COLLECTION: A DAWN EMERGES

1.

THE TRILOGY: RELIGION - THE NEWEST TESTAMENT

2.

THE TRILOGY: PHILOSOPHY - THE METATHEORY OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

3.

THE TRILOGY: SCIENCE - ON ANALYTICAL-PHENOMENOLOGICAL-EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPY
VOLUME 1 - THE FUNDAMENTS

4.

THE TRILOGY: SCIENCE - ON ANALYTICAL-PHENOMENOLOGICAL-EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPY
VOLUME 2 - THE THEORY

5.

THE TRILOGY: SCIENCE - ON ANALYTICAL-PHENOMENOLOGICAL-EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPY
VOLUME 3 - THE TECHNIQUE

6.

THE TRILOGY: SCIENCE - ON ANALYTICAL-PHENOMENOLOGICAL-EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPY
VOLUME 4 - SYMBOLIZATION

7.

THE TRILOGY: SCIENCE - ON ANALYTICAL-PHENOMENOLOGICAL-EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPY
TECHNICAL KIT

MARIA AUXILIADORA DE SOUZA BRASIL

THE TRILOGY: SCIENCE ON ANALYTICAL-PHENOMENOLOGICAL-EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPY

THE FUNDAMENTS

Editorial Coordinator

Sílvia Raquel Amorim Braga

Revision

Márcia Teixeira de Freitas
Paulo José Ribeiro Teixeira

Translation

Jefferson Wolfe Conboy
Soledade Fonseca da Mota

Collection: A Dawn Emerges, 3

Belo Horizonte | 2017

Collection: A Dawn Emerges, NUMERO

Brasil, Maria Auxiliadora de Souza

The trilogy: science: on analytical-phenomenological-existential psychotherapy: the fundaments / Maria Auxiliadora de Souza Brasil. Translation by Jefferson Wolf Conboy; Soledade Fonseca da Mota. Belo Horizonte: Fundação Souza Brasil , 2017. V.1. (A Dawn Emerges, 3). 4 Volume set.

ISBN 978-85-60974-12-2 (printed version)

1. Psicoterapia. 2. Psicologia. 3. Psiquiatria. I. Conboy, Jefferson Wolfe. II. Mota, Soledade Fonseca da. III. Título.

Cover:
Simone Rodrigues Alves
Electronic editing:
Frederico F. Albuquerque Leal

Published in 2017 by Fundação Souza Brasil
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PREFACE

My studies on the human being have led me to a trilogy that can be expressed as follows: the human being, living, needs to take a stand regarding the mystery of the world, to make himself religious; he also needs to reﬂect on everything that exists, its principles and causes, to make himself a philosopher; he needs, likewise, to investigate himself, his structure and his dynamics, to make himself a scientist. Therefore, I realized I needed to study more in depth the religions, the philosophies and the sciences. From the religions I have intuited that the human being needs to believe in the Creator, have faith in his capacity to understand his destiny in the world and have charity towards those who do not have the consolation of this belief and faith. From the philosophies I have deduced that the human being seeks, through reason, through intuition and through participation, to explain his existence, nature and attributes, as well as his relation with the world. From the sciences, I have induced that the human being seeks to apprehend the phenomena through the accumulated experience of different and numerous perceptions.

My studies on the religions can be summarized, ﬁrstly, as follows: religion, reconnection, is the subordination and bonding to the divinity, which includes the fulﬁllment of the earthly duties connected to religious rituals, to justice and to ethics. Pelagianism was a brief movement of religious liberation from naive religious beliefs; on the other hand, the perennial character of religious preaching led the cult of the virtues to exaggeration; there was an attempt to conciliate morality and faith, with the aim of avoiding the excesses of both. The reconnection with the mystery of the world presented, from the beginning, a characteristic of dependence, which led to terror-fear and to fascination; there were also the intuition of certain values considered to be supreme and the rational recognition of a fundamental relation between the person and the divinity.

Secondly, I have come to realize that there are two basic ways in the study of religions: that of immanent religion, which considers that the reality we are speaking of is, in some manner, in man himself, who “experiences” the divinity, does not bond to it; and that of transcendent religion, more precisely, absolutely transcendent, which considers divine reality as inﬁnitely beyond man, which makes bonding impossible. Thirdly, I have realized the types of religions: natural, that is, based on truths, principles and norms deduced from living; revealed, that is, based on the revelation of God to a man or to a people, leading to institutionalization; and mystical, that is, based on the unspeakable experience of the presence of God.

In the examination of the relation between religion and philosophy I could observe that: there is a connection between them, if we consider that the content of religion is the main theme of philosophical reﬂection and philosophy is fundamentally religious, and what is important is that one does not cancel out the other. There is a tension between them, generating a permanent battle, which the western world has been always winning, in its secular contention against the spontaneous metaphysical spirit, which is that of the religion of revelation, and in favor of exact science and technique. One must consider that philosophy studies, by means of description and critical examination, the language and propositional content of religion, that is, the relation (or lack of relation) between religious beliefs and moral principles and the structure and forms of the religious enunciations and experience, and the relation between religious values and other values.

The study of religions has led me to the conclusion that the most expressive religion is Judaism and that is why I have carried out a hermeneutical exegesis of its holy texts, the Old and New Testaments, examining their contributions and fallacies, fallacies that cause an obstruction in the development of its followers. An examination of such an obstruction made it clear that its cause lies in the absence of freedom and a critical spirit, which obscures any expectation of development, since it hinders the choice of right thinking, which is the deﬁnitive attitude to make effective right conduct. The need to create the Newest Testament became evident so that it would correct the fallacies of the Old and New Testaments and would point to a future that guarantees the development of all human beings on the road towards the greater goal, God.

My studies on the philosophies can be summarized, ﬁrstly, as follows: philosophy, love of wisdom, theoretical knowledge, or of knowledge in general, practical and theoretical knowledge, encompasses the wisdom of the sage, who knows the reason that guides all, and the knowledge of the erudite, who is curious and seeks to “possess” wisdom; true philosophy is the search for wisdom “for its own sake”, that is, with the exclusive purpose of knowing. We can also consider philosophy, eloquence or practical morality, the contemplation of the cosmos, the method of scientiﬁc investigation, the state of life, the inner experience transmitted by a master, life in community, the moral effort guided by God, the practicing of the law.

Secondly, I have come to understand the origin and historical movement of philosophy: it started intertwined with mythology and with cosmogony; we can see Egyptian inﬂuences in Greek philosophy; there were also philosophers in China and in India, but philosophy only reached its maturity in Greece. Thirdly, I have come to understand the duplicity of meaning given to philosophy on various occasions: often a universal interest in reality was shown, and scant attention was given to the diversity of facts; some praised the superiority of reason and others the superiority of intuition, sometimes more mystical than discursive; some stated the importance of theory and others the fundamental character of virtue and conduct; often speculative activity dominated and at other times critical activity; some did not accept the “suppositions” and others immersed themselves in them; some only identiﬁed themselves with pure knowledge and others lived in the eagerness of salvation.

The study of the philosophies has led me to conclude that, just as with religions, they present, together with their contributions, fallacies that aggravate the obstruction in the development of human beings, fallacies that are due to reasonings, intuitions and phenomenological visions that come from sick minds, which give rise to fear of freedom and of a critical spirit. The need to create a metatheory of philosophical knowledge to correct the fallacies present in the philosophies became evident, one that points towards a future that guarantees the evolution of all human beings in the search of their own maturity, the only way to guarantee the guidelines of “good-living”, of the greatest possible happiness for all.

My studies on the sciences can be summarized, ﬁrstly, as follows: Science, a way of knowing that aspires to formulate, by means of rigorous and appropriate language, if possible with the help of the language of mathematics, the laws which rule phenomena and register laws of varied orders. The laws that guide phenomena have, all of them, common elements, which are, to be able to describe a series of phenomena, to be proven through the observation of facts and experimentation and to be able to predict, whether a complete prediction, or a statistical prediction, future events; the proof and the prediction depend upon the methods used. The theory of scientiﬁc theories, for its conﬁrmation, does not need such an abundance of facts.

Secondly, I have come to understand the types of sciences, the sciences of nature and the sciences of the spirit, or of culture, and their possible reduction, ones into the others, having as a basis mathematics, which leads to physics, which leads to biology, which leads to psychology, which leads to sociology. Thirdly, I have come to understand, from the relation between science and philosophy, that there are aspects of science which do not have any relation with philosophy, the fact that science informs us on reality in an increasingly objective way, while philosophy does not progress because it is a ceaseless weaving and unweaving of systems, furthermore because science is a way of knowing, while philosophy is a way of living, that is, science refers only to that which is related to the phenomenal, and philosophy engages itself with that which is noumenal; there is an intrinsic relation between philosophy with science, if philosophy is considered as a primitive state, that is, one of the stages of science; some relation can be observed between philosophy and science, since the latter is an object of the ﬁrst, since philosophy offers the problems for science to solve and since philosophy is, essentially, the theory of the knowledge of science.

The study of the sciences has led me to conclude that, like the religions and the philosophies, they present, together with their contradictions, fallacies that also aggravate the obstruction in the development of human beings, fallacies that result from beliefs, mysticism and imperfect methodologies, all leading to biased statements and to the creation of unproven laws and assertions. The need to complete the science of the soma with that of the psique and of the socius became evident; the ﬁrst, that of the soma, with the concept of integration of all domains of the organism, having the brain as the supervising element, also affected by the inferior domains; the second, that of the psique, with the concept of harmonization, whose general law is completed with that of its corollaries, of the living ﬁeld, of perception, of emotion, of intelligence, of consciousness, of morality, of sexuality and of religiosity, which together form the personality, as a result of learning; the third, that of the socius, with the concept of group harmonization, leading to synthality.

In this manner, I have arrived, through my studies, at the need to correct the fallacies that have been causing the obstruction in the development of the human being and of humanity as a whole. The study of religions led me to formulate my contribution to the Newest Testament, indeed the “Good News” that will guide, in the future, a healthy and promising religiosity, with the aim of achieving the well-being of all of us. The study of the philosophies has led me to formulate the metatheory of philosophical knowledge, which integrates all the knowledge acquired by mankind, with the objective of consolidating our well-being. The study of the sciences on the human being has led me to formulate the theory and technique that gave origin to the Analytical-phenomenological- existential Psychotherapy, a procedure that, taking into account the data of the religions, the philosophies and the sciences, leads to self-knowledge, which permits the evolution with the aim of harmonizing eternity with temporality, total well-being. This is my mission!

Maria Auxiliadora de Souza Brasil

PRESENTATION

The Souza Brasil Foundation feels honored to publish the work of Professor Maria Auxiliadora de Souza Brasil. Brazilian, a Ph.D., full professor of the Department of Psychology (in the area of Psychology of Personality) at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, her work is the outcome of scientiﬁc studies and research carried out for over half a century of professional practice. It offers to the humanities professionals, especially those who are engaged in promoting the psychic health of human beings and human groups, to educators, parents and teachers, and to all who seek to know themselves, the Analytical-phenomenological-existential Psychotherapeutic Technique and the Theory with the same name that resulted from it.

Retainer of its copyrights, the Souza Brasil Foundation was created by a group of professionals trained by the author in the Analytical-phenomenological-existential Psychotherapy, with the aim of increasing the knowledge about mental health and, consequently, promoting the personal and professional self-fulﬁllment of each human being. Previously limited to the practice of the psychotherapy, the founders envisioned the possibility of taking their knowledge to the world. Published in a bilingual edition, Portuguese and English, and with distribution to all member countries of the United Nations, the present collection promises the emergence of a new dawn, whose light will illuminate all of those engaged in creating the conditions for each person to ﬁnd the path to his own self-fulﬁllment.

The fundaments of the Analytical-phenomenological-existential Technique and Theory are theological, philosophical and scientiﬁc and constitute the trilogy presented in this collection. More than presenting the knowledge about the knowledge of the religions, the philosophies and the sciences about the human being and the human group, the author invites the reader to become a theologian, a philosopher and a scientist. It could not be otherwise, since true knowledge is interior, esoteric, universal in its essence and diverse in its appearance. On the religions, the Theory points to the fact that each one believes in what he needs to believe according to his developmental stage. In the same way, the philosophy of each individual is the expression of his phase of psychic development. And science has among its limitations those that result from the mentality of the scientist. It urges that each person, in the realm of his familial, professional, political and social responsibilities, broaden the scope of his work by elevating his own living ﬁeld.

The publication of the present work fulﬁlls, thus, the purpose of taking to all that which is universal in its essence. It holds the promise of creating a network of knowledge that will allow the education and information of individuals to allow them to live in a free and conscious way. It makes it possible for ignorance about the development of the human being, a source of errors and failures in public policies and of unnecessary suffering in the lives of many individuals, give place to true knowledge, a sine qua non condition for happiness, a goal of all of us, human beings.

Fundação Souza Brasil

INTRODUCTION

The Analytical-phenomenological-existential Psychotherapeutic Theory, a hermeneutical exegesis of the analysand-analyst datum at the ontic-anthropological level, founds itself on an esoteric vision of the being-in-the-world, a repetition of the ancestral myth of eternal return to the origins. We consider intuition, the direct knowledge, interior, that the individual can have of himself, passing necessarily through the idea of the existence of God, in the search for the unity of thought, an imperious dialectic requirement of his existing. We have tried to harmonize religion, philosophy and science, in the task of explaining the meaning of the relationship between the interior fulfillment of the individual and the external reality of his acting in the world, aiming at clarifying the pseudo-discrepancy between the purely material work and its meaning as spiritual work, a relationship that is pre-historic and pre-existential in its essence.

With this objective, we have tried, in the fundaments, to unify the data of the religions, the philosophies and the sciences, that is, respectively, the intuitive-metaphysical perspective of the mystical-esoteric condition, the intuitive-rational perspective of the rational-deductive condition and the intuitive-empirical perspective of the rational-inductive condition of the existence of the universe and the existence of human life in this universe. From the religions, we have apprehended the existing symmetry between the individual spirit and the world of objects, a pre-existing spiritual supra-reality, that clarifies the universe of phenomena. From the philosophies, we have deduced the universality of the spirit, through the conjugation of formal logic with dialectic logic, and consequent penetration in the true meaning of the infinite unity of the universe. From the sciences, we have induced the universality of matter, through the confirmation of the existence of the “in itself ” through the apprehension of phenomena by the accumulated experience of numerous and different perceptions.

With the same objective, we have tried, in the theorization per se, to unify the data of the theories about the human being and about the human group, a didactic-meta-theoretical perspective of the mystical-esoteric, rational-deductive and rational-inductive conditions of their existing in the face of the earth. Epistemologically, we present a critical study of this scientific construction, aiming at its central structures (semantic), seeking the subjective presuppositions of this scientific knowledge, its nature, its dynamism, its limits, its results, its current situation, its future. Methodologically, we present the empirical methods (observation, experimentation, case studies) we have used for this scientific construction, that is, we present its applied logic. Meta-theoretically, we present the theory itself, which is a theory of the theories, seeking to systematize the description of the results of the observations and experimentations trying to explain them and forecast from these explanations.

With the same objective, we have tried, in the operationalization of the theory, to unify the technical procedures of the theories about the human being and the human group, a didactic-psychotherapeutic perspective of the mystical-esoteric, rational-deductive and rational-inductive conditions of his acting in the world. Technically, we avail ourselves of the phenomenological-existential analysis, as an instrument, and of the phenomenological-existential attitude, as an attitude. The Analytical-phenomenological-existential Psychotherapeutic Technique, esoteric, comes about therefore as an application of the theory of the same name. This technique is based, in its dynamics, in the principle of intentionality, which holds that: consciousness is always consciousness of something, that is, the object is always object for a subject. It aims thus at the knowledge of reality, the knowledge that the individual can have of himself and of his relationship with the world, that is, the meeting of the being with the micro, his core, his interior universe, with the macro, the core of the whole, the total universe.

With the same objective, we have tried, in the application of the theory, to unify the interpretations of the meeting of the individual with himself and with the world, a hermeneutic-symbolic perspective of the mystical-esoteric conditions, rational-deductive and rational-inductive of his way of acting in the world. We see, in the meeting, the key to the mystery of existence, and the obscure meeting, distorted, as a way to the clear meeting, open. We see, in the interpretation of the symbolism of the meeting, the instrument for understanding the attempts of the individual to position himself, from his unknown and mythical origins, towards his destiny which is only envisaged, mystical. We consider that every effort of the individual is impregnated with this significance, and that the human groups, humanity as a whole, are involved, committed to this work. We hope that each individual who more clearly interprets the meaning of life, will necessarily contribute so that his vision is shared by others.

In summary, the Analytical-phenomenological-existential Theory, a hermeneutical exegesis of the analysand-analyst datum at the ontic-anthropological level, is founded on an esoteric vision of the being-in-the-world, repetition of the ancestral myth of the eternal return to the origins. With this objective, we have tried to unify: in its fundaments, the data of the religions, of the philosophies and of the sciences, therefore, a cosmovision; in its theoretical body per se, the data of the theories about the human being and the human group, thus, an anthropovision; in the operationalization of the theory, the technical procedures of the theories about the human being and about the human group, thus, an ergovision; in the application of the theory, the interpretations of the meeting of the individual with himself and with the world, therefore a cosmo-anthropo-ergovision. We consider the analysand-analyst meeting the ideal condition, the model, the paradigm for the living of the ancestral myth of the eternal return to the origins in its last instance, it should lead the analysand to discover the meaning of life and to consolidate this discovery.

1 THE FUNDAMENTS: A COSMOVISION

The fundaments of the Analytical-phenomenological-existential Psychotherapeutic Theory, esoteric, are, at the same time, real and ideal. They are real, since they are directly connected to the notion of cause, reason of being, and they are ideal, since they are directly connected to the idea of enunciation, reason of ideating. Thus, we seek the fundament of reality in the knowledge of the phenomenon universe and the phenomenon human life in this universe, in its two senses, real and ideal. In this way, we exercise our freedom to found, which is the fundament of the fundament. We start from the principle of freedom, inherent to the human being, who does not have a fundament because he is abyss, he is founder, and he is founder in freedom. We have arrived at the principle of sufficient reason, a founding principle which has at its base the previous one, and the fundament freely establishes the conditions that, afterwards, necessarily unfold.

Such fundaments, theological, philosophical and scientific, are esoteric in the sense that they avail themselves of historical continuity, inherited from the so called primitive societies, in the search to understand the phenomenon of the repetition of the ancestral myth of eternal return to the origins, the dialectic opposition between the “nous” and the “psyche”, the two well-known components of our intellect. We consider thus, doctrinally, knowledge as being universal, uniform in its essence, diverse in its appearance, having as its language, the symbolism of initiation and, as its secret ritual, initiation per se, through which the profane passes from the world of darkness, from everyday existential life, to the world of light, the reconstitution of the being, access to eternal life. We value intuition, the only reassuring consolation of direct knowledge, and we consider the others, deduction and induction, as complementary.

The esoteric vision that presides over such fundaments forestalls against the myth of good and evil with crime and punishment and against the myth that there is nothing to question. It considers God a way, a phase of the human being’s search for himself, and it forestalls itself against the reflectionism of the spirit, which makes God a tyrant, a judge, or any other pretext, and which hinders the understanding of the great esoteric myth, traditional and universal, of the torn and devoured god, that is, analyzed and interiorized. It seeks, thus, to prevent that this myth, converted in the eyes of the religions in an exterior affirmation of faith, is transformed into a mere historical fact that science easily profanes, questions and, often, de-mystifies. It intends to preserve the true meaning of pure knowledge, the unity of thought, that explains the relation between the fulfillment of the I and the fulfillment of its exterior work.

Such vision, esoteric as a doctrine, symbolic as a technique, is the corner stone of profane sciences, the only key of all the scientific efforts of man in the search of apprehending all of reality. It is faithful to the unity of thought, a need of the individual, a dialectic requirement for the apprehension of the world as a whole. It is the awareness of the existing symmetry between the individual spirit and the world of objects, a kind of preexisting spiritual supra-reality that clarifies the universe of phenomena. The symbol works as spiritual nourishment, destined to carry out illumination, however, the different uses to which it can be put should be noted, since while the initiate avails himself of it always for the common good, the magician and the occultist distort its use, with the aim of seeking power. It must be noted that the initiate chooses the sacred science, while the mystic is chosen by God and the religious person seeks the temporal vision of the atemporal essence.

It can be said that nature, in its diversity, beginning with the body itself of the individual, is a set of symbols that integrate him in the visible world, a super-symbol called creation, and of which he must avail himself for his development. Thus, symbolism and what it expresses must be considered as previous to the appearance itself of human beings on the face of the earth, a pre-human language whose reading leads to the understanding of the meaning of individual life and of existence as a whole. Theology, philosophy and science are different readings that have been made of the same reality, availing themselves of different methods, often following opposite paths, which makes a common ordering of the data gathered indispensable, so that no effort of human thought undertaken in this task is lost.

At the same time, however, that there is the intention to unify the data of theology, philosophy and science, it must not be forgotten that the esoteric vision has no history, it cannot suffer the alterations of history because the supra-real cannot submit itself to the influence of that which, within its own criteria, only exists as infra-reality. The particular esotericisms, belonging to the history of peoples, extract what is essential from its symbolic language and its metaphysics from the latent source of universal esotericism. Although human intervention cannot escape from the notion of historicity, the origins of metaphysics are lost in the night of human pre-history. The problem of the origin and destiny of the world is still insoluble and is the ultimate inquietude of the human spirit, manifesting itself in the most varied forms of anxiety and anguish.

2 THEOLOGICAL FUNDAMENTS

Intuition, the direct knowledge, interior, that the individual can have of himself, necessarily passes through the idea of the existence of God, in the search for unity of thought. This is an imperious dialectic requirement of his existing, which aims to clarify the relation between the individual’s interior fulfillment and the external fulfillment of his acting in the world. With the theological fundaments of the Analytical-phenomenological-existential Psychotherapeutic Theory, esoteric, interior, we intend, in an intuitive-metaphysic perspective of the mystical-esoteric condition of existing, to unify the data of the religions. We have sought to apprehend the existing symmetry between the individual spirit and the world of objects, a pre-existing spiritual supra-reality that clarifies the universe of phenomena. Thus, the pseudo-discrepancy between purely material work and its meaning as spiritual work disappears.

Since intuition, direct knowledge, interior, that the individual can have of himself, necessarily passes through the idea of the existence of God, it is indispensable to know the existing modalities of approaching the theme. Regarding God, his existence, nature and attributes, as well as his relation with the world, theology, the discourse of God, can be affirmative, effective communication, or negative, silencing. Affirmative theology, or positive, can be natural, knowledge of God based on knowledge of the world, knowledge without faith, in light of reason, or it can be revealed, directed by the light of faith, supreme criteria of any ulterior rational elucidation. Negative theology, or mystical theology, does not need words or understanding; it is the result of the complete surrendering of the soul to God, through which, it is assumed, God makes Himself present into the faithful.

The nature of theological knowledge has given rise to different affirmative theologies, as many as the cultural manifestations of humanity, and different mythical theologies, as many as the existing mystics. There is an opposition between natural affirmative theology, rational-natural knowledge about God, and revealed affirmative theology, truth transmitted by God. In truth, however, natural theology profusely avails itself of the teachings considered revealed, intuited, and revealed theology seeks to rationally explain the revelations. Furthermore, some problems raised in natural theology do not appear in revealed theology, and vice-versa.

A certain hierarchy can be observed in theological knowledge, which goes from natural affirmative theology, passing through revealed affirmative theology, until negative theology, mystical theology, which places itself above the conditions of dependency on human existence.

2.1 The roots of natural afﬁrmative theology

It can be said that the human being, forever insecure when facing the hazards of nature, has developed a feeling of fear of the unknown, which gave rise to a feeling of religiosity, a need to revere occult powers, symbolize them and seek to obtain their protection. Tradition, in the form of rites and dogmas, has perpetuated the appeasing and propitiative mythical formulas. Necessarily fetishistic in origin, the idea of religiosity manifested itself cosmologically and/or anthropomorphically. Egyptians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Persians, Carthaginians, Greeks and Romans, Gauls, Germanic people, each one presented their polytheistic version, with uncertain dogmas and confusing beliefs full of legends. Worship, usually local, sometimes national, was always conceived as a kind of contract between man and the divinities. At the end of the ancient world, the worship of many gods became muddled in an extensive syncretism, presenting a vast pantheon, necessarily leading to the anthropological type of reflections that ensued.

2.1.1 Vedantism-brahmanism

It is a good idea, following the development of religions, from the dread-terror and the fascination, passing through the intuition of certain values considered supreme, until the rational recognition of a fundamental relationship between man and the divinities, to recall the main lines that led to the Greek miracle. From Vedantic polytheism, passing through Brahmanism, we arrive at Buddhism which, like Confucianism, profusely avails itself of Taoism. Vedantism dates back to high antiquity, it reflects a so called primitive civilization, that apparently did not know morals, nor dogma, nor cosmogony. It is naturalistic because it personifies the forces of nature. Its great divinities are: Agni, god of fire; Indra, god of the atmosphere and its phenomena, lord of lightening, Vayu; Soma, divinized libation. They are the Devas, or brilliant ones, gods, to which the Asuras, demons, act as a counterpoint. Their cult is limited to the morning sacrifice, lighting the sacred fire and the libations, completed, in solemn occasions by a holocaust of grains, honey and animal victims.

Veda, knowledge, is the name given to a collection of writings that constitute the foundation of the religious tradition of India. It is considered sacred, revealed and eternal, and it was the inspiration of many free thinkers, such as Jain and Buddha. It makes reference to only one supreme divinity, to which the name of several gods are applied, leading, thus, to monotheism. It is divided in four parts: the Rigveda, Yajurveda, Sãmaveda and the Atharvaveda. Its content consisted of a series of hymns, in the Rigveda and Atharvaveda, historical, and in the Yajurveda and Sãmaveda, liturgical. It is believed that they were composed since the year 1500 B.C. The Vedas suffered an exegesis, registered in the Brãhmana, a philosophical study, registered in the Aranyaka, and a practical application in terms of a search for peace and freedom of spirit, registered in the Upanishads. On the whole, beginning from the vision of the macro-cosmos and arriving at the vision of the micro-cosmos, it summarizes: “You, individual soul (atman), are identical to the universal soul (brahman)”.

Brahmanism, formed in India from Vedantism, has as its sacred texts ritual commentaries on the Vedic texts. There are four main gods: Brahman, creator of the world, the gods and the beings; Vishnu, origin, preserver and end of the universe, which will be absorbed in it on the day of dissolution, so that it can come out of it again; Shiva, at once destroyer, therapist and the one who fecundates; Shakti, energy. All of them can descend to earth and incarnate; their incarnations are the avatars: the most renowned is the incarnation of Vishnu in Krishna. Some animals, mainly the cow, and some plants are sacred. The main purpose of Brahmanism is to achieve divine knowledge; this knowledge is perfected by mystical and spiritual asceticism (yoga) and by mystical contemplation. After death, man is reborn, in function of the acts he has performed: as a rock, plant, animal, in this order. From the social organization in castes, the predominance of the Brahmin, clergyman, supreme authorities over the social and religious life of the people prevails even to this day.

2.1.2 Taoism

Such was the climate that preceded the emergence of Buddhism, that it is necessary to consider another important course, Taoism. The contemporaneity of the three great figures of ancient thought, Buddha, Confucius and Lao-Tzu, leads us to arbitrarily choose the order of dealing with their contributions, starting with the last one. Taoism was born of the Tao te Ching, the book of the perfect Way, attributed to Lao-Tzu, who was born in 511 B.C. and died in 479 B.C., in the city of Ch’üjen, district of Lai, in the Ku Prefecture, in the country of Chu, with the family name Li, the last name Erh and the name of Tan, some saying that he is a legendary character who never existed. The Tao is the Way: it can be at the same time, the non-Being, the essence and the being, the function. From Tao comes its own virtue, Wuwei, which acts in two alternative ways, Yin, concentration, and Yang, expansion, creating the heavens, the earth and the air between them. Tao is an order according to which the existing things come into being and, also, nothing itself.

The Perfect Way is the line of least resistance between two points, the true language of nature. Since vital energy is limited, it is the duty of man to make it last. Since everything is oneness, the distinctions are an expression of lies. The sage finds himself in the interior of reality, he is in the center of the circle and sees the whole, the universe, and acts in it according to its natural movement. In order to find the principle, the goal of life, it is necessary to try to free oneself of everything that is sensible. To be in Tao is to be spontaneous, free of blind and anarchic impulses and of conventionalisms, preconceived plans, it is to conciliate Yin, negative force, and Yang, positive force, since Yin contains Yang and Yang contains Yin. Yin is obscurity, agility, sweetness, cold, humidity, centripetal force; Yang is its opposite, luminosity, centrifugal force. Tao is non-effort, non-action adapted to the mutations of life. Te, virtue, is the quality of people who life righteousness and nobleness.

The Book of the Perfect Way, in its 81 chapters, the first 37 dedicated to Tao, and the following to Te, encompasses, separately, subjects of three natures: some general considerations, recommendations of what should be avoided and recommendations of what should be sought. The assertions that follow are considered general considerations: The spirit produces everything and never exhausts. The being produces what is useful, but it is the non-being that makes it effective (as the containers). It is wise to reject what is superficial and plunge into what is deep. The Way is mysterious. In the essence of the being is the Being. Virtue is found in following the Perfect Way. The one who dies and, nevertheless, does not perish, achieves immortality. The great man keeps what is solid and leaves aside what is evanescent. The spirit must transcend the being. Tao must be cultivated tenderly; the Perfect Way is the noblest thing in the world, the source of all good and the remedy for all evil.

The following are recommendations of what should be avoided: Desire only contemplates the form; it must be suppressed to be able to reach the essence. It is wise to help without becoming attached, without having preferences, since the pleasure of possession brings with it the sorrow for the loss; in order to obtain the state of emptiness it is necessary to return to destiny itself, free oneself from emotions. Suppressing rivalries guarantees the good universal order. Decadence is found in pseudo-virtues, in false appearances; simplicity must prevail and artifice must be abandoned; man gets his law from the earth, the earth from the heavens, and the heavens from Tao, whose law is to be what it is. Uncomfortable positions cannot be maintained because they do not provide firmness; obstinacy, self praise, pride and greed are like “leftovers of food”; do not trust resistance, it is a sign of death. The universe rectifies itself, under the influence of purity and tranquility; it is always through non-intervention that we conquer what we want; the flow of Tao is spontaneous, without any authority; genuine influence can be found in not intervening; the sage helps men to be authentic without ever having to act on them.

The following are recommendations of what must be sought: Non-resistance makes the way pure and tranquil; virtue is balance; serenity must be maintained in all situations; the sage avoids excesses, extravagance, and arrogance; movement avails itself of weakness, the being is born of the non-being. The sage (altruist) places himself in last place and arrives ahead of everyone (he becomes immortal), he is indulgent, good, sincere and pure with everyone; whoever accumulates wealth stimulates robbery; through compassion, man becomes courageous. The sage withdraws when he finishes the task, since wanting to celebrate oneself is imperfection; humility leads to integrity; it is by not making oneself great that great conquests are made; the farthest one goes the least one knows; the sage hurts no one. Avoid illusion to remain innocent, keep body and soul united, the enlightened Way is obscure for many; love yourself; control illusion.

Continuing with what must be sought: The great influence is that which does not appear; the sage is always saving men and tries to save no one; the senses and the mind deform reality, and simplicity, going back to the root, seeks to undo complications, makes it possible to inherit the eternal. The one who follows the Way is different because he is not bold, the softest always wins over the hardest; only through moderation do we obtain a fast return to man’s normal state; through economy, the sage becomes generous. The best way to tread a path is to adapt to it; the sage transforms himself according to the circumstances; what is in harmony with the original nature of things acts according to the laws of nature itself. The virtuous one achieves his goal without using force; all weapons are instruments of evil. If we appeal to creativity, we will see that its use is inexhaustible; the new brings harmony in its constitution. It is necessary to discern the instant before the action; the one who knows to stop (to be) is free from danger, avoids difficulties in advance and, thus, will never have them, and he fights better because he does not lose his head, he understands himself and his ignorance and laments it.

2.1.3 Buddhism

In this climate of Vedantism-Brahmanism on one side and Taoism on the other, Buddhism came about. Siddhartha or Gautama Buddha, the enlightened one, was born in Kapilãvastu, in the North of India, possibly around 558 B.C., and died in 483 B.C.. Ãnanda, his disciple, gathered his teachings and organized them after his death. The Buddhist scriptures, the Tripitaka, are made of the Dharma (or Sutra) and the Abhidharma, which deal with the doctrine, and the Vinaya, which deals with rules of conduct in general, and particularly, the monastic ones. The main aim of Buddhism is salvation. First of all, the problems without solution must be abandoned, such as if the world is finite or infinite, if the body and the soul are the same thing, if the latter survives the first, etc. What must be proposed are useful questions, of a practical order, such as the way to avoid the suffering caused by the thirst of existence.

Of noble origin, Buddha abandoned everything, and for seven years dedicated himself to fasting and to meditation, concluding that the ascetic rigor is not only unnecessary but can also be harmful. When he abandoned the ascetic rigor he obtained enlightenment. He was tempted by the ten capital sins, all assistants of Mãra, illusion: selfishness, irony, modest faith, passion, hatred, concupiscence of glory, pride, self love, ignorance (mother of fear and injustice), all trying to separate him from truth. The enlightenment led him to the awakening, which is autonomy, freedom from the dependency on illusion and from the wheel of births and deaths. It is said that this experience is difficult to describe and impossible to be understood before it is lived. To insist on explaining it is to expose oneself to ridicule. The insignificant beings, false, will not know the law; the middling ones, who are in doubt, and the elevated ones, who are in the truth, will be able to know it, if it is taught to them.

In Benares, Buddha instructed five ascetics, teaching them: man does not suffer another destiny save the one he forges for himself; in principle all men are equal; each man carries within himself his own salvation. The purpose of Buddhism is to incite men to be themselves. It signals the way and some norms and reminds us of the importance of trusting the master. It does not impose a dogma of faith, asserting that it is not a matter of believing, but of knowing what presents a practical interest to eliminate suffering and live in peace. The path is the middle path, that of moderation, which is between the ascetic and the sensualist. Moderation is what permits the awakening. Through meditation ignorance disappears; meditation and consciousness feed one another and approximate nirvana. One should consider that everything that exists is transitory. It is necessary to be conscious of our living, of our thoughts and of our sensations in order to avoid pain.

The four noble truths of Buddhism are: of suffering, of its cause, of its cessation, of the path that leads to the cessation of suffering. Life is suffering and illness; birth, infirmity, death, lack of what one desires and possession of what one does not want have a common name: pain. The cause of suffering is the thirst for existing, the perpetual rebirth and the eternal wheel of the being; only the cessation of suffering, or the complete extinction of this thirst, can produce salvation. There is a path to save oneself, which has eight stages: righteous knowledge, righteous intention, righteous word, righteous conduct, righteous life, righteous effort, righteous thought and righteous concentration. This, the middle path, that leads to peace, to discernment, to enlightenment, to nirvana, which is to free oneself from suffering, lamentation, pain, and the continuous chain of reincarnation (or the dread of it). The individual is not a permanent reality. There is a set of five elements: body (bodily forms), sensations, perceptions, impulses, consciousness. Everything is ephemeral, what persists is the universal law of change, from which nothing escapes.

Buddha enumerated the vices, which are ten: three of the body, to steal, to kill and to commit adultery; four of the lips, to calumniate, to insult, to lie and to give distorted intention to words; three of the mind, to envy, to hate, to have erroneous ideas. He also enumerated the virtues: for all, do not kill, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not lie and do not get drunk; and only for the monks, do not eat forbidden foods at night, do not wear fineries nor use perfume, sleep on a mat, do not dance, sing or play musical instruments, do not participate in theater performances, do not accept gold or silver. He also enumerated the moral means to achieve peace: alms, morality, patience, energy, contemplation and wisdom. One should highlight his assertion that we must see and believe because we know and see, and that the only battle that brings peace and satisfaction is the one in which the individual conquers himself.

