Our knowledge of paradigm shifts in science is limited to the exchange of one fairly simple paradigm for another as in the Copernican Revolution. The social consequences of such shifts are not well understood. I propose, after Schumpeter, a period of creative destruction in which the old paradigm fails, intellectual bankruptcy, and the new one succeeds, enlightenment. As in all periods of creative destruction, society suffers transformational stress and emerges as a differently constituted entity.
The danger and opportunity of any period of creative destruction is social chaos and repressive reaction. Intellectual bankruptcy is a dangerous state. The incommensurable nature of thought and reality evidences itself in occult constructions such as occur in much postmodernist work, some of which is artistically commendable. Meaning, in any rational sense, is a function of a coherent, comprehensive world view. The central focus of postmodernist thought, the personal myth and the lack of structure, i.e. a Grand Narrative, is actually an attempt to keep the darkness of nihilism at bay by creating abstract structures in which meaningful behavior is possible.
This is a confused and chaotic period. It is necessary and inevitable to the evolution of pragmatic truth which is the force that drives our behavior. Dogma that is intellectually bankrupt is notoriously subject to critical failure and is therefore self-limiting. However the human brain is only so plastic and change tends to be generational.
We live in a difficult, challenging, and intellectually uncomfortable age. That is what makes it interesting. No human society of record has ever undergone the degree and duration of change that we currently endure. It will, I guarantee, test our intellectual mettle and our moral fiber. God's mercy on us all.
Do good and be well.
