Emergence of Man in the 20th Century
By Greg Moses
February, 2001
NOTE: Audio clips not yet imported.
In this lecture at Manhattanville College on March 24, 1964, Pollock argues that an evolutionary view of consciousness would help us to see how humanity in the 20th century is emerging into a new era of awareness, with particular results for moral life.
For Pollock, history itself should be read as the emergence of man, “seeking to make himself a living presence to himself.” Humanity cannot settle down: there are no ceilings on human consciousness as we seek to expand into infinity and formlessness.
In the following audio clip, Pollock declares that rationality is the least interesting feature of humanity:
CLIP #1: “Rational animal is a post-mortem statement . . . it is a post-mortem statement”
Pollock goes on to argue that, “the problematic of man is to abandon form and go in search of new forms.” He explains that when he speaks of consciousness, he is not speaking about a “style of response” that can be reduced to conceptualization.
In the following audio clip, Pollock suggests that the history of philosophy is not sufficiently treated as a history of consciousness and therefore fails to attract appropriate interest:
CLIP #2: “Ideas are helpful of course . . . even a pig wouldn’t access it! (laughter)”
In a brief reference to Greek philosophy, Pollock next argues how Socrates was an early emergence of human as citizen and therefore as personality. As Socrates explored and exemplified a newly emerging humanity, so are we challenged today.
In the following audio clip, Pollock argues that an evolutionary view of consciousness means that reality must be “made present” because it is not “ready-made.”
CLIP #3: “Experience is not ready made . . . reality has to be made present”
Interiority is therefore also a process that pursues engagement with newly-revealed reality. This applies to the experience of Mallory and Everest. As the mountain announces a moral imperative to climb it, so does the 20th Century’s engagement with matter also announce what Teilhard called the “sublime possibilities of matter.”
In the following audio clip, Pollock argues that matter cannot be severed from value:
CLLIP #4: “To discover matter is to discover value . . . the more it is present, the more it resounds”
Two consequences follow from this view. First, there is an infinitude of meanings, and second, there is an evolution of value consciousness or symbolic consciousness.
We can see four examples of a new symbolic consciousness: (1) non-Euclidean geometry, (2) quantum physics, (3) modern industry, and (4) non-objective art.
These examples show how our emerging consciousness is, in the words of Nietzsche, more Dionysian than Apollonian:
In the following audio clip, Pollock argues that the rational life is so outdated as to have become suicidal:
CLIP#5: “Rationality is what you know . . . new insight into possibilities”
In the following audio clip, Pollock elaborates and moves toward conclusion, arguing that moral life has emerged into a new age of ethics:
CLIP #6: “Let me say then finally . . . against the human spirit!”
Pollock argues that the new moral consciousness is what makes Gandhi possible. If Gandhi had appeared even one hundred years earlier, he could not have succeeded.
In the following audio clip, Pollock argues that in 1964 humanity is living out a brand new engagement with the possibilities of moral force:
CLIP #7: “Who’s not up in arms today . . . on the same principle”
With the emergence of humanity in the 20th Century pacifism is possible as never before.
In the following audio clip, Pollock concludes with remarks about the new moral force:
CLIP #8: “A thousand arguments shattered . . . forcible and rational (applause)”