2.1.4 Confucionism

A contemporary of Buddha, Confucius also searched, in Taoism, for the basis for his reflections. He was born in 551 B.C., in the state of Lu, after Shangtung, China and died in 479 B.C.. Confucius, K’ung Fu-Tzu, or Grand Master K’ung as he was called, founded the first school for education in his native state. He was a paid councilman of several Chinese heads of state. Besides the pedagogical, encyclopedic and heuristic purposes of his activities, he devoted himself to teaching with a practical and moral purpose, with the main intention of establishing rules of social conduct. He was the author of a work, today entitled “The Great Learning”, where he underlines his respect for traditional beliefs, stating that his doctrine is nothing but the exposition and interpretation of the ancient works. He sought to ground the need for social inequality, asserting, as well, that the virtuous conduct of the superior ones conditions the inferior ones to identical conduct.

An enemy of speculation without an immediate practical attainment for human life, Confucius conducted his dialogues and conversations with moderate skepticism and common sense. The theme of his expositions was always the need for moral improvement, a correct idea of good and evil. The main terms of his thought, which are not exclusively his, are explained by him as it follows. Tao is the most convenient way, proper or honorable, which is discovered through the knowledge of tradition, that is, of what the sages thought. Te is virtue, a power or quality inherent in the individual and associated with the capacity of following the Tao. The I is the system of rights of the several layers of society. The Li is the propriety of conduct; it is linked to the ceremonies. The Zhengming is the rectification of names, the placement of each thing in its place. Zhõng is filial piety, the respect to ones’ ancestors. Li-yüeh is the practice of solemn music. Jen is the reciprocity of conduct. Chun-Tzu is the framework of the ideal person.

Confucius considered that when order prevails in the family, mainly in the royal family, the State establishes itself, the peoples are well-governed. He recommended moderation as a way to consolidate the existing regime, asserting that the moral principle is equidistance, which must be permanent, fleeing from extremism. Equidistance results from self-perfecting and leads to a serene and impassive state of the spirit. Moral perfecting is a universal obligation, moral law is obligatory and sacred. The man who leads a superior spiritual life does everything that corresponds to the position he is in, whether he is rich and venerated or poor and ignored. The superior rich man is not arrogant, the superior poor man is not servile. The rites must be respected, the inferior ones must subordinate themselves to the superior ones so as to maintain order, which comes from the habit of maintaining customs.

Confucius’ view of government is that of a patriarchal monarchy, whereby the recommendation that, to guarantee power, it is necessary to obtain the love of the people. The chief of State is obliged to take on all the other roles, of father, of son, of brother. He must be benevolent at home and with the people. However, if the chief deviates from the way of virtue he must not be criticized; each one must take care of his own affairs and keep silent, trusting God’s punishment. His doctrine, previously progressive, exhorting moral perfecting and culture, became an apology for resignation and indifference. His condemnations of the combative acts of workers were very useful to the dominant classes, which supported his preaching and transformed it into a religious system to repress the masses.

2.1.5 The Greek miracle

A geo-historic phenomenon, the Greek miracle, shook the state of fatality inscribed in the destiny of pre-history and primeval history: as a result of the absence of a theology that would reveal to people the paths their spirit should tread, the free search for knowledge emerged, which strengthened the spirits and assured a climate for reflection. From free thinking came the different conceptions of the world and of life. Initially cosmological, Greek thought offered: with the Ionians, a monist mystical-religious conception, hylozoism which launches the hypothesis of a vital principle at the basis of the world; with Pythagoras, the doctrine of transmigration of the soul, interpreting reincarnation as punishment or reward for a previous existence; with Xenophanes, a pantheist conception of the world; with Anaxagoras, the assertion of the existence of the soul, the “nous”, from which the order of the world proceeds; with Democritus, the assertion that, in order to have peace, man must free himself from the dominance of the affections and the anguishing belief in the gods.

Subsequently anthropological, Greek thought, with the development of dialectics, prepared the Socratic event. The attempts to explain nature were followed by the attempts to explain man. The Sophists, masters of wisdom, integrated the problems of ethics in the exercises to which they submitted themselves and their disciples. For Prodicus of Ceos, things are ethically indifferent and gain moral value due to the ethical purpose they serve. For Protagoras there are rational rules for human acts; penalty has value as an example and not as an expiation; it is impossible to know if the gods exist or not, since it is impossible to verify this matter. With the assertion that “man is the measure of all things, of those that are, while they are, and of those that are not, while they are not”, Protagoras is accredited with being the discoverer of subjectivity and the necessary relation between subject and object. The discovery of subjectivity, giving greater vigor to dialectics, incited in the spirits the taste for doubt.

There appeared then, a special form of dialectics, the Socratic dialectics. Socrates, born in 469 B.C., died in 399 B.C., was condemned to the death penalty because of his ideas; he developed a dialectics he called maieutics, giving birth to ideas, in homage to the profession of his mother. As the Sophists, he adopted a critical attitude towards traditional ideas and postulates ingrained at that time. He left no writings; his ideas were registered by his disciples Xenophon and Plato. His starting philosophical principal was the skeptical assertion “I know I know nothing”. He taught that sensory perceptions do not offer authentic knowledge, a science, but merely, an opinion.

Starting from the maxim “know thyself ”, a famous inscription in the temple of Apollo, in Delphi, Socrates recommended that each person start the analysis of the world through the search of the knowledge of oneself. This knowing oneself consists in knowing what is useful and what is noxious, what is fair and what is unfair, what is within man’s reach and what is beyond it. He tried thus to found his negative attitude towards the scientific knowledge of nature: true knowledge can only be achieved through induction, discovering the signs common to isolated phenomena and going from particular cases to general definitions. The rational principle constitutes the authentic essence of man and must prevail in him. Man must not concern himself with exterior goods, of the world, nor, consequently, with the pleasures that come from them; the rational soul is the main part in man.

For Socrates, reason is the basis of moral life and also the foundation of all the cosmos. He completed his rationalist ethics with an idealist conception of the world, asserting that there are precepts that men recognize in all places, independently of translating themselves into written law. In order to instruct man about his true nature, it is advisable to first free him from the errors that obscure his intelligence, which must be done in such a way that he discovers them himself, through guided dialogue departing from his own arguments. By doing so, the truths of the spirit, that are inside the individual himself, will arrive at his understanding. Once he possesses the truth, man is necessarily virtuous, since no one is voluntarily evil. Happiness comes from virtue, and unhappiness, from perversity. The good must be practiced according to the laws of the state.

2.1.6 In summary

The roots of natural affirmative theology can be summarized as follows: Fear of the unknown gave rise to a feeling of religiosity. Tradition has registered the efforts of the individual and of the human groups in terms of explaining the world and their presence in the world. This knowing of God through knowledge of the world gave rise to mythical explanations, originally fetishistic polytheistic, cosmological and/or anthropomorphic, and later on, monotheistic anthropological. The development of these efforts of reconnection of the individual with total reality shows, in its origin, a plurality of dogmas, with confusing beliefs full of legends. One of the most coherent efforts of this phase was Vedantism, which gave rise to Brahmanism, which, together with Taoism, offered the material that would guide Buddhist and Confucianist anthropologisms, the basis of Socratic and Platonic thought, the cornerstones of natural affirmative theology.

2.2 The roots of revealed afﬁrmative theology

Parallel to the feeling of religiosity, resulting from the fear of the unknown, the human being developed a permanent desire for communication with the divinity. He wanted to be sure. His imagination, however much it proliferated, did not bring him peace of spirit. The arguments that he developed to explain the origin and destiny of the world, and his own origin and destiny, he knew, came from himself and lacked real foundation. Escapism through fantasy could have led him to imagine that the Creator brought him the truth, only able to be known through revelation. Throughout the ancient history of religiosity there are passages in which a direct vision of the truth is registered. However, only with monotheism does the belief in divine revelation become a dogma of faith. It is as such in Judaism, Christianity, Islamism and Spiritism.

2.2.1 Judaism

Judaism, or Mosaism, encompasses the set of institutions that Moses had received from God. The dogma of the unity of God is the basis of faith, asserting thus, monotheism. God, invisible and incorporeal, is the Being par excellence, eternal, almighty, omnipresent, just, creator of heaven and earth. The first man committed a misdeed, for which all of his descendants have suffered the punishment. The Messiah will come and reconcile humanity with God. The kingdom of Judah, a remnant, together with that of Benjamin, of the twelve tribes of Israel, of which ten were conquered by Assyria in 722 B.C., was situated between Egypt and Assyria; it also declined, under successive dominions, finally remaining only a religious community that congregated all the Israeli. Judea was freed by Judas Maccabeus, in 163 B.C., and it knew independence for more than a century, when, in 63 B.C. it was reduced to a Roman province.

Thus the history of the Hebrews, descendants of the patriarch Abraham, offers the world, by means of the Testament, which means pact, alliance, also called Bible, set of books, a solid theology, which has been conveyed over the ages. The Bible consists of three parts: the Law (Torah), or Pentateuch, with its five books, which are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy; the Prophets; the Scriptures. Moses is considered the main author of Pentateuch. The first book, Genesis, or book of origins, teaches that the primitive harmony with God was broken by disobedience, which led to the lie, in order to hide the consciousness that man had of his nakedness. In this way, sin came about, accompanied by suffering and shame, but man was allowed to nourish the hope of deliverance, of redemption.

In the first part, Genesis tells us that, left to his own consciousness, man committed the first crime: the brother envies his brother and kills him. This is the cursed inheritance: disobedience, lying, envy, murder. After the flood, the first alliance between God and men came about, the covenant, the only way to solve envy, in which it was determined that man must obey the commandments. From negligence in abiding by the law, Babel came about, the confusion of languages, and the return to chaos almost occurred. In its second part, Genesis relates how God endowed in Abraham the special alliance with the chosen people, proclaimed by Moses five hundred years later, an alliance consisting in fidelity and having circumcision as a sign. Following this, Jacob, a man full of flaws, was chosen by God, who gave him a new name, Israel. He became a new and blessed man, and the divine blessings were extended to his son Joseph, later sold by his brothers and taken prisoner to Egypt, which allowed him to become the protector of his people.

In Exodus, there is the story of the deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, an adversary of the chosen people, an earthly power which intended to oppose divine plans. Moses became the leader of the oppressed people. He received the ten commandments from God: “You shall have no other gods besides me”; “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them”; “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Yahweh, your God”; “Remember to sanctify the day of Saturday”; “Honor your father and your mother...”; “You shall not murder”; “You shall not commit adultery”; “You shall not steal”; “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”; “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house...” (Ex. 20:3-11). The pact, barely concluded, was violated by ancient idolatrous habits, but Moses was able to redirect his people to obey the divine precepts.

In Leviticus, the history of worship is told. The sacrifices were the holocausts, a consummation of the victim by fire, the oblations, or offerings, the acts of grace and the expiations, atonement for the sins. The priests were, exclusively, from the tribe of Levites. Progress was made with the Law of Talion; “eye for eye, tooth for tooth”, since, before that, every injury was revenged seven times. In Numbers, a continuation of Exodus, the story of the twelve tribes in the desert is told, a not very edifying story of ingratitude and rebellions, and of their battles with the neighboring peoples of Palestine, through which they were passing. In Deuteronomy, second law, the ten commandments are elucidated, exhorting obedience to God, to fidelity to the old laws of the alliance and to charity. In this way, the Pentateuch, dealing with the alliance between God and men, summarizes, in its fifth book, the spiritual testament of Israel.

In Prophets, we find the narrative history of those men who spoke in the name of God, exhorted the people to fidelity to Him, were councilors of the judges and of the kings. Isaiah was the greatest of the prophets of Israel, the prophet of justice and, subsequently, of consolation and hope. Jeremiah, the prophet of the fall and misfortunes of Jerusalem, that occurred in 586 B.C., which he witnessed, wrote the famous laments. Ezekiel interpreted the fall of Jerusalem, which he had also foretold, as a punishment, and he taught, for the first time, individual responsibility. Daniel was the prophet, par excellence, of expectations of the coming of the Kingdom of God. Hosea insisted on the moral character of punishment. Joel valued religious culture. Amos rose up against social injustice. And also Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Jesus, all of them confirming the trajectory of the people of God, from the fall to redemption.

In Prophets, we can moreover highlight: in the story of Josiah, successor of Moses, the gradual settling of the Israelites in the land of Canaan, Palestine; in Judges, the story of a period of political and religious decadence, revealing a still primitive civilization and a moral sense on the path of development; in both books of Samuel, judge and prophet, theocrat, the fragile Saul, the first king, and the young and courageous David, the second king and savior of the people are introduced; in the two books of the Kings the role of the prophets, whose mission was to remind the kings of their obligation to faithfully observe the word of God, is confirmed; in the two books of Maccabeus, there is the struggle against the Romans and the testimony of a new belief, the faith in the immortality of the soul.

In the Writings, various books are gathered. That of the Psalms, or Psalter, contains, in addition to the praises, the laments, the songs of penitence and of recognition, didactic poems and ardent supplications, attributed mainly to David. That of the Proverbs, attributed to Solomon, considers humanity, from a moral point of view, divided into two categories, which are that of the sages and that of the novices; it insists on virtues; it stresses filial piety and the role of reward and punishment. That of Job shows God punishing a righteous man because he wanted to reveal the mysterious plans of the Creator. The Song of Songs deals with human love, exalts marriage, considers the chosen nation to be the wife of the Lord. That of Ruth promises salvation to the non-Jew who is faithful to the Law. That of Laments leads one to the recognition of one’s own faults. Ecclesiastes deals with the instability of human life and recommends the enjoyment of earthly possessions, observing the fear of God and His commandments. That of Esther reveals that God can resort to ludicrous means to save His people. That of Daniel speaks of the kingdom of God. Those of Ezra and Nehemiah, along with the Chronicles, talk about the foundation of a true religious community.

In the seventh year of our era, the government of Judea was entrusted to a Roman proxy. A new independence movement was devised, provoking the Roman reprisal and the taking of Jerusalem by the Emperor Tito, in the year 70, bringing to a close the history of the ancient Israelites. The history of the prophet Jesus became the basis of a new religion, Christianity. The Jews, without a homeland, spread out over the world, remaining united through faith, customs and in the hope of reconstituting the State of Israel, that occurred on May 14, 1948, with David Ben Gurion, who declared its independence. Frequently in battle against the neighboring Arab states, it has been able, through harsh suffering, to carry on its hegemony and demonstrate its faith, as guardian of a millenary wisdom, awaiting the Messiah, the one who will bring new light to the world.

2.2.2 Christianity

Christianity encompasses the set of teachings of Jesus, called the Christ, the anointed, the Messiah announced in the Judaic testament, the Redeemer announced by the prophets. Jesus, or Yahweh, the salvation, was born in Bethlehem, of the Virgin Mary, a descendant of the royal house of David, on December 25th of the year 749 of Rome, and died crucified in the year 33 of the modern era. With his story, the Bible came to consist of the Old and the New Testament, the former consisting of the history of Judaism and the latter the history of Christianity. The New Testament consists of: the Gospel, or the Good News, in the versions of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John; the Acts of the Apostles, a sequel of the Gospel of Luke; the Epistles of St. Paul, St. Peter, St. John, and St. Luke; and the Apocalypse of St. John.

The Gospel was a preached Word: before being read, it was heard. Jesus lived what he taught, and his apostles propagated his teachings, seeking to live in accordance with how He had taught and lived. The Gospels of Mathew, Mark, and Luke are called Synoptic Gospels because they are very similar to one another, but there are great differences among them too. Mathew, whose real name was Levi, a tax collector before being summoned to be part of the apostolic company, wrote his Gospel around the year 60. Mark, or John Mark, wrote a summary of Peter’s teachings in 63, but he also directly witnessed the life and activity of Jesus. Luke, the Greek, was not an eyewitness to the events, but he made use of the texts of Mark and Mathew. The Gospel of John, an apostle, one of the most intimate disciples of Jesus, was written more than thirty years after the first three.

The Gospels, considered an invaluable document on the life and teachings of Jesus, differ merely in secondary details. Mathew wrote in Palestine for Jewish readers, with countless citations of the Old Testament. Mark wrote for the pagans, attempting to highlight the miracles performed as extraordinary proof of the mission of Christ. Luke also wrote for the pagans, seeking to inspire them with the kindness and mercy of Jesus. John tried to reveal the divinity of Jesus and a little of his invisible reality, though taking care to show him as a man, in the reality of his acts and his preaching; he wanted to show that Jesus, who was the “Light”, was not received by the Jews as was his right, was disregarded by them in his true magnitude, was rejected and killed, but resurrected to reveal God’s glory; he related not only the facts but also his personal experience with Jesus, as a believer.

From the Gospel, the Sermon on the Mount deserved special distinction: “Blessed are those who have a poor man’s heart, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”; “Blessed are those who cry, for they will be comforted”; “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth”; “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled”; “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy”; “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God”; “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God”; “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”; “Blessed are you when people calumniate you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophet who were before you.” (Mt. 5:3-11). The Acts of the Apostles, a sequel of the Gospel of Luke, relate the events that marked the emergence of the Church, and which are the rise of Jesus, the Pentecost, the first preaching in Jerusalem and in Palestine, and the history of Paul, his conversion, his travels, his imprisonment, and his transfer to Rome where the story is abruptly interrupted, not mentioning the release of the apostle and his last trips before martyrdom; in the first part they deal primarily with the influence of the Holy Spirit in the development of the first Christian communities; and in the second, they show Paul as the great converter of pagans.

The Epistles of St. Paul, in order, are the following: The two to the Thessalonians talk of the resurrection of the dead and warn against idleness. The one to the Galatians explains what Christian freedom and the life of the faithful are. That to the Romans shows the impossibility of man to save himself through his own merit and the importance of faith, and places the fundaments of moral life in tolerance and charity. The two epistles to the Corinthians preach union and humility, protest against scandals and immorality, comment on marriage, virginity, the dress of women, communion, charity and the rights of the apostles. Those to the Ephesians, to the Philippians and to the Colossians, written in captivity, deal with, the first and the second, the ministry of Christ in the Church and give moral council, and the third is of great joy. That to Philemon implores forgiveness for a fugitive slave that had repented. The two to Timothy and the one to Titus are pastorals, and they teach how to deal with the different categories of the faithful. That to the Hebrews, which does not seem to be of his authorship, defends the Gospels as a whole.

The so called Catholic Epistles, because they are directed at a set of Churches, are the following: That of James, brother of Jesus, reflects on the Sermon on the Mount and contains advice on the moral life, which are pity, justice and charity. The first of Peter is noteworthy for its teaching on the joy of the baptized Christian and the union of the Christians in Jesus Christ; it is directed at the Christians who suffer because of their faith, and it reminds them of the example of the passion of Christ, exhorting them to sainthood and to the practice of all virtues correspondent to their states. The second of Peter, as well as that of Judas, have as their main objective to refute false doctrines and to encourage faithfulness to and love of God. The three of John encompass, the first, the central idea that God is love and light, and that the Christian shall conduct himself as a son of the light, fleeing from concupiscence, obeying the commandments, especially that of charity, and must repent sincerely, if he sins, and the two others are guidance for particular cases.

The Apocalypse, Revelation, by John at the end of his life, in the year 100, a letter directed to the Churches of Asia Minor, is considered the most mysterious book of the entire Bible. The Christians found themselves greatly anguished, hopeless about being able to achieve religious independence; they were waiting for deliverance from persecution by means of the glorious return of Christ, which did not occur. John sought to reassure and encourage them, talking about the inevitable opposition of good and evil in the world, and reminding them that the victory of God is decisive and certain, although achieved through suffering and death. It presents the reader with a series of visions, or revelations, very symbolic of reality. It is a supernatural message, veiled under symbols representing the past as well as the present and future, and it seeks to cover the time between the ascension of Jesus and his glorious return, presenting it as an inevitable time of suffering and struggle. Finally, it summarizes the Testaments, the Old as an expectation and the New as a model, encouraging the Christian to be the center of himself and to fulfill his destiny in the direction towards the greater center, God.

2.2.3 Islamism

Islamism, or Mohammedanism, encompasses the set of teachings that Mohammed reportedly received from God. Mohammed was born in Mecca, in the year 571, and died in Medina in the year 632. It is reported that at the age of forty, the angel Gabriel had appeared to him and communicated to him his spiritual mission towards the Arab nation. For fifteen years he elaborated a religious and social reform. He converted his family and numerous disciples. Persecuted, he was forced to flee in 622, a date that marks the beginning of the Moslem era, the Hegira, the migration. The war started. Mohammed, the winner, made a solemn pilgrimage to Mecca in 629, which he took over in 630. The resistant tribes began to adhere to the new regime, and Islamism consolidated itself as a threat to the Christian world, being halted in 732 in Poitiers, France, by Charles Martel, and it was expelled in the XIII century from Portugal and in the XV century from Spain.

The Alcoran, the Koran, the Book, is the sacred book of the Moslems, whose authorship Mohammed attributes to God himself, and which was kept by oral tradition and written after the death of the leader. It is divided in 114 chapters, or suras, subdivided in versicles. It is a set of dogmas and moral precepts, which are the basis of all Moslem civilization, the only source of law, of morals and of administration. It presents one dogma, the dogma of the Moslem religion, a penal code, a civil code, regulations of military order, the prescribed duties of the Moslems, norms for personal and social behavior, historical narratives that encompass many events related in the Bible, Old and New Testaments, some of them with divergent interpretations. It is the sacred book for a sixth of the human race, where one can find the cultural lines of the Western and Eastern worlds.

The Alcoran encompasses, in a general way, subjects of three kinds: some general considerations and recommendations of what should be avoided and of what should be sought. The general considerations are the ones that follow: Prostrate yourself in front of the Lord and exalt him. Take the Lord as your tutor and go towards Him. Disseminate the doings of the Lord. Work; the Lord is your relief, your goal, your refuge and your protection. He is the only God. Offer sacrifices. Fear God. God is capable of resurrecting you; tolerate the nonbelievers, for now! The believers are not guardians of the nonbelievers. Believe in the revelations. To God belongs the beginning and the end. Follow your vows. He who believes in his Lord, does not fear fraud nor oppression. Do not attribute to God that which you hate for yourself. Follow the right path. Observe prayer. Transmit the message. He who purifies himself, returns to God. Be devout. A soul is never given a greater burden than the one it can bear. Follow what was revealed. Remember that every soul is a hostage of his own actions. Earthly life is a pastime and a game.

It recommends what should be avoided: Do not oppress the orphan or repel the beggar. Wealth is worth nothing. Do not defame nor slander. Do not listen to trivialities. Do not blaspheme. Do not speak impulsively. Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not scoff. Do not recriminate. Do not seduce. Do not mislead. Do not prevaricate. Do not lust for the pleasures of earthly life that are conceded to others. Do not be vain. Do not try to impose yourself. Refrain your concupiscence, except with your wives and servants. Do not be insolent. Do not give false testimony. Do not kill your children for fear of indigence. Do not be adulterous. Do not kill. Avoid haughtiness. Avoid arrogance and quarrels. Do not be ungrateful. Do not harm anyone. Do not be false. Do not be corrupt. Do not be proud. Do not be artful nor perverse. Do not lead others astray from the path of God. Do not swear falsely. Do not deny God. Do not divide religion in sects. Do not be hypocritical. Do not be obscene. Do not be frivolous. Do not follow your passions. Do not disparage warnings. Do not be iniquitous. Do not be senseless nor flighty. Do not be an idolater.

It also recommends what must be sought: Purify yourself, be charitable and patient. Flee from rivalry. Be just, pious, perseverant and merciful. Seek peace. Listen patiently to the blind that seeks you, since remembering might do good to him. Warn and pray. Do what is good. Reproach yourself. Use reason and be stable. Submit yourself to the will of God. Be dignified. Honor your father and your mother and be patient and generous with them in old age, and for compassion, be humble in front of them. Be contrite. Be gentle. Be modest with your possessions; do not give or keep too much. Honor your commitments. Forgive and be compassionate. Speak softly. Be strong, courageous and loyal. Be perseverant. Love your relatives. Punish evil with an equal evil, and, if you can forgive, it is better. Reflect. Be honest. Be sincere. Be indulgent. Be innocent.

2.2.4 Spiritism

Spiritism encompasses the set of teachings about the nature, origin and destiny of the Spirits, as well as their relationships with the corporeal world. Its compiler was Allan Kardec (Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail), born on October 3rd 1804, in Lyon, France, and who died on March 31st 1869. Rivail, who was a disciple and assistant of Pestalozzi, a bachelor in languages and sciences, a medical doctor, only heard about table-turning in 1854, and only in the following year did he witness this phenomenon and others, of mediumistic writing. He then moved on to the systematic observation and methodical experimentation of these phenomena, convincing himself of the existence of an environmental invisible world. He received, from the aficionados of these phenomena, fifty notebooks of diverse communication and the task of organizing them. He also started to order the sessions he went to, in the sense of obtaining answers to questions that allowed him to know nature and the invisible world.

From the comparison and fusion of all the answers he obtained in the sessions, availing himself of more than ten mediums, Rivail got the material for his first work, “The Spirits’ Book”, published on April 18th 1857, under the name of Allan Kardec, reportedly his name in another incarnation, at the time of the Druids in Gaul, according to what his Protecting Spirit Z had communicated to him through a medium. The first revelation of the mission he had to perform, came on April 30th 1856, was made explicit on June 12th 1856, and was reaffirmed on May 6th 1857, and the success of his first work led him to publish the first magazine, an idea approved by a medium, on November 15th 1857, with the first issue being published on January 1st 1858. On April 1st 1858, the Parisian Society of Spiritism Studies was founded, and the promoting trips began in September 1860.

The works “The Book of Mediums” and “What is Spiritism” followed. The success of the books and conferences led to the well-known Act of Faith of Barcelona, on October 9th 1861, when the bishop ordered the public burning of other Spiritist publications, which ended up being excellent advertising for Spiritism, which became widespread from then on, mainly among blue collar workers. Other works by Allan Kardec followed: “Answers to the criticisms against Spiritism”,’’ in 1862; “The Gospel According to Spiritism”, in 1864; “Heaven and Hell”, in 1865; “The Genesis, Miracle and Premonition According to Spiritism”, in 1896, which was from a scientific point of view, the synthesis of his work. This is how the dogma of reincarnation, foreseen by the most ancient societies, according to historical records of all civilizations, was founded. In his own words, Spiritism is, at once, an observation science and a philosophical doctrine; as a practical science, it consists of the relationships that are established between us and the Spirits; as a philosophy, it encompasses all the moral consequences that emanate from these relationships.

“The Gospel According to Spiritism” presents a very rich introduction, which is: The objective of the work, which is to present a universal moral code. The authority of the spiritist doctrine, which comes from the universal control of the teachings of the spirits. Historical news about: the Samaritans, who were the protestants of the time; the Nazarene, who made vows to a perfect life; the Publicans, who became rich illicitly with tax collection; the Pharisees, which cultivated appearances above all else; The Scribes, who interpreted the law of Moses for the people; the Synagogues, assemblies, which were the buildings where the Jews met on Saturdays; the Sadducees, who were the materialists of the time; the Essenes, who formed a monastic moral and religious association; the Therapists, servers of God, who professed the principles of the Essenes, of the practice of all virtues, and with whom they formed the line uniting Judaism and Christianity.

Still in the introduction, he shows how Socrates and Plato were the precursors of Christianity and Spiritism: Socrates, like Christ, was accused and killed because he proclaimed the dogma of the unity of God, the immortality of the soul and of future life, and his words were also only known through the writings of others. The following are common assertions of their work: Man, incarnated soul, existed together with the true, the good and the beautiful, and remembers them, living tormented by the desire to return to them. The soul becomes perturbed when it serves the body and it finds peace when it contemplates its own essence. Wisdom consists in exercising oneself to die, to find the truth. The soul that does not prepare itself in one life, comes back to another body to finish its preparation, and as many times as necessary. The demons (Spirits) unite the Great Whole, communicating men with the divinity. If the soul is immortal, it is wiser to live with the aim of eternity.

The common points continue: There is the pure soul, truly immaterial, and the impure soul, which cannot elevate itself to the divine yet and stays in the places of its earthly abode. If death were dissolution, it would be a great profit to the evil ones. The soul dispossessed of the body carries the marks of its character; it is better to receive that to commit an injustice; it is better to be a good man. Either death is absolute destruction, or it is a passage to another place where the dead have the happiness of being together. It is never necessary to give retribution of injustice with injustice, nor to do evil to anyone. It is through the fruit that we recognize the tree, and the action through what it produces. Wealth is a great danger. The virtuous soul is worth more than offerings. It is love that brings peace. Virtue is a gift from God. We see much less our faults than those of others. It is necessary to treat the body and the soul, the whole. All men, since childhood, do much more evil than good. It is wise not to believe one knows what one does not know.

In its twenty eight chapters, “The Gospel” deals with, in order, the subjects that follow: The Law of God, its Christian summary and Spiritist practice. The kingdom of truth, now and forever. The different states of the soul in error. The need to be born again to be able to see the kingdom of God. The blessedness of the afflicted. Consolation. The poor of spirit. The ones who have a pure heart. The ones who are gentle and peaceful. The ones who are merciful. To love one’s neighbor as oneself. The love towards one’s enemies. Good deeds without ostentation. The honor owed to one’s father and mother. The fact that there is no salvation outside of charity. The impossibility to serve two lords. Perfection. There are many who are summoed but few who are chosen. The faith that moves mountains. The last shall be first. The false Christians and the false prophets. The non separation of what God has united. Of there being nothing hidden that should not be revealed. To help oneself in order to be helped. To freely give what was freely received. To ask in order to obtain. To know how to ask. To know how to pray.

2.2.5 In summary

The roots of revealed affirmative theology can be summarized as follows: The fear of the unknown gave rise to a feeling of religiosity. Tradition recorded the efforts of the individuals and human groups in terms of explaining the world and their presence in the world. In opposition to the knowledge of God as the basis of the knowledge of the world, there was revealed knowledge, guided by the light of faith, supreme criteria of any ulterior rational elucidation. Revelation was present in the polytheistic fetishistic mythical explanations, cosmological and/or anthropomorphic, and in the anthropological monotheist explanations, but the data that proved them were lost in time. The most successful attempt to implement the revealed dogma was Judaism, which sees in Christ only one of the prophets and still awaits the Messiah and, in his words, salvation. Islamism took the word of Christ and, with it, all its Jewish heritage. Spiritism made all this historical wealth the reality of its belief and it became the cornerstone of revealed affirmative theology.

2.3 The roots of negative theology, mystical theology

Can the human being, besides the feeling of religiosity, resulting from fear of the unknown, and besides the permanent desire to communicate with the divine, resulting from the need to be sure about the origin and destiny of the world and of himself in the world, have the capacity to communicate directly and in an indescribable way, with the unknown, with certainty, with absolute truth? This type of communication with the absolute is direct, personal, wordless. It is a contact of the individual with the mystery of the world, which arouses an inner enlightenment of the soul, which makes the essence and existence of divine reality known, without being able to enunciate it. It is an unspeakable super-knowledge, a direct passage, immediate, from the immanent to the transcendent, a plunge of the person into his own being, which is, necessarily, a plunge into total reality, into the absolute consciousness of the mystery.

The effort to understand the mystical ecstasy led to a philosophical-religious doctrine according to which perfection consists in a kind of contemplation, which reaches ecstasy and mysteriously joins man and divinity. Therefore, mysticism, at its highest level, that of ecstasy, can be considered the spiritual activity that aspires to achieve the union of the soul with the divinity, be it through asceticism, through devotion, through love or contemplation. All the great religions, and also some philosophies of religious tendencies, have registered manifestations of the mystics. In the mystical ecstasy, the soul participates in the divinity, establishing with it a unity of life. Sensibility stops being obscure, stops being an impediment, and, enlightened, transforms itself and enraptures intuitive intelligence. God, being so superior and transcendent, although he is given so many denominations, man can only know of him, the supreme knowledge, through supreme ignorance, through the abandonment of verbal expression, through love.

Mystical ecstasy has no history, it consists of one or several acts of transcendence which, by their own nature, are transitory. Mystical thought, however, belongs to history, it is a reflecting on mystical ecstasy, which is original and creator, it elaborates itself at depths inaccessible before and after it, not being therefore connected either to the past moment nor to the future moment of he who lives it; each mystical ecstasy is actually totally disconnected from the previous ones, from the point of view of memory or sequence. Mystical thought, however, can be historically analyzed; the texts that inform us of the mystic ecstasy can be examined, as verbal translations that they are of the creating thought. Mystical ecstasy is unspeakable, since that which cannot be spoken of must be silenced; and the examination itself of mystical thought becomes senseless because it is the examination of the verbal translation of the unspoken, therefore, of a myth.

It can be concluded that it is mythical to talk about mysticism; and these two moments of consciousness, the mythical and the mystical, can alternate themselves, in an infinite sequence, parallel to affirmative living, natural or revealed, of the problem of the origin and destiny of the universe. The myth, fable, tradition under the guise of allegory about a great natural happening, historical, philosophical or mystical, the symbolic expression of a fact, gave rise to mythology, which encompasses the wealth of legends that refer to the divinities and the study of this wealth, its origin, meaning and development. For the layperson, the account of mystical thought is a myth, since mystical ecstasy is for him something fabulous, which he supposes has happened, but of which he can have no clear idea, since it is unspeakable, leaving him the alternative of believing, interpreting or repelling.

In allegory, there are two aspects to be considered: the fictitious one, that is, what is related did not happen; the real one, that is, at least the account is real. It means, therefore, that it is the account of something that could have happened if reality coincided with the paradigm of reality. The myth expresses the supra-temporal and permanent, that which could have happened or could happen and that, as a paradigm, is good for all times. The myth fixes the essence of a cosmic situation or of a structure of the real, becoming, thus, necessary to seek, beyond the time of the accounted, the archetype, that which is always present. Mystical ecstasy is the direct vision, personal, nontransferable, of what the myth tries to be an example of, relate, make present, accessible to all individuals. The pre-Socratics considered the myth preceded by logos, both being found in language, admitting the mythical narrative as an envelopment of philosophical truth.

Plato considered the myth a way of expressing certain truths that escape ratiocination, and developed the doctrine of the world, of the soul and of God, and part of the theory of ideas, availing himself of this type of expression. Sallust, a neo-Platonic, admitted the role of myths as representing the gods and their acting in the world; he distinguished the theological myths, which treat of the gods in their essence, the physical ones, that try to explain the way of acting of the gods, the psychical ones, which explain the acting of the soul, the material ones, which seek to describe the nature of the gods and of the world, and the mixed ones, used in the teaching and practice of initiation rituals. In antiquity and in the middle ages, people tried to understand the message, the explaining power of the myths. During the Renaissance, the interest in the problem of the reality and degree of truth of a myth was renewed.

In modern times, we still have, on the one side, the skeptics, engaged in denying the historical utility of the myths, and, on the other, the phenomenologists, who consider the myth, at least as such, a historical truth that deserves to be considered. The myth is, after all, a way of thinking that has its own characteristics and that conditions, or at least, expresses, certain forms of basic human life. Mythology registers a way of thinking that represents one of the ways the Absolute reveals itself in the historical process. The myth, an account of a divine revelation, is a cultural supposition, no matter that it is made up and its content are false; it is real and true as datum for understanding the social and cultural structures of the communities. Myth and mystical living go together, inevitably. The mystical living, when transformed in reported mystical thought, that is, myth, can be examined through the texts that inform on mystical thought, and it might be considered true or a product of creative thought. In this wealth of knowledge, we will find the assertions of theosophy and the accounts of the great Christian and Spiritist mystics.

