By Christoph Quarch
Introduction:
What is human history? Is it the process of constant decline or is it the process of progressing evolution? – Where do we steer to? Do we steer to devasting apocalypse, or do we steer to a new age of advanced spirituality and conciousness? – How do we have to understand the present age? As one stair of a predestinated course of times – a function of universal law -, or as one of a million critical points – of crossroads where it is up to human deliberation and decision on where to go to?
Is there anyone to give an answer on these questions? I don't know. I hold that all we have is mythical interpretation of history: whether the christian myth of Heilsgeschichte, or the theological myth of the Education of Mankind (Lessing), or the philosophical myth of the Phaenomenolgy of Spirit (Hegel), or the diverse scientific myths of evolution. With Thomas Kuhn we may also call these myths paradigms of history – and there is good reason to assume, that human spirit is alowed to move throughout several of these paradigms. The most exciting paradigm, however, is the one which is discussed by this Symposium: the paradigm of – let's say – proceeding human conciousness, whose protagonists are among others Jean Gebser and Ken Wilber.
Thus perhaps I have to apologize for following another paradigm: a paradigm which might, however, be understood as a variation of the evolutionary paradigm of proceeding human conciousness, even though on the first glimpse it looks contrary. The paradigm I'm talking about is the ontological myth of Seins-Geschichte as unfolded by Martin Heidegger. What does this mean?
According to Heidegger on from its very beginning the train of European philosophy runs on the same rail called Seinsgeschichte. This rail was constructed by the first European thinkers such as Parmenides, Plato and Aristotle as they established the still powerful interpretation of being as Anwesenheit – presence. Now, this genuin European interpretation of being – Heidegger calls it metaphysics – in his opinion did not only predestinate the whole course of occidental science and spirit; according to Heidegger it is also due to this ancient greek interpretation of life and world and everything that actually our world seems to go astray.