The Future of Man [antikvár]

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE m Like every thinker exploring new fields of thought, Pere Teilhard de Chardin was faod by the problem of the limitations of language. He solved it, or got round it, in the way philosophers and scientists have always been obliged to do—^by the use of neologisms and, at times, of elaborate, allusive formulations of words which make considerable demands on the reader if their full meaning and implications are to be grasped. The difficulties confronting his translator need not be stressed. Limitations differ from language to language. There are things calling for laborious exposition in French, which can be said more clearly and simply in English; and the reverse is equally true. The problems have to be solved as best they can, often in an arbitrary way. I must cite one instance, which may otherwise puzzle the reader of this book. This is the word Reflection, which is also spelt Reflexion where the context seems to require it. In Teilhard's philosophy, to which it is vital, the word represents two distinct things, which, however, are so intimately connected as to be in effect different aspects of the same thing. Reflection is the power of conscious thought which distinguishes Man from all other living creatures (the animal that not only knows but knows that it knows). But the species Man also differs biologically, in Teilhard's view, from all other species (or phyla) in that, instead of spreading out fanwise, breaking into sub-species and falling eventually into stagnation, it coils inward upon itself and thus generates new (spiritual) energies and a new form of growth—a. process of Reflexion which is part and parcel of the phenomenon of Reflection. I have varied the spelling according to 9 I <