Richard Tarnas (born February 21 1950), author of
The Passion of the Western Mind (1991) and Cosmos and Psyche (2006), is a cultural historian and professor of philosophy and psychology at the California Institute of Integral
Studies in San Francisco, and founding director of its graduate program
in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness.
Biography
Tarnas was born on February 21 1950 in Geneva, Switzerland, of American parents. His father, also Richard Tarnas, was a government contract attorney,
former president of the Michigan Federal Bar Association, and Professor of Law. His mother, Mary Lou, was a teacher and
homemaker. He grew up in Detroit, Michigan, where he studied Greek, Latin, and the classics under the Jesuits at the University of
Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy. In 1968 he entered Harvard, where he
studied Western intellectual and cultural
history and depth psychology, graduating with an A.B. cum laude in 1972.
For ten years he lived and worked at Esalen Institute in Big
Sur, California, studying with Joseph Campbell, Gregory Bateson, Huston Smith, and Stanislav Grof, and later served as director of programs and education. He received his Ph. D. from
Saybrook Institute in 1976. From 1980 to 1990, he wrote
The Passion of the Western Mind, a narrative history of Western thought which
became a bestseller and continues to be a widely-used text in universities throughout the
world. He is the founding director of the graduate program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where he currently
teaches. He also teaches on the faculty of the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California, and gives many public lectures and workshops in the U.S. and
abroad. He has worked closely or is otherwise associated with such thinkers as Stanislav
Grof, James Hillman, Jorge Ferrer,
Robert McDermott, Sean Kelly, and Christopher Bache. His mother died in 2005, and his father still lives.
Ideas
Tarnas is known for his integrative work in epistemology and cosmology. In his first major work, The Passion of the Western Mind, Tarnas provides an
interdisciplinary framework for "understanding the ideas that have shaped our world view." The Epilogue of this book elucidates
Tarnas' theory of the individuation of the modern subject which he describes as “a new perspective for understanding our culture’s intellectual and
spiritual history . . . focusing on the crucial sphere of interaction between philosophy, religion, and science”, as well as his
key concept of Participatory Epistemology which has been articulated
specifically in relation to Transpersonal psychology by Jorge Ferrer, Christopher Bache, and others. It has been
suggested that Tarnas' work is an important contribution to Integral thought or
Integral theory, though these terms are still being defined since the Integral movement
is still in the early stages of development.
His second major work, Cosmos and Psyche, challenges the basic assumptions of the modern world view with a new body of
evidence that points towards a new perspective on the human role in the cosmos. Based on thirty
years of research, Cosmos and Psyche is the first book by a widely respected scholar to demonstrate the existence of a
consistent correspondence between planetary movements (specifically the astrological
aspects) and the archetypal patterns of human experience, also called astrology.
This volume examines such famous epochs of cultural rebellion as the 1960s and the French
Revolution (both characterized by axial alignments of Uranus and Pluto), as well as periods of historical crisis such as
the world wars and September 11th.
Cosmos and Psyche also explores comparable patterns and planetary correlations in the lives of many individuals, from
Darwin, Nietzsche, and Freud to Martin Luther King, Betty Friedan, and John Lennon. Cosmos and Psyche suggests a
new possibility for reuniting religion and science, soul and intellect, ancient wisdom, and modern reason in the quest to
understand the past and create the future.
Bibliography
- The Passion of the Western Mind, 1991; Ballantine
- Prometheus the Awakener, 1995; Spring
- Foreword to Revisioning Transpersonal Theory by Jorge Ferrer, 2002; SUNY
- Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View, 2006; Viking (ISBN 0-670-03292-1)
See also
External links
http://www.gaiamind.com/Conjunct.html
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