2.3.1 Theosophy

Theosophy, wisdom of God, of a mystical and intuitive character, is presumably inspired by God in the spirit of the theosophist. Its context presents doctrines of Hindu origin and doctrines of mystery; there is a theoretical part and a practical part, aiming to transform the world through the fraternal union of all human beings. >Madame Blavatsky summarizes it in her work “The Secret Doctrine, the Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy”. Helena Petrovna Hahn, was born at midnight of July 30th/31st (August 12th in the Russian calendar) of 1831, in Ekaterinslav, and died on May 8th, 1891. She was endowed with psychic abilities (mediumship), and she declared to have had her first physical encounter with the Master, the Oldest Brother, or Adept, her permanent protector, in 1851, becoming from then on his faithful disciple. She received messages from the Masters. She studied in monasteries in the Himalayas, and in 1873, traveled to the United States in order to work in the mission for which she had been prepared: to assert the existence of a very ancient science of the most profound laws of life; to demonstrate it, in practice, through her own powers.

Madame Blavatsky founded, in 1875, with the help of Henry Steel Olcott, the Theosophical Society. In 1879, they transferred themselves to India, from where the Society expanded itself to the world. From 1887 to 1891, she was in England. In 1885 she received, from the Master, the plan of the Secret Doctrine, edited for the first time in 1888. In the Introduction, some interesting information should be noted: About Egotism, it is said that it should be absorbed by Buddhi, the faculty of cognizing, in order to achieve Mukti, the freedom from the trammels of Maya, illusion. It asserts that esoteric philosophy shows the existence of a single root for all religions, it proves the need of a Divine and Absolute Principle in Nature and refuses the Gods of the so called monotheist religions, created by man at his own image and resemblance, sad and impious caricatures of the unknown Eternal. It denounces the intentional disappearance of many religious works. It promises sources ignored by the common person and some ignored by the priests themselves.

In the Introduction moreover, she explains that the principles of theosophy have been cautiously revealed and taught throughout time, and that the founders of the religions were all messengers of the great truths which were orally revealed to humanity at its beginning, preserved and perpetuated through personal transmission, from one generation of Initiates to the next, and only in part taught to the multitudes. The source of all religions and philosophies currently known had been forgotten and lost by humanity for centuries, but it was finally found. The Secret Doctrine is an explanation of everything that can be given to the world in this century. The work is based on the Stances, annals of a people that ethnologists do not know about, written in an unknown language and revealed through Occultism, which was concealed by the Fanaticism (Christian and Islamic) and by Materialism, and only Wizardry and Witchcraft were disseminated. Truth, however, can never be destroyed since the sage remains calm between the two extremes and trusts eternal justice.

In the first volume, the work deals with Cosmogenesis. It asserts that life is oneness, eternal, invisible, but omnipresent. Since the beginning of what constitutes the heritage of mankind, the Divinity was recognized and considered under its only philosophical aspect, the Universal Movement, having as permanent witnesses Light, Heat and Humidity. There is the intra-cosmic movement, eternal and ceaseless, and the cosmic movement, perceptible, finite and periodical. The Cosmos, the Numen, has nothing to do with causal relations of the phenomenal world. The Essence, oneness and unknown, expires and inspires the world, making it appear and disappear, eternally, and our current universe is nothing but one of these expirations. All souls are fundamentally identical to the Universal Superior Soul, they are sparks of it. We live in the forth great period, and our human forms already existed in Eternity as astral or ethereal prototypes, which were brought into objective existence and terrestrial life by the Spiritual Beings, who developed, from their own essence, the protoplasmic forms of the future Egos.

In the third volume, the work deals with Anthropogenesis. There was the simultaneous development of Seven Human Groups, in seven different parts of the Globe; the astral body was born before the physical body and served as a model to it; man preceded all mammals of the animal kingdom, including the anthropoids. There were five continents: the first, the Holy and Imperishable Land, the cradle of the first man and abode of the last divine mortal, chosen as seed for the future human race, is a sacred and unknown island; the second, the Hyperborean continent, which received the Second Race; the third, Lemuria, and the forth, Atlantis, which disappeared; the fifth, Europe. There were several changes in the world map, the last notable one 12,000 years ago. Physical man was, originally, a colossal pre-tertiary giant, and he already existed 18,000,000 years ago. Our Race is the Fifth, but the Sixth is already being formed, in America, where it has already started silently, and it will quickly free itself from the shackles of matter, including those of the flesh, and it will slowly prepare the Seventh, and last Race.

2.3.2 Christian mysticism

Christian mysticism presents, from the figure of Christ himself until our times, a vast wealth of knowledge. Once mystical ecstasy is unspeakable, we can only report on what is known of mystical thought and of the life of those who lived such moments. We have chosen four quite different personalities who have registered the meaning given to such moments. They are, chronologically: Saint Augustine, Aurelius Augustinus, born on November 13th 354, in Tagaste, present day Algeria, son of Patricius, African pagan who had himself baptized at the time of his death, and of a Christian woman, Monica, the saint, and who died on August 28th 430; Saint Catharine of Siena, who was born in 1347, in Siena, Italy, daughter of Thiago and Lapa Benincasta, and who died on April 29th 1380; Saint Teresa of Jesus, who was born in Avila, in 1515, daughter of Dom Alonso Sanchez de Cepeda and Beatriz de Ahumada, and who died in 1582; Saint John of the Cross, who was born in 1542, in Avila, son of Gonzalo de Yepes and Catalina Alvares, and who died from December 13th to14th of 1591.

Saint Augustine, sensual and impetuous, gentle and mystic, lived among the pleasures of the world, academic Manichaeism and skepticism; he was attracted to Neo-Platonism and at around the age of 30, embraced the Catholic faith. There followed the search for truth in the new faith, his conversion, his baptism. He began to meditate on Genesis and on the allegoric meaning of creation. The following words are his: ... “We therefore see all Your creatures because they exist. They exist because You see them. Externally we see that they exist, and within we see that they are good. You, however, saw them made, you saw when and where they should be made. We are now moved to do well, after our hearts had conceived of You, inspired by Your Spirit, while in the former time, forsaking You, we were moved to do evil. But Thou, my God, who is the only good, has never ceased to do good. By your grace, we have done some good works, but they are not eternal. After having done them we hope to rest in Your great sainthood. But Thou, being the Good, needing no other good, are ever at rest, because You Yourself are rest”.

Saint Catharine of Siena, considered the mother of her time, was a mystic from an early age. The following has been recorded about her existence: at the age of six she had an extraordinary vision of Jesus, the divine Master, who, covered in magisterial paraments, stood in midair, majestically, over the church of the Dominican priests; since the age of 15 she had great mystical moments and supernatural powers of reading into the consciousness and guiding people; at the age of 28, in Pisa, she received from Christ the painful gift of the holy wounds or stigmata; two years before her death, she started to speak during the moments of ecstasy, and her words were registered. Her main work was to fight for the unity and moralization of the church of her time. The following are the words of God, through the Saint: “... In the same way you contracted the infection of death in the sin of the first to the last man - so all who obey will have life through the new Man, the loving Jesus Christ, placed by me as a bridge, since the road to Heaven had been broken. Walking through such road, which is good, straight, clear and true, through obedience you shall pass through the darkness of the world without harming yourself. At the end I will open the door of heaven to you with the obedience of a child.”

Saint Teresa of Jesus, virtuous since childhood, but very humane and anchored to the reality of life, tempted but resisting, was stricken with great infirmities virtually throughout her entire life. She developed a technique for praying, in four degrees. She saw Christ, and describes him thus: “It is not a radiance which dazzles. It is a soft whiteness, an infused radiance which causes the greatest delight in the eyes without wearing them. The same I say about the brightness in which I see such divine beauty. It is a light so different from any that there is on earth, that the brightness of our sun seems quite dim, in comparison to the light that is presented to our sight. Those who have seen it once will not wish to open their eyes again. It is as if we were to look at a very clear stream, in a bed of crystal, reflecting the sun’s rays, and then to see a very muddy stream, in an earthy bed and in a foggy day. It is not the sun that it seen, nor any other such light. In sum, it is a light that shows itself to be true, and that of this world seems artificial. It is a light which does not know night. It always shines and nothing can obfuscate it”.

Saint Teresa described such moments: “When inside I felt myself to be with Christ, or even when reading, I used unexpectedly to experience a consciousness of the presence of God, of such a kind that I could not possibly doubt that He was within me, and I was wholly engulfed in Him. This was not any kind of vision, I believe it is what is called mystical theology. The soul is suspended in such a way that it seems to be completely outside itself. The will loves, memory, I think, is almost lost, the intellect does not reason, however it is not lost; however, I say it again, it does not work. It is amazed at the extent of all it can reach. God wills it to realize that it understands nothing of what His Majesty makes it see and feel. Previously to this grace, I had experienced a kind of tenderness which, in part, I think can be sought. It is a satisfaction that is not wholly of the senses, nor of spirit. All is the gift of God”.

Saint Teresa explains: “1. In some visions, the glory, happiness and consolation exceed so much those that the Lord grants in others, that I am amazed at the difference of levels of the same happiness, still in this life. Sometimes the plenitude of this joyfulness infused by God in a vision or in a rapture is such that it seems impossible there can be anything more on earth to be desired. 2. One night... I thought I was in heaven, and the first persons I saw there were my father and mother. 3. Another time... a strong impulse seized me without my realizing why. It seemed as if my soul wanted to leave the body, because it could no longer contain itself. I did not believe myself capable of waiting for so great a blessing. The impulse was so exceedingly strong and irresistible that, it seemed to me, different from the other times... I see a dove over my head, very different from those we see on earth. It had no feathers in its wings, but some little shells which emitted a great brilliance. 4. On another occasion I saw Our Lady. 5. Friar Pedro Ibanez has sometimes appeared to me in very great glory, and told me a number of things”.

And Saint Teresa goes on: “1. One day, when I was hearing mass, at the elevation of the Host I saw Christ on the cross. 2. On several occasion I saw them (members of the Company of Jesus) in heaven, with white banners in their hands. 3. I saw the most sacred humanity in far greater glory than I had ever seen before. I saw it in the bosom of the Father... I have held this same vision on three other occasions: I think it is the most sublime vision which the Lord has granted me grace to see... 4. ...on many occasions the Lord has often pleased that I should see Him in the Host. 5. Once, when I was about to take the communion, I saw with the eyes of the soul, more clearly than ever I could with those eyes of the body, two devils of the most hideous aspect... 6. ... a man... Who had died without making his confession... I saw many devils taking hold of him and they seemed to be having fun with him, torturing him... 7. I saw him ascend to heaven (a priest who had died), with the greatest glory, and the Lord went with him. 8. Our Lord has frequently, upon my request, delivered souls from grave sins, and has brought others to greater perfection”.

Saint John of the Cross had a poor and difficult childhood; a humanistic and artisan’s up bringing; sacerdotal life; a reformer of and advisor to monasteries; envied, persecuted, arrested; educator and mystic; great collaborator of Saint Teresa. Let us look at his most significant explanations about mysticism: spiritual people often have representations of objects supernaturally perceived by the senses, for example, they see saints, good and evil angels, extraordinary lights and splendors, they hear mysterious words, they smell very faint perfumes, taste subtle flavors, and delightful touches; but they should flee from all this, since it can come both from either the devil or from God, and this is not the most elevated form of communication with God. For the same reason, they should reject the natural imaginary representations, under the form of figures and images; only by doing so will they be able to leave the path of meditation and begin the path of contemplation and of the spirit; it is necessary to learn to be empty of all things in order to see God.

Proceeding with the explanations of Saint John of the Cross: God offers supernatural visions in order to gently guide the soul towards the utmost knowledge, but the soul should refuse them and show itself ready for purely spiritual communication, since it has the capacity of having an infinite good. Even when such visions come from God, they can be mistakenly interpreted, either by the soul, or by certain spiritual masters, which can cause much harm to the soul. What occurs with visions also occurs with revelations, with locutions, or inner words, and with feelings, all of them spiritual. There are four kinds of goods in which the will can rejoice, which are: those that move us to devotion; those that incite us to serve God; those that guide us to Him; those that lead us to perfection. God does not like to be asked questions.

2.3.3 Spiritistic mysticism

Spiritistic mysticism possess, in essence, all the mysticism of humanity. It registers all the mystical occurrences of the Old Testament, it dwells on the mysticism of Christ and of the Christians. It recalls that there is a mystical science, whose authors join hands, an embryonic science at the beginning of Christianity and that developed later on, reaching unheard of heights. Saint Dionisius Areopagita, a Judge of Areopago, converted by Saint Paul, was a bishop of Athens and died a martyr at the end of the first century; he proclaimed the general law of mystical theology, launching its basis. John of Ruysbroeck, The Admirable, was born in 1293 and died in 1381, in Belgium; he developed and lived the thought of Dionisius; in his work The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage “he truly burns as a fire and flies as an eagle; his spirit releases a scream and is swept up in the vertigo of the highest mystical states”.

And many others follow: Saint Francis of Assisi, a Shadow of Christ, was born in 1182 and died in 1226, he received the miracle of the holy wounds or stigmata of Christ. Saint Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor, was born in Tuscany in 1221 and died in 1279, a cardinal. The Blessed Angela was born in Foligno, in 1260 and died in 1309, the Blessed, Franciscan. Johann Eckhart, was born in Germany, in 1260 and died in 1327, a Dominican. Jean Tauler, the Enlightened theologian, was born in Strasbourg, Alsace, in 1300, and died in 1361, a Dominican. Also Saint Teresa of Jesus. And Saint John of the Cross, who described the journey of the ascetic spirit to the soul’s unification with God. And, along this line there is Pietro Ubaldi, the closest example we have, in time and space; he was born on August 18th, 1886, in Foligno, Italy, and disincarnated on February 29th, 1972, in Brazil.

Pietro Ubaldi, in the region near Assisi, had contact with the world full of spirituality of Saint Francis. He renounced his fortune and began to live as a teacher. In 1931 he began his gigantic work on universal phenomenology, analyzing at once, his own development and the development of humanity. In 1951 he came to Brazil, certain that it was the most propitious country for the great transformational movement of the Earth, towards the new civilization of the third millennium. He proclaimed the existence of a method to arrive at God, with characteristics that repeat themselves, showing that behind personal achievements there is a general phenomenon. The mystics are souls in a hurry to arrive at God, they are propelled by a vertiginous desire, the desire for unification.

Pietro Ubaldi explains that in mysticism, there is the phenomenon of absorption of the inferior I in the superior I, through the dark night of the senses. Life’s center of gravity is dislocated to a hyper-biological world, located beyond our capacity to conceive. Then there is the phenomenon of the trans-humanization in God, and the soul is enraptured. It is a super-rational phenomenon, because it is the transformation of consciousness; in its first step, it overcomes and annuls reason, which can classify the phenomenon but cannot feel it. It is repose without beginning nor end, of Boëhme, the eternal silence, of Eckhart, the tranquility and silence of the night, of Saint John of the Cross. The mystic excludes reason, not that he kills it, but he transmutes it. The process is progressive: vibration, resonance, synch, detachment, purification, affinity, attraction, love, unification.

Pietro Ubaldi clarifies that at the apex of development of the mystical phenomenon lies, thus, the union, a procedure of love, the basis of life. In sexual love the being, painfully divided in two, anxiously explores, each day, the work of reconstructing the unity through the imperfect, unstable and insidious means of human love. Mysticism living leads to the liberation from such limitations, it reconstructs the integrity and immensity of the I; it is the conquest, in God, of true love, universal for all beings, which is a truly continuous contact, internal and profound. The ecstasy is a tremendously active state and supremely conscious; it is the state of perceiving the unification; it is the last phase of the mystical phenomenon, the crowning of the ascetic way, the vertex reached sensitively; it is the conscious revelation of the union, it is the supreme synthesis of all art, because it is the synthesis of all conception and of all beauty.

Pietro Ubaldi describes his experience as thus: ... “one arrives at the union with God after having understood, in a conceptual synthesis, the organic working of the universe, merging and identifying oneself with the universal soul! ... Then, my spirit bursts in supreme madness and I am enveloped in the luminous slipstream of Christ and in it I dissolve myself. ...Through love the mystery of union comes about. ...It is, truly, the supreme maturing of a soul – this that I tell you ... I have in my eyes a golden powder; in the ears inebriating music; in all the senses supreme exultation ... I am ablaze but do not consume myself; I burn but do not annihilate myself ... We are beyond time and space, in the infinite. Human measures are of no use to us ... I guide myself to the center, from sphere to sphere, in a song of love. Gliding along the symphony of phenomena and the theory of beings, my spirit has risen to God”.

2.3.4 In summary

The roots of negative theology, mystical, theology can be summed up as follows: The fear of the unknown gave rise to a feeling of religiosity, and tradition has registered the efforts of the individuals and human groups, in the sense of explaining the world and their presence in the world, efforts that are of two natures, knowledge of God based on knowledge of the world, natural, and knowledge of God revealed by Him. To other individuals, however, a path was given, God made himself present in them, without words and without the need of understanding, the mystical ecstasy, that allows one to live, directly, the unification with the divine. The spirit abandons the body and sets off on the path, emerges from the depths of its being, overcomes the pain of the world, and reappears at another level, expands itself, harmonizes itself, unites itself with God through love.

2.4 Seeking a uniﬁed theology

If intuition, direct knowledge, interior, that the individual has of himself, passes, necessarily, through the idea of the existence of God, and if the nature of theological thought has given rise to natural affirmative theologies, revealed affirmative theologies and negative theologies, mystical, it must be concluded that the human being is a depository, in his intimateness, of all the truth that, for some reason, he does not allow to be revealed to himself. It must be assumed that to make conscious that which one knows in the core of his own being threatens the individual so much, that he himself establishes a control over the manifestation of that which really participates of his essence. It is reasonable to consider the Adamic vision of the naked body and the act of covering it to be only symbolic of the vision of the naked truth each human being is a depository of, and tries to cover up with the variegated garments of rational dependencies and irrational inferior dependencies.

If what we are proposing makes any sense, or even if, it makes complete sense, then what the human being fears so much might be the mere challenge of living fully each moment, facing mutability, the transitoriness in the eternal, which would make him permanently united to God. Freed from all illusion, he would possess perfect health, sainthood, and could no longer avail himself of excuses not to fully realize all his potentialities. His stage would be the here and now of each moment, with all the responsibilities of being, and all communication would be lively and ecstatic, the paradise of relations. Would the human being be able to live fully all the time? What would be the condition without which he would not bear to be always fulfilled, always happy? Would this condition not be the simple and incontestable capacity of becoming responsible for being?

As far as the data available, the first written record we have of the individual’s struggles with himself dates back to 3,000 B.C., and comes from Egypt. It is ”The Beginning and the End”, of Hermes Trismegistus (three times the great), Thoth in Egypt, Hermes in Greece, Mercury in Rome, Enoch for the Jewish, Odin in Scandinavia, messenger of Osiris, who holds that: “There are seven masters, there are seven messages. This is the first of both. Amen, you know, let us recall. The voice is for the ear, listen to the voice of the master. The principle is the seven. 1. The whole is mental, the whole is in you. 2. As it is above, it is below, as the exterior, the interior, as the micro, the macro. 3. The whole vibrates, it is mobile. 4. It is a union of two, the whole is dual, it has two identical opposite poles. 5. It is rhythm, everything reflows, oscillates, right, left, the rhythm is the balance. 6. The whole is cause, in the cause the effect. 7. The whole is infinite genesis, ad vitam aeternam.”

He proceeds: “The whole creates the universe, the whole is father-mother of the universe. Every word is a mantra, every thought a vibration. It transmutes, from degree to degree, from pole to pole, from vibration to vibration. Transmute,find the vibration,itisalovevibration. Centerthepoles, polar biorhythm. Master the image, use superior force, vibrate lightly. Turn on the superior, order the inferior, participate without resisting. Use knowledge, practice, it is strong. Work within the law and its movement, operate without a mandate. The law is the cause, it is the karma. Luck misfortune is the law in its two poles, cause and effect, pos active and neg active. Return to the one knowing the tri, perfect trinity. Alchemy is purification. The key to alchemy, to chemistry: transmute the energy, the solid to liquid, the liquid to air, the air in fire. Achieve the fire, you will be you; fire is spirit; breathe the air, transmute into the flame of the prana. Fire is love; fire is gold; fire is pure. Illuminate, this is the philosophical calculation.”

And more: “Orient, salt impedes telepathy. Create through the prana the water seven times from one vase to another. The whole is the sustenance of beings; discover the simple, the whole is without name. Unite with the whole, breathe: inhale at seven, exhale at seven. Everything is complete, open each arm, levitate. Know yourself and you will know the whole and the gods. The whole is and is not at the same time. You are light; men are mortal gods, the gods are immortal men. The opposites attract each other, similar things repel each other; to desire is to attract, not to desire is to attain. Continue the trip; listen to the sound of the one, the song of the sphere. Capture the channel, meditate; you wear the garments to go down and take it off to go up. The emerald tablet says: the whole is cosmic consciousness. The universe is in the whole, the whole is in all things. The whole advances and recedes and finds the balance; man walks as the wave, counterbalances, finds the constant true. To assert the truth is already to create; listen and watch, stay silent until the moment to act. Search for the light, lucidity, theory is practice. Put your foot on the path, it is in all places”.

And he concludes: “For the pure all things are pure; the model is the child. Creation, the farther it is from the center, the more limited, the nearer it is the freer it is. Wake up; remember that you are a man, that you came from a star, that you are in a star, that you will go to another star; land softly the messengers guide. Father, guide your children. I am the alpha and the omega, the old and the new, the one and the Om. Remember your first love, love; life is tender”. After reviewing this rare pearl of knowledge, coming from the god of communication, inventor of alphabetical and numerical writing, it is impossible not to relive, in contemplation and ecstasy, the orphic mystery of the union with a far near Eurydice, that can be expressed in another jewel, in the lotus Om-mani-padme-hum, I am in you and you are in me. But we must go on in our intent.

Pristine theology, hermetic, Chaldaic and orphic at the same time, by searching for similarities among many theological beliefs, shows that the ancients (5th century BC) possessed a wisdom that has been influencing humanity concurrently with the disseminated theologies and that is found in theosophy, the wisdom of God, supposedly coming directly from Him, mystical theology par excellence, of the whole truth. On the other hand, dialectic theology, or theology of crisis, defends the absolute separation between the world and God, between the finite and the infinite, the inextricable distance between the temporal and the eternal; it teaches that this distance can only be overcome with the help of God, and that reason should not be abandoned when it proceeds from God, which allows man to talk about the divinity, to theologize; having as an axiom revelation, it asserts that theology cannot justify itself or limit its field in a sense analogous to that of the other sciences.

For dialectic theology, the following are characteristics of theology: electing truth for being already valid; not being a branch of historical science, although its sources and documents are those of human history; not occupying itself with general truth, philosophical, mundane, limited; not being a reconciliation with God nor a path to it, whether scholastic or sacramental, but a service to the word of God. Such considerations make dialectic theology a negative theology, in the sense of being more of a practice than a set of dogmas. As to radical theology, without God, it presents two distinct aspects, the assertion, of the atheist, that God does not exist, and the assertion, of the negativist, that God is dying, or has died culturally, because men have stopped believing in Him, which means a fatal blow to a certain system of values.

Radical theology, nihilism, enables the transmutation of all values, beginning with the de-divinization, the de-Christianization, and the consequent secularization of the world, which results from the fact that the human being allows himself to make judgment on the existence or non-existence of God. It breaks with the tradition of the Scriptures and leads to the search of re-establishing a community of faith, independent of tradition and in consonance with the situation of man nowadays, who has killed God. However, in denying the continuity of a sterile tradition, because it is hermetic, a theology without God, which attempts to express a real situation without palliatives, leads to the eternal return, to the purity of the ancestral myth of the eternal return to the origins, to the initial challenge, to the manifestation of the courage of being. And, curiously, seeking to re-establish a community of faith, it encounters with the theosophical proposal of creating a universal brotherhood.

Systematic theology seeks to interpret religious forms as cultural forms, becoming the meeting point of pristine theology, of dialectic theology and of radical theology. In absolute union, in absolute separation or in absolute denial, the human being always revolves around the idea of God, an inalienable symbol of his existence. Systematic theology presents itself, thus, as the theology of the situation, which refers to the current historical moment and to the human situation as such. It highlights the content of religious faith as it is immediately lived by the individual, becoming existential in the sense that every religious experience is, in the end, existential, at the same time that it is philosophical and systematic. It considers as theological only those enunciations that treat their object in terms of the themes of being or not being.

We thus reach the conclusion that theology is the systematic reflection on the Absolute in relation to our being, what it sought is the integration of essence and existence, of infinite absolute and of finite, of eternity and of temporality. The habitual hypothesis, present in the theologies, is that a oneness principle, generally denominated God, transformed itself, in its intimateness, into diverse elements, coordinated in hierarchies and functions that reinforce this unity, preserving the same scheme in all the smaller individuations, where the statement that every human being is made in the image and resemblance of God, who is his origin and his destiny.

In sum, according to the theologies, the human being is left with five alternatives after death. The first, of materialism, is of nothingness. The second, of pantheism, is of absorption into the universal whole. The third, of the Churches, is the continuity of individuality with a fixed destiny. The fourth, of Spiritism, is the continuity of individuality with the possibility of infinite progress. The fifth, of theosophy, is the evolution of the whole in the bosom of God. Our position is to respect the freedom of each individual to believe in what he needs, according to his developmental moment, and to understand the fact that there is no consistent proof in favor or against any of the alternatives mentioned above, in detriment of the others, except in the private experience of each individual.

3 PHILOSOPHICAL FUNDAMENTS

Deduction, indirect knowledge, but also interior such as intuition, that the individual can have of himself, passes, necessarily, through general data to arrive at a particular conclusion, in the search of unity of thought. This is an imperious dialectical requirement of his philosophising, which seeks to contribute to clarify the relation between individual interior fulfilment and the external fulfilment of his acting in the world. In the philosophical fundaments of the Analytical-phenomenological-existential psychotherapeutic Theory, esoteric, interior, we intend, in an intuitive-rational perspective of the rational-deductive condition of existing, to unify the data of the philosophies. We have tried to deduce the universality of the spirit through the conjugation of formal logic with dialectic knowledge and the consequent penetration into the true meaning of the infinite unity of the universe.

Since deduction, indirect knowledge, but also interior such as intuition, that the individual can have of himself, passes, necessarily, through general data to arrive at a particular conclusion, it is indispensable to know the existing modalities of approaching the theme. Dealing with the human being, his existence, nature and attributes, as well as his relation with the world, philosophy, love of knowledge, can be rational, knowledge of the human being based on reason, or intuitive, knowledge of the human being based on intuition, or phenomenological, knowledge of the human being based on participation. Thus, philosophy, has at all times, and even in the core of each individual type of elaboration of each philosopher or philosophical school, brought with it, if not explicitly, at least in an underlying way, the germ of its opposite, manifesting itself at times rational, at times intuitive, at times phenomenological.

The nature of philosophical knowledge has given rise to different philosophies, as many as there are cultural manifestations of humanity. There is an opposition between rational philosophy, knowledge of the human being and of the human group based on intuition, and phenomenological philosophy, knowledge of the human being and of the human group based on participation. In fact, however, rational philosophy avails itself abundantly of considerations of intuitive and phenomenological origin, and intuitive and phenomenological philosophies seek to rationally explain intuitions and participations. Furthermore, some problems that arise in rational philosophy do not appear in intuitive and phenomenological philosophies, and vice versa. One can observe a hierarchy in philosophical knowledge, which goes from rational philosophy, passing through intuitive philosophy, to phenomenological philosophy, which places itself above the conditions of dependency on classical philosophical dialectics and sends us to the aesthetic dimension as such.

3.1 The roots of rational philosophy

It can be said that the human being, forever, insecure in face of the hazards of nature, has developed a feeling of fear of the unknown that, besides giving rise to a feeling of religiosity, has also given rise to the perception of his capacity of knowing, through reflection, the power of the laws of nature, to symbolize them and to seek protection in their logic. Philosophical tradition, under the form of postulated principles, has perpetuated the systems and the schools. The ancient civilizations registered their philosophies, each one presenting their individualistic version, with uncertain deduction, confusing derivations mixed with more of less imprecise corollaries. The school, generally local, sometimes national, was always known as a kind of contract, of fraternity, between the masters and their attendees. At the end of the ancient world, the several schools became intermingled in large syncretism, leading, necessarily, to the reflections of an anthropological nature that followed.

3.1.1 In ancient thought

In the period called Cosmological, rational philosophy found firm expression in the Greek miracle, which foreshadowed the Germanic miracle at the end of the Middle Ages. The free pursuit of knowledge strengthened the spirits, guaranteed the climate for reflection. From free thinking resulted the different conceptions of the world and of life. Regarding the first question of the primordial sole substance, “arche”, the Ionians tried out some answers of a cosmological nature: for Thales, the oneness principle is the state of fluidity and humidity; for Anaximander, it is either a mixture of all substances or the infinite, a qualitative undetermined substance; for Anaximenes, it is the gaseous state. It must be considered, later on, in Pythagoras, the assertion that all of reality is structured by a regularity that can be expressed in numbers.

Also in the same period, from the pantheist conception of the world of Xenophanes, Parmenides of Elea arrived at his conceptualization of substance: what it is, is eternal humidity, without beginning nor end, it cannot proceed from the non being, which is ineffable and unthinkable; if what is, is, everything that is to come is illusion. Because it gives relevance to thought, as an instrument to know the truth, Parmenides is considered the founder of the theory of knowledge and of metaphysics, and his disciple Zeno developed a kind of scientific conversation later on called dialectics. Heraclitus, also influenced by Xenophanes, proved to be, however, an intransigent adversary of Parmenides, taking from him the assertion that “what is, is”, from Zeno the assertion that “movement is”, and from the Ionians that of the existence of a live matter, asserting that the fundamental substance is fire, which transforms itself into water, which in turn transforms itself, partly into igneous steam, partly into earth, then returning to the form of water and fire, all according to certain measures; therefore, all is constantly changing.

Ending the period, we still have: Anaxagoras, who considered the existence of infinite types of matter qualitatively distinct. Empedocles, for whom the fundamental substances are fire, water, air and earth; all bodies are made up from the aggregation of a limited number of elementary types of matter; according to how matter is in man, thus will be his knowledge. Democritus, asserted that there was only one kind of matter or fundamental substance, made up of several moving corpuscles, indivisible, innate and imperishable, which he called atoms.

In the period called Anthropological, the attempts to explain nature were followed by the attempts to explain mankind. No longer bound to tradition, in the habit of questioning beliefs, human thought started to question the costumes, to criticize the norms, to make critical and rational reflection its norm. The Sophists, masters of wisdom, added, to the exercises they submitted themselves and their disciples, the problems of ethics: for Prodicus, things are ethically indifferent; for Protagoras, there are rational rules for human acts.

Human thought, warned by the exercises of the Sophists, started to found its behaviour on evidence and reflection, and not on customs. At this time a special kind of dialectics emerged, which consisted in leading the speaker to reach by himself, through questions, the knowledge of truth. Departing from concrete particular cases, Socrates compared them to other similar cases to discover the ethical principles; this procedure earned him the title of inventor of induction.

At the period called Systematic, Plato established ethics, based on the Socratic principle of the good, and defined the State as a community of will organically produced, consisting of the teaching, defensive and food producing classes, as the three parts of the soul. With Aristotle, knowledge became systematized, with logic constituting a particular science, an instrument to achieve the right knowledge of truth. Aristotle established the categories, more general predicates that can be attributed to things: substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, action, passion, position, state. He valued experience, repetitive observation, considering judgments to be true if they correspond to real relations, and false if not. The essence of the organic is in the fact that the parts presuppose the whole, accommodating themselves to it, being the instrument, organ, for existence and its development.

In the period called Eclectic, Hellenistic and Greco-Judeo, the Stoics came about, with Zeno of Citium, for whom logic encompasses rhetoric (grammar, poetry and musical theory) and dialectics (theory of knowledge and formal logic). His theory is sensualist, where the natural concepts come from experience, and are joined to the concepts proceeding from reflection which is deliberating, scientific and philosophical, which also avail themselves of images. The categories are substance, property (quantity and quality), structure (place, time, action, passion, position, state) and relation. The philosophers became counsellors of the people, engaged in ridding them of primitive religious beliefs. They were sought after to instruct in the meaning of life, and started to defend certain conceptions of the world and to interpret them in their practical aspect. Consequently, interest in ethics became widespread.

Also during this period, Carneades insisted on the characteristic difficulty of knowledge obtained through syllogism, since if the conclusion is valid as long as its premises are valid, there should be some basic propositions immediately evident to guarantee the initial link of the chain, but such propositions do not exist; what exists is the probability, which possesses degrees, which are, representations probable in themselves, representations that, furthermore, are not in contradiction with others, and representations confirmed in all senses. Sextus Empiricus discovered that, in syllogism, the greatest premise is valid only in the condition that the conclusion is also true; he asserted that knowledge is relative, but that empirical investigation and relative truth are possible. At the time of the fusion of the Greek and Roman cultures, it became indispensable, in order to explain the meaning of life, a first deliberate attempt to synthesize the contributions of the philosophers. For Plotinus, the creator of neo-Platonism, rational knowledge, dialectics, perceives its own ideas (consciousness of itself ).

3.1.2 In medieval thought

In the period called Patristic, of dogma, a need was felt to scientifically demonstrate the truth of Christianity, to refute the attacks of which it was the victim, and the Christians availed themselves of Platonic, Stoic and neo-Platonic philosophies. Justin asserted that the wisdom of God, Logos, was manifest in man in order to redeem the world; even before Christianity, Logos already manifested itself, but in a fragmented way, in Moses, in the prophets, in the pagan prophets and philosophers; reason is a result of Logos, and true rationality is in Christianity. Saint Augustine, in his theory of knowledge, asserted: reason is the true source of knowledge, availing itself of the senses, and the cause of error is premature judgment; man is certain, at least, that he exists, that he doubts and of the other facts of consciousness. The writings attributed to Saint Dionysius, on Christian mystical experience, also admitted that knowledge was only a pale attempt to explain revelation.

In the period called Scholastic, of the system, the main characteristic was a preoccupation in philosophically founding Christian doctrine, a system of dogmas, with specific interests in each phase. The first, of Platonic-Augustinian influence, asserted that the general concepts, universal, are real beings, substances, things, “res”, whereby we get realism, and that there is an independent reality of the cognizant subject. The second, of Aristotelian influence, taught that singular concrete things are the “first”, the true, the substances per se, and that the universal ones, general concepts, are not at all real, but mere names, whereby we get nominalism. In the third phase criticism prevailed. Roger Bacon, reasserted that the basis of phenomena is only in experience: in sensible experience, the fundaments of the science of nature; in interior experience, or spiritual, knowledge of the supra-sensible and of the divine. For Ockham, the concept is the sign, the act of Knowledge; the sciences are real when they deal with concepts of objects, and they are rational when the concepts themselves become objects of thought; the representations of sensibilities and of understanding are natural signs, and words are artificial signs.

3.1.3 In modern thought

In the period called Humanistic, the Renaissance, there was a mitigated attitude towards the rational. Humanism reinvigorated, on the one hand, the studies of the neo-Platonists and, on the other, that of the neo-Aristotelians, outstanding among the latter ones, Alexander of Aphrodisias, who asserted the mortality of the soul, and Pompanazzi, who proposed the substitution of faith in the immortality of the soul for faith in the unlimited progress of humanity. Montaigne, worried about the circumstantiality of value, not finding an absolute validity for the norm, recommended submission to law and customs, for cautions’ sake, and advocated the search for interior freedom to achieve individual happiness, which results from peace of the soul.

