It seems like development projects in the 70’s thought of themselves as Agent Smith showing up at the beginning of the Matrix where the local police are having trouble dealing with Trinity. The extent to which he thought he was … Continue reading Development: a Critique
Development as an enterprise will fail until it studies the inter-penetration of reason and faith, the same way that students who memorize by rote repetition will always be 2nd best to the genius who understands the essence of composing music. Just ask … Continue reading The Scientist Believer
1. I feel like science is that family that screams at each other all saturday night long waking up the whole neighborhood and then shows up to socialize at a local potluck pretending like nothings wrong and acting like no … Continue reading 5 Aphorisms on Science, Religion, and Development
Human nature has been misinterpreted. We are not selfish and competitive by nature, but rather, altruistic and cooperative. Human societies to some extent actually represent an anomaly in the competitive theory of the jungle. Humans demonstrate a detailed division of … Continue reading Economic Theory: Competition, the Key to Prosperity?
One fundamental feature of a development process that recognizes the material and spiritual requirements of social reality is capacity building. In fact, development can almost be seen as synonymous with building capacity. The people themselves are the protagonists of their … Continue reading Capacity Building
Humanity will mature as each member is allowed to contribute to its advancement. Every human being has talents and capacities, the development of which is the right and duty of the individual, and the creation of environments that foster this … Continue reading Trust and Nobility
Where does the concept progress come from? Who sets its parameters? What do we have to do to know we are achieving something worthwhile? Without thinking about these questions we end up thinking about progress in a way that does … Continue reading Definitions of Progress and Global Development
Ideals are wonderful as they are, but what really can we say are the practical implications for speaking or believing in a principle as lofty as the spiritual concept of ‘Justice’? Are its implications for social and economic development really as … Continue reading Defender of the Interests of All Humankind: Justice
The next point regarding our perspective of history is that there is purpose in creation; in other words, evolution is understood as a teleological process. Characterizing evolutionary processes with this word – meaning that it is directed by an intrinsic … Continue reading History of the World, Part 3
In previous posts, we read about various fragmented and incoherent conceptions of the individual and her or his relationship to society. We also looked at an example of the evolution of conceptions of the individual over a historical perspective. The … Continue reading History of the World, Part 1
Human beings have a two-fold moral purpose: to develop our own personal spiritual attributes (such as love, kindness, wisdom, generosity, and intelligence) as well as to contribute to the social and institutional progress of an ever-advancing civilization. Some strands of … Continue reading Twofold Transformation
achieving coherence 