With the advent of the Golden Renaissance, a revolutionary new image of man emerged. It was based on the traditional Judeo-Christian notion that every man and woman is made in the unique image of God. However, during the European Medieval period, this conception was limited by the narrow doctrinal interpretations of scholasticism and the strictures of Aristotelian formalism. With the advent of the European Golden Renaissance, an epistemological shift in scientific thinking and method occurred. As a result, the Renaissance conception of man allowed Western civilization to further elaborate the natural implications of man made in the image of God i.e. imago viva dei and capax dei.
As the great Renaissance philosopher, cardinal, theologian and mathematician Nicholas of Cusa put it, man is a microcosm of the macrocosm. Contrary to the strictures of Aristotelian formalism and its law of no contradiction, Cusa defined the central function of the creative human intellect as being one capable of recognizing and resolving the coincidence of opposites—coincidentia oppositurum. The logical consequence was that the maximum (God) and the minimum (man), the microcosm and the macrocosm, the finite and the infinite, could be resolved on a higher epistemological plain.
No conception posed a greater historical threat to the reigning oligarchical system of Europe’s hereditary “blue bloods” than this particular idea. For, it allowed the basic Judeo-Christian notion of man as imago viva dei, and therefore capax dei i.e. a being with the capacity to unearth and further elaborate the laws governing Creation, to be developed in ways not admitted by medieval or scholastic methods. Such a feat was achieved by naturally unfolding the enfolded reality inherent in the seeds of Truth—seminas veritas—implied by the basic Judeo-Christian notion of imago viva dei and capax dei. It allowed mankind to make a unique series of epistemological leaps in his understanding of the universe which were not conceivable from the standpoint of simple Aristotelian or scholastic logic—a method which Cusa called Learned Ignorance.
That knowledge of the Creator and his Creation could be directly attained and did not require the sanction of a gnostic “Elect,” a priesthood or “expert” class was rightly viewed by the reigning oligarchical forces of Europe as a mortal threat to their “traditional” system of control. That this was and continues to be the historic case was recognized by one of the most sophisticated brain trusts of the Western oligarchical establishment: the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). As the SRI identified in their pivotal 1970s “Changing Images of Man” project led by futurist Willis Harman, the fundamental shift that made the vast increase in population across the Western world possible was the revolution in scientific method and investigation stemming from the unique Renaissance conception of man:
In contrast to the Greek notion of “man,” the Judeo-Christian view holds that “man” is essentially separate from the rightful master over nature. This view inspired a sharp rate of increase in technological advances in Western Europe throughout the Medieval period. On the other hand, the severe limitations of scholastic methodology, and the restrictive views of the Church, prevented the formulation of an adequate scientific paradigm. It was not until the Renaissance brought a new climate of individualism and free inquiry that the necessary conditions for a new paradigm were provided. With the advent of the Golden Renaissance, a revolutionary new image of man emerged. It was based on the traditional Judeo-Christian notion that every man and woman is made in the unique image of God. However, during the European Medieval period, this conception was limited by the narrow doctrinal interpretations of scholasticism and the strictures of Aristotelian formalism. With the advent of the European Golden Renaissance, an epistemological shift in scientific thinking and method occurred. As a result, the Renaissance conception of man allowed Western civilization to further elaborate the natural implications of man made in the image of God i.e. imago viva dei and capax dei.
As the great Renaissance philosopher, cardinal, theologian and mathematician Nicholas of Cusa put it, man is a microcosm of the macrocosm. Contrary to the strictures of Aristotelian formalism and its law of no contradiction, Cusa defined the central function of the creative human intellect as being one capable of recognizing and resolving the coincidence of opposites—coincidentia oppositurum. The logical consequence was that the maximum (God) and the minimum (man), the microcosm and the macrocosm, the finite and the infinite, could be resolved on a higher epistemological plain.
No conception posed a greater historical threat to the reigning oligarchical system of Europe’s hereditary “blue bloods” than this particular idea. For, it allowed the basic Judeo-Christian notion of man as imago viva dei, and therefore capax dei i.e. a being with the capacity to unearth and further elaborate the laws governing Creation, to be developed in ways not admitted by medieval or scholastic methods. Such a feat was achieved by naturally unfolding the enfolded reality inherent in the seeds of Truth—seminas veritas—implied by the basic Judeo-Christian notion of imago viva dei and capax dei. It allowed mankind to make a unique series of epistemological leaps in his understanding of the universe which were not conceivable from the standpoint of simple Aristotelian or scholastic logic—a method which Cusa called Learned Ignorance.
That knowledge of the Creator and his Creation could be directly attained and did not require the sanction of a gnostic “Elect,” a priesthood or “expert” class was rightly viewed by the reigning oligarchical forces of Europe as a mortal threat to their “traditional” system of control. That this was and continues to be the historic case was recognized by one of the most sophisticated brain trusts of the Western oligarchical establishment: the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). As the SRI identified in their pivotal 1970s “Changing Images of Man” project led by futurist Willis Harman, the fundamental shift that made the vast increase in population across the Western world possible was the revolution in scientific method and investigation stemming from the unique Renaissance conception of man:
In contrast to the Greek notion of “man,” the Judeo-Christian view holds that “man” is essentially separate from the rightful master over nature. This view inspired a sharp rate of increase in technological advances in Western Europe throughout the Medieval period. On the other hand, the severe limitations of scholastic methodology, and the restrictive views of the Church, prevented the formulation of an adequate scientific paradigm. It was not until the Renaissance brought a new climate of individualism and free inquiry that the necessary conditions for a new paradigm were provided. Interestingly, the Renaissance scholars turned to the Greeks to rediscover the empirical method. The Greeks possessed an objective science of things "out there," which D. Campbell (1959) terms the “epistemology of the other.” This was the basic notion that nature was governed by laws and principles which could be discovered, and it was this that the Renaissance scholars then developed into science as we have come to know it.
Not surprisingly, the SRI is the same institution behind the “Limits to Growth” computer modelling which forecasted mass resource shortages and a “population bomb” if mankind did not return to a more “sustainable” pre-industrial mode of existence i.e. feudalism. This SRI approach defined the standard for all doomsday modeling used to shape policy-making across the West. From forecasting wildly overblown death predictions to biblical floods and fires due to the sins of industrial society and technological progress, this approach has been used to justify virtually all radical policy shifts dictated by Western governments under the guise of “science”—despite being repeatedly proven wrong.
Over 600 years later, the efforts to eradicate the Renaissance image of man continue and are currently arriving at a new critical juncture. With nearly 100 years of research dedicated to repatterning human beings and their basic self image—typified by MK-Ultra and its many spin-offs programs—knowing mankind’s actual story and the historical battle over the “images of man” has never been more crucial or timely.
In this respect, Aldous Huxley’s final novel, Island—written 30 years after Brave New World—presents a vision of society modelled after a global village of sorts. Citizens on the imaginary island of Pala have rejected a “modern” industrialized consumer society. Instead, they keep busy through the practice of tantric sex rituals, pseudo-religious relaxation methods disguised as meditation, and mystical experiences delivered in the form of a psychedelic “truth and beauty pill” called moksha. Through moksha, the citizens of Pala are liberated and finally free to realize their full self-actualized self.
In this extended and wide-ranging discussion, we examine the parallels between Huxley’s final utopian vision and today’s efforts to reframe the Western “image of man.” Join us as we explore a curious world in which man has been tricked into willfully relinquishing the Promethean fire and attained his final liberation.
The discussion is based on a recent article, "Escaping Huxley's Island: Psychdelics, Scientific Paganism and the Changing Images of Man."