In the period called Scientific, of scientific-metaphysical ambivalence, the main characteristic was the search for a scientific explanation of the world, which began with an interest in the derivation of efficient causes, with Kepler, who was concerned about the investigation of quantitative relations. Galileo considered the importance of sensible observation, as long as it was preceded by suppositions, which are operations of thought; the absolute properties are only the figure, magnitude, number, movement and rest, while the other qualitative properties (colour, smell, flavour, etc.) are related to a subject; the Aristotelian-Scholastic logic proves and orders, but does not discover truths; it is necessary thus, to induce, to measure and to deduce (analyze and synthesize); there is a regular dependency between the elementary causes and the effects; if the why of phenomena is impenetrable (their essence), we can, at least, question the how (their laws, their dynamics, their relation); the natural facts are manifestations of movement (translation and dislocation, separation, composition, oscillation); Two general presuppositions are: the principle of simplicity and the principle of finality.

There is yet other news about the so called Scientific period. Francis Bacon maintained the value of science as a vehicle of power; he considered it necessary to observe, experiment and methodically reflect, which requires freedom from all prejudice (from the species, from the individual, from double meanings, from authority) and the adoption of the inductive method. For Descartes, non-intuitive knowledge demands comparison, which needs the concept of magnitude, qualitative or quantitative, the latter being the approach of natural science, which creates the hypothesis and carries out the experiment. All perception already implies some kind of judgement. The sceptics marked their passing through the modern philosophical scenario with the critical study of the work of Descartes and other philosophers. Pascal insisted that one must not accept any concept that is not defined, nor approve any principle that cannot be deduced from these definitions.

Spinoza, in his theory of knowledge, availed himself of the “geometric method”: he started with definitions and axioms, then passed on to propositions with their proofs, adding the corollaries and the scholiums. The succession of thoughts reflects the historical succession of things, whereby the perfect knowledge of cause carries with it knowledge of the effect; thus, experience is not necessary, since the order of the beings corresponds to the order of thinking. True knowledge is deductive knowledge, that is, through the causes, until the cause of the causes, God. It is impossible to know particular things in all their varieties, but their laws, which are their essence, the eternal, can be known. Reason is the faculty of forming appropriate ideas.

John Locke refuted the concept of the existence of innate ideas; not even the most general concepts (of identity, diversity, possibility, impossibility, etc.), nor the fundamental principles (of identity, of contradiction, etc.) are innate. Ideas result from experience, and the concepts and judgments are formed through abstractions and generalizations. Experience results from perception, which comes, first of all, from the senses, and secondarily, from interior processes pertaining to the soul. Knowledge is the perception of the correspondence between two ideas. There are four types of correspondence between ideas: identity and diversity, relation, coexistence or not in the same object, real existence. Truth consists in ideas or words joining or separating, as the things they represent agree or not. There are three degrees in our knowledge of existence: the sensible, the intuitive and the deductive.

The Deists, represented by John Toland and Mathews Tindal, taught that God created the world and abandoned it to its regular course, without interfering in it with miracles, while the Theists had been asserting the reign of God in the world through revelation, grace and miracle. Based on Herbert of Cherbury, the Deists asserted that rational religion had existed in a pure state in the first men and was renewed in its purity by Christ, a mere mortal. Ambitious clergymen tried to keep the people spiritually dependent, teaching them incomprehensible doctrines and mysterious ceremonies, disfiguring rational religion. It is necessary to depurate religion again and recognize that what is essential is to believe in God and follow one’s duty, avoiding spiritual dependence fed by the clergy. The best service provided to God is moral conduct.

The English Moralists greatly contributed to the development of an ethics independent of theology. For Richard Cumberland, the sociability instinct is the fundamental impulse of man; the natural state is that of mutual peace and benevolence; what is good is that which promotes the good of all, since God demands that man aspire to the best for the greatest number of people; respect for the law, for selfish reasons is not, morally speaking, the most meritorious. For Ralph Cudworth and Samuel Clarke, moral law is known through an innate disposition of reason, and there is no need, therefore, of revelation or experience; moral goodness consists in doing what is appropriate; the moral principles, recognized with the same immediate evidence that one recognizes the mathematical axioms, make the ethical forms as valid as the mathematical principles.

Also noteworthy is the contribution of the German Illuminists. Tomasio defined ethics as the art of living happily, thanks to reason and virtue. Christian Wolff divided the disciplines in empirical and rational; he asserted that philosophy is the science of the possible, of what is exempt of contradiction, having as its supreme principle, identity, and as its method, the analysis of concepts and deduction. Crusius and Lambert emphasized the importance of experience, the division of the formal and material elements of knowledge, the distinction between cognitional reason (logical dependency) and real reason (causal dependency). Nicolau Tentens divided the faculties into cognitional and appetitive and a special sensitive one. Lessing considered human history as the education of reason, and the processing of the search for truth as more important than its possession. For Herder, humanity is a great individual, passing through childhood (East), youth (Egypt and Phoenicia), adulthood (Greece), the virile age (Rome) until old age (Christianity), in such a way that none of these degrees is only a means, but they are all, at the same time, an end.

Fichte distinguished two fundamental forms of philosophical systems: dogmatism, according to which intelligence (the I) is a product of things in themselves, therefore, dependent; and idealism, according to which all representations of things come from intelligence. According to him, it is necessary to make a choice; he chose transcendental or critical idealism, which presupposes the existence of laws necessary for intelligence. The following are basic principles of intelligence: that of position (the I), which is the thesis; that of contraposition (the non-I), which is the antithesis; that of limitation (in the I, a divisible non-I in contraposition to the divisible I), which is the synthesis (teleological). Any position is in logical relation to a contraposition, there being a synthesis.

The basic activities of the I, according to Fichte, refer to Kant’s categories of quality (reality, denial, limitation). With the limitations all the categories of quantity occur (unity, plurality, totality) and two categories of relation (causality and reciprocal action), whereas the third one (substance-accident) occurs because the I is the oneness substance, where all possible accidents take place. There are degrees of intelligence: imagination, which receives the impulse, produces the sensation; the non conscious I lives intuition and from there it departs to the perception of the I for itself (distinct from the non-I); reflection limits the activity of imagination; reflection presupposes judgement, which is based on reason; in pure reason, the I understands that the non-I is placed by itself, which gives us certainty of our freedom.

August Comte explained the development of knowledge by the law of the three stages. In the first, the theological, what is predominant is man’s fantasy that he can know the essence of things, its first causes and its ultimate ends, explaining them by the action of personal beings, gods and spirits (fetishism, polytheism, monotheism). In the second, the metaphysical, man’s fantasy that he can know everything continues, but now using explanations based on abstract ideas (principles or forces). In the third, the positive, man recognizes the impossibility of knowledge of the absolute essence of reality and seeks, through observation and experimentation, to establish the laws that guide phenomena (laws of statics or of dynamics) and that allow prediction. The simpler the object, the faster knowledge reaches the positive stage, with the preponderance of the deductive method.

For Comte, isolated man is an artificial abstraction; man is, essentially, a social being. To the initial selfishness, as a result of the development of intelligence, altruism superposes itself, which is the basis of morals. Thus, in theological morality (the first stage) and in metaphysical morality (the second stage), men obey in function of personal interests; but in positive morality (the third stage), men learn to live for the others. In the social sphere, the military sphere corresponds to the theological stage, which is characterized by the existence of an absolute authority that leaves the economic work to the slaves; as examples, he mentions the domination of the Church in the Middle Ages, the last organic period, necessary to prepare the ground for development. The sphere of the jurists corresponds to the metaphysical stage, when the middle classes start to demand and the military class changes from belligerent to defender; it is an unstable period, of transition. The industrial sphere corresponds to the positive stage, in which the economical and social struggles relegate the military and political ones to a second position; during this period there is a preoccupation in promoting the well-being of the proletariat, offering them regular employment and a rational educational system.

English positivism found in John Stuart Mill’s theory of knowledge its greatest expression. Stuart Mill considered experience as the only source of knowledge, and induction, the only fertile scientific method, the one that leads to generalizations, to the laws of phenomena, that, once established, are valid until proven wrong; even the causal law and the logical principles were not given a priori, they are generalizations from experiences. The inductive methods are those of agreement, of difference, of concomitant variations and of residue. Thomas Buckle, based on the assertions of J. S. Mill that there is a historical science capable of establishing universal laws of the history of humanity, engaged himself in the search for general laws of peoples’ lives. Carlyle disagreed with this concept, asserting that history has been made by great men, according to the creative freedom of each one.

Hartmann distinguished three spheres of the cognizable: that of the subjective idea, of the immediate phenomenal world; the real objective, of nature known by science through phenomena; the metaphysical, of the only and real substance, of the unconscious, basis of nature. The categories are the logical structure of the word, and they rise to consciousness through their concepts. There are the categories of sensibility and of thought. The categories of sensibility are quality and quantity. The categories of thought are: explanatory, reflective (logic and the methods of measurement, of division, of judgement, of induction and of deduction); speculative (causality, finality, substantiality). Causality is only understood through finality. Substance can be found in the metaphysical sphere; it is the unitary subject of all that succeeds, having as eternal attributes the idea (the logical) and the will.

Nietzsche considered that the supreme value consists in asserting the will to live. To “Know yourself ” he added “become who you are”, valuing the actualization, through the will, of the daily potentiality within the essence of the being. The real world is that of the senses; the world of metaphysics and of religion are dreamed worlds. There is no personal immortality. The supreme good is not knowledge nor the greatest well-being possible, but life itself; and not only life, but healthy and strong life. The essence of the living being is the will; but not the will for pleasure, but the will for power. What is good is all that leads to the feeling of power, and bad all that comes from weakness. Compassion for those who fail and for the weak is worse than all the vice; the first principle of philanthropy is that the weak and failed ones must succumb, and we must help them to perish.

Haeckel asserted that the only solid basis of the natural unitary conception of the world results from scientific knowledge, which lies in critical experience (a posteriori). Empirical knowledge is achieved through observation of the exterior world and through conscious reflection. The dualist conception of the world results from a divine revelation, which gave origin to obscure and improbable dogmas. The so called a priori knowledge was achieved a posteriori. The world is a great whole guided by fixed natural laws submitted to a process of evolution whose beginning and end are unknown. There is no personal immortality of the soul. There is no free will; the will is a physiological function. God is the last and incognizable cause of all things. Matter and energy are the inseparable attributes of substance.

Wilhelm Ostwald, a monist as Haeckel, agreed with him in some aspects: all is nature, and nature is all; all is submitted to the same laws, whose knowledge is based on experience. But Ostwald taught an energetic monism. Energy is work, and work generates energy. Work is a magnitude whose measurement is made through the product of power. There are six kinds of energy: mechanical, heat, light, magnetic and electrical, chemical, and psychic. All happenings consist of temporal or spatial alterations of energy, including those of consciousness and of consciousness of the I. All the work of culture consists of increasing gross energy and its useful part. It is science that predicts occurrences and points the ways to reach the ends. The end of culture is happiness. The level of culture can be measured by the availability and utilization of energy.

John Unold summarized monist ethics in some fundamental concepts. Man must have as an end and as law perfect adaptation. The moral precept must occupy, in man, the place of natural force (instinct). Moral education, based on science, must teach the natural consequences of acts. Scientific ethics teaches the value of Nation and Humanity, what is owed to predecessors and contemporaries, what is the duty towards the current generation and the future generations. There is no other immortality but that of the memory of the people. The law of striving for perfection already exists in nature, but it is in culture that it achieves its moral character. The human aspiration to perfection manifests itself in the scientific-intellectual, artistic-literary, technical-economic, political-social, ethical-religious spheres. In a strictly ethical sense, the directions of the aspiration towards perfecting are the tendencies towards humanization, individualization and socialization. The learned man feels that it is his duty to participate in the cultural work of humanity.

3.1.4 In contemporary thought

From rationalist philosophy we have, initially, a naturalist conception of the world, with Oswald Spengler, who manifests it as thus: religion is the essence of all culture; cultures are living beings of a superior category, but also lacking an end; every culture is the living body of an idea, and it has a youth, a maturity and an old age; every civilization is the terrestrial remnant of an extinct culture; history is the fulfilment of a possible culture; to causality, the supreme law of nature, there is the correspondent, in history, the sign, need of life (interior direction, but not “end”); history is producing itself, and therefore cannot be known, since only what is produced, finished (“nature”) can be known; knowledge kills its objects (it measures, divides, calculates); causality is the developed sign, disorganized, dissected in the forms of the intellect. For R. M. Holzapfel it is possible to found the validity of an ideal with psychological investigations.

A culturalist conception of the world asserts, according to G. Windelband, that the method of the natural science is not the only scientific one, the historical method is equally valid. The purpose of science is knowledge of the laws (nomothetic) and successes (ideographic); the latter is the most important for the scientific foundation of a conception of the world and of life, since all feelings and interests have origin in the singular and in the incomparable, while repetition and rule anesthetize feeling. There is no proof of the immortality of the soul; those who wish to immortalize themselves must do so through participation in supra-temporal and eternal values and through collaboration so that they can be realized, since for value to coincide with reality, for the rational to become real, human action is necessary. The supra-temporal can be found in eternally valid values of the true, the beautiful, the good and the saintly.

According to H. Rickert, culturalism tries to show that desire for knowledge cannot be satisfied, completely, in the natural sciences, and a directing point of view is necessary to distinguish what is essential in the cosmic course and in human history, since the totality cannot be encompassed by science. For the natural sciences, which are limited to the quantitative, it is enough to prove the identity between cause and effect; but complete reality needs to admit causal inequality, and this is the object of the cultural sciences. In all knowledge, the cognizant individual has to take a stand towards certain values, and the objective validity of scientific knowledge is dependent on the validity of the values that are at the basis of the concepts set forth; the stand that is taken is a “duty”, for which it is necessary to admit that there are values that are absolutely valid, supra-historical.

For Rickert, the multiplicity of values became real in cultural goods, which contribute to the elevation of life. It falls on the will to transform values into goods, which makes the concept of an active volitive subject indispensable. However, the action of the subject comes about as a result of his taking a stand towards values, and therefore, the existence of a system of values is necessary; this system, however, cannot be rigid and finished, since in historical development, nothing is definitive. It is necessary to look for a “third kingdom”, which represents the unity of value and reality, at the basis of which there is the act of valuing, which includes the acts that create value (in investigation, in artistic production, in moral action). The moral will is called upon to organize vitality in the sense of ethical norms. Pure vitality is the “exterior side”, which needs contact with the divine to elevate itself, whereas religious conduct is the path to greater proximity with life.

A conception of the world based on the theory of knowledge presents connotations of its philosophies of origin. The positivistic one, according to Ernst Mach, confirms the anti-metaphysical orientation and restricts itself to positive facts, real (the elements: sounds, colours, pressures, heat, perfume, space, time, etc.), which depend on circumstances external to the body and internal (sensations); from sensations memories are built, representations (unconscious memories), feelings, volitions, concepts; memories combine themselves with optical sensations and direct attention, giving rise to perception; the I is a complex of sensations and representations that reacts to impressions through acts and creations, and then undoes itself. For F. A. Lange, the “I”, the “things” and their properties, “causality” and the other categories are fictions, convenient ways to label sensations.

The pragmatist conception of the world, according to J. Dewey, W. James, G. F. S. Schiller, J. Simmel, is that what is true is convenient for the species, practically efficient, sustains and guides human action in the sense of conserving and nourishing life; religious beliefs are true, since they comfort us and reinforce our vital activity. The conception of critical idealism, according to Hermann Cohen, although anti-metaphysical as those preceding it, is that the sensations present only certain intentions, and it is up to thought and its products, to solve problems and satisfy these intentions; the products of thought are the categories, which cannot be established by logic, in a complete and valid way, for all times, since new problems may require new categories; scientific thought creates an ordered reality; ethics, a doctrine of duties, is independent of experience; it is the responsibility of the State to moralize individuals; the concept of God is the idea of perfect morality.

The conception of critical realism is that the world exists, independently of cognizant individuals and of knowledge; the content of knowledge, even in the possibility of perfect knowledge, is distinct from objectively known reality. An inductive metaphysics is possible, one that uses and interprets, all together, the data of the particular sciences. For W. Stern, the fundamental problem around which all the conceptions of the world rotate, at all times, is the problem of the relation between the psyche (spirit) and the physical (matter); another problem, even deeper, is the distinction between person (a real set with unitary activities and tending towards an end, conscious or nor), and thing (a passive and receptive aggregation, mechanical, substitutable without remnants); it is also important not to accept anthropocentrism, nor the assertion that everything real is rational, but keep in mind that the end of the world includes the constant elevation of its own end.

3.1.5 In summary

The roots of rational philosophy can be summarized as follows: The fear of the unknown, besides giving rise to a feeling of religiosity, enabled the human being to perceive his capacity to know, through reflection, the force of the laws of nature, to symbolize them and to seek protection in their logic. Ancient thought sought to: firstly, explain the origin, mechanism and destiny of the universe; secondly, to explain the origin, mechanism and destiny of the human being in this universe; thirdly, to systematize the knowledge acquired in the previous periods; fourthly, to rethink this systematization. Medieval thought engaged itself in teaching what had been learned, firstly, it did so in an apologetic way, and then, in a little more structured way. Modern thought sought to make knowledge and the language that expresses it more precise. Contemporary thought once again took up the themes of the greatest possible rigor in the search for and communication of knowledge.

3.2 The roots of intuitive philosophy

Parallel to his perception of his capacity to know, through reflection, the force of the laws of nature, to symbolize them and to seek protection in their logic, the human being developed a permanent desire to communicate with the whole of reality, which his meagre knowledge did not allow him to obtain. He desired certainty. His logic, as much as it proliferated, did not bring peace to his spirit. The arguments he developed to explain the origin and destiny of the world, and his own origin and destiny, he knew came from himself, and the real fundament, as far as it was, came from his own reflection. From his desire to communicate with reality, he learned that the suppression of ratiocination permitted him a sensation of more immediate contact with the real which, at times, led him to despair and, at times, to the sensation of understanding, of peace. All ancient peoples have recorded, in their philosophies such experiences, but some individuals and some schools of thought have dedicated more attention to it.

3.2.1 In ancient thought

In the period called Cosmological, the philosophy called irrational, imbued with the feeling of religiosity, confused itself with the tradition of the rituals and dogmas. In fact, the monist conception of the world around a primordial substance “arche”, whether from Thales, with the notion of fluidity and humidity, or from Anaximander, with the notion of substantial infinite, or from Anaximenes, with the notion of gaseous state, is a mystical-religious conception. This conception considers matter to be endowed with power and life, although it distinguishes, in living matter, a passive part, pure matter. Continuing, we find in Pythagoras the doctrine of Transmigration of Souls, with the assertions that reincarnation is ruled by the principle of punishment and reward, and that the numbers, which represent the regularity of the structure of reality, are good, the odd ones, and evil, the even ones.

Also in the same period, we have Xenophanes, who loathed the licentiousness of the Gods of Homer and Hesiod and proposed a static God and a pantheist conception of the world. Parmenides of Elea, based on Xenophanes, developed metaphysics as complementary to the theory of knowledge which he elaborated around his conception of substance, that what is cannot proceed from what is not, which is ineffable and unthinkable. Heraclitus, influenced by Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno and the Ionians, tried to enrich the concept of substance, considering that all is constantly becoming and that the cyclic process of the universe is due to contradictions; he can then assert that human knowledge itself works sensibility and reason, and human laws treat freedom and slavery; reason must find support for itself on the law; determinism, which produces the illusion of repose in the bosom of movement, is the reason of the universe, and to find in it the rule of acts is the problem of human reason.

Closing the period we still have: Anaxagoras, who asserted that the order of the world proceeds from the Spirit, the “nous”, a kind of thinking matter, susceptible to dividing itself, and that can be found, in greater or lesser quantity in all living beings, including plants; the “nous” knows it all; the more “nous” there is in man, the greater his knowledge. For Empedocles, love unites all elements and hate separates them. For Democritus, there in nothing better than interior peace, which frees man from the realm of affections and the anguishing belief in the gods; in order to free himself, man must control his fantasy, be fair, be master of his pleasures, be a citizen of the world.

In the period called Anthropological, the interest in knowing man himself started to become a priority, even though it was always present in the previous period, when the main concern was knowledge of the world. With the Sophists, masters in knowledge, considerations on ethics started, and noteworthy among them, were Prodicus, who asserted that things gain moral value thanks to the ethical ends they serve; Protagoras, said that penalty has value as an example and not as expiation, and that it is not possible to know if the gods exist or not, since it is impossible to check this matter. Also important is the Socratic concept that correct evidence leads to fair action, to virtue, which in turn, leads to happiness, and that unhappiness comes from perversity. The Socratics adopted and developed the assertions of the master: Antisthenes maintained that man should reduce his desires to a minimum in order to be happy; Diogenes led such practice ad absurdum.

In the period called Systematic, Plato consolidated the Socratic concept of the good, transformed into ultimate end that channels and justifies conduct. The fundamental virtues are wisdom, strength, temperance, justice. The values are: the measure; the beautiful, the balanced, the perfect; the spirit and evidence; the science, the arts and fair opinions; the “pure” feelings of pleasure, without pain. Aristotle asserted that all human action purports to carry out something good, a value; the supreme value is happiness, which depends on the human being developing his own nature for a specific form, human, rational; beside the dianoetic virtues, wisdom and prudence, there are the ethical virtues, directions of the will based on an intention. The soul is to the body as the form is to matter, as real life is to the capacity to live, as the act is to power.

In the period called Eclectic, Hellenistic and Greco-Judeo, according to the Stoics, mainly in the theory of knowledge of Zeno of Citium, which is sensualist, experience is valued; he considered that the representations of perception imprint themselves on the soul, a virgin wax, and maintain themselves in memory as images. For the Stoics, the supreme end is happiness; for happiness it is enough virtue and pleasure, when it results from virtue; one must live according to nature, submitting man’s reason to the world’s reason; virtue can be learned; the cardinal virtues are wisdom, strength, mastery of oneself, justice; the moral value of conduct depends, essentially, on intention; there is essential equality in all men; positive law must not be considered valid, in absolute terms, for each case.

Also in this period, Marcus Tullius Cicero adopted: the theory of knowledge of the skeptics, disseminating the theory of probability; the ethics and theology of the Stoics, preaching that conduct must be virtuous. Plutarch considered the ideas of Plato and the numbers of Pythagoras as thoughts of the divinity. Philo desired to see the influence of the Old Testament in Greek philosophy; in ethics he was a rigorous Stoic, asserting that the passions must not only be dominated but also extinguished (Mosaism), and the ecstatic unification with God is an ever greater good than the suppression of passions. Plotinus, creator of Neo-Platonism, asserted that matter receives value from ideas, souls; the soul of the world is in all souls; the most valuable part of the human soul is reason, which pre-exists the body and immerses in it due to an originating guilt; the soul reincarnates in diverse bodies, plant, animal, human, celestial, according to the degree it has overcome its inclination for the sensual; the unitary human soul collects all sensations, feelings, appetites, judges them and influences them by virtue of its freedom, reflection; the essence of the will and of moral conduct is in the effort of the soul to free itself from sensuality, thanks to knowledge. The supreme degree of knowledge is the perfect union with the originating oneness in the ecstatic state, which constitutes, at the same time, the supreme blessedness.

3.2.2 In medieval thought

The characteristic of the period called Patristic was a new religious and moral life, based on love for one’s fellow creatures and for a paternal God, and no longer for knowledge as a supreme value. Tertullian considered Plato the patriarch of heretics, the source of all erroneous teachings; he asserted the Christian doctrine was a new law, and reason should bow towards revelation. Saint Augustine asserted, in his theory of knowledge, that God created the world from nothing in order to recognize as true or false what is outside of it, consciousness needs a norm, and this norm is God. The writings attributed to Saint Dionysius, on Christian mystical experience, assert that, in order to return to God, man needs to stop all activity of human knowledge, in order to immerse itself into divine knowledge.

In the period called Scholastic, of the system, characterized by the preoccupation in philosophically founding the Christian doctrine, system of dogma, we have Abelard, who, in his ethics, asserted that Christianity is the restoring of natural moral law, already known by the ancient ones, and that the ethical character of actions depends solely on the intention of the subject. Saint Thomas, in his ethics considered, as did Saint Augustine, evil to be a non-being. The supreme end of man is perfection, which contains in it happiness. The noblest activity of man is knowing, which conditions desire. Knowing God is supreme happiness; but the possible knowledge of God in this world is an imperfect knowledge. It is good that which does not contradict rational nature, individual and social. The norm of virtuous conduct is the divine law known through reason, and its application depends on consciousness. Moral virtue is a habit resulting from the will. The material virtues are prudence, temperance, strength and justice; the supernatural virtues are faith, hope and charity. Man depends on the help of divine grace to fulfil the virtues. It is the responsibility of the State to keep the peace, promote material prosperity and encourage intellectual and moral virtue. Ockham and Duns Scott believed that the will always directs itself towards the good, revealed by God, independently of being understood by reason.

3.2.3 In modern thought

In the period called Humanistic, the Renaissance, there was a devalued attitude towards the intuitive. The philosophy of the Renaissance developed, in a general way, the concept of the individual evaluation of value, instead of the passive receptivity of a heteronomous authoritarian judgment, keeping, however, the concept that the external authority is useful to control people. The Renaissance movement began, in full force, in Italy. Montaigne recommended submission to law and custom, for the sake of caution, but also the search for interior freedom in order to conquer individual happiness, which comes from peace of the soul. Agrippa von Nettesheim reminded everyone of the mystical-religious conception of a universal soul, and the consequent mutual dependence of all happenings. Hugo Grotius believed natural law was conceived by reason and guided towards the social, and that divine law was known through revelation.

In the period called Scientific, of metaphysical-scientific ambivalence, in the search of a scientific explanation of the world, some concepts are not suited to this more general vision. For Hobbes, who applied the method of the natural sciences to the study of man, good is what is desired, and evil what is hated; the fixed moral norms are those that are determined by the State, and no value is absolute. Herbert of Cherbury spoke of a natural religion, and of evident religious and moral principles: there is a Supreme Being; He must be revered; virtue, together with piety, are the most valuable forms of this reverence; man must regret his sins; reward and punishment must come from the goodness and justice of God, in this world and the other.

Continuing with the attempt of a scientific approach to phenomena, Descartes recommended methodic doubt, including towards the “evident”, which although seeming to be “clear and distinct” knowledge, many times does not withstand criticism. The most immediate knowledge is that of understanding itself. Certain ideas (concepts and principles) spring from the spirit throughout the development of the individual (they are innate), external impressions serving only as stimulus. There are six elementary affects: admiration, love, hatred, desire, happiness, sadness. Ethics deals with how the will must behave in relation to the affects. Good is that which God orders. Judgment belongs to the will. The error is a precipitated judgment. Consent is a very important moral activity.

Geulincx did not see a reciprocal influence between the body and the spirit, but rather the acting of God on one and the other (occasionalism), since the spirit cannot act in the corporeal world; God values the intention, not success; the greatest virtue is humility resulting from self-knowledge; self love is the root of evil; happiness is unattainable; the moral commandments are not to be discussed. Malebranche observed that knowledge of ourselves is of an inferior quality to the knowledge we have of the world, since the psyche can be measured only indirectly and even so, we can only speak of occasionalism, and not in causality; God promotes everything and He is the Supreme Good; error comes from distortion of rational concepts by sensible images; sin comes from acquiescence to sensible passions, which do not depend on human freedom.

For Pascal, since the original sin man has been incapable of achieving the good, since there is no self-determination, and moral value is a gift granted by God. Bayle concluded that the world is a “thing in itself ”, and not susceptible to be known; the allegedly divine commandments must be justifiable to our consciousness; the absolute foundation of the moral commandments is the eternal idea of good and these commandments are innate in all men; The State must guarantee tolerance to all beliefs and to those who do not believe. For Spinoza, the highest degree of scientific thought is the intuitive understanding of the particular and the general. In his ethics, Spinoza developed the concept that theoretical knowledge is not the ultimate end and must be placed at the service of morals. There are three primary affects: desire, happiness and sadness; love and hatred are, respectively, happiness and sadness connected to their external cause. That which is considered good is that which is desired; it is not the fact that it is considered good that makes it an object of desire.

For Locke, neither the idea of the existence of God nor the moral principles are innate. Only the desire to be happy is innate. It is from the experience of individual and communitary happiness that custom is established; education is able to disseminate certain moral principles. There are three kinds of norms: divine law, that of the city or political, and that of public opinion. Revelation anticipated the knowledge of moral values that man would take too long to know only by the use of reason. For the sage, virtue is desirable “in itself ”, but people need to see other advantages in practicing it. Political power should be concerned with the common good, according to the majority.

Among the moralists, Shaftesbury and Mandeville stand out. For the former, moral judgment is value judgment, different from theoretical judgment of the real; there is evidence of sentiment, as there is evidence of the intellect; the origin of ethical judgment lies in reflexive affects, innate, of contentment and discontentment, that the inclinations (instincts, passions, affects) manifest; the inclinations can be anti-natural (bad), natural (sociable) and selfish; goodness is innate to man; the practice of virtue causes happiness; the restraint of passions, because of fear or other advantages, does not represent moral value. For Mandeville, in virtuous acts there is also selfishness and vanity, and in communitary life there are mere gatherings caused by fear of loneliness and other dangers; it is the laws that have taught men the advantages of altruism and sacrifice; the vices (greed, prodigality, envy, haughtiness, etc) are the sources of progress of the communities.

In his ethics, Leibniz distinguished the metaphysical evils from the physical evils. He concluded that life offers more pleasure than suffering. Birth and death are passages to new forms of existence. Sensations, feelings and appetites are confused thoughts; from consciousness want arises. Even unconscious representations can constitute motives. Motives influence the will, but do not compel it. The more rational a decision is, the more free it is. Every being tends towards the most perfect for himself and for others, which causes ever greater happiness. Hope of a more perfect life, a happier one, is a complement to moral motivation. The essential elements of religion are knowledge of God and virtue, while dogma and worshipping are accidental, and the religions should seek a form of reconciling themselves.

The French illuminists manifested two distinct orientations. On the one side, Helvetius and the materialists (La Mettrie, Holbach, Diderot, D’Alember t, etc.) considered religion harmful to morality because it promotes fanaticism and discord; there is no immortality, except in the memory of those who remain; self love motivates all acts; necessity enslaves men; what distinguishes good men from evil men is the way they organize their lives in search of happiness; what is good is useful; duties are the means to achieve greater happiness for all; education and the laws of the State are important to this end. On the other side, J. J. Rousseau considered man to be naturally good, and that this natural feeling makes revelation useless, infuses the belief in God, in immortality and in freedom, and gives origin to moral judgment.

In his ethics, Kant asser ted that besides theoretical knowledge of what is (real or ideally), there is practical knowledge, of what should be. Only good will has absolute value, independent of its effects. As valuable as they may be, the effects of ill will will not have moral value, they can have, at most, legal value. Good will encompasses disposition and the activity in the sense of the morally accepted action. Good is the will that is ruled by principles that can be considered perennial and universal; this is a categorical imperative, an a priori synthetic-practical principle. There is moral value in wanting something in accordance with the law, something fair. It can occur that in diverse communities, people want opposite things and, nevertheless, they all behave morally, because they all consider their conduct fair.

Also regarding ethics, Kant asserted that the individual is only a being of reason as long as his will is regulated by objectively valid principles, which make him independent of any external power. Impulse must submit itself to the judgment of practical reason. Doing what is morally fair has value only when it is done out of duty and not by inclination. Duty is power, whereby we conclude that freedom is necessary. The will is also necessary. One must distinguish empirical reason (of man as a phenomenon) from the will to freedom (of man as a thing in itself ). Immortality is necessary so that man can continue to seek perfection. In order for virtue to lead to happiness, the existence of God is necessary; but respect for the law, and not the hope of happiness in a future life, must be the only motive of moral conduct.

According to Kant there are three fundamental functions of the spirit: knowledge (theoretical reason), will (practical reason) and feeling (pleasure or pain). For him, only causality is objective, finality is subjective; only compliance with moral law can be accepted as an end; teleological consideration is a regulative idea, a heuristic principle. He distinguishes between: the pleasurable, that which satisfies the senses; the useful, that which fulfills a desire; the good, that which corresponds to moral will; the beautiful, that which is disinterested; the sublime, that which is moral-aesthetic. Schiller also considered the requirement for respect for the moral unconditional; he saw in aesthetic education the best moralization procedure, since it provides the notion of the valuable in itself, it prepares the balance between the sensible and the supra-sensible, overcoming the internal contradiction between what is natural and what is spiritual.

The ethics of Fichte considers the I to have an infinite aspiration, that is, the finite I aspires to the absolute I. The world is the material of our activity, the things of the world are what we do to them. Our sensible or natural instincts distinguish objects and seek satisfaction in them. Reflection elevates the rational being above the instincts, permits him to convert them into objects, gives him consciousness of duty. The instincts seek comfortableness, tranquility and joy; the moral impulse always seeks new problems. The basic moral law consists in each one fulfilling his destiny, acting according to one’s own moral judgment, which presupposes us to be free from submission to natural instincts. Moral law leads to immortality, which consists in living above the temporal, obeying the laws of reason, which presuppose active participation in the development of the community.

In the thinking of Fichte, it is the responsibility of the church to create an internal community of certainties, and, of the State, to regulate the external community among men, respecting the right of the body, of property, of life and of health. Morality concerns intention, and the law, external action. The constitution must predict the development of the State. The historical process, in its moral purpose, must be understood as: an initial state, when reason occurred instinctively; a second state, in which rational law became conscious, but with external authority, against which there were protests; afterwards individual free will started to develop, which led to the “perfect sin” (enlightenment); then, the time of initial rationality is lived (starting with Kant), who understands moral law as a requirement of the superior essence of man; it will be followed by perfect rationality, when unconditional submission to moral law will lead man to true freedom, and then to blessedness (love for the eternal, love for God and life in God).

For Schelling, the original sin is in the I, in individual existence, whereby it can be concluded that blessedness, the union with God, does not predict individual immortality, and several reincarnations are necessary until the individuals perfect themselves to the point of being able to lose their personal identity and plunge into the absolute; individual will must submit itself to the universal will, which is the return to God; moral action is the manifestation of perfect will, which presupposes the conscious I; the most perfect form of consciousness is the religious one. As to Schleiermacher, he valued religious feeling, nevertheless, denying that it results from moral consciousness, but asserting rather that it results from the fact that the human being feels absolutely dependent on everything he does and is; knowledge and the will are partial aspects; only in religious feeling can man live his total being and his dependence on total reality.

In regard to speculative idealism, the assertion that the absolute is the starting point of all knowing, empiricism and naturalism were in opposition. For Herbart, there is the being, the happening and the valuing of the relations of the will, the moral judgments of value. From the relation of the will with moral consciousness arises the idea of interior freedom; with the intensity of volition arises the idea of perfection; with another will that disinterestedly supports it, arises the idea of benevolence; with another will that does not give in to it, arises the idea of a right; with the need for reward, arises the idea of remuneration. These five moral ideas represent the basis of individual ethics, from where the social ethics comes. Teaching must be educational, impress moral character, availing itself of the means provided by psychology. Religion strengthens the moral tendencies in man.

Feuerbach taught that the object is granted by the senses, and not by thought, which only gathers and interprets the sensations. Reality has individuality as its essence; thought, which has generality as its essence, cannot elaborate a system about the totality of the world. The theses of the existence of God and of the immortality of the soul are unsustainable, but the power of religion is indisputable. Man imagines God according to the best in himself, whereby religious faith is the best source of information about a people, mainly about its morality. Moral value must have value in itself. The basis of ethics is the relations of men among themselves, where and when the I can achieve the plenitude of its essence. Without the community there would be no laws or moral judgment. Seeking happiness is the aspiration of all. The community guarantees the limitations of selfishness. Atheism congregates forces to create a better life.

