As the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origins of Species take place this year, it is easy to overlook the fact that 2009 also marks the 100th anniversary of Sri Aurobindo's first major text on evolution and consciousness. In Process and Evolution and Yoga and Human Evolution (1909) Sri Aurobindo begins to comprehensively articulate his vision of human evolution. Just as Darwin's book became the foundation for a science of evolution, what has been called evolutionary spirituality can be traced back to Sri Aurobindo's work. Many are acknowledging this bi-centennial year of Darwin's birth with a reassessment of his work in light of what we now know about evolution it therefore, also seems to be a good time to reassess Sri Aurobindo's vision of human evolution in terms of our contemporary understanding of the phenomena......

Even though his view of history is essentially cyclic he starts his consideration of evolution by writing in Yoga and Human Evolution (1909) the following:

“Whether we take the modern scientific or the ancient Hindu standpoint the progress of humanity is a fact” (Aurobindo)

However, by the early1940s when he is revising the last chapters of The Life Divine he writes:

“the idea of human progress itself is very probably an illusion, for there is no sign that man, once emerged from the animal stage, has radically progressed during his race-history; at most he has advanced in knowledge of the physical world, in Science, in the handling of his surroundings, in his purely external and utilitarian use of the secret laws of Nature “ (Aurobindo 1949 p832)....

There are six sections in this paper:

I) Why Sri Aurobindo would not believe in Intelligent Design
2) Darwinian Fundamentalism: reductionism, pluralism, play
3) Anticipating Science & Society
4) Complexity and the Dialectics of the Visible and Invisible
5) The Illusion of Human Progress and the Ideal of Human Unity
6) The Dialectics of Biology and Culture: science, ecology & economics    more »

While the purpose Sri Aurobindo gives to evolution lends it directionality and transcendence. The fact that he presents a teleology as central to his views does not necessarily mean that his perspective squares with the contemporary theory known as Intelligent Design. Sri Aurobindo's teleology does not square with the fundamentalist view of the religions in the Abrahamic tradition, all of whom have found a common cause in the ideology of intelligent design, and who dismiss evolutionary biology because they find it threatening to their faith....

So called scientific theories of intelligent design often simply present a facade for creationist teaching. Although some Christian organizations have called on scientist not affiliated with their religious faith to discount evolutionary biology these scientist certainly represent a minority view in the scientific community at large. For instance, the faith based Discovery Institute, who is on the forefront of arguing that creationism be taught in American public school, has chosen to employ several scientist, some of whom claim to be atheist, to argue in support of their position...

While Sri Aurobindo does not buy into its materialist reduction of life, and openly voices his objection to the chauvinism of science, he does keep open the possibility that certain Darwinian mechanisms such as natural selection are at work in evolution, even if they can not by themselves fully account for it. While acknowledging the limitations of science he certainly does not seem to find its theories that diverge from his own threatening rather, he contextualizes them in accordance with his own integral comprehension of the world. In the following passage in his essay on Materialism (1915) he defers to science by referencing a religious text:.....

“we have not to hide our face from it any more than could Arjuna from the terrible figure of the Divine on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, or attempt to escape and evade it as Shiva, when there rose around him the many stupendous forms of the original Energy, fled from the vision of it to this and that quarter, forgetful of his own godhead. We must look existence in the face in whatever aspect it confronts us and be strong to find within as well as behind it the Divine.

Materialistic science had the courage to look at this universal truth with level eyes, to accept it calmly as a starting point and to inquire whether it was not after all the whole formula of universal being. Physical science must necessarily to its own first view be materialistic, because so long as it deals with the physical, it has for its own truth's sake to be physical both in its standpoint and method”    more »

One thing that can be said non-metaphorically about that the way Sri Aurobindo practiced yoga was that it was scientific. The perfection of his sadhana was a feat that required experimentation and one in which he sought demonstrable results. It should reasonably follow that his perspective on science would be one in which its truth claims were open to critical interrogation, just as were his experiments in yoga.

