5. The Pattern
Of Universal History
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Universal History
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| 5.8.1 Universal History as Eonic Sequence | ||||
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As we surveyed world history to resolve our suspicions about our mysterious drumbeat our hunch about a sequence has been easily confirmed, although our basically forensic argument is attempting to find this sequence from two, most probably three beats. We want to freeze the argument here, as the eonic effect, and yet keep the enquiry open, as a frequency hypothesis. The overall logic is clear, and confirmed to the degree we can zoom in. The point is merely to distinguish a theory of the evidence from a theory about the evidence. We have a core pattern, the eonic effect, and a frequency hypothesis. We can summarize our basic concepts once again. Our eonic sequence , probably starting in the Neolithic, but first visible at the birth of civilization. A parallel evolution at some but not all of the intermittent steps, e.g. the Axial Age. We see the parallel effect also in the synchronous phase of Sumer and Egypt. A stream and sequence effect, which creates what we call ‘eonic transitions’ at each of the steps. The stepping transitions show an acorn or frontier effect, that is, each new advance starts in a new area, but one in the vicinity of the old areas of advance. Archaic Greece, and ‘Israel/Judah’ are perfect examples. The areas of transition generate fields of sequential dependency, as the new advances spread by diffusion into their immediate exterior creating an oikoumene. We have already developed a number of accessory concepts on the way. This system matches up with our simplified evolutionary psychology of self-consciousness, and the ideas of ‘eonic determination’ and ‘free action’. One interpretation as an ‘evolution of freedom’. We must remember our relationship to this system in our present, and that is that we are outside the last transition. Since we are saying that the third turning point is the rise of the modern, we are inside its diffusion field and sequentially dependent on that. We must be sure to define our system as non-predictive to preempt Oedipus Effects of theory. But our model will do that automatically as the last transition switches off (in what we call a divide) and our ‘free activity’ comes to the fore. Armed with this kind of model we see the clear difference between teleology and directionality. The latter is all we can detect. Teleological philosophies are themselves eonic emergents. This resolution of the eonic effect is simple yet we can hardly grasp such a result, and its exact operation defies our methods. But we can simply describe it. |
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