In his ethics, J. S. Mill received the influence of his father, James Mill, and of Bentham, who had both refused the authority of tradition, valuing criticism and the search for the greatest happiness possible for the greatest number of people, considering that intensity, duration, certainty, proximity, fecundity and purity are elements that allow us to evaluate pleasure. J. S. Mill added that: whoever has rejoiced in spiritual and social pleasures does not exchange them for sensible pleasures; a value that was a means to achieve pleasure can, through development, become a value in itself. Harmony between society and the individual must be sought, sacrificing it in the search for the common good should be avoided; women must be given the right to emancipation in the judicial, economic and political sense.

Fechner sought the regular relation between the physical and the psychic, which are two ways of manifesting a single essence: God. Lotze asserted that there was an absolute at the core of all reality, to which the whole mechanism of nature serves, as a means for valuable spiritual ends. Everything is a being. Knowledge consists in the contents of consciousness finding themselves in a regular relation with objects. Consciousness, through judgments of contentment and discontentment, knows values. The most valuable spiritual activity is love, which makes the compulsory force of moral judgments of value comprehensible, which show us the way to participate in culture, to collaborate in the fulfillment of a universal end, according to the will of God.

For Hartmann, the natural processes are the means for the spirit to find itself. Nature must contain, in an unconscious way, this purpose, without which it could not become conscious to man. The universal will manifests itself without hindrances as exterior nature; when partial effects collide particular will arises, which, turned against itself, causes pain; when the obstacle is removed, pleasure arises. Pleasure and pain are the basic elements of consciousness; from the elaboration of these feelings, sensations and representations arise, which are conditions for the activation of the will. In its development consciousness apprehends the universal end. Dissatisfaction results from the contradiction of the will with itself; peace can only be reached through the annihilation of individual reason, for which it is necessary that each one knows himself; the task of each man is to know himself and contribute so that other men know themselves; only by doing so will universal peace arise and will it be possible to return to the absolute unconscious.

Wilhelm Wundt asserted that knowledge is the ever more perfect apprehension of the real world, which exists independently of us and the knowledge we have of it. The psychic is pure happening, something current, having the will as essence. The objective goods are values in themselves, independently of the pleasure they provide us, even though the consolation they may offer is a good motivation for them to be pursued. Moral values are intuited throughout the evolution of humanity, and give rise to norms and ideals. The objective values are morality, law, science, art, religion, because they produce culture. Collaborating with culture is how the individual elevates himself from temporality to eternity. Moral action is the most fundamental of all, and its ultimate end is to institute a universal society, indispensable basis for the development of culture; but this is not the ultimate moral end, and there should be a universal moral order, divine, to which this objective belongs.

For Nietzsche, there are two types of moral evaluation: master morality and slave morality. In master morality: the exceptional man is he who needs no approval from anyone, he honors that which has power over himself, he venerates age and tradition, he is ready for victory and for pleasure; whoever is not exceptional is worthless. In slave morality: the good man is the one who is giving, patient, humble, affable, in sum, the degenerate, tired, weak. The true ideal is that of the exceptional man, that is, the hero, the super-man. The discipline of pain is what creates the superiority of men. Well-being makes man worthless. The exceptional man knows that there is a hierarchy in morality, and he does not intend that there be a single morality for all men. Society does not exist for itself, but to serve as support to a chosen stock.

3.2.4 In contemporary thought

In confessional religious philosophy, catholic doctrine asserts that a personal God created the world, and rewards and punishes men after death; his existence was revealed in the Ancient Covenant and confirmed in Jesus Christ. The truth revealed in the Holy Scriptures is true because it was revealed, and not because natural reason can understand it as true; the Church, through the ecclesiastic magisterium, gives the guarantee of what was truly revealed and the proofs (fundamental theology, apologetic) that rationally found faith. Faith and science cannot contradict each other; the ultimate end of science is truth, and not freedom, and faith prevents science from falling into error. The Mosaic commandments can be summed up in two: love God above all things, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself.

Neo-Scholastic philosophy, or neo-Thomism, asserts that the world exists, independently of the cognizant subject and the contents of knowledge; it is possible to have a metaphysics that avails itself of the particular sciences and of scientific methods as its fundament; reason can explain the existence and essence of God, the immortality of the soul, freedom; in order to know reality, there is experience (external and internal) and rational thought. Values, including the moral ones, are not a product of the spirit, which only recognizes them; without God all norms would perish; the will is free (indeterminism), but character and motives influence it (determinism); even the fully developed man owes humble submission to God and to the Church; love to one’s neighbor must manifest itself, also, in the sense of social well-being.

Modernist philosophy develops the conception that: metaphysics is impossible, whereby it is impossible to “know” God and divine revelation; what exists is a subconscious need of the soul to approach the incognizable, which makes it ”experience”, “live” God, which happens with greater vigor in the prophets and apostles; reason tries to clarify religious experience, transforming it into knowledge, giving rise to ideas and concepts of the divine (incognizable); the church transforms personal experience into dogma. Hermann Schell talks about an ideal Catholicism, capable of developing, assimilating modern ideas. An expression of modernism, the liturgical movement seeks to renew interest in worship and, in a general way, the modern church is trying to participate, ever more effectively, in movements for social well-being.

The protestant conception of the world, based on the spirit of the Reformation and in the efforts of Martin Luther, finds itself diluted in different ramifications. Liberal Protestantism, influenced by the Enlightenment, having broken away from the traditional dependence on the authority of the Church over culture, pontificates an ethics oriented towards progress; Orthodox Protestantism itself concedes that it is not enough to avail of the authority of the Church, and that it is necessary to ground that which is asserted; in a general way, Protestantism considers that the truth of religion is obtained through subjective individual “experience” or “living”. For E. Troeltsch, the proto-phenomenon of all religions is the mystical living; religions tend towards a normative end, the idea of God being important. Also for P. Wernle, besides theoretical thought of value, there is an experience of evaluation and of will, an interior recognition of moral values, which generates the compulsoriness of their fulfillment; what is essential is this experience, and not dogma.

Rudolf Euckem represents the fundamental Protestant attitude concerning individual freedom in the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and criticism of the Church. His idealist metaphysics can be summarized as: there is a universal personal life, a cosmic personality, for whose development everyone collaborates, combating everything they feel is against God; each one must try to achieve spiritual reality, which confers to human spiritual life an “interiority”, “its own content”, a “substantial character”; for all to convert into spiritual beings, into personalities, depends on the decision of each individual, although all continue to be natural beings, subject to resistance to the developmental process; true culture consists in the continuous victory over the selfish nature of man, transforming natural individuality into eternal spiritual personality, a participant in the cosmic personality.

From irrationalist philosophy we have the attempt at a new spiritual dimension. It maintains that life and creation should be guided by feeling, by instinct, by intuition; they cannot be understood by the intellect. Even the economy needs the spirit to give it life. It is not rational thought, but feeling, that knows values and sets the will into action to transform them into goods, which can be found in the life of the National State, in art, in morality, in religion. The National State is necessary since each nation needs to develop its culture, which justifies the wars, in the sense of avoiding practical materialism and moral and spiritual degradation. In art, expressionism stimulates the manifestation of the divine that each one feels in himself. In religion (non-confessional), personal expression must move towards the social, inspiring the fulfillment of supreme values, since socialism is also spiritual and social education.

According to Henri Bergson, irrationalism asserts that only intuition can understand life. The live current of things slips through the artificial constructions of science (analysis and synthesis), which cannot touch it. In the psychic happening, time has a special signification; past and future incessantly act on the present, and only intuition can apprehend the live “I” in its concrete duration, real. In the same way, the concept of natural causality does not apply to the psyche, since the “I” vacillates and oscillates, and it is necessary to await action to apprehend it; it is only free in the rare instances in which it takes possession of itself and submerges, by means of intuition, in the reality of concrete time. The universe lives and evolves thanks to an originating vital impulse, God; the inorganic is the extinction of the organic, which is instinct and intelligence. The human being must free himself from the domination of needs and of the intellect, a slave to utility, and, by an act of the will, live in intuition, creatively, like God.

According to J. Müller, irrationalism advocates the individual’s fidelity to himself, the worshipping of personal life, the return to natural life, maintaining that what is most important is to live, and afterwards, to know, through life, through experience; it teaches that consciousness, around which intellectualist reflection revolves, is only the surface of the spirit; it is necessary that the truth revealed by Jesus Christ be purged of the Jewish legal conceptions and the Greek intellectual conceptions, and that a life full of love and abnegation be lived. According to W. Rathenau, everything is, ultimately, spirit. H. Keyserling reminds us that an apt education is one that separates, from the transitory symbols, the permanent meaning of reality, and that seeks to steer men to freedom, to their own determination and to the development of a profound and individual existence.

Other manifestations of irrationalism took form and have their place in contemporary thought. Theosophy, according to H. Blavatsky, seeks to make effective the ideals of universal love and fraternity; R. Steiner, seeks to show the importance of daily duties in relation to the “great spiritual connection of the world”. Spiritism, according to Allan Kardec, embraces the same ideals of fraternity and love. Parapsychology develops its interests for the phenomena of inter-mental communication (telepathy) and others inexplicable by the known natural laws. Christian Science, with Mary Baker Eddy, is based on the Bible and seeks to formulate a spiritualistic metaphysics. Psychoanalysis, with S. Freud, intends to explain the depth of the soul’s life and to help man free himself from the traumas of his childhood.

3.2.5 In summary

The roots of intuitive philosophy can be summed up as follows: Fear of the unknown, besides giving rise to a feeling of religiosity and allowing the human being to perceive his capacity to know through reflection, also led to the intuition that reason does not achieve all knowledge. Ancient thought, concomitant to the structures of reason, gave wings to intuition in what concerns the explanation of the origin, the mechanism and destiny of the universe, and the human being in this universe. Medieval thought engaged itself in the intuitive-religious vision of the world, seeking to dogmatize and transmit this vision. Modern thought tried to police intuition, revitalizing it with a more precise language. Contemporary thought took up again the themes of the intuitive-mystic vision of the universe.

3.3 The roots in phenomenological philosophy

The human being, in addition to developing his capacity to know, through reflection, the force of the laws of nature, is also able to symbolize them and seek protection in their logic, and as well as suspending ratiocination in order to have the sensation of more immediate contact with the real, develop the capacity to broaden his perception in order to try to encompass the different angles of apprehension of the phenomenon existence and the phenomenon human existence. This capacity has prompted him to develop more daring hypotheses regarding reality, considered under triple aspects, which can be, at the same time, the truth, a concealing of the truth or a way towards it. Such a perspective can be observed since the most ancient recordings of philosophy of peoples, nevertheless as cogitations of a few chosen ones; with the passage of time, it has become a body of a doctrine inside a few schools.

3.3.1 In ancient thought

In the period called Cosmological, phenomenological philosophy found its origins in pacifying and propitiatory mythical formulas resulting from the feeling of religiosity. These origins remained in the assertions of Thales about fluidity and humidity, in Anaximander’s about the substantial infinite, and in Anaximenes’ s about the gaseous state. The hylozoistic vision, which offered the hypothesis of the existence of a vital principle at the basis of the world, is completed with the assertion of the existence of passive matter, pure matter. In Pythagoras, we continue to trace these origins, when he asserts that the opposites find themselves, harmonically gathered in a superior order, in a cosmos, a word he created, and that started to characterize the period as Cosmological.

Also in the same period, we have the pantheist conception of the world, of Xenophanes, which led Parmenides, when developing his theory of knowledge, to assert, when conceptualizing substance, that there is the apparent world, which is given to us by perception, and the true world, concealed from the senses, only accessible to thought. His disciple Zeno, developing a special kind of scientific conversation, later on called dialectics, definitively consolidated the contribution of the master who glimpsed the phenomenological trail. Heraclitus, also influenced by Xenophanes, took from Parmenides the assertion that “what is, is”, but he diverged from him, taking from Zeno the assertion that “movement is”, and from the Ionians the existence of living matter, and concluding that everything is constantly becoming; the cyclical process of the universe results from contradictions.

Closing the period we still have: Anaxagoras, who asserted that, at the beginning all things were together; our universe was born from chaos, by a mechanical process of separation and union. Empedocles asserted that the qualitative differences of a composition result from the quantitative differences in the union of its components. Democritus intuited the existence of atoms, corpuscles that differentiate only quantitatively, through their form, size, position and order, and move eternally in empty space, in all directions, connecting to each other in greater and smaller masses, nothing happening by chance; thought only distinguishes itself from the senses by its greater precision and fineness, which permits it to apprehend the world, completing sensible perception.

In the period called Anthropological, dialectics, which had become the established tool for developing thought, started to characterize a time, that of separation-union man-world, which led to the concept of separation-union I-you and to the corresponding collective. With the Sophists, masters in wisdom, the cogitations on ethical problems led Protagoras to assert that “man is the measure of all things, of those that are, while they are, and of those that are not, while they are not”; He was sanctioned as the discoverer of subjectivity and of the necessary relation between subject and object; the discovery of subjectivity, gave greater vigor to dialectics and whetted in the spirits an appetite for doubt. Socrates asserted that every morally evil action comes from a lack of evidence; consequently, virtue can be learned, and must be practiced according to the law of the State . The Socratics developed, with Euclid, the notion that good and being are the same thing, and this got lost in polemics, whose excesses Aristippus attempted to correct, recommending enjoyment of worldly goods without submission to them.

In the period called Systematic, the Socratic concept of good, which had become the supreme ideal, inspired Plato to assert that the State can only fulfill its ends by suppressing private property, and adopting a constitution whereby the law prevails, and where the principles of authority and freedom are in harmony; it is necessary to avoid timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny, and it is essential to entrust the government to the philosophers. Aristotle asserted that all knowledge consists in the junction of concepts to form judgments, and in the combination of judgments to form syllogisms and demonstrations. To the principle of identity, “what is, is”, he added that of contradiction, “the same thing cannot, at the same time, be and not be, considered from the same point of view and in the same relations”, and of the excluded third, “any one thing must be denied or confirmed”. He considered the good to be the just mean between extremes. He valued the social, the supremacy of the middle class, art as catharsis, self education of character, which consists in the desire (sensual) to submit oneself to the will (rational).

In the period called Eclectic, Hellenistic and Greco-Judeo period, according to Zeno of Citium and in his theory of knowledge, sensualist in essence, yet not leaving out the rational, the Stoics asserted that by means of instinctive associations and comparisons, the concepts common to all, experience, emerge. To the categorical syllogism, Aristotelian, the hypothetical and the disjunctive can be added, the scientific-natural concepts of a general consensus, innate, are irreproachable, absolutely true. The Epicureans taught that canonicity, logic, offers the standard, the canon, of what is true and of what is false, of what we must aspire to and what we must avoid. The perceptions of the senses are all true, and from them result the concepts and presuppositions; the criteria of truth depend on observation. Man must free himself from preoccupations and suppositions; he is free, he is not subject to any coaction from nature. Pleasure is to be found in virtue, in what is in accordance with nature, and pain, in its opposite.

Also in this period, Pyrrho of Elis, the founder of the skeptic school, taught that nothing is beautiful, nor ugly, nor fair or unfair in itself; men are the ones who judge things so. Timon of Phlius concluded that, if what exists is an eternal clash of opinions, what is fair is the suspension of judgment, which leads to complete serenity of animus, the supreme end. Aenesidemus elaborated the ten fundamental commandments of the skeptics: all knowledge is relative; it depends on the needs of the living beings in general, of men in particular, of the disposition of the organs of the senses, of their subjective states, of its position and distancing in relation to the object under observation, of the conditions of the means that exist between them, of the quantity and composition of the objects that act on the senses, of the frequency or lack of frequency of impressions, of education, of custom, of uses, of religious and philosophical conceptions. For Plotinus, the creator of Neo-Platonism, rational knowledge, dialectics, perceives its own ideas (consciousness of itself ).

3.3.2 In medieval thought

In the period called Patristic, the ethics of Saint Augustine, which is contradictory, appears as follows: on the one hand it asserts that the will must act on sensuality, sexuality and the joys of life, which are obstacles to a moral life, and on the other, it explains that everything was predestined, both the recovery of certain spirits as well as the condemnation of others; for him, evil is not something real, but a non-being, a wanting, and to overcome it man needs divine grace and the coercion of the State. Conversely, the Christian Gnostic, Origen, taught that God created all spirits with equal perfection and with freedom to choose to practice the good; those who did not do so were punished, the worst ones were transformed into demons, and the ones who were not so bad, into human souls trapped in matter; but all is presided over by a divine educating plan, which predicts the action of Logos, made into flesh in Christ, with the objective of promoting the return of all spirits to God.

In the period called Scholastic, of the system, Abelard, the main founder of the scholastic method, sought to conciliate realism and nominalism. He explained that realism is right to teach that the universals are not mere words, “nomen”, since they really exist: before individual things, in God; in things, constituting the equality or similarity of their fundamental qualities; behind things, constituting the general concepts which permit comparison and abstraction. Nominalism is correct, since singular things are also real beings, individual substances. However, he observed that the words, names, could not denominate the multitude of individual things, “res”, to which they apply, if they were not connected to a concept, whereby conceptualism.

Also in the Scholastic period, Saint Thomas Aquinas sought to reconcile Christian doctrine with the philosophy of Aristotle, giving continuity to the work of his master, Albertus Magnus; by doing so, the interpretation of Siger of Brabant was corrected, inspired in Averroës and Maimonides, that there were two truths, that of the theologian and that of the philosopher. Saint Thomas, more realist than humanist, accepted the conceptualist solution of Abelard and the theory of knowledge of Aristotle, adding that understanding has the capacity to judge, that it is a “union and separation, through affirmation and negation”, being able to show the relation between the individual and the general, the law, but not being able to deduce the first from the second; the general concepts (object, something, oneness, etc), the categories (substance, quantity, quality, etc.) and the most general and evident axioms permit reason, through syllogisms, to achieve new knowledge.

Also in the Scholastic period, the mystic Eckhart renewed the conception that man must renounce individuality, on knowing the world, in order to understand God and live the absolute experience of the encounter with Him; and the path is suffering. Nicholas of Cusa considered four levels of knowledge: the senses and imagination provide us with vague images, understanding comprehends and diversifies them, reason seeks the more extensive general concepts, mystical intuition immediately penetrates the unity of all contraries, God; he asserted that what is most valuable is not the possession of knowledge, but its acquisition, and that value does not exist in the “absolute”, but depends on the capacity to evaluate.

3.3.3 In modern thought

In the period called Humanistic, the Renaissance, the main characteristic was of a general mitigated attitude. Giordano Bruno, according to his progressive cosmology (matter is the passive substratum, and the form, the determining active principle, the force of the matter), considered, as did Nicholas of Cusa, that the path to the end is more important, more precious than the end. For Campanella, the supreme end of action is self-affirmation, which can only occur in the social. Agrippa von Nettesheim recalled the mystical-religious conception of a universal soul and the consequent mutual dependence of all happenings. Jacob Boehme explained evil as the necessary background from which the good stands out, since God is the unity of contraries; there are no “chosen people”, since what is necessary is that every man have love in his heart; man is free to do good or evil.

In the period called Scientific, of metaphysical-scientific ambivalence, Spinoza asserted, in his ethics, that the Universe is neither moral nor immoral. Man is virtuous when he lives according to his nature, and he is evil when dominated by exterior forces; in order to be able to know the transitory objects that excite, to master them and to live virtuously, it is necessary to have rational knowledge of things, not in isolation, but as modifications of the divine essence. The supreme virtue, the supreme happiness, is the intellectual love for God. Only in the democratic State is it possible to live true freedom and morality.

Berkeley asserted that the ideas cannot come from matter, which is passive and inert; the order and succession of sensible ideas are produced by God in our spirit, and they produce in us a representation of a corporeal world, whose reality lies in his will. Hume started from the sensualist assertion that the individual lives and feels that he is living; there are the representations and the facts; there are the senses, reason and imagination; the senses give us the perceptions, which are worked on by reason, according to the principle of identity; the representations proceed from the imagination, and the passage from one representation to the other is conditioned by the three principles of association (spacial and temporal contiguity, similarity and causality); there are the representations of the senses and of self-perception (sensation and reflection); concepts result from impressions (of sensation and of reflection); nature determines action, and not only dialectic dispute; the agreeable and the disagreeable, for us and for others, is what our actions determine; the man who has achieved his spiritual balance does not need religious motifs to act morally.

Leibniz distinguished between knowledge of reason, valid independently of experience (according to the principle of identity) and knowledge in fact, valid when there is sufficient reason (departing from sensations). The most important ordering principles are number, time (ordering of the successive, of which it excludes itself reciprocally) and space (ordering of the simultaneous, of which it does not exclude itself reciprocally). The data of the senses are unified thanks to the principle of continuity, which establishes a relation, an affinity, between the most diverse concepts, guaranteeing the domain of reason, which permits science (for example: the concepts of rest and of movement, absolute contraries, are united by the concept of speed). There are the unconscious representations, the perceptions, and the conscious representations, the apperceptions.

Immanuel Kant, in his doctrine of knowledge (criticism of pure reason), distinguished between pure knowledge (a priori) and empirical knowledge (a posteriori). Knowledge consists of analytical judgments (of concepts) and synthetic judgments (of objects), and both judgments can be a priori and a posteriori. The a priori synthetic judgments depend on the existence of pure intuitions (a priori), as the representations of space (form of the external sense) and of time (form of the internal sense); space and time are not things in themselves, that is, independent of consciousness, but they are orderings that we imprint onto sensations; consciousness creates the object according to its internal laws. Sensibility intuits singular things, and thought thinks the universal. It is necessary to distinguish the phenomenon (sensation) from appearance.

For Kant, knowledge occurs when the phenomena determine the objects through categories. The categories are a priori concepts. The judgments are: regarding quantity (extension), individual, private and universal; regarding quality (structure), affirmative, negative and infinite; regarding the relation, categorical (a is b), hypothetical (if a is b, it is also c) and disjunctive (a is b or c); regarding modality (cognitional value), problematic (a can be b), assertional (a is b) and apodictic (a has to be b). The categories, deducted from the system of classes of judgments, are: quantity (unity, plurality, totality); quality (reality, denial, limitation); relation (substance-accident, causality, reciprocal action); modality (existence, possibility, necessity).

According to Kant, the following references to time are schemes of the categories: that of substance (permanence), that of causality (regular succession), that of reality (existence), etc. It is through these schematized categories that we think the phenomena as objects, that we recognize the existence of nature. Experience joins a priori knowledge with a posteriori knowledge. The conditions of experience are the principles of pure intellect: all phenomena are extensive magnitudes (gathering of parts), and, at the same time, intensive (units since the origin); in all changes of phenomena there is something permanent (law of substance); any alteration presumes a previous cause (law of causality); all substances that can be perceived simultaneously in space are in mutual relation (law of community). Ideas are a priori concepts (as pure intuitions and the categories), which regulate the work of experience and remind us that the path of knowledge is limited.

Schelling taught that nature is full of life, which manifests itself evolutionarily, from the unconscious form to the conscious one, with greater and greater perfection. Nature and intelligence are object and subject. The all-oneness is subject-object, and each thing is classified according to what is dominant in it, the natural element (object, real series) or the spiritual (subject, ideal series). There are potencies of real series (matter, light, organism), which act in all natural phenomena, and potencies of ideal series (intuition, intellect, reason), which act in spiritual phenomena. Everything that happens in nature results from opposite polar forces. The intention of the Universe is to return to the divinity through science, art, morality and religion.

Hegel asserted that the world is development and self-understanding of the spirit. The content of universal science should coincide with its object, the separation subject-object thus disappearing. There is a development in the spirit, from vulgar consciousness, with the separation subject-object, through stages, which are phenomena of the spirit, to absolute philosophical knowledge. Consciousness progresses thanks to experience, always renewed, that the object is not as it was thought. The psychological development of individual man and the historical development of humanity fuse into one; there is not, necessarily, a dependence on temporality in the developmental progression, and it can occur that more advanced stages represent themselves through phenomena that happened much earlier. Thought develops through degrees of position, of contraposition and of conciliation of opposites. To the degrees correspond three moments of thought: the abstract, of the intellect; the dialectic, or rational-negative; the speculative, or rational-positive.

The logic of Hegel divides itself into: the theory of the being, qualitative, quantitative and moral; the theory of essence, or of the true being, which encompasses “reality” as “essence”, which is one with its “phenomenon”; the theory of the concept or of the essence which manifests itself in the being. Reality is considered according to the moments of substantiality, of causality and of reciprocal action. The subjective concept is: concept as such, in the moments of generality, particularity and individuality; then, judgment, a separation of the concept in its moments; after that, ratiocination, a meeting of judgments. Concept, because it is also objective, must have, at the same time, the signification of real relations; we only judge and deduce because objectivity is a judgment or a ratiocination. The objective concept encompasses the moments of mechanical order, of the chemical process and of theology. Ratiocination is the epitome of subjective relation, and the final connection is the epitome of objective relation, the idea. The moments of the idea are “life”, “knowledge” and “absolute idea”, which is the ultimate end and is also “reason”. The objective logic we see in the world consists in the dialectics of idea, that is, the march of reason. The science of logic accompanies this logic of the world. There is the process of thought, which progresses according to its inner law, and from which results the ever clearer distinction between the “I” and the “object”, until absolute knowing.

For Hegel, nature is the idea in its “other being”, in its “being outside of itself ”, in the phenomenon; nature contains elements which are strange to the spirit; only the general laws result from reason, and experience offers knowledge of the particular. The spirit is the “being in itself ” of the idea. There is the subjective spirit and the objective spirit. The theory of the subjective spirit encompasses: anthropology, which studies the spirit in its intimate union with the body; phenomenology, which looks at the spirit in its distinction between the body and the exterior world, in contraposition to the “non-I”, developing itself through degrees of sensible consciousness, of perception, of intelligence, of consciousness of itself, of reason; psychology, which has as object the spirit as reason and as will, reconciling the “I” with the “non-I”. The theory of objective spirit treats the productions of the free spirit, rational, and the forms of fulfillment of human freedom: the law, which makes life together possible through the contract (between people), the respect for property (of things) and punishment of the delinquent; morals, which encompass the knowledge of subjective motives; objective ethics, which confirms the existence of a moral order in general consciousness, which penetrates each individual, demanding absolute obedience, manifesting itself through the family, society and the State, through education, with the objective of the well being of all.

The objective of universal history, for Hegel, is human freedom as consciousness of itself. The needs, the instincts, the passions, the human activities are the means to achieve this end. The fundamental periods are the ones of the East (childhood), the Greek (youth), the Roman (adulthood) and the Germanic (old age), the last one being the return of the mature spirit to itself; for the people of the East only the despot is free, for the Greeks and Romans only some men are free, for the Germanics all men are free. Reason should make the passions move in favor of the envisioned objective: individual and universal freedom. It is in the absolute spirit that the subjective and objective spirit unite; this unity fulfills itself in the objective form of intuition as art, in the subjective form of feeling and of representation as religion, and in the subjective-objective form of thought as philosophy.

Religion, for Hegel, develops itself throughout the history of humanity: in the first stage (Chinese, Native Indians), God is almighty substance and man is impotent; in the second (Persians, Syrians, Egyptians), God is spiritual individuality, and man continues impotent; in the third (Jewish, the sublime; Greeks, beauty; Romans, utility) God is spiritual individuality and free subjectivity, and man pursues the models of this subjectivity; in the supreme stage (Christian), God is absolute spirit, Father as origin, Son as consciousness and representation, Holy Spirit as path and reconciliation of humanity with Him. The absolute idea, which is intuited in art and represented in religion, reaches, in philosophy, the most elevated degree; it is the idea that thinks itself, truth that knows itself, reason that understands itself. The diverse philosophies, which manifest themselves in the different periods of history are phases of development of one philosophy, which encompasses all; at each phase, philosophy thinks reality, expresses the development and the cultural moment in a provisory system.

Schopenhauer considered causality to be the only guiding idea of scientific knowledge, which cannot, however, attain the first cause, nor the last one. Nevertheless, our spirit needs to think the oneness. The multiplicity of the oneness is perceived in function of space and time, which are the forms of human intuition. Each one is, in his intimateness, will to live; the phenomenal world is will. Wanting is continuous dissatisfaction and, therefore, permanent pain. Pleasure is fleeting, and soon converts itself into tedium. The will fulfills itself: in the inorganic, mechanically; in the organic, as stimuli; in consciousness, as motive. Individual wills are only manifestations of the oneness’ will. The basic moral feeling is compassion. To free oneself from unhappiness, the individual needs to deny the will, annihilate all impulses, above all the sexual one, and submerge into nothingness, which is the real world.

Herbert Spencer, a representative of English positivism, considered knowledge to be relative, and the absolute to be incognizable. He tried to reconcile empiricism and a prioricism, observing that there is the matter of experience, but that there are also, the a priori suppositions, acquired forms of intuiting and of thinking, which are the indestructibility of matter, the real and potential continuity of movement and the conservation of energy. The concept of energy is basic, but it is symbolic, since it explains itself by the subjective living of muscular distension and effort. A thing becomes known when we know how it came into being. The universal happening is only perceptible for the individual at a determined range of happenings, which encompasses two processes: the thing comes about for the individual when its elements, earlier separated, gather themselves into a whole (evolution) and disappear when its elements disperse themselves (dissolution). In general terms, evolution, besides integration, that is, the passage from an incoherent state to a coherent one, is also differentiation and specialization.

Spencer considered even the development of the spirit to consist in the distribution of matter and movement, one which occurs in the nervous system. Consciousness represents the internal side of these modifications, while the nervous and cerebral processes are the external side. Feelings are the elemental states of consciousness; from their integration and differentiation all spiritual life results. The process of the world is evolution, balance, dissolution, evolution again and so on. Each specific science is knowledge that is only partially united; it is the responsibility of philosophy to completely unify knowledge. Since absolute reality is incognizable, it is not possible to know God (agnosticism); asserting that a known God would no longer be a God, it intends to reconcile knowledge and faith. The supreme knowledge of man is that the power that reveals itself through the phenomenal world completely eludes investigation.

Ernst Laas, German positivist, interpreted that idealism (Plato) and positivism are basic orientations of philosophy. Platonism aspires to a priori knowledge, through deduction, which starts from concepts; it teaches the existence of a truly transcendent reality, spiritual, divine; it proposes an ascetic ethics and absolute ideals. Positivism only recognizes positive facts (internal and external perception), a posteriori knowledge, inductive; it proposes hedonism, a moral for this life, resulting from the hopes and demands of the world we live in, from the community to which we belong. Eugen Dühring censured the policy of those who kept people bound by a religious belief they did not share, with the excuse that this belief was necessary to keep social order; he taught that there is a universal moral order, that evil always destroys itself and the good always wins, since there is, in the essence of the world, a tendency towards progress and towards perfection that the State slows down, since it hinders personal freedom, which can only be achieved in economically free communes.

3.3.4 In contemporary thought

The phenomenological conception of the world, with E. Husserl, is that of the intimate relationship of intuition (sensation, positivism) and concept (thought, critical idealism). For Husserl, logic is an a priori valid science, independent of psychology. Phenomena are the “immediately given”, and permit the clarification of concepts, passing from the singular (datum of intuition) to the contemplation of the universal essence, which can occur in any perception. In the intuition of essence, we discard all empirical circumstances and the object’s own real existence. Once the essence is intuited, we can establish, independently of experience, that which is valid for the object. The essences are the real content of the object; they are ultimate data not susceptible to proof, being able only to be brought to evidence. The essences belong to the realm of the validity of ideal objects.

3.3.5 In summary

The roots of phenomenological philosophy can be summarized as follows: Fear of the unknown, besides giving rise to a feeling of religiosity, allowing the human being to perceive his capacity to know through reflection, and leading to the intuition that reason does not attain all knowledge, also led the human being to perceive that the phenomenon universe and the phenomenon human being in the universe are not cognizable in their origin nor in their destiny, and they are barely known in their mechanics. Ancient thought, concurrently to the structures of reason and the flights of intuition, began to attempt the apprehension of the phenomenon universe and the phenomenon human being in the universe. Medieval thought engaged itself in broadening the concept of the world, with the intuitive-religious approach to the subject. Modern thought tried to launch the basis of the rational-intuitive dialectic view of the phenomenon I-world, subject-object. Contemporary thought took up again the themes of the phenomenal vision of the universe.

3.4 Seeking a uniﬁed philosophy

The human being, the phenomenon man, who appeared on earth for the first time at a time unknown, and also in a manner unknown, has been very slowly freeing himself from ecological limitations. His freedom has been possible due to the accumulation of knowledge about the world, things, beings in general, and about himself, in particular. In order to survive, he had to turn his attention, initially, to the space around him, to which he had to adapt himself and obtain his sustenance. To the notion of space he added the notion of time, given the relative regularity of the requirements of his organism and the constancy, also relative, of external phenomena, of nature, of his “habitat”. The more he knows, the freer man is to make options, to choose his conduct. The freer he is, the greater his personal and social responsibility.

There have been two hypotheses concerning the development of human thought: one, that each generation has been representative of a certain developmental phase; another, that development happens in a disorderly fashion in time, and it can even occur that more advanced acquisitions precede others of lesser significance. History does not have the conditions to supply precise data in this sense, and the problem has been dominated by speculations. Just, as the attempts of humanity to explain the origin and destiny of the universe, which include the explanation of its own origin and destiny, the explanations about the development of human thought continue unsatisfactory and biased.

Dwelling on the historical data up to where it has been possible for us to understand and concatenate them, we can say that, not even in terms of predominance, as historians generally would like to have it, can we observe a developmental line in human thought over time. It seemed to us that rather than specific tendencies, types of approach, manifest themselves at all historical times, with the shading, the arguments and the language specific to each time, and to each place at each time. A more general problem is the approach to knowledge on the one hand, by intuition, and on the other, by reason: intuitionists and rationalists have existed at all times and places, as well as there are the conciliators, the neutral ones. Thesis, antithesis and synthesis present themselves, generally, in spatial and temporal simultaneity.

Historically connected to the name of Parmenides, at its origin, the theory of knowledge, Gnosiology, has unfolded itself in as many theories as there are philosophical schools. Insoluble problems, such as the existence of God and the origin and destiny of the universe, have been better served with approaches of an intuitionist-sentimental, or irrationalist character. Problems such as the statics and dynamics of things and of the universe and the structure and functioning of organisms have received better treatment by the experimental approaches, rationalist. What can be noted as a greater limitation is the tendency of thinkers to transform the knowledge that they have perchance acquired into closed systems.

It seems that at all times there has been a preoccupation to critically examine the constructions of thought. It seems, also, that the lack of a taxonomy, of an appropriate ordering and classification of the terms used by the different thinkers, has made the communication of knowledge more difficult. A common language, a meta-language, would allow the unification of human acquisitions, a meta-science. This meta-language, this common language, would solve the fundamental problem of humanity, which is communication, and would solve the millenary Myth of the Tower. The verbal-conceptual language, a specifically human expression, would acquire, then, the necessary sophistication to apply dialectics in all its philosophical-scientific vigor.

A meta-language would allow an outline of a meta-theoretical model, a theory of theories of knowledge. This outline would encompass, in its logical relations, in its syntax, generally speaking, all the system of descriptive and/or explanatory symbols and, in a special way, all the deductive and axiomatic systems. In this last instance, all hypothetical, abstract, undefined words, would be defined throughout the elaboration, by means of ever less abstract ones and, finally, empirical ones; the propositions should be substituted by symbols (signs and formulas) that would permit calculation; finally, the conclusion would be a necessary consequence of the postulated principles and would add something to the initial theoretical knowledge, and the formalization of the theory would occur when its metaphysics is formulated in a complete and explicit manner.

In its real epistemological relation, in its semantics, an outline of a meta-theory would encompass a series of requirements. The terms used should have a meaning, whether real or hypothetical. Its propositions (scientific hypotheses that are neither true nor false, but rather more probable or less probable) should contain truths, whether they are empirical (verifiable through observation and experimentation), or formal (verifiable through the analysis of agreement of the deductions with the rules of conversion). In a scientific theory the formal truths should also move towards empirical control. The protocolary, phenomenological or physicalist propositions would allow empirical control of the probability of the hypotheses and their consequent definition as empirical laws, whether statistics or deterministic. The model would be the illustration of the theory.

