious +ut largely

+enevolentR after the lack (eath' e was increasingly "ictured as a


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udgmental vengeful !od. This shift +egan the move to the idea that !odstood outside' set the world in motion and then left humanity alone tofigure it out. )eo"le +ecame more and more "reoccu"ied with how toavoid is wrath +y learning what is right. As a result' they +ecame moreinterested in education and in the control of themselves and their world.A small current +egan.

@n the other hand' so many "easants had died that the value of la+orers increased. )easants gained some status. y the early % //s' the

"lagueDs survivors were savoring the oy of having survived usingmoney inherited from those who had died. y the late % //s towns andcommerce were reviving and a new sense of the world was emerging.These "eo"le were much less likely to view the material world as asoulful so ourn to the ne#t. 4ife was to +e lived. The time was ri"e for a9enaissance which em"hasiBed learning' life in the here8and8now' andcontrol of the world though rational understanding.

Re#irth,hether the "eo"le of the 9enaissance ;roughly % >/8%5//< wereactually different from medieval man is an issue historians de+ateendlessly. ut regardless of what historians think' it is clear that9enaissance "eo"le saw themselves as different. It was 9enaissanceItalians who invented the term G(ark AgesD and the idea that the

+ar+arian invasions and the end of 9ome +rought on a trance of athousand years. @ccu"ying the most central

Documents

After the clockwork universe.docx