It has become very difficult, in the world’s present state of upheaval and distraction, to form any idea of the significance of what is going on except by rising above the individual level.
from A Great Event Foreshadowed: The Planetization of Mankind (1945)
Written in Peking in December 1945. Published in the August-September 1946 edition of Cahiers du Monde Nouveau with the title La planétisation humaine.
Written in Paris and published posthumously in The Future of Man.
Cosmic Life was the first of Teilhard’s extant writings in his characteristic style. Knowing what risks he was exposed to at the warfront, he wrote it as his intellectual testament, and it contains in embryo all that was later to be developed in his thought; the “fire in his vision” which he tried to communicate. The essay was posthumously published in the 1955 book Writings in Time of War.
First published in Almanach des Sciences, 1951, then in The Future of Mankind.
Written in Paris and published posthumously in The Future of Man.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin explores the concept of complexification in the universe, focusing on the ever-increasing combination of smaller elements into larger structures, and then extrapolates this behavior to humanity's current situation. What if the human species is an intermediary evolutionary stage, and what would the next rung on the ladder look like? Teilhard suggests that it will involve the merging-together of all humanity into a divine, planetized consciousness. Originally delivered as a lecture at the French Embassy in Peking (Beijing), China, later published in Études and The Future of Man.
An originally unpublished essay, written in Paris, in which Teilhard talks about a vast realm of the Ultra-Human which lies ahead of us: a realm in which we shall not be able to survive, or super-live, except by developing and embracing on earth, to the utmost extent, all the powers of common vision and unanimazation that are available to us. Eventually published in The Future of Man.
Published in Revue des Questions Scientifiques, and later in Activation of Energy.
Published in Psyché, and later in Activation of Energy.
Written in Peking (Beijing), later published in Activation of Energy.
An attempt to understand the structure of the universe's substance, and how it can give rise to consciousness. Written in Beijing and published in Activation of Energy.
Written in New York and published a year later in Psyché.
“A biological approach to the problem.” Written in response to a questionnaire from UNESCO and later published in The Future of Man.
The noösphere is the sum-total of mental activity which emerges out of a complex biosphere, and in this essay Teilhard describes how our planet is growing its very own mind. Published in Revue des Questions Scientifiques (Louvain) and later The Future of Man.
Published in Cahiers Du Monde Nouveau in 1945.
This essay, published in Revue des Questions Scientifiques in 1948 and reprinted in The Future of Man, follows Teilhard's train of thought on the aftermath of a potential fusing-together of humanity.
Visionary theologian and evolutionary theorist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin applied his whole life, his tremendous intellect, and his great spiritual faith to building a philosophy that would reconcile religion with the scientific theory of evolution. In this timeless book (whose original French title better translates to ‘The Human Phenomenon’), Teilhard argues that just as living organisms sprung from inorganic matter and evolved into ever more complex thinking beings, humans are evolving toward an "omega point"—defined by Teilhard as a convergence with the Divine.
Teilhard argues that biology and technology are the same thing: technology is simply advanced biology which has reached a minimum threshold of self-awareness, allowing it to harvest and sheperd energy from its environment and utilize it to intelligently organize matter for further evolutionary development. Written after an address given in Paris at the Salle d’horticulture (National Society of Horticulture).
Is there in the universe a main axis of evolution? (An attempt to see clearly)
First published in Psyché, later in Activation of Energy.
Written during Teilhard's passage from New York City to the Cape Peninsula, as he was in view of Saint Helena. Later published in Activation of Energy.