It has been usual to admit that thought, in the act of knowing, starts with a whole view, intuitive, of the object (syncretism), then it analyzes and, afterwards, makes the synthesis; this analysis and synthesis can be experimental when they deal with facts, concrete data of experience, and rational when they deal with abstract propositions. It can be said that intuition prepares the way for ratiocination. Empirical intuition (sensible and psychological) serves as a starting point for deductive ratiocination. Rational intuition serves as a starting point for inductive ratiocination, assuring the logical continuity of ratiocination through the axioms, and crowning it through a comprehensive synthesis. Intuition guesses and ratiocination proves: the guess gives rise to the hypothesis, or spontaneous induction, which should become methodical induction, in order to prove the law.

It is known that no method confers absolute certainty on induction, whether it is that of residues, of concordance, of difference, of concomitant variations, or any combinations of these basic methods, since each one presents its characteristic imperfections. It is to be presumed, thus, that in questions in which inductive-methodical rational argumentation have not attained a sufficient degree of probability, intuitive-sentimental irrational reflection can fill the gaps of scientific knowledge with much greater credibility than inductive fallacies of pseudo-scientific postulates. Scientific phenomenology, policed by epistemology (genetic, general and normative), has been trying to assimilate the guidelines of theory of knowledge, in order to allow provisional syntheses that are sufficiently valid and with the greatest heuristic value possible.

The phylogenesis of knowledge continues to challenge scholars. In the specific case of the development of the concept of value, as well as in the development of knowledge in general, there are those who want to see, in the history of humanity, at each time, a developmental stage in the linear sense, while others deny that there is evidence for this. In this too we have found ourselves in the contingent position of having to consider the possibility of there being specific tendencies, coexistent at all times and places, varying only in the garments of their representation, their symbology, according to the peculiarities of the different peoples in the different ecological and historical circumstances. A dichotomy makes itself evident: some want the valuable to have origin in revelation; others want evaluation to be the fruit of experience that has been accumulated and transmitted by generations.

The genesis of the preoccupations of evaluation is lost in the history of time. The first record more broadly disseminated is that of the Bible: “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, Let there be light; and there was light. And God saw that light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness” (Gen. 1, 1 to 4). Ethical preoccupation takes on, starting with Pythagoras, a doctrinal character, disciplining conduct, establishing what is good and what is evil, founding the concepts of reward and punishment, in the Jewish-oriental nature. Polytheism, cosmological or anthropomorphic, anthropologism and scientificism are characterized as directions of religious-mystic thought that, present at all times and in all places, influence, directly or indirectly, the process of evaluation of the world, of things, and of beings.

The attempts to theorize knowledge (since Parmenides), to discipline scientific conversation, dialectics (since Protagoras), to develop inductive dialectics, maieutics (since Socrates), to systematize ethics (since Plato) and knowledge (since Aristotle), to distinguish judgments of reality from judgments of value (since Prodicus), constitute the dynamic substratum which people use to examine the problem of value. The argumentations, according to the tendency of each one, were bound, initially, to taking a position regarding the belief in the existence of God and in the truth of revelation or the assertion that God does not exist and the human acquisitions result from arduous and painstaking work of elaborating experiences.

At no moment in the history of humanity, nor at any moment in the history of the individual, has a radical position been taken, since even the most severe rationalist theorizers of knowledge and ethics proved to be sentimental and yielding in the religious-mystical realm, and the most intransigent irrationalists do not resist the temptation to theorize about their categorical assertions (?) that the incognizable cannot be known. In regards to the existence of God, all of them, at all times, take the position that they must acknowledge the concept that there must have been a cause of the causes, a first cause, a beginning, whatever denomination is given to it; likewise, the concept of an end. Man knows that he is only allowed to know within the range of the real-current, of recorded history, lived, everything else is placed at the level of belief and speculation.

At all times and in all places, there have been, there is and, probably, there will be, those who reverence the powers of nature, those that lend to these powers the representative form of beings similar to men, those who consider man the center of the universe, those who consider science the ultimate end of man. According to their belief in the omnipotence of the powers of nature, of the gods that preside over them, or of a god that presides over them, or of man, or of science, each man will adapt his conduct according to the belief that appeases his spirit regarding his origin, life and destiny, as well as the origin, life and destiny of humanity and of the universe. The examination of the concept of value can only be done by taking into account all this mystical-religious current underlying the problem, in the history of each individual and in the history of humanity.

Under any circumstances, judgment of value, as well as of reality, requires reflection, which in turn, requires consciousness. Consciousness, in the words of Igor Caruso, is any form of a being-for-itself of interiority, which is lived even where there is no division between subject and object. There are degrees of consciousness: spontaneous, pre-objective, lived before the reflective disassociation between subject and object; reflective, an awareness of what goes on in spontaneous consciousness. Spontaneous consciousness corresponds to the absence of judgment of value, when the individual, in his primary-totalizing living I-world, finds himself at the mercy of reward and punishment of a concrete, material nature, and often he may even rebel against this dependency, without, however, being able to break the vicious circle, subjecting himself to the greatest and most enslaving manipulation.

Reflective consciousness, at its emergence, propels the individual to the experience of separation I-subject and world-object, which allows him, by means of comparison and discernment, to judge each value, creating his own system, self-regulation. Morality, personal interpretation of the “it must be” (ethics), finds its expression in conduct, and it is greatly influenced by emotion and by religion. It can be said that moral consciousness, morality, comes about when the individual questions traditional norms, not simply out of rebelliousness against imposed morality, but because of his capacity to think for himself in general and critical terms. On the other hand, morality is important not only for the individual but also for the social; it is expected that the use of reasoning, which leads to autonomy, also considers the common good.

It has been common to demand that ethical thought not give in to the lack of clarity of concepts nor yield to the ignorance of facts. An apparent dichotomy between the teleological and deontological theories has caused many ethical fallacies. In the teleological approach itself, selfishness, on the one hand, and universalism (utilitarianism), on the other, lose all meaning if we consider that both the greatest personal good and the greatest collective good only have expression in the personal good, since the collective good is the sum of personal goods. A comparison between act-utilitarianism and act-deontology shows us, merely, one more counterfeit of the apriority and aposteriority, while a comparison between rule-utilitarianism and rule-deontology confirms the absence of contradiction between the theories of final causes and the theories of duties, both establishing rules for conduct.

It is known that no ethical theory offers safe guidance for conduct, whether it is teleological or deontological or mixed deontological of obligation “prima facie” (of benevolence and justice) and of effective duty (of rules and judgments), since each one presents its characteristic imperfections. As occurs with thought in general, ethical rational argumentation, when it becomes entangled in its own limitations, witnesses intuitive-sentimental irrational reflection fill its gaps with the theory of love (act and rule-agapism), and it does so much more successfully than the ethical fallacies. Also in the realm of ethics, scientific phenomenology has been trying provisional syntheses for the apparent dichotomies conservativeness-free exam and moral rigorism-laxness, in all its manifestations, reactionaries and revolutionary, chauvinistic and ecumenical.

The efforts of human thought in terms of knowledge, in general, has vacillated between two poles. Through reason man seeks science, which only covers what is material. Reason, starting from materialism (whether it is naturalist, culturalist or intellectualist), if taken to the last consequences of reflection, arrives, through logic, at the conclusion that: existence surpasses science; the world exists, independently of being well or poorly known; man “is”, independently of knowing that “he is being”; phenomena surpass, by far, the human capacity to become aware of them. As a consequence, the problem of the irrational character of the world emerges, and various systems turn with ardor to the principles of altruism, fraternity and love, blaming scientism as being the basic factor of the cultural catastrophe.

In terms of ethical knowledge, especially, the efforts of human thought have not escaped the same symptomatic polarity. Those who desired, by reason, to establish what is and what is not morally valid, arrived at the conclusion of the need to establish limits for individual freedom, claiming that man must aspire to the best for the greatest number of people. But, when trying to systematize the valuable, they were able to do so only in the material sense: the return to the simplicity of things of nature; the sharing of the goods of production, consumer objects and products of work; economy of thought and biological utility. As a consequence, the problem arises of the need for feeling to give existential validity to the materially valuable.

From scientific phenomenology, synthetic reflection that aims at understanding and describing the world from the unified data of the several experimental sciences, it can be expected the balance of the systems, a medium system that remains open to the progress of thought in its two fundamental aspects: intuitive and rational. The past of humanity, thus elaborated, constitutes the permanent source of valid information for a better lived present and a better programmed future. If happiness is the end of every culture, it becomes necessary to program the appropriate processing in the transmission of knowledge and values, so that each group and each individual achieve, with the least expenditure of energy, the greatest progress it is capable of.

4 SCIENTIFIC FUNDAMENTS

Induction, also a kind of indirect knowledge as deduction, starting from the interior as deduction and intuition, but also exterior, which the individual has of himself, passes, necessarily, through the particular data to arrive at a general conclusion, in the search for the unity of thought. This is an imperious dialectic requirement of its scientification, which also attempts to clarify the relation between the individual’s interior fulfillment and the exterior fulfillment of his acting in the world. In the scientific fundaments of the Analytical-phenomenological-existential Psychotherapeutic Theory, esoteric, interior, we intend, from an intuitive-empirical perspective of the rational-inductive condition of existing, to unify the data of the sciences. We have tried to induce the universality of matter through the proof of the existence of the in-itself by means of the apprehension of phenomena through the accumulated experience of numerous and different perceptions.

Since induction, also a kind of indirect knowledge as deduction, starting from the interior as deduction and intuition, but also exterior, which the individual has of himself, passes, necessarily, through the particular data to arrive at a general conclusion, it becomes indispensable to know the existing modalities of approaching the theme. Dealing with the human being, with his existence, nature and attributes, as well as with his relation with the world, science, exact knowledge, can be empirical, a knowing of the human being based on reductive observation of sensorial data, or eidetic, a knowing of the human being based on the direct apprehension of the significant relations in an interpersonal and multipersonal context. Thus, the science of the human being, for all time, has been obtained through the search for knowledge of the three aspects of his being, the somatic, the psychic and the social.

The nature of scientific thought about the human being gave rise to different branches of science: biology, psychology and sociology. There is a record of an opposition between empirical science, which starts from the “bios”, interpersonal eidetic science, which starts from the “psyche”, and multi-personal eidetic science, which starts from the “socius”. The truth is, however, that the science of the “bios” prepares the path for the science of the “psyche” and both prepare the path for the science of the “socius”. Furthermore, some problems raised in empirical science do not appear in interpersonal and multi-personal eidetic sciences and vice versa. In the eidetic sciences, a dependence on the development of empirical science, can be observed, and yet, it is the development of eidetic sciences that gives meaning to empirical discoveries in the general context of science.

4.1 The roots of empirical science

It can be said that man, forever insecure in face of the hazards of nature, has developed a feeling of fear of the unknown, which has given rise to a feeling of religiosity and to the perception of his capacity of knowing, through reflection, the power of the laws of nature, to symbolize them and to seek protection in their logic. It has also given rise to the need to describe, explain and control natural events. Scientific tradition, under the form of theories, has perpetuated the knowledge thus acquired. Civilizations have recorded their science, each one representing its version of the accumulated knowledge. The first attempts of empirical scientific knowledge became greatly confounded with beliefs and mystcism, leaving knowledge “through causes” dependent on the limitations of the methods and apparatuses on which observation depended, not to mention the difficulties of a structured language that would allow its recording.

4.1.1 At the beginning

In order to know man, it became necessary to know the species, and in order to know the species it became indispensable to know life in all its manifestations, since, according to R. Perrier, despite the very general opinion yet broadly disseminated in our days, that places man in an absolute way in opposition to animals, his structure, organization, functions connect him, without doubt, to the animal kingdom. And, in order to know, it was necessary to classify. As to Aristotle, with his theory that animals were built according to the same mental plan, he classified them by comparing their parts, taking into consideration the “excess” or the “lack” of some of them, this theory was taken as a basis by Linnaeus, when he engaged himself in his exhaustive and unending classifications, so in favor in that century.

The origin of the phenomenon “life” has challenged science over the centuries. According to Stahl, the theory that “soul” and “vital principle” become confounded with each other, raising discussions on the problem of its location and the nature and extent of its functions, has condemned animism to an ephemeral duration, since, in the words of H. Roger, to attribute the intellectual principle to the physiology of the organs was a compromising theory for those who wanted to raise man above animals and bring him close to the divinity. As to Van Helmont, inspired by Aristotle and Galen, he considered the “vital principle” an intermediary state between the soul and the body, a principle common to man and to animal, while the soul, immaterial, immortal and endowed with reason, is specific to man; his theories greatly influenced the school of Montpellier, through Barthez and Bordeu.

The organicism of Cabanis and Bichat, although based on vitalism, is closer to the physical-chemical theory when it asserts that the total life of the organism results from the composition of the vital forces of the different organs themselves. The energetic vitalism of Rignano, which considers the vital principle as a modality of universal energy, is vitalism adapted to the modern acquisitions of science, and it is the link between vitalism and the physical-chemical theory through its valuing of the concept of energy.

Just as the animist theories had yielded to the vitalist theories, the physical-chemical explanations assumed a significant place, trying to discover how matter animates itself, how it acquires life. The knowledge that the protoplasm is a colloid of great chemical variety and complexity, very unstable, constantly changing its composition through assimilation and disassimilation, led to the conclusion that life is nothing but an extremely complex physical-chemical phenomenon. The distinction between the animate and the inanimate led to the search for an explanation of the movement and energy that produces it: the knowledge that the mechanism of muscular contraction obeys the laws of thermodynamics, as in elementary organisms and inanimate bodies, led to the conception that every living organism is an energetic system in which potential chemical energy accumulates, storing itself in the tissues, brought by nutrition and circulation, and when necessary transforming itself in the muscles, into mechanical energy, producing movement.

The hypotheses on the origin of the evolution of the physical world and on the origin of life continue to lack proof. The hypotheses on the evolution of living beings had an initial expression with the Species Fixism theory of Linnaeus and Cuvier, which holds that vegetable and animal species are absolutely distinct, fixed and immutable, since the act of creation. Counterposing this, the transformism of Leibniz, Goethe and Buffon is based on the principle that the species transform themselves and evolve; they used examples provided by composite forms (revealed by botany and by zoology), the existence of rudimentary organs without a function (also found in the ancestral forms), the stages the embryos go through, and the countless data supplied by paleontology and geology. Although there was agreement between the evolutionists regarding the fundamental thesis, opinions varied in regard to the process and factors of this evolution; while Lamarck talked about the influence of the environment and the use and non use of organs, Darwin valued the role of vital competition; as to De Vries, broadening the concept of evolution, he proved that, besides the slow variations considered by Lamarck and Darwin, there are sudden variations, or mutations, with probable causes in the internal chemistry of the beings.

The problem of the origin of the species, notwithstanding the contributions of paleontology, comparative zoology and embryology, continues to challenge the human spirit. The recomposition of the history of the origin of man, passing through the history of the origin and evolution of the vertebrates, mammals, primates and human fossils, seems to leave no doubt for biology on the relation of its sequence with the origin of animals; nevertheless, Perrier himself asserts that we do not know nor will ever know the real direct filiation of man; for the same reason, although the discussions about the monophyletic and polyphyletic conceptions of the human species seem to favor the former, nothing can be confirmed. Other directions, however, not those in search of an explanation for the origin of man, have made sense, and since Hippocrates, the systematic preoccupation with knowing about man today, in his growth, development and health, have taken shape; and the history of human morphology, chemistry and physiology has unfolded these areas, which are interrelated in an inextricable way.

The “wondrous science”, as we know it today, has suffered a slow and arduous development. Three centuries were necessary, from the discovery of the spermatozoon by Leeuwenhoek, of the “ovarian egg” by Graaf, of the principle of reproduction and fertilization and artificial insemination by Spallanzani, of the mechanism of fertilization by Hertwing, of the laws of heredity by Mendel, Naudin, Weismann and Haeckel, De Vries, Correns and Morgan, up to the most recent research with the advent of the electronic microscope, so that man could accumulate the elements that would give him one more important branch of science, genetics, and so that a great social problem could become a practical reality and a theme of discussion of moral nature with applications of unpredictable consequences, eugenics.

On the other hand, the preoccupations with embryology, already present in Aristotle, who asserted that he who sees things from the beginning has a more complete view of them, have been manifested in the most diverse mythical explanations, followed by the animist and vitalistic theories, the physical-chemical explanations of Kenelm Digby, the observations of Harvey and Malpighi and the theory of epigenesis of François Wolff. With the works of men like Preyer, Minkowski, Davenport Hooker, Kuo, Coronios, Carmichael and Coghill, embryology has been shedding its secrets; and the work of Gesell and others has been offering very clear and precise descriptions of these acquisitions, increased by their own observations.

If, for a very obvious reason, man engaged, from the beginning, in describing what he could observe, as well demonstrated by the works of D’Aquapendente, Vesalius, Dubois, Falloppio and so many others, he never failed to try to explain what he was observing. This happened with the explanation about blood circulation, which began with the discovery of the veins by D’Aquapendente, continued with the works of Harvey, proven by Malpighi when he discovered, thanks to the microscope, the existence of capillaries, discrediting the theories of Aristotle and of Galen, never refuted before. The same happened with the explanation about breathing, carried out by Lavoisier and broadened by Paul Bert in its implications with circulation. The very same phenomenon happened with the explanation about digestion, which already engaged Graaf and Spallanzani in their studies about the pancreatic juice and the relations between digestion, breathing and circulation, and it received from Bernard a very special study, which led him to attest to the existence of several diastases, which inspired Gyorgy to discover several vitamins. The advent of the microscope, since the initial observations of Leeuwenhoek, allowed Bichat to launch the basis of histology, Schleiden and Schwann developed their cellular theory and Koelliker witnessed, for the first time in the history of science, the division of a cell.

Although worries about diseases and plague have followed man since ever, and the history of the use of medicine has been lost over time, it was not until the XVI century that man became more wisely engaged in his preservation. With Fracastor, studies on contagious diseases and the modalities of contagion began, but only with Pasteur, four centuries later, did the search for causes of these diseases begin, which was carried on by Löffler, Hansen, Eberth, Koch, Nicolaier, Escherich, Yersin, and which will last as long as there are microbes to be discovered. With the discovery of the existence of microbes and the principle of vaccines and serum, by Pasteur and Roux, the specific struggle against each disease began; and names such as those of Widal, Yersin, Guérin, Ramon, became known as great benefactors of humanity. The fight continues and will continue while there are microbes to fight against.

With the theories of Bordeaux and Legallois, followed by the experiments of Berthold with bird’s testicles and the suppositions of Claude Bernard on the existence of internal secretions in the body, a new direction looked promising for knowledge of the human body. The works of Brown-Sequard and d’Arsonval, regarding the suprarenal glands and the testicular extracts, gave raise to a new and important science, endocrinology. The knowledge of the existence of hormones and their action has been increasing ever more with the studies that have been carried out, and today, the great influence of the activity of the endocrinal glands on the body in general and on the activities of the brain is known. Great benefits have come from the knowledge already acquired on the functioning of the endocrinal system; nevertheless, the challenge continues, and there is much still to be discovered in this area, although the knowledge of thyroxin, insulin, parathormone, adrenalin, progesterone, testosterone, corticosterone and pituitary hormones already permit their relative safe use by man.

As far back as Alcmaeon, a disciple of Pythagoras, the studies of anatomy had destroyed the simplistic concepts of Aristotle about the function of the brain. Anaxagoras proclaimed the existence of the brain already in the embryo, and Straton spoke of the role of the environment, “cosmic environment”, and of selection in the formation of beings, besides asserting that only the brain has the property of feeling. Herophilos and Erasistratus studied corpses and made experiments with animals, relating intelligence to the complexity of the cerebral circumvolutions; and Galen related the disturbances of sensibility and motility to the brain. Thus, the realist conception of some, supported by observation and experience, stood in opposition to the idealist and spiritualist doctrine of others, both moving towards influencing Cartesian dualism. Practically abandoned for many centuries, speculation, resuming its place in the XVI century, was able to demonstrate, through the study of corpses, the effects of cerebral lesions. There was even some success in undertaking surgical interventions. However, the discussions brought about by the conceptualization of such terms as instinct, intelligence, soul, impassioned the spirits, and often, the works of the scientists themselves were marked by nonsense; and the assertion of Darwin that man and the superior animals have the same senses, the same intuitions, the same sensations, passions, affections and similar emotions, failed to convince all, and even exasperated many.

If, already with Vesalius, the anatomy of the nervous system was well-known, with the discovery of the role of the spinal nerves by Magendie, the function of the brain and of the cerebellum by Flourens and of the sympathetic nerves by Claude Bernard, on the one hand, and the development of the theories of cerebral location by Gall, and the works of Marc Dax, Broca, Jackson, Fritsch and Hitzig, on the other, the study of the cerebral cortex by Cajal, Vogt and Brodmann led to a better understanding of the different areas of the brain and their functions, this understanding was graphically shown, in the sensitive and motor aspects, by the drawing of the homunculus, deftly idealized by Penfield and Rasmussen. The subsequent appearance of neurosurgery, with Fulton and Jacobson experimenting on chimpanzees, led to the application of this newly acquired knowledge, benefiting mankind, this application was begun with Egas Moniz and Lima; and Berger, based on the experiments of Caton, gave origin to the use of the electroencephalogram, which has been providing innumerable medical services. Currently, cybernetic theories, availing themselves of all this knowledge, have been trying to explain cerebral activities.

4.1.2 Afterwards

According to Don Santiago Ramon Y Cajal, a Spanish doctor and writer, an internationally renowned investigator, specialized in histology, born in 1852 and who died in 1934, the knowledge of the physical-chemical bases of memory, of feelings and of reason would make man the true master of creation, and his most transcendental work would be the conquest of his own brain. In fact, to understand behavior from the neuronal structure, where the interpretation of the information taken by the senses occurs, and where all our emotions originate, as well as all our thoughts and all our decisions, although it will not solve man’s anxiety about his origin and his destiny, will allow the understanding and, who knows, the solution of the archaic antagonisms that hinder human beings from living in peace here and now.

The more modern studies prove that the genetic code represents the biological determination of the anatomical and functional characteristics of the organism. In the human being, development is characterized by increasingly independent conduct, given the possibility, not only of choosing different paths, but also of broadening and multiplying them almost infinitely, through man’s capacity of inventing, constructing and maintaining machines. According to José M. R. Delgado, a disciple of Cajal, what more clearly distinguishes man from other animals is his awareness of his own existence (consciousness of himself ), increased by the capacity to resist what seems to be his natural destiny and, even, to change it, relative free will. If we knew the genetic determinants, the cultural elements and the intra-cerebral mechanisms that intervene in conduct, we would be able to better understand the motivation that guides our actions.

The brain, the “black box”, continued to be the challenge for scientists, who circumvented the impossibility of defining the mind by resorting to operative descriptions. The mind, the “nous” of Anaxagoras, considered by Aristotle a special kind of soul, the rational one, continued to be confused with the “psyche”. Delgado asserted that, without stimuli (or without the brain) the mind cannot exist, and without behavior it cannot recognize itself, and thus, he arrived at the following definition: the mind is the intra-cerebral elaboration of the extra-cerebral information, whereby its base is cultural and not individual, and the thoughts and things depend, necessarily, of the neural-physiological activity of the brain, whose structure is characterized by neurons, pathways and synapses, and whose functioning depend on the consumption of oxygen.

The contribution of Delgado to the knowledge of man can be summarized as follows: the mental functions are not related to the anatomy of the brain, but are related to its physiology; the mind cannot be visually observed, but only in its dynamic expression, in conduct. The mental activities, differently from the other organs, depend, essentially, on extra-genetic aspects. The information about the anatomy, physiology and biochemistry of the neurons will facilitate the understanding of mental manifestations because such activities depend on cerebral functions, but this biological explanation will not totally explain the mental dynamics, because the mind, besides its relation with the structure of the neurons, also depends on its spatial-temporal relations, as well as other extra-cerebral factors.

The term “emotion” must not be attributed to the behavior of the newborn, who is not capable of differentiated responses, although some mental functions already manifest themselves in an elementary form, allowing simple conditioned responses. The conduct of the newborn is not intelligent, and its manifestations do not indicate the existence of mental life. Intelligent conduct depends on an active cerebral cortex, distant receptors that are functioning, vertical posture and the possibility of symbolic or substitutive responses. It is known today that, at least, in the hippocampus, in the olfactory bulb and in the cortex of the cerebellum, more than 80% of the neurons are formed after the birth of the animal, influencing the experience provided by the sensory stimuli of the environment, which acts on the formation of the structural part of the neurons themselves. The normality of the brain is proven by the learning of new patterns of conduct. Although instinctive behavior occurs without the need of experience, the same does not occur with mental activity, in which experience exerts a fundamental role.

The practical conclusion of the discoveries made is that the brain is essential for thought, but the incult brain is not enough, hence it is necessary to learn to think. Cerebral activity essentially depends on sensorial stimuli, not only at birth, but throughout life. Normal mental functions cannot be maintained without a continuous flow of information coming from the external world. The mature brain, with all its past experience and acquired knowledge, is not capable of feeling, reacting and thinking normally if it finds itself in a sensorial void, since the individual mind is not self-sufficient. If there is no history, past experiences and knowledge, although the brain continues working, there cannot also be mental activity, as “brain washing” proves.

Recent neural-physiological studies have led to the conclusion that memories, emotional reactivity, motor ability, words, ideas and patterns of conduct that constitute our personal being have their origin, not inside, but outside the individual. There are, in the brain, basic mechanisms responsible for all mental activities. These mechanisms can be investigated, analyzed and changed, and even sometimes substituted by means of physical and chemical technologies, although this does not mean that love and thoughts are exclusively neural-physiological phenomena, but that the central nervous system is absolutely necessary for any manifestation of behavior, and that its mechanisms can be studied. The direct manipulation of the brain can induce predictable mental manifestations and conduct. Intelligence and purpose can be introduced into neuronal functions, substituting blind and automatic responses.

By means of direct electrical stimulation to the brain, it is already possible to induce a great variety of responses, from motor effects to emotional reactions and intellectual manifestations; it is also possible to investigate, from a distance, the conduct of subjects acting freely. It has been proven that the brain controls the heart, breathing, gastric secretion and motility. It has also been proven that the cerebral organization of voluntary motility is located, mainly, in the cortex of the parietal lobe, and that the other areas, situated in the deepest part of the brain, have a decisive role in the organization of more refined motility. In all, the research carried out has been able to prove that part of the functioning of the human brain depends on the cultural environment, and that, in fact, there is not a hereditary program of cerebral regulations.

An important discovery is that there is, in the frontal lobes, a mechanism that potentiates perception and the evaluation of suffering, since after a lobotomy the initial sensation of pain is not modified, but the affective component that accompanies the sensation is greatly diminished. It is known that anguish, fear and violence are in the brain, since they can be induced by electrical stimulation or diminished by electro-coagulation of small areas in the frontal lobe; in the same way, effects of pleasure can be induced by the septal stimulation of the frontal lobes, the same occurs with the injection of acetylcholine directly into the septal area. The electrical stimulus of the frontal cortex induces changes of character and good affective disposition, friendliness. Other experiments have put forward the supposition that artificial chemical and electrical changes of the neural physiology can have a decisive role in the interpretation of reality, somewhat independently of past experience and personal structure.

4.1.3 Currently

Although the theorization of knowledge about the human being based on empirical science is incipient, with many gaps and controversies, two very significant movements have developed over time. One of them, theorization in terms of traits and types, since Hippocrates, with Rostan, Viola and Kretschmer, also availing themselves of the contributions of Freud, Jung, S. S. Stevens and William James, find their current expression in the work of William Sheldon (biotypology), G. W. Allport (psychology of the individual), H. J. Eysenck (factor analysis theory) and R. Cattell (factor analysis theory). The other, theorization in terms of association and learning, with I. Pavlov, J. B. Watson, E.L. Thorndike, E. Guthrie, Clark Hull and Freud, also availing itself of the contribution of social anthropology, finds its current expression in the works of J. Dollard and N. Miller.

For Sheldon, the physical type (constitution) is the substructure that allows us to measure and quantify the structure and dynamics and the personality. The somatotypes represent an attempt to evaluate the morphogenotype (hypothetical biological structure), although indirectly, supporting itself in the measurements of the phenotype (physical type). The dimensions of the physical type are the primary components (endomorphy, mesomorphy and ectomorphy), which as a result give the somatotypes and the secondary components (dysplasia, gynandromorph and textural aspect). The dimensions of temperament are viscerotonia, somatotonia, and cerebrotonia. As we get to know the body (the unconscious), our behavior becomes ever more conscious; this is the efficient cause of conduct, by means of the physical type and the temperament, according to their dimensions. The expectations of the environment in this regard, in function of the commonly accepted stereotype, can determine in the individual a disposition to act according to what is predicted for his somatotype, but what is important is the pattern of relations between the variables (physical type and temperament).

Sheldon considers the temperament (endomorphic viscerotonic, mesomorphic somatotonic, and ectomorphic cerebrotonic) to be that which determines the constants in conduct (the agent of impulses), and that individuals with the same somatotypes have similar behavior because (alternatives): a) the success or the reward that follows his way of responding is a function not only of the environment, but also of the kind of person (physical type) that gives the response, since people react the same way to stimuli and receive the same gratification, which provides them identical experiences; b) the relationship between the physical type and temperament is determined by commonly accepted stereotypes, since people act according to the environment’s expectation of them; c) certain experiences or environmental influences tend to produce particular kinds of physical types and, at the same time, certain behavioral tendencies; d) the relation between the structure of the body and behavior can be understood in terms of the collective operation of genetic factors. He also considers that: the degree of control of the individual is highly dependent on temperament; adjustment occurs more easily in function of the knowledge the person has of his somatotype the apparent relation between the first events in an individual’s life and the subsequent behavior can be, in great part, a reflection of the consistent operation of biological factors over a long period.

For Allport, personality is the dynamic organization of the psychic-physical systems that determine the peculiar adjustments of each individual to the environment. The trait, the general neuropsychic system directed towards a certain point, has the capacity to make many stimuli functionally equivalent, and to initiate and conduct conscious forms (equivalent) of adaptational and expressive behavior. There are the following traits: common, which are not real traits, but measurable aspects of the traits, in face of similarities that are conferred to it by culture; cardinal, dominant, which define the person in a marked way; central, which represent highly characteristic tendencies of the individual; secondary, less common, more related to responses than to stimuli. There is no ego or “self ” that acts separately; there is the “proprium” and the activities of adjustment. The phenomena characteristic of the emotional nature of a person (temperament) are hereditary in their origin. The phenomenon of functional autonomy can occur, that is, a certain activity or kind of behavior becomes an end in itself (persistence in a certain response when there are no more reasons for it). There are two types of autonomous conduct: perseverative behavior (common in animals), which seems to have survived its biological utility and resisted extinction; self-motivated behavior, a pattern of conduct considered appropriate which helps the adjustment of the individual without, however, seeming to be part of the central nucleus of life.

Allport considers the intelligent act an expression of the adaptational component of human response, that which relates itself with its functional value, its effect, the end it proposes. It results from rational thought, which is one of the functions of the “proprium”, a part that, together with adjustment activities, will form the personality. The functions of the “proprium”, besides rational thought, are, sense of body, self-identity, self-esteem, self-extension, self-image, propriate-striving and knowledge. Temperament refers to phenomena characteristic of the emotional nature of the person, which are hereditary in their origin; and the peculiar adjustments of each individual to the environment depend on the psycho-physical systems (traits). The common traits or nomothetic, which are not real traits but only a measurable aspect of them, represent the correspondence of the influence of the environment and culture; this means that individuals develop ways of adjustment roughly comparable. The functions of the “proprium” start to appear around three years of age; at this time, the processes of differentiation, integration, maturation, imitation, learning, functional autonomy (the main one) and self-extension start. Maturity is characterized by functional autonomy: the main determinants of behavior are a set of organized traits, congruent, current, in great part consistent, rational, objective. Mature personality possesses self-extension (varied activities and planning for the future), self-determination (self-knowledge and a sense of humor to accept oneself and accept one’s loved objects) and a unified philosophy of life (which provides purpose and meaning to one’s acts).

For Eysenck, personality is the sum total of the behavioral patterns of the organism, potential and manifest, determined by heredity and the environment; its structure encompasses the cognitive sectors, conative, affective and somatic and the acts and dispositions (type, trait, habitual response, specific response) in each sector. There is a functional interaction of the four main sectors in which the patterns of behavior of the organism, real or potential, organize themselves: cognitive-intelligence; conative-character; affective-temperament; somatic-constitution. Impulsive acts result from the somatic and affective sectors, given the permissiveness of the conative sector and given the non-working of the cognitive sector. The intelligent act, a result of the cognitive sector, is affected by the other sectors; taking into consideration the acts and dispositions, in their hierarchy of generality and importance, one could give as examples, in the cognitive sector, for the type “ideology”, the trait “attitude”, the habitual response “habitual opinion” and the specific response “specific opinion”. The sectors interact, determining the acts and dispositions.

For Cattell, personality is what allows us to predict what a person will do in a certain situation; its structure encompasses the traits; its working determines its development, which consists in the change of the “ergs” (constitutional traits), in the elaboration of the “metaergs” (traits molded by the environment) and in the organization of the structure of the “self ” (responsible for the stability and organization of behavior), as a result of the functioning of intelligence, the volume of rigidity available and the power of memory. There is: the structural “self ”, feeling of the ego or of self-esteem; the real “self ”, the individual exactly as he acknowledges himself to be in his most conscious moments; the ideal “self ”, the individual as he would like to see himself. The impulsive acts result from the “ergs”, traits of profundity, constitutional, dynamic, whose objective is to lead the individual to the desired goal, and whose function allows the individual appropriate reactivity in function of the goal. An intelligent act is one that changes the “ergs”, elaborates the “metaergs” and organizes the structure of the “self ”; it is affected by the volume of rigidity available and by the power of memory. There are a series of subsidiary motives, or instrumental, through which the final objective can be identified; there is also a disposition for rigidity, a tendency of the organism to become conservative and resistant to change. There are the dynamic crossroads. The syntalities of the several groups form the social context and have influence on the personality.

For Dollard and Miller, personality is formed, in its stable aspect, by the habits, by impulses and by the hierarchy of responses. It works through the learning process, which encompasses the dynamics of conceptual elements (impulse, suggestion and response), influenced by reinforcement, by extinction, by spontaneous recovery, by generalization, by discrimination, by anticipatory response. The impulse is a strong enough stimulus to impel the individual towards an activity, provide energy for behavior. There are the primary or innate impulses, that is, linked to the physiological processes, to the survival of the organism, and the secondary or derived ones, that is, elaboration of the innate impulses aiming at instigating and directing behavior, broadly substituting the original function of stimulation of the primary impulse.

Dollard and Miller believe that the habit, link or association between the stimulus (impulse, suggestion) and the response, has the role of integrator of the personality. The habits are formed, modified, disappear and are substituted or remade. Although the personality is mainly made up of habits, its particular structure depends on certain occurrences, to which the individual is exposed, and on his hierarchy of responses, whether they are innate or acquired. The intelligent act is the expression of ratiocination which, together with language, constitute the high level mental processes. Ratiocination is an internal process of great importance, since, once the direct instrumental response is inhibited, the individual can carry out “trial and error” in thought, until the appropriate response is identified; he can also engage in planning activities.

