Owen Barfield and the Evolution of Consciousness

* Article: Owen Barfield & the Evolution of Consciousness. By Max Leyf Treinen. Cosmos & History, Vol. 16 No. 1 (2020): Evolutionary Cosmology and Values

URL = https://cosmosandhistory.org/index.php/journal/article/view/837/1472

Context

Michel Bauwens:

I do believe there is such a thing as an external world, but it is only accessible to us through our consciousness, and there is a participatory relation between the world as experienced through phenomena, and how we shape it through our framings. Thus, when studying the broader macrohistory, I think we should distinguish three levels:

• The level of material reality, climate, territory, ecology, in which humanity needs to live

• The collective response to the challenges posed by this and how we in turn shape it

• But also just as crucial: how our consciousness filters what we perceive, and structures it, which in turn retroactively shapes both the material and the collective cultural world.

This third aspect is still very largely ignored in academia, but it is crucial, and so requires some effort. There are quite a few different schemes, which I have collected here at https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Category:Integral_Theory#Adult_Developmental_Theory,

I am told Michael Commons is the most recent synthesizers.

But a great introductory scheme is that of Owen Barfield, who simplifies this evolution to a trinity:

1. Original Participation, referring to magic and mythic forms of understanding the world
2. The Onlooker Consciousness of Modernity, which is creating a huge problem of separation
3. And, the ‘Final Participation’, to which we are evolving at this juncture.

This is explained in his book, Saving the Appearances.

Abstract

"That there exists a history of thoughts represents less a question to be decided by research than an operative hypothesis or condition to undertake the majority of philosophical, theological, and scientific research in the first place. Put another way, the history of thoughts is a theory by which facts and findings of research in various disciplines may be coherently and meaningfully interpreted. Beyond the postulate that it is possible to cogently articulate a history of thoughts, however, this article intends to set forth the theory that there exists a history of thought itself, and to show that this theory can shed new light on our experience and conception of the world today. The topic of the present article, therefore, will be the evolution of consciousness, especially as articulated by Owen Barfield."