Author: Paul Gosselin Publisher: Samizdat
xiii - 566 pages with Foreword, Index, Bibliography and Notes ISBN: 978-2-9807774-4-8 Publication date: 2013 Size: 5.5 X 8.5 inches Sold through: Amazon.com
Paul Gosselin is an independent researcher specializing in
ideologies, belief systems and religions. He holds a Masters in
Social Anthropology and is the author of Hors
du ghetto (on culture and the arts), has done years of investigation
into post- modernism. He has lived in Nova Scotia, California, Vancouver
Island and currently resides in Quebec.
Flight From the Absolute
Cynical Observations on the Postmodern West.
Volume II
Flight From the Absolute Volume II pursues the study (initiated
in volume I) of postmodernism's
ethical implications and examines issues such as euthanasia (now
massively promoted in the postmodern West) and the fate reserved
by postmoderns for those with disabilities, those deemed to be
leading "unproductive lives". A mercy killing case,
that of the Canadian farmer Robert Latimer who killed his daughter
Tracy suffering from cerebral palsy, is considered.
Subsequent chapters shift their focus and address a fundamental
question: Can a society function without myths, particularly origins
myths? This is a critical issue for modern Western civilization
as our elites often assert they have "dispensed with"
myth and religion. That said, Social Anthropology points out that
origins myths play an extraordinarily important and central role
in the development of any culture or civilization.
This work takes on a fundamental issue, that is the deconstruction of the materialist cosmology, which is shared by the modern and postmodern belief systems. Flight From the Absolute volume 2 offers a hard-hitting and provocative look at a cultural monument that many consider untouchable, that is Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. For this purpose, data from both Social Anthropology as well as Philosophy of science are examined. This deconstruction process leads to a review of claims made by heirs of the Enlightenment and will dissect the fundamental question of science's limitations as well as the censorship which may be used against academic cosmological perspectives that are deemed "unorthodox."
Flight volume II thus examines the theory of evolution both from the perspective of Social Anthropology and Philosophy of Science which exposes multiple social and ideologico-religious roles played by Darwin's theory. Inevitably, such a perspective maybe viewed as "subversive" by some as it involves a fundamental deconstruction of Enlightenment dogma about Truth and the hierarchy of knowledge.
As the reader works his way through this text he will encounter the American novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Austrian philosopher Karl Popper, Tracy Latimer, Charles Darwin, the Council of Europe, microbiologist Richard Lenski, French paleoanthropologist Anne Dambricourt-Malassé, mythology specialist Mircea Eliade, palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould, zoologist Pierre-Paul Grasse, Franco-Polish anthropologist Stoczkowski Wictor, Canadian philosopher of science Michael Ruse, biologist Ernst Mayr, Mary Midgely, French phylogeneticist Guillaume Lecointre, Julian Huxley, Physics Nobel Prize winner Robert Laughlin and many others.
1 / Phantom Ethics Ethical Animals
Drafting the New Catechism
Voices From Under the Rubble
Flight From the Real, Take Two
2 / Essentials
Can We Talk?
A Weary Cosmology
Ruts in the Mind
Beyond “Common Sense”
Development and Birth
3 / Origin of Modern Man Elements of Comparison
Trespassing the Critical Threshold
Gut Reactions
Once Upon a Time…
The Quest for Deep Time
4 / The Peter Pan Effect Overcoming One’s Hang-ups
Indicators of Cultural Penetration
Beyond the Ethnocentric View
Establishing the Cast of Characters
5 / The Quest For Sacred Aura Deconstructing a Mantra
A Matter of Method
Decrepit Fortress Walls
Lakatos and the Hard Core
An Origins Myth Adrift
Accelerated Spin
Kurt’s Ambivalence
6 / The Popper Affair Mea Culpa
An Outsider Above Suspicion
Evasive Action
Mythologics
The Inquisition Gets a Makeover
Setting Up The Target
The French
7 / Conclusion
8 / Annexe: What is a "Creationist"?
9 / Bibliography
10 / The Origins Debate: A Bibliographic Overview
The Creationists
Creationist Science Journals
Intelligent Design
Independent Critics
