3.1 Transition And Divide
Last modified 05/21/2008
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Our eonic model is of a particular type, what we can call a
discrete-continuous model, that is, a series of discrete transitions in the
middle of a continuous history. This approach resolves the discontinuity between
evolution and history as a series of such transitions, visible as finite
intervals as seen in the Axial Age. And these transitions, being short acting,
are characterized by a kind of 'divide' point at their conclusion: we can see
very clearly that the Axial period suddenly wanes and is over, even as a series
of realization processes come into being carrying out the implications of the
new evolutionary productions. Easier to see in the past, these simple properties
of the eonic sequence suddenly become visible by inspection as we examine the
third and so far last in our series of transitions, the rise of the modern
period. We must therefore keep in mind that our sense of modernity must
distinguish the modern transition from the realization period that ensues in its
wake. This property of our model finds an unexpected confirmation in the data of
modern history, and we can see the characteristic termination of the transition,
its divide, in the period after the Enlightenment, one of the most innovative
periods in world history, and one that sets the tone for the still young period
of realization that followed.
The point for us is to see that we have at hand a very close look, in the early modern, at the way in which a transition 'works', so to speak, but it is important to see that we are in fact outside the last of the transitions in our series. Thus our status as observers puts us beyond the eonic effect. This, in many ways, is inevitable: we couldn't observe the process if we were still inside it. And yet we inherit the manifold of emergent innovations that characterize our modern, rapidly globalizing, culture. This effect is very simply described with the concepts our model provides: the evolutionary process comes to stop and the historical process takes the helm: the macro factor subsides and the micro process, our free realizations of the eonic sequence, take effect. This offers us a new and beautifully elegant way to describe modern history, one that accounts for many of its puzzling characteristics, and missteps. |
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