Cosmic harmony, the emergence of life and of human consciousness

Mamuka Dolidze

pp. 141-151

in: William S. Smith, Jadwiga Smith, Daniela Verducci (eds), Eco-Phenomenology, Berlin, Springer, 2018

Abstract

The order and yet contingency found in the universe present a puzzle. The work presented here is devoted to the problem of cosmic harmony. It is through modern phenomenology that we can hope to capture the elusive source of harmony, the coincidence of sense and existence. A process of sense formation saturates the whole universe. A quantum-phenomenological explanation of the extension of the galaxies without reference to the Big Bang theory is to be posited. The miracles of life and of our vital-spiritual harmony are key to apprehending something of this explanation made from another perspective. Nietzsche's philosophy is to be appreciated for its rejection of determinism and celebration of the freedom inherent in life's unfolding. Tymieniecka's phenomenology of life links the advancing self-individualization of life to the Logos that informs this creative development. She saw in the phenomenon of achievement, scientific, artistic, etc. a sign that agency is involved in the will driving the ontopoiesis of life. But there is a playfulness in the flow of life's stream that resists objectification. The telos of all is not ours to impose, and a sense of that opens us to the higher realm.

Cited authors

Nietzsche Friedrich