The conceptual elements of the learning process are: a) the impulse, stimulus that sets the individual into action; b) the suggestion (tendency), stimulus that directs the response of the organism (when, where and how the individual will respond); it varies in nature (species) and intensity; c) the response; there is an initial hierarchy of responses, that can be innate or resultant; d) the reinforcement, an occurrence that strengthens the connection between a response and a suggestion; there is a gradient of reinforcement; e) the extinction, a weakening of the habit, or a decrease in the tendency to the response, as a result of the absence of reward or reinforcement; f) the spontaneous recovery, a tendency of the habit to reinstall itself after extinction, without additional reinforcement; g) the generalization (transferal), a tendency of the individual to use the same response, although there has been a change in the suggestive situation; the situations of stimuli can be ranked or ordered in terms of their similarities, which will determine the probability of generalization (generalization gradient); h) the discrimination, an inhibition of the tendency to generalize, that is, learning different responses for similar situations; i) anticipatory response, that which appears earlier in the sequence than in the original learning, eliminating phases.

The following are basic suppositions of behavior: 1 – gradient of approach: the closer one is to an objective, the more attracted the individual feels to it; 2 – gradient of avoidance: the tendency to avoid a negative stimulus becomes stronger the closer the individual gets to it; 3 – the tendency to avoid a negative stimulus increases as one gets closer to the objective, in a much greater reason than the tendency to achieve it; 4 – an increase in the impulse associated with avoidance or approach increases the general level of the gradient; 5 – when there is competition between two responses, the stronger one is fulfilled.

The habits are the form of adjustment; they are formed and can be changed, disappear, be substituted or remade. The high mental processes (language and ratiocination) allow the learning of ever more elaborate responses to occurrences, responses that can become habitual. No human being is capable of operating so efficiently that all his tendencies are congruent and well integrated; there are conflicts of approach and avoidance to a stimulus, giving rise to choices and responsibility for the choice. The individual, with his innate equipment (specific reflexes, innate hierarchies of responses, primary impulses), responds to the cultural context, learns, acquires habits (conditioned reflexes, learned hierarchies of responses, secondary impulses), and can change, substitute or remake them in function of occurrences to which he has been exposed. The critical stages of development are the eating conditions, hygiene, sexual orientation, control of aggression.

4.1.4 In summary

With the development of all specialized branches of the science of the soma, the following conclusions were reached: man is a superior animal; the biological contains the necessary conditions for psychic life; the nervous and endocrinal systems produce extremely complex reciprocal effects and are anatomically-physiologically interconnected in an almost inextricable manner. The new notion of the brain as a supervising element, also affected by “inferior instances”, and not merely a simple commanding organ, has completely changed the panorama, giving rise to the concept of “integration”, which, the work of Sherrington and Head, has been trying to demonstrate the great complexity of the problem of knowing the human body, its functioning and preservation. The evidence, always suspected, that the science of the soma does not exhaust the science of man has been serving as an implicit invitation to search for knowledge about man in the other dimensions of his being.

4.2 The roots of interpersonal eidetic sciences

Concurrent to the need to describe, explain and control natural events, in order to minimize his insecurity in face of the hazards of nature, the human being has sought to explore or interpret the content of interpersonal phenomena in a methodical and critical way. Scientific tradition has perpetuated, also under the form of theories, the knowledge thus acquired. Civilizations have recorded their science, each one representing its version of the accumulated knowledge. The first attempts of interpersonal eidetic scientific knowledge became greatly confounded with religious feeling and with philosophical thought of each time. Freudian thought itself, the cornerstone of this kind of thought, was highly contaminated by the mentality of its time and limited by the degree of development of the empirical and multi-personal eidetic sciences of the period.

4.2.1 At the beginning

Even with the ancient ones there was a remarkable interest in the reason for the animation of bodies. In Anaxagoras, we find the assertion that, besides the material senses, there is an immaterial intelligence. In Democritus, we see considerations regarding the existence of the psychic atom. Hippocrates offered us the rudiments of a bio-typology and of a psycho-pathology. Socrates and Plato were concerned about psychology as a preamble to morals. Aristotle defined psychology as “sciencia de rebus animatis”. Saint Thomas treated of the soul, “actus primus corporis physici organici potential vitam habentis”, operating by means of the agents, which become diversified through acts. From very early two tendencies can be observed in man in his search for the science of himself and of his fellow creatures, which are concretization and abstraction; while Hippocrates seeks to examine the facts, Saint Thomas culminates in philosophical speculations about the same phenomena.

Among the modern ones, we can see the influence of Bacon’s empiricism and of Descartes’ rationalism, establishing the tendencies, on the one hand, of the objective evaluation of facts and, on the other, of introspection. Men such as Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hartley, Hume, James Mill, Stuart Mill, and Bain represent the transition phase between philosophy and scientific psychology, expressed by Christian Wolff in his two well-known works. Taking from Aristotle “nothing is in intelligence that has not passed through the senses” and from Democritus the preoccupation with atomism, Wolff plunged into a disorderly analysis and lost sight of the psyche in its totality.

The distinction established by Wolff, the assertion by Brentano that psychology is an empirical science and experimentation its method, the challenge of Kant that mathematics cannot be applied to it, the reply of Herbart that the use of mathematics is, not only a possibility, but a requirement in the treatment of psychic phenomena, and the experiments of Weber, Fechner and Helmholtz, all culminated in the experiments of Wundt which, influenced by associationism, limited themselves to the examination of the physiological correlates of the psyche. Wundt was able, however, to prove that psychic phenomena can be investigated objectively and quantitatively, thus took a giant step that made it possible to break through the Rubicon of the history of the science of the psyche, consolidating induction and promisingly giving notice of deduction.

Fully flourishing, the science of the psyche unfurled itself up and, in a kaleidoscope of thought, ever more complex and wrought figures were offered to the perplexed scholars of its history, without shedding, however, its original tendency to close itself into syntheses of greater or lesser limitations, according to the premises and concepts of its defenders. As a reaction to the limitations of psycho-physiology, as well as foreseeing the studies that would be done on behavior, and as a promise to reconsider the psychic totality, the functionalism of Dewey, although having arisen from philosophy, was able to address the theory of the faculties, and also structuralism and associationism, engaging itself with dynamism, the function of the psyche and its utility for the economy and the adaptation of the individual. A new phase, very promising, marked the passage of the psychological science from its initial stage of recognizing the existence of facts and problems (“IS”) to a better delineation of a more practical and superior level (“IS FOR”). Nevertheless, the tendency of its defenders, who did not resist the temptation to, besides emphasizing the concept of the utility of the psychic function, opinionate about the finality to be achieved by it, made functionalism only a promise, and not an indisputably scientific contribution, since, although it insisted on the dynamism of consciousness, on the need to study behavior and on the inconsistency of mental atomism, it did not seek the basis for its founding in experimentation.

Structuralism needed repairs that functionalism was not able to provide. Born under the auspices of experimental psychology, a new and vigorous direction of thought came about, entirely focused on the certainty of the “undefeatable incompatibility between the scientific and the subjective” which, according to Ribot, seemed to completely ignore Descartes. The theory of behavior, inspired in Pavlov and Bechterew, and formulated by Toulouse Pieron, found its American expression in Watson; he refused to be concerned with neurological explanations of conduct and carried out a great amount of research on its concrete manifestations in reaction to stimuli, with the intention of, through the study of peripheral movements, arriving at objective knowledge of the psyche. By rebelling against the theory of instincts and of psychic heredity, Watson asserted that the objective of psychology is the human being as a whole, but a whole that is simply the result of the adjustment of parts.

Although inspired by Watson, the physiological behaviorism of Meyer did not renounce the neurological explanations of the activities of superior organisms and gave rise to the biosocial behaviorism of Weiss, which proposed an explanation, not only of individual behavior, but also of the social one, based on physics, presenting an outline of the ideas that would be developed by the school of form. The organismic behaviorism of Kantor, although rejecting introspectionism, avoided mechanicism and considered the interaction of the psychological environment and of the psychological organism informed by its history. Tolman, the intentionalist, added to teleological or molar behaviorism, which asserted that behavior moves towards an end and chooses the means to arrive at this end, the idea that although the thought that directs behavior may not, many times, be conscious at the time it acts as such, it acquires, later on, consciousness and will constitute the wealth of experience of the individual.

Mechanicism, Physiologism, Bio-socialism, organicism or intentionalism, the behaviorist movement was, at once, a reaction to the introspective functionalism of Angell and Dewey and a ratification of the forgotten physiological basis of this functionalism; in short, a threat to the attempt to unite Hegelianism and Darwinism in a single direction. The concept that man is only a more complete animal, and the assertion that behavior reveals a persistence in acting until the consummation of the act, would attract to psychology a legion of dissidents, whose descendents mistrust it to this day. Put in such terms, genetic and mechanicist psychology came to “outrage” common sense, moral customs, social organization.

It was not only psychologism, with its limitations, that was a source of disappointment for many. A new line of thought, the psychoanalytic one, with spiritualist origins of a deeply religious character, held many surprises. It was concerned with the total man, seeking, in the unconscious phenomena, the elements that would be able to lead to a possible psychotherapy, and eventually constituting a body of doctrine of psychopathology. Sometimes engaging itself in studying the motivating forces that seek pleasure, at other times the motivating forces that seek power, at still other reinterpreted in its basic elements, the psychoanalytic theory, from its origins to our days, has been developing in terms of a psychosocial reorientation, purged of its original philosophical pretensions.

Even though the vulgarization of psychoanalysis in its original terms has achieved such success that, until today, the influence of its raw concepts on the dominant mentality of the general public is felt, the contribution of the psychoanalytic method as a promise of integration of the psycho-physiologism and functionalism in an intelligible synthesis has not been felt in practical applications. The independent duality, in the terms proposed by Descartes and which caused an uproar, has lost its orthodox sense, and the theory of the soma-psyche integration took shape, gained expression, and its social correlates soon followed.

In contraposition to atomism, the “gestalt theory”, a theory of form, brought a definite contribution, an invitation to review the analytical procedures, aiming to exactly understand the phenomena through the indisputable need of functional reversibility in the analysis of elements, since, as claimed by Claparède, the way of being of each element depends on the structure of the whole and the laws that guide it. “Gestalt theory” asserts that the configuration the instincts assume will determine the response, a phenomenon that neither psychology nor physiology, can explain separately; it also asserts that perception depends on exterior conditions, the environment, and on the interior ones, of the individual. Although the followers of the two main currents that emerged from it have been lost in distinctions and details, the theory of form presents itself, on the one hand, as a reaction against the excessive trust deposited on the analysis of elements that constitute conduct, “per se”, and, on the other, as a warning against the elaborations based on introspection, that, very much affected by culture, easily lead to distortions in scientific thought.

It was only a step from the theory of form to that of the psychological field theory, but a giant step, which broadened in an almost infinite way the possibility of the first attempts of studying behavior in its totality. The Lewinian theory caught much attention not only for its beauty, but also because of its practical success; it became the expression of unification, the cornerstone where the definitive contributions of the other currents came together, opening the way for speculations in the social field itself, to which it extended the validity of its basic formula. The interpretation of personality as the center of a field of forces, forces with the capacity of vectors, allowed Lewin a wonderful interpretation of the Freudian concepts of frustration and regression (des-differentiation), of the theories of conditioning of behavior under different political regimes and environments, and of the dynamics of groups in its total aspect and in the aspect of the dynamics of each one of its components. Inspired by physics, the psychological field theory, did not intend to reformulate all psychological science, but it was able to open the way for the use of psychology to benefit the well-being of the individual and of society, leaving vast and tantalizing areas of study for individual and social psychology.

A new movement that was able to have much influence, without however, from the start, presenting definite characteristics of contribution to psychology, was born from phenomenology, and it sought, with Sartre, a theory of human existence, even though Marcel himself had asserted that a theory of this nature would be impossible. Assertions such as “there is no inner man”, “feelings have special intentionality”, “when I deliberate, the lots have already been cast”, “there is nothing beyond the body”, made Sartrean existentialism the target of the indignation of many. But Sartre spoke for himself, and not for a school; other existentialists have been more moderate and conciliatory.

The conception, also applied to the field of affectivity, that there is not simply “consciousness”, but always, “consciousness of something”, “of somebody”, freed man from his past; guided towards the future, the consciousness that man has of the world around him, through the meaning that things from the world acquire for him, is a constant invitation for him to remake his existence on new grounds. The assertion that we cannot exist for ourselves, except as far as we feel ourselves existing for others, makes the study of the phenomenon of intercommunication of consciousness and its resultants of extreme importance, whether in the emergence of the dyad, or in the formation of human groups. Existentialist phenomenology, although as an existentialist philosophy has become lost in the chaos of metaphysical deliberations, has given psychology a new dimension.

Psychological phenomenology, concerned about getting to know the facts in their concrete and contingent reality, has advocated a return to observation, reacting thus, to the exaggerations of experimentalism that had been dominating all areas of psychological studies as of late. Such a reaction was expected within the developmental scheme that has been recording the history of the science of man; it, however, could not fail to offer something new, coherent with this new scheme; its most definitive contribution was the warning against the illusions of introspection and extrospection taken in isolation, and the advice to adopt a middle-ground, where both, introspection and extrospection, came together to try to be proven.

4.2.2 Afterwards

According to Andre Rey, in the dynamics of the individual, two types of production can be distinguished: the automatisms, which are already constituted adaptations able to be mobilized and repeated without effort (stimulus-response); the yields, which are productions where intention, purpose, and the will intervene (stimulus-organism-response). The psychological tension determines the mental field in which production occurs. It is basically null in reflex phenomena, in those of ratiocination and non-directed association, in those coming from habits (automatisms). It increases gradually: when we have the need to assure a certain yield through one among several automatisms (choice); when we need to adapt to a new situation, affecting thought, action, affective personality; when we need to restrain an impulse or desire whose tendency is to mobilize automatisms in the search for satisfaction. The automatisms are the result of the interdependent play of several functions (sensory, motor, idiomatic, mnemonic, tensional, intellective, affective). When there is regression, the automatisms are the last ones to disappear, and in the inverse order of their acquisition. The yields are attention, acquisition and intelligence. Attention: the individual proposes to attain a yield from an automatism he possesses. Acquisition: the individual proposes to automatize, that is, constitute or complete a habit, interiorizing data through voluntary activities of memory. Intelligence: the individual notices that he does not have the appropriate automatisms to adapt to the situation, he understands which act or knowledge he lacks, plans for its acquisition and carries out what was planned.

Intelligence avails itself of attention and of acquisition to reach its ends. The components of intelligence are: the capacity to inhibit an instinctive adjustment; the capacity to redefine it in light of trial and error imaginarily experimented; the volitive capacity to transform the instinctive adjustment, imaginarily changed, into real conduct. One can speak of types of intelligence, that is, in modalities of its expression: intellectual, abstract, capacity to deal with ideas and symbols; mechanical, capacity to deal with material objects, sensitive; social, capacity to efficiently communicate with other human beings; artistic, capacity to express oneself aesthetically. The phases of intelligence are: primary genetic, secondary genetic and typological. In the primary genetic phase the adjustment of the large parts of the “per se” mechanism occurs, the sensory-motor stage, the formation of mental images and of language. In the secondary genetic phase there occurs the reciprocal adjustment of the fundamental activities, working together. In the typological phase, the aspect “form” is clearly distinguished from the aspect “structure”, and there can even be a predominance, sometimes of action, sometimes verbal-conceptual, sometimes of the visual formation of images.

When action is dominant, the adjustment to reality is mainly done through action and the experimental approach; language (symbolic function) organizes, at short intervals, the report of the stages and fixes the results of experience, making them at once stable (it subtracts them from the direct influence of sensations and concrete intuitions) and mobile (it creates the possibility of combining them with other data). When there is verbal-conceptual dominance, language is preferred over concrete reality: all problems are transferred to the universe of language, where the operations start to develop; there is the advantage of freeing the individual from sensitive intuition, which represents an economy, but there is the problem of its value being dependent of the degree of equivalence between the two universes, the verbal one and the sensible one. When there is the dominance of visual formation of images, there is an egocentric system, peculiar to each individual; the mental visual image, richer than the verbal signal, allows operations unachievable at the verbal level. Intelligence should gather the three forms of functioning, taken to the maximum degree of differentiation and integration. Learning can occur through association (habituation, conditioning and “trial and error”) or through the reorganization of the perceptive field, sudden understanding (“insight”).

According to Woltereck, the person finds himself in the midpoint of a limited number of functional circles, which form the respective fields in which he finds himself as a reference point that causes and is caused by what happens: the dynamic field of causing the effects that originate in the person and are received by him; the field of determination, which encompasses the forms and the things “useable and transformable” of the environment; the field of intention, which encompasses “participation”, “adaptation”, desire; the field of imagination, which encompasses that which is formed by non-spatial “images” of objects and possible states; the field of elevation, as the field of potential values, which encompasses the set of increases, perfections, improvements, that a person can reach. Each field corresponds to a certain ontological phase; the functional crises can have different “field accents”. Physical energy, vital energy, psychic energy are descriptive forms of the same phenomenon, which could be called “life instinct”, one can even speak of potential “psychoid” properties of matter.

According to Igor Caruso, instinct means dynamics; life is behaving, it is an interior that perfects itself; form is conduct and it is guided towards a goal. The objective of psychology is to search for the “interiority” of conduct in its meaning; the individual lives the finality, he is not aware of it. The goal of “development” is the “elevation” of an instinctive being to a person. Every conduct is directed towards a goal; the first is the pleasure of the function. Further ahead, life always signals a goal not directly visible, but envisioned from the “here and now”. The functions that are gathered under the denomination of “will” are late acquisitions, which presuppose an elevated consciousness. Consciousness is every form of a being-for-itself of interiority, lived even where there is no division I and object; phylogenetically, it is a late phenomenon related to the soul. There are degrees of consciousness: spontaneous, pre-objective (the living before the reflective dissolution between subject and object); reflective consciousness (becoming conscious of what happens in spontaneous consciousness). The becoming conscious is the process whereby reflective consciousness becomes aware of spontaneous consciousness. In spontaneous consciousness (consciousness and pre-consciousness) there are the zones of transition, which become more and more removed from fully reflective consciousness, and get closer and closer to the unconscious per se. There is the unconscious as latency, as repression and as automatism; the unconscious is multidimensional and feeds the whole field of the person.

According to T. Reik, the following are emotions: shock, happiness, sadness, fear, anger, love, lovelessness. Love, the need of a person to feel that he belongs to another, a passionate interest, originates from the dissatisfaction of the individual with himself (a discrepancy between the real ego and the ideal ego); the choice of the object of love and the consequent plot are a result of the set of problems of the protagonists. Those people who are fully satisfied with themselves (the geniuses and the feeble minded) do not feel the need to love. Love for humanity is a later form of love in the life of the person (full maturity). When the object of love is the same as the sexual object, the two sets of problems interact, increasing the complexity of the interpersonal relationship. The following are the phases of love: propitious ground (dissatisfaction of the individual with himself ); ideal ego and model ego (idealization of a model of ego); imagination and fantasy (objectification of the model and envy of the object); challenge (jealousy of the object); antagonism (hatred of the object); victorious counterattack (positive revaluation of the object); flowering love (passionate enthusiasm). In the case of the stability of the love emotion, there is the alternation between moments of flowering love and love-friendship (companionship). During the period of greatest turbulence in the life of the individual (adolescence), there is, frequently, the abandonment of a love object and its substitution for another, that serves as a better model in a new fantasy.

According to P. Teilhard de Chardin, humanity struggles under the impulse of an obscure instinct; thought multiplies to occupy all inhabitable space, that is, the spirit weaves and unfolds the veils of the noosphere; the becoming conscious of the movement that draws him promotes the development of the human being. In the first stages of human awakening, space and time remained homogeneous in themselves and independent of one another. Afterwards (XIX century), the irreversible coherence of everything that exists was discovered; what makes man “modern” is to have become able of seeing, not only in space and time, but equally in duration; thought comes first in the process of the organic flow of space-time, that is, in duration. In the consciousness of each one of us, development discovers itself, reflecting itself; it is the perception of the third dimension of space, of a triple unity, that of structure (the opposites completing each other), that of mechanism (the micro and the macro), that of movement (action, and, in the human being, responsibility for action). The problem of action is the true problem of man.

4.2.3 Currently

Although the theorization of the human being based on interpersonal eidetic science presents all the limitations of empirical science and multipersonal eidetic science, of which it depends directly, two very significant movements have developed over time. One of them, psychoanalytic and neo-psychoanalytic theorization, was born from the excessive preoccupation with the physical structure of behavior (sensations) and the attempt of experimental analysis to dissect consciousness, as maintained by S. Freud (psychoanalysis), C. G. Jung (analytic psychology), A. Adler (individual psychology) and H. S. Sullivan (interpersonal theory). The other, phenomenological theorization, seeks to develop in its studies the observation of the holistic dimension I-world, person-universe, as maintained by H. Murray (personology), K. Lewin (field theory), K. Goldstein (organismic theory), A. Angyal (organismic theory), C. Rogers (theory of the “self ”) and G. Murphy (biosocial theory).

According to Freud, the personality is structured in the id, ego and superego (consciousness, ideal ego), working through the distribution and use of psychic energy by the systems (impulses, cathexis, anti-cathexis). The objectives of the id are to avoid pain and obtain pleasure; its processes are reflexive action and the primary process (mental representation); its function is to reduce tension; its limitation is that it is subjective. The objectives of the superego are to maintain tradition and cultivate the ideal; its process is introjection; its functions are to inhibit the impulses of the id, to morally influence the ego, to strive for perfection; its limitations are that it is as irrational as the id (its matrix) and more frustrating than the ego; its subsystems are consciousness and the ideal-ego. The objectives of the ego are to maintain life and guarantee reproduction; its process is secondary, planning and executing what was planned; its function is to reduce tension, acting as a mediator between the id and the environment, the latter represented by the superego (introjected environment); its limitation results from it being derived from the id, from which it differentiates itself, but it is never independent. Excessive anxiety leads the ego to use defense mechanisms, which operate unconsciously, distorting reality.

Freud considers that the instinct, in its dynamics, encompasses a need (corporeal) and a desire (psychic), which lead to behavior. The source is the need; the goal is the removal of excitation; the object is every thing, condition and activity between the desire and the satisfaction; the impulse is the power of the need. There is the life instinct (libido, propagation of the species and survival) and the death instinct (aggression, destruction). Gratification channels the investment of energy, the choice of the object or cathexis of the object. Identification is the association of the mental representation (id) with physical reality (secondary process: cathexis) and is responsible for the activation of the system of the superego (introjection). Since not all psychic energy is necessary to carry out the desires through the secondary process, it can be dislocated: a) part of it, in terms of promoting the development of several psychic processes (perception, memory, judgment, discrimination, abstraction, generalization, ratiocination); b) part of it, to restrict the impulsive and irrational action of the id (anti-cathexis); c) part of it, to broaden the system of interests, attitudes and preferences (new cathexis); d) part of it, for the integration of the systems of the id, ego and superego. It is the identification and dislocation that permit learning new ways of reducing tension.

For Jung, the total personality or psyche is structured in ego, individual unconscious (complexes), collective unconscious and “self ”, functioning through the distribution and use of psychic energy by the systems (to maintain life and preserve the species; for cultural and spiritual activities). In the collective unconscious, there is the archetype “shadow,” or “negative”, formed by the animal instincts that man inherited in his evolution through the most primitive forms of life; the “shadow” characterizes the animal side of human nature and is responsible for man’s conception of the original sin and other sins; when it is externally projected, it becomes the devil or the enemy. There is also the archetype “self ”, which represents the struggle of man for unity; its objective is the integration of personality; its process are the religious experiences (mystical); its function is to direct total personality; its limitation results from the fact that it only emerges after the several components of personality have developed fully. While the full development of personality does not occur, the ego seeks to guide personality in the sense of maintaining life and propagating the species, that is, guaranteeing self-identity and self-continuity, availing itself of perceptions, memories, thoughts and conscious feelings.

Jung considers psychic energy a manifestation of life-energy. The expenditure of energy shows the value of the element that arouses it (bear in mind the power of the constellation of a complex) and it is guided by the principles of equivalence and entropy. Equivalence: if energy is taken from a system, it will appear in another (redistribution); there are also exchanges (addition, subtraction) of energy between the psyche, the organism and the external environment. Entropy: any unilateral development of personality creates conflict, tension and resistance; the distribution of energy in the psyche seeks equilibrium or harmony. The reciprocal actions between the systems (ego and individual unconscious; ego and collective unconscious), between the attitudes (extroversion and introversion) and between the functions (sensations and intuition, feeling and thought) are what permit compensation, opposition, union. The individual tries to conceal his “shadow” with the “persona”, a mask, which responds to convention and tradition. The “anima”, the feminine in man, and the “animus”, the masculine in the woman, cause problems for the person. Repression, which is regressive, irrational, disintegrating, is the blockage of energy that tends to flow to the ego and break the rational process. Sublimation, which is progressive, rational, integrating, is the dislocation according to the principles of equivalence and entropy, governed by individuation processes (differentiation and full development of the several systems) and integration of the systems. The present evaluates the past and programs the future.

According to Adler, the person is, fundamentally, a social being, a singular configuration of motives, traits, interests and values, generally conscious of the reasons of his behavior; personality is subjective, dynamic, unified, personal and stylized in an original and unique way, with innate social interest, manifesting itself through the “self ”, a highly personalized and subjective system, that interprets and makes the experiences of the organism significant. Social interest is the true and inevitable compensation for the natural weakness of human beings. The “self ” is creator, it seeks to act between the stimulus and the response in terms of constructing it, according to its style, fulfilling social objectives, whether they are selfish, or whether they are altruistic. The person, when he is neurotic, has selfish goals (self-esteem, power, self-aggrandizement) and, when he is normal, has fundamentally social goals; the creator “self ” creates the ideals and the means of reaching them.

For Sullivan, personality is a pattern relatively constant, of periodic interpersonal situations that characterize human life, therefore a hypothetical entity, only observed in interpersonal relationships, with the main function of reducing tensions. There is the dynamism of basic needs; the dynamism of interpersonal relations and of defenses. The dynamism of the I (system of the “self ”) are the defenses the individual creates, brought about by anxiety; this dynamism is refractory to experience, constituting a barrier to the development of good interpersonal relations and the consequent development of personality. The organism is a system of tensions that can oscillate between absolute relaxation (euphoria) and absolute tension (terror); the sources of tension are the needs of the organism and anxiety (brought about by real or imaginary threats). The cognitive processes (types of experience) are: prototaxic, distinct series of momentary states of the organism; parataxic, perception of causal relation between events that occur almost at the same time, but which are not logically related; syntaxic, action of a symbol, specially of a verbal nature, producing a logical order among the experiences and making communication possible. Mental or muscular work, transforms energy and solves the tension. Suffering, anxiety and failure produce regression.

According to Murray, personality is “the hypothetical structure of the mind, whose consistent processes and structurings manifest themselves repeatedly (together with the new elements) in internal and external conduct that constitute the life of a person”. The procedure is brought about by need, with the aim of satisfaction, which may occur in the process or in the effect; pressure, influenced by cathexis and feeling, together with need, creates the theme, which supports the scheme “value” (need) – “vector” (tendency); the duration of the procedure goes from the beginning of the action until the conclusion of a type of behavior dynamically significant, internal or external. The individual, in his development, suffers unconsciously, the influence of the complexes, lasting total entities, which are cloistral, oral, anal, urethral, and of castration. In the development of the person, the socio-cultural determinants are important: the person tends to yield to society, to be a member, to collaborate; there is the danger of destruction of free initiative, essential to the well being of the individual and progress of the species. Each person is unique, and each procedure is also unique in some sense.

According to Lewin, behavior is a function of the field that exists at the moment it occurs; the analysis begins with the situation as a whole, from which the component parts are differentiated; the concrete person, in a concrete situation, can be mathematically represented; the field is “the totality of coexisting facts, conceived of in terms of mutual interdependence”; the subjacent forces, psychological, are determinants of behavior, since they are part of the field. The process of personalization results from the release of psychic energy, in function of the needs, according to the type and intensity of the valence, which makes the person respond to each force or vector of the environment with locomotion. The event results from the interaction of facts (empirical and hypothetical). Each fact determines a region. There are regions in the person and in the psychological environment. The regions communicate with one another. The person moves from one region of the environment to another. There is need per se (due to an inner state: physiological condition or desire of something) and the quasi–need (equivalent to a specific intention); the states of need are hunger (positive valence), satisfaction (neutral valence) and super satisfaction (negative valence).

For Goldstein, the organism is formed of members that stand out from it as a figure against a background; it behaves, concretely or abstractedly, by means of fulfillments, attitudes and processes, striving for equalization, self-fulfillment and adjustment to the environment. The figure, the main activity of the organism, is determined by the task it demands on the occasion. Natural figure is the one whose background is the whole organism; it represents a preference of the person; behavior is flexible and appropriate to the situation. Non-natural figure is that whose background is an isolated part of the organism; it is produced by traumatic occurrences and by situations that are meaningless to the person; behavior is rigid and mechanic. Concrete behavior is the reaction to a stimulus in a very automatic and direct way: the person perceives the configuration of the stimulus and his reaction is the one that comes to him at the moment. Abstract behavior is the action of the organism on the stimulus: the person thinks about the pattern of the stimulus, about what it means, about its relation to other configurations, how it can be used and what its conceptual properties are. A symptom is a form of adjustment carried out by a sick or deficient person. The healthy organism seeks self-fulfillment, overcoming the obstacles placed by the world, without anxiety, and with the happiness of the achievement.

For Angyal, personality is the organized process that extends itself over time; organism (the subject) and environment (the object) form the biosphere, an inseparable whole. Behavior is the expression of an internal process; the vertical dimension of the biosphere goes from the surface, where the behavior takes place, to the center; the progressive dimension results from the fact that a succession of acts are necessary to attain a goal; the transversal dimension consists in the coordination of several acts in a more integrated unity of behavior. Adjustment results from the processes of differentiation and integration, which take place in the three dimensions of the biosphere.

For Rogers, the total individual is the organism, who lives in a world of experiences continuously in change, the phenomenological field, of which he is the center and to which it reacts as a whole; the organism reacts to the field according to how it experiences and perceives it; the field is the totality of experience, and the “self ” is the differentiated part, the set of conscious perceptions and values of the “I” and of the “me”. The following are properties of the “self”: to establish the interaction of the organism with the environment; to introject the values of others (being possible to perceive them in a distorted manner); to seek consistency, to influence so that the organism reacts in a way that is in harmony with it; to perceive as threatening the experiences that are not in agreement with its structure; to change, through learning and maturity. Emotion accompanies it and, usually, facilitates the guiding of behavior to desired targets. As one accepts, in a single coherent and integrated system, all his sensory and visceral experiences, the person starts to substitute his value system (broadly based on introjections that were symbolized in a deformed way) by a continuous process of evaluation. The apprehension of some people that purely personal evaluations could lead to social anarchy is not valid since all persons have, basically, the same needs, including that of being accepted by other persons.

According to Murphy, personality is a continuous flow of organism-environment occurrences, a whole with articulated or combined parts. Each aspect of the personality is conceived in terms of a mold, a complication, an interpretation, a concealment and/or an indirect expression of motives. There are the physiological dispositions, which are basic components, organic traits of three kinds: general dispositions of the tissues (e.g., metabolic index); dispositions of specific tissues (e.g., muscular tonus) ; dispositions that result from the organization of differentiated tissues (e.g., hunger). There is the channeling of organic traits by social directives, the conditioned responses (rooted through reinforcement), the cognitive and perceptive habits (product of channeling and conditioning). The ego is the system of habitual activities that emphasize or defend the “self ”: rationalization, identification, compensation, etc.. The motives of conduct are all biosocial: needs or tensions give rise to motives, and there can be a web of motives (system of nodes). The individual becomes capable of resisting the pressure of the environment in a rational way, finding a way that leads him to the adjustment of the two worlds, interior and exterior. The person feels as a figure in the figure-background system, where the background is the social group.

4.2.4 In summary

The science of the psyche, from its first steps, has swayed between concretization and abstraction. Since Hippocrates, the observation of facts has been inspiring experimentation and the search for proofs. Since Anaxagoras the preoccupation with an “immaterial intelligence” has been nurturing cogitations of spiritualist nature. In the XVII century, this duality manifested itself in the objective examination of facts, with the empiricists, and in the value given to introspection, by the rationalists. Both, concretization and abstraction, necessarily led to analysis, in which they became lost, on the one hand, the conservatives and functionalists, tied to their philosophies of origin, and, on the other, the structuralists, the associationists and the mechanicists, no less entangled in the limitations of psychophysiology itself, which had served them as a basis. A two-faced head, very early psychoanalysis disappointed those who expected from it elements of scientific counterfeit, and it asserted itself as a promise of integration of psychologism and functionalism. While the theories of configuration and of the psychological field, represented a step of concretization towards abstraction, psychological phenomenology has been, without doubt, a movement in the opposite direction.

4.3 The roots of multipersonal eidetic science

The human being can, besides describing, explaining and controlling natural events and exploring or interpreting the contents of interpersonal phenomena in a methodical and critical way, explore or interpret the content of multipersonal phenomena, also in a methodical and critical way. Scientific tradition has perpetuated, also under the form of theories, the knowledge thus acquired. Civilizations have recorded their science, each one representing its version of the accumulated knowledge. The first attempts of multipersonal eidetic scientific knowledge became greatly confounded with philosophical thought and with the political ideology of each time. Durkheimian thought itself, a cornerstone of this kind of knowledge, was highly contaminated by the mentality of its time and limited by the degree of development of the empirical and interpersonal eidetic sciences at the time.

4.3.1 At the beginning

Fernando de Azevedo calls to mind that social things, before they were treated scientifically, were always, and everywhere, more or less observed. Plato idealized model-societies and, in the Republic, in Laws, in Timaeus and in Politicus, dealt with justice and its fulfillment in the individual and in the perfect state, established the concept of the man of state, regulated political, penal and private laws, worrying about the influence of geographic and demographic conditions on the community and proposing the division of labor and the sharing of goods. Aristotle observed the existing communities and recorded his observations on 148 communities, of which we have a sample in the Constitution of the Athenian State; he sought to understand and justify the social facts he observed, always seeking to be close to reality. Saint Augustine and Saint Ambrose, starting from the historical conception of the fall and redemption of man, recommended, as Plato, ideal communities, while Saint Thomas, as Aristotle, established that the Law is the will of the people or of the prince representing the people, and justified the existence of class differences.

If the influence of Plato was great and lasted a long time, with Ibn Khaldun the work of Aristotle regained expression, and the preoccupation with the importance of the study of society in order to know the man who lives in it began to take shape. With modern thinkers, the two strands, already clearly outlined at the beginning, regained an utopian and idealist expression with More and Campanella, and realistic expression with Machiavelli, La Boetie, Bodin and Gentilis. The theoretical synthesis which appeared then, dogmatic with Bossuet and Spinoza, empiricist and rationalist with Hobbes and Locke, permitted the birth of the comparative method, breaking thus the rigidity of the rationalist apriority conceptions of social institutions, giving place to the observation of the relations between the “new” and “old”, the “primitive” and the “civilized”.

The critical realism of men such as Baron d’Holbach, Voltaire and Rousseau, who attacked the “eternal institutions”, brought about revisions. Starting from the basic idea that social facts are submitted to laws, Vico formulated his hypothesis about human progress, the “corsi and ricorsi”; Condorcet intended to forecast the progress of the human spirit; Herder saw, in progress, the manifestation of the creating power of nature seeking the order desired by God; Montesquieu, taking up again Aristotle, asserted that there are causes that create, maintain or precipitate facts, and launched the basis of comparative law. Quesnay, Ferguson and Smith studied the influence of economics on the social phenomenon. Quetelet expressed the theory of the “average man”, of crucial importance to the refinement of concepts, broadening thus, the use of statistics of Sansovino and contributing for the consolidation of the idea that social phenomena obey laws.

Taking from Bazzard the assertion that humanity is a collective being, and from Proudhon considerations about “collective force” and “collective reason”, the thinking of Saint-Simon opened the way for socialist doctrines, with the assertions that every social regime is the application of a philosophical system, that progress of the human spirit gives each century its character, and that progress of industry is the most positive, since in it lies, ultimately, the real forces of society.

