Indeed part of the crisis of spirit is because modern society and industry tends to perceive the Earth as a set of resources, and values it as such. The ecological, social and economic crisis now upon us is as much a crisis of spirit as it is a crisis of resources. Conversely it is also what underwrites the parallel dysfunction and destruction of our social and ecological systems. It is arguably this sense of separation that has enabled society to capitalise on the fruits of science, industry and global economics. Other major transformations in rapid industrialisation and urbanisation continued to reinforce a sense of separation between society and nature, human and non-human worlds, lived-in lands and pristine Edens. Interestingly these events were both profoundly liberating for human societies, but also enormously disenchanting. Man powerfully became an external actor disconnected from the very fabric of the natural systems to which he had previously been a part. The social and scientific revolutions in modern, early modern and even ancient ages have left their legacies with the modern mind and ultimately the ‘stories’ it unwittingly defaults to.įor example the early modern period, in the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, saw major revelations in scientific discovery and philosophy from Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Descartes, and Darwin, which greatly influenced the modern western view of the human in the wider cosmos and universe. If these stories are taken for granted and never questioned then they tend to be reproduced over and over again. Human science disciplines over the past four decades have been preoccupied with the way these concepts, values and practices shape how we see ourselves in the world and the stories we tell ourselves. ‘A paradigm can be thought of as a constellation of concepts, values, perceptions and practices shared by a community, which forms a particular vision of reality’ – Fritjof Capra The way we relate with ourselves, each other and the world around us is metamorphosing in front of our very eyes.
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