The Cycle of Life:
An History of Experimental Ecology

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Case 2

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Human Energy (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, Inc., 1969), pp. 116-119.

In Human Energy, Teilhard de Chardin applies Vernadsky's concepts of the biosphere and "living matter' to human consciousness. It may be possible to quantify "total human energy", which "is created at every moment by the sum of all energies accumulated on the earth's surface." It is much more difficult, however, to measure "spiritual energy." He mused that even if science could measure the "power released during psychic events, it would not encompass "the breadth and riches of the world of ideas." The noosphere is "the mass of consciousness that exists in fundamental connection in the living world." A few observers who posses the "special quality and training" may perceive the natural psychic unity higher than our souls. This can lead to "the discovery of a deep cosmic sense in connections. Thus, "the noosphere, the world of thought, floats above the biosphere, whose layers gradually merge into it, and begins to let its crown shine."

Case 1
  William Paley, Natural Theology, 1794
  Carl Linnaeus, Nemesis Divina, 1758
  George Gregory, The Economy of Nature, 1804
Case 2
  Vladimir Vernadsky, Biosphere and Noosphere, 1939
  Pierre Teilard de Chardin, Human Energy, 1969
  Pierre Teilard de Chardin, The Heart of Matter, 1978
 Case 3
  John Neale Dalton, The Book of Common Prayer, 1920
  Joan Halifax, The Fruitful Darkness, 1993
  Hans Dirk van Hoogstraten, Deep Economy, 2001
  Lynn Margulis and Dorian Sagan, The Garden of
Microbial Delights
, 1993
  Nina Witoszek and Andrew Brennan, eds., Philosophical Dialogues, 1999
  Roger S. Gottlieb, ed., This
Sacred Earth
, 2004
 
Lloyd Ackert
Whitney Humanities Center
Yale University
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P.O. Box 208298
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Office: (203).432.3112

lloydackert@sbcglobal.net

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