Given his penetrating intellectual insights into cultural change, his understanding of history as both progressive and cyclic, his multivocal criticisms of society, his integrative encounter with other voices and texts, his ability to effortlessly traverse the subjectivities of Europe and India and to transit freely between both ancient and modern zeitgeists, it seems reasonable to assume that he would size up science with a critical gaze....

Sri Aurobindo's project can be said to be a valiant attempt to find ways to integrate various levels of understanding and seemingly incommensurable experiences by respecting each ones particular articulation of truth while simultaneously harmonizing their unique claims to truth. But he also seems to have anticipated several recent scientific claims on the role punctuated equilibrium, symbiosis, complexity and emergence play in evolution as well as to have held perspectives that most social theorist share today. These social theories dismiss positivist arguments for reductive epistemology and highlight how biology can be used as an ideological tool. Additionally, early on at a time it was still popular, Sri Aurobindo discounted the more extreme implications of Spencer's Social Darwinism “survival of the fittest” strategy and clearly was repelled by the social engineering program of eugenics.....    more »

The Vatican's chief astronomer said Friday that "intelligent design" isn't science and doesn't belong in science classrooms, the latest high-ranking Roman Catholic official to enter the evolution debate in the United States. The Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said placing intelligent design theory alongside that of evolution in school programs was "wrong" and was akin to mixing apples with oranges. ...   more »

Scientists, this is a call to action. But also one to inaction. Why am I the messenger? Because my years of scientific research have made me a renowned expert on my topic: God. Just kidding. You'll soon see what I mean...   more »

Thanks so much for your edifying response (below) to my question. Per your
recommendation, I'll read the *Life Divine* chapter on "Ascent and
Integration" asap. ...
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Interesting post. I've wondered the same thing about ID myself, but have not read anything in depth about the theory. On the face of it, Sri Aurobindo's cosmology is a kind of "intelligent design," isn't it? Perhaps way more intelligent than the ID theories. But then, I don't know their theories. ...    more »

... The mind is trying to explain a level or magnitude/complexity of reality that is beyond its grasp. So science has its convenient reductions as does religion. The reality itself is however beyond mind, and not just present temporal mind, but mind period. The new paradigm in physics and biology is therefore becoming more holistic, chaotic, mystical. "Intelligent design" is a kind of metaphorical mental phrase that describes more than it can explain about a mental perception of the nature of physical existence as human consciousness conceives it. It is no more or less "abstract conceptual" than "random mutation" or "natural selection." As SA said, these phrases don't really explain anything. So, along with SA we should seek an "adequate" explanation of the processes of nature. It is more than intelligent design and more than chance, it is the "logic of the infinite." ...    more »

Could you say some more about your point #2: "defining and elaborating the relationship between design and process and its 'more than intelligent' nature?" How could this be expressed in a way that would make sense to IY & ID people, and hopefully even some scientists? ...    more »

"Synchronistically", we could say, or maybe 'Intelligently', I received this cartoon from my sister in the Bay Area the same day as Ron's query about Intelligent Design. So I pass it along, as an example of the way it is viewed by the progressive element in US society. ______________ {Fun Cartoon - copy it if possible, from postaum2005 list}   more »

Perhaps we could distinguish our position by 1) helping to clarify the difference between creationism and intelligent design thories; and 2) by defining and elaborating the relationship between design and process and its "more than intelligent" nature.    more »

But reading the points listed on the Discovery website, it really does seem that, minus the reactive vituperation of the scientific community, ID actually looks quite compatible and relatively non-conflictive with the IY involution/evolutionary Evolution of Consciousness. Again from my untrained eye, it would seem a fruitful avenue for building bridges. ...   more »

I've just been looking over the website of "The Discovery Institute." Located in Seattle, Washington, USA, they're the main promoters of "the theory of intelligent design" (ID) which they call an alternative to the "neo-Darwinist theory of evolution." They're an activist organization which has been getting a lot of attention in the news lately because of their drive to be included in public school biology classes.

I'm curious about how we (followers of IY) could easily differentiate ourselves from ID. Not knowing much about the details of their approach, other than a brief look at their website, it seems to me that we may risk being thrown into the category of ID by mainstream scientists who consider it merely a front for Creationism. ...   more »