Even though the philosophies of Kant, Hegel and Fichte have contributed to the development of sociological thought, it is in August Comte that we will find a new direction for the study of social facts. Accepting the idea of a positive science of social facts, Comte, as Saint-Simon, spoke of a “social physics”, a science of the species, and gave the name of sociology to the positive study of the fundamental laws of social phenomenon; he spoke of a social anatomy, or social statics, to which he attributed the quality of order, and of a social physiology, or social dynamics, which he identified with the idea of progress; he recommended a positive politics, with a new religion, that of Humanity, the Great Being, which drives away individualism and guarantees the preponderance of altruism.

Karl Marx, reviewing Comte, Saint-Simon and the philosophy of Hegel, recalled the need to consider the conditions inherited from the past and the reciprocal action between ideological superstructure and economic infrastructure. Fernando de Azevedo considers that the precision of the concepts of masses and proletariat, the characterization of the figure of “class”, the predominance of the economic over the political, the idea of evolution and a keen sense of historical relativism, constituted, without doubt, a notable contribution to the development of sociology as a science. Spencer, taking up again the idea of evolutionism, formulated an organicist theory of the social, while, following the same line, Gumplovics applied to sociology the law of the jungle, and Waxweiler proposed that society to be the physiology of reactive phenomena due to mutual excitations of the individuals of the same species, without distinction of sex.

The idea of the need to study the sciences of man in their development over time and space became ever more established, giving origin to the most varied procedures. Le Play brought about the surveys and monographs of the working families. Tourville, besides adopting the techniques of Le Play, idealized a list of facts to be observed, classified by the order they most usually influence one another, to which he gave the name of “social nomenclature”. Bouglé, citing Claude Bernard (“if I deeply knew something, I would know everything”) maintained: “let us make an effort to deeply know our little village and sociology will live”. But the truth is that, usually, deeply rooted prejudice contributed to invalidate works that were painstakingly elaborated.

Although the psychic nature of social facts had already been noted, Comte considered sociology capable of solving the problems of the psyche; Spencer, Stuart Mill and Karl Marx cited psychology, but they did not engage themselves in establishing its relations with sociology. This is how, opposing himself to the use of biological theories and laws to sociology, Gabriel Tarde, taking from Stuart Mill the assertion that human beings in society have no other properties but those derived from the natural laws of individuals, reduced the new science to a inter-mental psychology, asserting that the mental social phenomenon is the imitation; and his influence was felt in American sociology, with Lester Ward, Baldwin, McDougall and many others (who emphasized the study of social processes of communication – conflict, accommodation, assimilation and socialization – giving origin to social psychology), and in the Italian criminological school, giving great impetus to collective psychology. Analyzing Tarde who, while seeking to free sociology from biologism, fell into the web of psychologism, Blondel would later say that the psyche is between the body and society and that collective psychology is a science, the science of the crowds.

Vigorously opposing the ideas of Tarde, Durkheim appeared, asserting that neither all social accomplishments and not even collective consciousness, which is transcendent to it, can be reduced to the mental. The work of Durkheim shook the metaphysical constructions of sociology. His rules of the sociological method determined that social facts must be treated as “things”, that pre-notions must be removed from science, that the “normal” must be distinguished from the “pathological” and that its causes researched, that societies must be classified in types. His criticisms of the historical method of Comte and of the objections of Stuart Mill “regarding the use of the comparative method to sociology” definitely raised sociology to the status of a science, the science of social facts, which are exterior to individual consciousness and able to coercively exercise influence on them.

After Durkheim, the preoccupation with sociology in depth led sociologists to abandon the problems they had been debating so much before. The idea that sociology and philosophy of history are the same thing was discredited with the crucial distinction between judgment of reality and value judgment, and with the revision of the unilinear theory of development and the monist conception of society. The distinction between a sociology of the order and a sociology of progress, later camouflaged in the concepts of social statics and dynamics, in addition to being refuted by simply pondering on judgments of reality and value judgments, was refuted by the evidence that society is never completely at rest nor in constant movement and that the idea of progress cannot be connected to all movements, as, for example, to some collective effervescences whose results cannot be predicted. The supposed conflict between individual and society was put in its proper terms when it was considered that there is, in fact, only one consciousness, in the individual, whose accentuations vary at the moments of living. The problem of the predominant factor belonged to the history of development of sociology, which, as other sciences, raised, at each moment, the most recent contribution as the main one; this problem disappeared with the first passionless theoretical-synthetic movement.

The problem of the laws became more serious, because, even though Comte took from Hobbes the idea of a social physics, and left clear his intention to establish social laws and even formulated the law of the three states, and Spencer formulated his law of integration through differentiation, not to mention others, none of them engaged themselves in proving them. Durkheim, criticizing them, proposed to talk about “causal relations in sociology”, and not in sociological laws. Max Weber and Sorokin went so far as to exclude any possibility of establishing laws in sociology. Gurvitch recalled that since law and causality are not synonyms, we can search for the causes without searching for laws, since the distance between cause and effect, in sociology, does not permit us to guarantee repetition, and that causal explanations are not only possible, but also desirable.

The issue that psychology and sociology annul each other has had strong repercussions in the two main modern sociological currents. The individualists, as per Tarde, assert that the only reality is the individual, that sociology can be reduced to psychology and that the assertions about the existence of collective thought are metaphysical conceptions. The realists, taking from Fichte and Hegel the idea that society is a concrete original reality, asserted, through Le Play, Tourville, Espinas and Durkheim, that there is a social reality above the individuals, and that therefore, the existence of a social science as a positive science is undeniable. In favor of the latter, Gurvitch recalled that, even before reaching the field of sociology, in the field of psychology, several gradations can be seen, which is also true between psychology and biology; moreover Blondel and Mauss asserted that what there is is an interpenetration, a collaboration between the three sciences.

In the United States, while some people were engaged in social psychology, others carried out studies on “patterns”, “areas of cultural diffusion”, “cultural lag”, “mores”, under the inspiration of the anthropological school, whose methods were enriched by the work of Tylor and Kroeber.

4.3.2 Afterwards

According to Karl Mannheim, there are ways of thinking that cannot be appropriately understood while its social origins remain obscure, even though there is no metaphysical entity such as the mind of a group that thinks above the heads of individuals, or whose ideas the individuals merely reproduce. Only the individual is capable of thinking; nevertheless, it would be false to deduce from this that all ideas and feelings that motivate the individual originate only in him, and can be appropriately explained basing oneself only on his own life experience; the individual participates in the thinking, adding his thinking to that of other men before him. One cannot separate the ways of thinking concretely existent from the context of the collective action through which, in an intellectual sense, we initially discover the world. The objects of the world act with or against the others, in diversely organized groups, and, while they act, they think with or against the others.

Mannheim points out that people, gathered in groups, either engage themselves in changing the world, or try to maintain it in a certain situation. It is known that the same world can show itself differently to different observers. Furthermore, there are two forms of social mobility: the horizontal one, movement from one position to another or from one country to another, without a change in the social “status”; the vertical one, a fast movement between strata, in the sense of social ascension or descension. Only when horizontal mobility is followed by intense vertical mobility is the belief of someone in the general and eternal validity of his own ways of thinking shaken. Vertical mobility is the decisive factor that makes people become unsure and skeptical about their traditional views of the world. Even in static societies with low vertical mobility, the different strata of the same society experience the world in different ways; bear in mind the case of religion which, as Max Weber well demonstrated, the same Church is differently experienced by different social levels.

For Mannheim thought should contain nothing more nor anything less than the reality (topia) in which it operates. A state of mind is utopian when it is incongruent with the state of the reality where it occurs: it guides itself towards objects that do not exist in real situations. Therefore, the path of history goes from one utopia to the next topia, and so on. There is a concrete reality, historical and socially determined, which is in a constant process of change, and it is even possible to distinguish between the “relatively utopian” and the “totally utopian”. The relation between utopia and the existing order presents itself as a dialectic relation: each period of time permits the emergence (in diversely located social groups) of ideas and values in which there are, in a condensed way, unfulfilled tendencies, that represent the needs of such a period. The utopian function is to break the existing bonds. The utopian conception of the charismatic individual imposes itself on the already existent beliefs in society, and change begins. The changes in the configuration of the utopian mentality is done through stages: chiliastic, liberal-humanitarian, conservative, socialist-communist.

Chiliasm, uniting its forces to the active demands of the oppressed strata of society (XVI century), determined the decisive change in modern history, giving rise to politics, the more or less conscious participation of all strata of society in the execution of some mundane purpose. For the true chiliast, the present is the crack through which what was previously internalized suddenly breaks out, takes possession of the exterior world and transforms it. In the chiliast, sensorial experience is present in all its vigor, being so inseparable from the spirituality within him as he is inseparable from his immediate present; it is as if, through this immediate present, he had, for the first time, come into the world and entered his own body. The chiliast expects a communion with the immediate present; he is only satisfied in Kairos (opportunity), fulfilled time, the moment of time invaded by reality. Duration absolutely does not exist for the chiliastic mentality. The chiliastic experience sanctifies the incidental moment.

The liberal-humanitarian idea also emerged from the conflict with the existing order, an idea whose function consists in proceeding as a merely regulative device of mundane affairs. In France, the road to progress was sought through revolutions and external deeds in general; in Germany, on the other hand, the road was exclusively that of the internal constitution of man and his transformation. The fundamental attitude of the liberal person is characterized by the positive acceptance of culture and the attribution of an ethical tone to human affairs. Socially, this intellectualist vision finds its basis in the middle class stratum, the bourgeoisie and the intellectual class. The liberal idea is a war cry against a stratum of society whose power comes from its inherit position in the existing order. The liberal person moved the basis of experience from the ecstatic to the educational level. Duration only exists for liberalism as long as it makes progress possible.

Conservative ideas lead to a conservative kind of knowledge, one that provides a practical control of the environment. Thought has a tendency to accept the total environment in the accidental concreteness in which it takes place, as if it were the appropriate order of the world, to be accepted beforehand and without presenting any problems. The counter attack against opposing classes emerges as a counter-utopia, which serves as a means of self-orientation and of defense, a relative awareness. The conservative way of experiencing time found the best corroboration of its sense of determination when it discovered the importance of the past, in the discovery of time as something that creates value. For conservatism, everything that exists has a positive and nominal value, simply because it came to exist slowly and gradually; the past is experienced as virtually present. “Internal freedom”, in its undefined temporal objective, must subordinate itself to the moral code, a code that is already defined.

The socialist-communist utopia will be better understood in its structure if it is observed from three perspectives. Socialism needed, on the one hand, to radicalize liberal utopia, the idea, and, on the other, to completely overcome the internal opposition of anarchism in its most extreme form; its conservative antagonist is considered only secondarily, as less threatening because it is more distant, and it is willing to learn much from it. It represents thus, at the same time, a commitment to a new creation, based on an internal synthesis of the several kinds of utopia. In the same way as the liberal utopia, it places the rule of freedom and of equality at a specifically determined time in the future, the time of overthrowing capitalist culture, rejecting the immediacy, whether conformist, or chiliastic, and recognizing that latent ecstatic energy must be sublimated through cultural ideas, but highlighting the glorification of material aspects of existence.

Mannheim concludes that none of the forms of these dynamic forces that emerge in a historical sequence will ever disappear forever, and at no time are any of them incontestably dominant. However, it is not by chance that certain tendencies appear at certain times of the social process. He cites Keller, “the final triumph of freedom will be sterile”, and explains: the utopian effort aiming at an objective and the possibility, closely related to it, of a broad perspective, disintegrate in the parliamentary consultative council and in the union movement, in a mere set of orientations to dominate a vast number of concrete details, aiming to assume a political position towards them; such atomization leads to the need of a synthesis. It is characteristic of our days that the limits of partial points-of-view have become evident, although extreme groups avow, each one separately, to have the whole perspective. At our current stage of self-consciousness, maybe the only form of real existence possible is that of “authenticity” and “frankness”.

He clarifies that the intellectuals rejected by the social process: either affiliate to the radical branch of the socialist-communist proletariat; or become intellectually skeptic, and start to destroy the ideological elements of science; or try to spiritualize the present, romantically taking refuge in the past, cultivating religious feelings, idealism, symbols, myths; or they isolate themselves from the world, consciously renouncing direct participation in the historical process, becoming ecstatic as the chiliast, but with a difference that they no longer worry about radical political movements. Every one of the alternatives is unproductive. We could change all society tomorrow, in the event all agreed. The true obstacle is that each individual finds himself tied to an established system of relations which, in great part, hinders his will. The task consists in removing this source of difficulty, revealing the hidden underlying motives of an individual’s decisions and, thus, placing him in the position of truly choosing. Then, and only then, his decisions will really come from him.

According to Álvaro Vieira Pinto, science can be interpreted, in its historical ascension, as an undefined process by which human consciousness discovers the problematic character of the situation in which it finds itself when it feels the resistance of reality to the execution of an idea it had proposed itself as an end for the action of transforming nature; human consciousness understands this character when it overcomes this resistance, solving the problem with the help of material forces the world places within its reach. What matters to man is to create the living conditions that permit him to fulfill his essence in full harmonious living with his fellow creatures. The ultimate purpose of man is the rational creation of man himself. It is to this end that scientific knowledge serves, produced by the critical consciousness of reality and by the dialectic understanding of the need to create a society that allows man to achieve the plenitude of his humanization.

According to Robert Merton, the dynamics of social pathology can be explained by the dissociation between culturally prescribed aspirations and the socially structured paths to arrive at these aspirations. The common dimension, rejection or inefficacy of the norms, is the symptom of an anomalous situation resulting from the alienation of individuals and small groups. It is manifested in the tenuous bounds between the norms and the individual, in the disorientation that the conflict between norms causes him, and in the disorder in which the absence of norms puts him (anomy). The extreme aspects of anomy lead to depression and, not infrequently, to suicide, due to the despondency caused, whether by the frustrations in face of the unrealizable aspirations, or by the full satisfaction of all ambitions. In its generic aspect, social pathology can be understood in terms of conformity and inconformity. Conformity is the conduct of most individuals most of the time. Inconformity encompasses the conduct of deviation: innovation, ritualism, evasion, rebellion.

4.3.3 Currently

Although the theorizing of knowledge of the human being and human group based on multipersonal eidetic science is, for many, an unattainable intention, some light has been shed on the phenomena human group in recent years. For Tarde, there is an exact parallelism between the social spirit and the individual spirit, while for Durkheim, and August Comte, sociology is a necessary base between psychophysiology and individual psychology, and socio-psychology is subordinate to sociology. Both agree, however, that in order to know the individual, one must start by determining what he possesses, coming from society, that gives him reason to dominate the animal that exists within him. It is with the assertion that the human individual is always and everywhere deeply socialized, and that, even if mental phenomena are always lodged within individual consciousness, they all have a contribution of the collective, that Charles Blondel leads us to study group manifestations in search of the dynamics proper to them, but profoundly revealing of the mental dispositions of the individuals who elaborate them.

The theory that the biological species derive from a common ancestral form has led man to ratiocinate about phenomena in terms of genetic processes. The evidence of the interaction subject-object makes the value of the object dependent on the perception that the individual has of it in function of himself. Every event must be considered in function of the operational field and of its history in time. When he concludes that the normal and the abnormal are not different in their essence, but only in their degree, that the conscious and the unconscious form an interacting system, that our “I” is born with the first sensations, Freud revealed the connections among phenomena whose inter-relations had not been suspected before: he showed the influence of the environment on the history of the individual, with the theory of the formation of the superego and the proof of its importance in the living dynamics of the moment through the phenomenon of transference, which, in order to occur, needs at least two people, one that feels the emotion and the one to whom the emotion is directed.

The study of groups, which began with Pratt and his notion of “collective classes” of patients with tuberculosis, had as objective to use collective emotions for therapeutic purposes by way of the identification with the doctor, and it gave rise to two new currents: that of therapy “by means of ” the group, by means of solidarity in fraternization, whose most famous example is the Alcoholic Anonymous Association (AA) and the psychodrama technique of Moreno, considered a transitional therapeutic procedure; and that of therapy “in” group, inspired by psychoanalysis and that, with the work of Slavson, Schilder and Klapman, introduced individual interpretation into the group. By considering the introspective method inadequate to understand the nature of emotions, psychoanalytic theory, inaugurating a bi-personal psychology, and presenting itself as a general theory of the psyche, opened the way for the emergence of a multipersonal psychology, or micro-sociology, or psychology of the dynamics of simple social aggregates, considered the true matrixes of social life.

Schilder, who considered group psychotherapy as complementary to individual psychotherapy, maintained the two procedures simultaneously, with the intent to, in both therapies, by means of the analysis of dreams, symptoms and the ideology of each patient, try to get all of them to have a real view of the situation, more intellectual and speculative, and begin to act according to this vision. He asked, before starting the work, that each patient make a report of his livings and answer a questionnaire; he repeated the procedure at the end of the treatment and compared the results. Slavson used transference, catharsis and analysis of dreams to provoke the “insight”; in order to better control the group, he planned its composition, choosing individuals with the same characteristics.

Besides the obvious advantage of saving time in group therapy, when the interpretation of the problems of one individual can benefit many others at the same time, it is also certain, that with the evolution of collective psychology and sociology, the study of group phenomena have brought about new and much richer prospects on the treatment of the group per se, with the consequent benefit for the elements that are part of it. Grimberg, Langer and Rodrigué criticized: in Schilder, the opinion that the therapist should reveal and justify his ideology, and that, when they understand their mistaken conception of the world, the patients will change their conduct; in Slavson, the static conception of the basic elements of psychoanalysis and the homogenization of the groups; and, in both of them, guiding the theme of discussion and treating “each individual” and not “the group”.

Foulkes and Anthony,considering the group as a social whole,viewed the horizontal type of transference as an advantage of the therapy “of” the group, a transference which occurs at the current and multipersonal level, naturally distributed among several people and not exclusively concentrated on the therapist; they established a maximum of eight individuals, who must gather around the analyst for one and a half hours, in a place and time previously arranged according to the acceptance of all members, all communication must be spontaneous and the therapist, as an object of transference of the group, must interpret the content of all occurrences, speaking as little as possible and assuming a classic passive attitude; adopting concepts of psychoanalysis and social psychology, greatly influenced by the theory of Kurt Lewin, they interpreted the situation in terms of structure, process and content, taking into consideration tension and the atmosphere of the group.

According to Bion, interpretation at various levels, which are “what the analyst presumes is the attitude of the group towards him”, “the attitude that each element thinks the group has towards him” and “the attitude that the group has towards each component”, took into consideration the total operational field, where the dynamic interaction of the components of the group takes place, including the therapist, and he treated the phenomena as global, of the whole group or of subgroups in function of the total group. He started from the hypothesis that every group has two types of activities, one rational, conscious, cooperative, and other irrational, oppositionist, which rebels while the group is being formed and that makes the individuals be in instantaneous and involuntary contact and act according to a plan of a Basic Assumption, through a leader, who is the one that best interprets the corresponding current needs.

Bion specified the Basic Assumptions: of dependency, when the group idealizes the therapist as a perfect person and expects from him the solution of all their problems; of fight-flight, when the group gathers around a common enemy, attacking him or defending themselves from him by fleeing, an enemy that can be inside or outside the group and who is, most commonly, the therapist; of pairing, when the group tends to concentrate its attention on a couple, mixed or of the same sex, onto whom they project the hope they placed on the therapist, awaiting “the coming of the Messiah”, freedom. The Basic Assumptions of dependence and of fight-flight are the representation of primary instinctive manifestations, very well known. The Basic Assumption of pairing, still little known in its dynamics, presents very complex characteristics and denotes much greater elaboration. Bion said that whenever the group feels the danger of disintegrating, the Basic Assumption of dependency starts to work again, and that the Basic Suppositions vary irregularly, without co-existing or mixing with each other, and they can vary within the same session or persist for several sessions.

Starting from the principle that each person tries to get the other people of his circle of relations to assume roles that allow him to live his internal dynamic plan, which he accomplishes if his fantasy has any relation to the fantasies of the other people involved, Ezriel adopted the positions of Foulkes and of Bion, advancing, furthermore, the theory that the patient adopts a certain attitude to avoid another that, he imagines, would be disastrous. He also showed that any issue, even the most traumatic, can be treated in the group situation, provided they appear in the “here and now” of the session. He became too bogged down, however, in the problems of the leader, giving little value to solving the problems of the group.

Grimberg, Langer and Rodrigué adopted the procedures of Foulkes, Bion and Ezriel, but correcting: in the first, the concept of “active member”, which they also extended to the silent members; in the second, the assertion of the non coexistence of different Basic Assumptions; in the third, the lack of preoccupation with the analysis of the dynamics of the group as such, in its history and in its development. They also used the knowledge of the first stages of a child’s personality, stages that are repeated in the childhood of a group, and that, according to M. Klein, are characterized by taking a squizo-paranoid position towards the notions of “exclusively good” and “exclusively bad” with which the child fantasizes objects, leading him to a depressive position when he discovers that the same object can be at times bad and at times good, that is, at times will frustrate him and at others will gratify him. This depressive position is what permits him to differentiate the external world from the internal world.

4.3.4 In summary

By reexamining old problems, presenting them under a new light and raising new problems, sociology has shown the high degree of development it acquired in half a century, mainly by reviewing the classic theories of knowledge and action. By doing so, it has established itself as a valuable tool for the science of man, an eminently social being. The Cartesian duality has been transformed now, by demand of this new science, into a triangular reality; the gestalt vision of the problem changes, enriched by becoming aware of this added stimulus, restructured in its configuration. In the words of Morse de Belém Teixeira, since there is no human nature, as we currently understand it, without a social environment, and all situations, actions and reactions experienced by man are conditioned, by and large, by the society which created him in its likeness, and almost in its image, what seems to be the exclusive result of the creative power of a single individual, is, always, the culmination of an enormous number of social factors, combined with personal impulsions. And the science of the total man, a synthesis of the other sciences of man, is not the fruit of the work of a single individual but of generations of scholars, and it comes to remind those, whose specialization is to convert the science they have acquired about man to the benefit of mankind, that only team work will assure him of more complete analyses, aiming at a synthesis closer to reality.

4.4 In search of a uniﬁed science

If induction, also a kind of indirect knowledge as deduction, interior as deduction and intuition, but also exterior, that the individual has of himself, passes, necessarily, through the particular data to arrive at a general conclusion, and if the nature of scientific thought has given rise to empirical sciences, interpersonal eidetic sciences and multipersonal eidetic sciences, it must be concluded that the human, indeed has, in his own biopsychosocial essence, the key to the mystery of existing. It is to be presumed that knowing this micro-universe will be like knowing the whole, the macro-universe; to know the laws that rule the harmony of the individual is to know the laws that rule the universal whole. Humanity, however, is far from possessing the knowledge of the individual, in its static and dynamics. The science of man can, only poorly, be outlined, and it can make claims with much caution and reservation.

The individual expresses himself, at each moment of his life, in function of the level of integration of his components of temperament (biochemical) and of character (ethical-social). The science of the human being develops as biology develops (the “soma”) and as ethics develops (the “psyche” and the “socius”). Science is the result of scientific study, which is characterized by the specification of the formal element, by the systematic organization of ideas and facts, and by the rigor of proof, aiming to formulate laws through which phenomena are guided. Human thought, in the search of science, avails itself of intuition (sensible and psychological empiric, rational, inventive, metaphysical) to arrive at reasoning (inductive, deductive). At the current phase of science, the rigor of proof does not exhaust the knowledge of the object, and to scientific knowledge, philosophical knowledge and teleological knowledge are added.

The prospects for the scientific study of the human being, are neither discouraging nor encouraging, at least in the short term. The common constructs, motivation, control and organization, and the elements, surface-depth, consistency (of the acts, of expression; internal) and motility, offer the initial coordinates for a meta-language from which the efforts of integration of the contributions of the different theories can be undertaken. Motivation is the set of all variables that prompt, sustain and direct conduct, in its two causal manifestations, efficient and final. It is primary, when it results directly from the organism, and secondary, when the primary one is elaborated in function of social influence. There is a genetic code and a social one, and a constant physiological influence and social influence, all of them in interaction.

Control is the acquisition that allows the living being to regulate his responses to internal and external stimuli. Control is, initially, external and, afterwards, it becomes internalized. There are the impulses of life, of self-preservation, and sexual (the latter subordinated to the former). The individual can, through intelligence, inhibit the impulsive response, redefine it in light of trial and error imaginarily experimented, and transform it, in its more appropriate modified form, into real conduct. Organization is the acquisition that allows the person to elaborate the control of motives to the highest level of abstraction, in function of the elaboration of affects, which depends on the level of perception regarding ethical and religious problems. The capacity to organize presupposes the existence of an adult moral consciousness, which permits value judgments, which results from comparison and discernment.

The individual becomes a person in function of the transformation of his instinctive living, impulsive, unconscious, into rational living, intelligent, conscious. Life is a continuous alternation of decomposition and recomposition or protoplasm, which works for its vital interest. Instinct is a property of the protoplasm, an organic peculiarity of the living body, it is the constant and latent vital energy that becomes exterior when life is in danger; it is an inherit scheme of behavior, proper to an animal species, varying little from individual to individual, occurring according to a temporal sequence that is not very susceptible to variations and that seems to respond to an end. Every instinct is active; its end, however, can be active (excitation) or passive (paralyzation).

One cannot talk about evolution in instinct. The instinct arouses reactions; the attitudes of the individual towards the environment, in relation to its instincts and those of others, are subject to evolution; the system of action becomes complicated in the evolution of the living being when the nerves appear (conduction of sensivity), the medulla and the brain (direction and transmission of stimuli). One can, however, speak of economy of instinct, since it distributes or saves energy, giving it the appearance of stronger or weaker. The act (action) is elaborated gradually, being converted into reflex phenomenon, into experience, into inherited experience (instinct). When the instinct manifests itself, it causes the act. As long as there is a medulla, there can be an intermediary scale between the instinct and the act, but at the service of instinct. In superior beings this scale becomes differentiated, giving rise to the conflict between the brain (intellectual elaboration) and the medulla.

Affect is the intellectual elaboration of instinct, transforming it into desire, repudiation, etc; it is also, as instinct, an expression of life; it encompasses emotion (its motivating part) and affections (the part that mobilizes extra energy). Impulse is a dynamic process that makes the organism tend towards an end; it is an energetic charge that originates from a corporeal excitation and its objective is to suppress the state of tension underlying it. It is in the object or thanks to it that the impulse can achieve its end. The impulses can be classified into life and death impulses. The life impulses are under the primacy of excitation and the death ones under the primacy of paralyzation (the reduction of the living being to a state similar to the inorganic). The life impulses manifest themselves in self-preservation and in the sexual functions (reproduction, orgasm). The death impulses tend towards self- and hetero-destruction, and can, secondarily, join the sexual ones while they are in conflict with those of self-preservation.

An impulsive act is one which is carried out when consciousness is dominated by an affect, behind which there is always an instinct; it is therefore produced by the elimination of conscious restrictions. It is the global expression of the instinct-affect-impulse dynamism, that is, of the irrational forces of the organism in search of self-preservation and reproduction. When the impulsive system suffers interferences, there is conflict; when the level of conflict reaches the organism’s limit of tolerance, the impulsive act erupts, self- or hetero-destructively. Perception can suffer changes, offering intelligence elements that permit it to establish alternatives to conduct. The mere predominance of the brain over the medulla is not, by itself, a criteria for appropriateness of conduct. Often the eruption of impulse is necessary to determine conditions of survival.

In the dynamics of the individual, two types of production can be distinguished: the automatisms, already constituted adaptations, subjected to mobilization and repetition without effort; the yields (attention, acquisition, intelligence), productions in which intention (purpose) and will intervene. The psychological tension determines the mental field where production occurs. The intelligent act is one that expresses the solution of a new problem, the adaptation to a new situation; it is the victory of the brain over the medulla. The individual, living, tests reality as he perceives it (subjective reality); the result of his experience permits him to readjust his perception to objective reality. There is no conscious or unconscious; what exists is the ever greater knowledge of reality, according to the capacity of perception, of abstraction, of reflection.

Intelligence permits learning. Learning control consists in learning inhibition and regulation of the instinctive response, which occurs when the individual perceives its inappropriateness. Learning occurs through association (habituation; conditioning; trial and error) or through sudden understanding (“insight”), and one cannot, rigorously, isolate the kinds of learning, because of the way aspects of them are present in the carrying out of each one of them. To control motivation is to control the motives of the organism in their original manifestations (pure) and in their manifestations modified by cultural pressures (conditioned). To organize the control of motivation implies organizing the controls of such motives in function of the consciousness the individual has of his existing.

There are degrees of consciousness: spontaneous consciousness, pre-objective (living before the reflective disassociation between subject-object); reflective consciousness (awareness of what goes on in spontaneous consciousness). There are stages of moral consciousness: initially, a primitive moral consciousness, resulting from introjection, by fear, of the dominant morality; at a second stage, adolescent, a reaction to the dominant morality, merely because it was imposed; afterwards, the adult process begins, which consists in the judgment of the existing morality, through comparison and discernment. As the person perceives the elements that permit him to make value judgments, he will be able to serve culture and civilization, the community and himself, enjoy his present, plan his future, move in space and time.

The total science of the human being, the knowledge of his structure and of his dynamics (which include his somatic, psychic and social aspects), depend on successive syntheses of the approaches of each formal object. The science of the “soma”, having concluded that man is a superior animal and that the biological contains the necessary conditions for psychic life, has sought to unveil the mysteries of the human body based on the concepts of integration of all functions. The science of the “psyche”, having concluded that physicalism and mentalism are currents from the same source, has sought to do research on the psyche through both channels, with the aim of understanding the phenomenon man. The science of the “socius”, having concluded that there is no human nature without a social environment and that the science of total man is the fruit of generations and generations of scholars, has sought to know the human group, the factor and transmitter of culture.

5 SUMMARIZING

Seeking the fundament of reality in the knowledge of the phenomenon universe and the phenomenon human life in the universe, in its two senses, the real one, of causes, of the reason of being, and the ideal one, of the propositions, the reason of ideating, we start from the principle of freedom to found, which is the fundament of the fundaments. Considering knowledge as universal, one in its essence, diverse in its appearance, we value intuition, direct knowledge, and also the religions, the philosophies and the sciences, in the quality of complementary knowledge. The esoteric vision, interior, that presides over such fundaments forestalls against the myth of good and evil with crime and punishment and against the myth that there is nothing to question, and it intends to assert, in all its plenitude, the philosophical problem of the origin and destiny of the world, the ultimate inquietude of the human spirit when man is not threatened by the problem of immediate material survival.

Since intuition, the direct knowledge, interior, that the individual can have of himself, passes necessarily through the idea of the existence of God, it must be concluded that the human being is a depository in his intimateness, of all the truth that, for some reason, he does not allow to be revealed to himself. What the individual fears so much is the mere challenge of fully living each moment, facing mutability, the transitoriness in the eternal, a challenge that demands, permanently, becoming responsible for the direction he gives to his own living. Defending the absolute union with God, or the absolute separation from him, or the absolute negation of his existence, the fact is that the human being always revolves around the idea of God. Every religious experience is, ultimately, existential, at the same time that it is philosophical and systematic (scientific).

Theological integration is, at the same time, integration of essence and existence, of absolute finite and infinite, of eternity and temporality. The oneness principle, generally denominated God, transformed itself into organism, remaining one. Every human being is made in the image and resemblance of God, who is his origin and his destiny. Every individual believes in what he needs to believe in, according to his developmental moment. No proof of the private experience of an individual is consistent for another individual who has not lived a similar experience. The alternatives regarding the destiny of man after death (materialist, pantheist, ecclesiastic, spiritist, theosophical) do not determine, anyone of them in particular, indisputable guidelines for existing “here and now”; in fact, anyone of them can serve for any kind of argument either for or against different possible sets of conduct.

The more man knows, the freer he becomes to opt, to choose his conduct. The freer he is, the greater his personal and social responsibility. Knowledge is approached, on the one hand, by intuition, and on the other, by reason: intuitionists and rationalists have existed at all times and places, as well as the conciliators, the neutral ones; thesis, antithesis and synthesis present themselves, generally, in spatial and temporal simultaneity. Insoluble problems, such as the existence of God and the origin and destiny of the universe, have been better served with approaches of an intuitionist-sentimental, or irrationalist character. Problems such as the statics and dynamics of things and of the universe and the structure and functioning of organisms have received better treatment by the experimental approaches, rationalist. The greater limitation results from the crystallization of the acquired knowledge into closed systems.

Philosophical integration is, at the same time, integration of knowledge and of ethical knowledge. The efforts in terms of knowledge, have vacillated between two poles: rationalism and irrationalism. Through reason man seeks science, which only covers what is material. Reason, starting from materialism concludes that existence surpasses science, the world exists, independently of being well or poorly known, man “is”, independently of knowing that “he is being”, phenomena surpass, by far, the human capacity to become aware of them; therefore, the conclusion of the irrational character of the world. The efforts in terms of ethical knowledge, have not escaped the same symptomatic polarity. Reason, by establishing what is and what is not morally valid, has arrived at the conclusion that man must aspire to the best for the greatest number of people, and that only feeling can give existential validity to the materially valuable.

Since induction, also a kind of indirect knowledge as deduction, starting from the interior as deduction and intuition, but also exterior, which the individual has of himself and of the world, passes, necessarily, through the particular data to arrive at a general conclusion, it must be concluded that the human being has, in fact, in his own biopsychosocial essence, the key to the mystery of existing. The science of the total being, bio-psycho-sociological, has pointed towards the phenomenon of integration, whether of the intrapersonal being, whether in his interpersonal relation, whether in his multipersonal relation. We can thus speak of a general law, that of the harmonization of the whole, of which all the others are mere explanatory corollaries of the synergy of the universe, and the human being should make an effort to know them and apply them to his benefit and to the benefit of all humanity.

Scientific integration is, at the same time, integration of the knowledge of the micro and macro-universe, the laws that rule the harmony of the individual and the harmony of the universal whole. The efforts in terms of scientific knowledge have occurred through empirical science, which starts from the “bios”, interpersonal eidetic science, which starts from the “psyche”, and multipersonal eidetic science, which starts from the “socius”. It is known that the human organism, part of the universal organism, poses questions of a theological, philosophical and scientific order, but the anatomy and physiology of this process is not known, even though, the anatomy and physiology of its disturbances are already well known. It is also known that the psyche, the thinking part of this organism, works in terms of its particular logic, based on the perception of the living field in which it finds itself and of which it is an active part.

There is intuition, direct knowledge, interior, that the individual has of himself and of the world, which passes, necessarily, through the idea of the existence of God. There is reasoning, in its two moments, of induction (starting from the particular) and of deduction (starting from the general), which is indirect knowledge, interior as intuition, but also exterior, that the individual has of himself and of the world, which passes, necessarily, through the particular data, starting from them or arriving at them. There is the permanent need of trying to avoid despair in order to be able to fully live each instant, facing the mutability, the transitoriness of the eternal. Control of the world is achieved through the knowledge of the laws that rule the universe, which makes the individual responsible for this conduct. The greatest limitation results from distortions of truth, which lead the individual to create systems and close himself in them in order to protect himself. Dissatisfaction, resulting from deviation from the correct path (that of the Law), creates tension, suffering and the search for greater understanding.

The theological-philosophical-scientific integration is, at the same time, integration of essence and existence (in the infinite and finite absolute, in eternity and in temporality), of knowledge and of ethical knowledge of the micro and macro-universe. There is a oneness principle, transformed into organism and remaining one, of which all organisms originating from it have developed and return, permanently and incessantly, according to laws established by it. The laws that rule the universe hold the key to its mystery. The human being is given to envisage that these laws exist and to try to know them. As he thinks he is getting to know these laws he feels he is a participant in the work of the universe. His aspiration is to understand the will of the Creator and act according to it. He knows that, as part of the whole, he needs, in order to fulfill himself, that the whole be fulfilled.

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