A Systems Thinking Response to the Science Versus Religion Debate

The Creative Systems Theory concept of Cultural Maturity describes how our times are demanding—and as potential making possible—an essential new chapter in the human story. One characteristic of culturally mature understanding is that it helps us think more systemically about … Read More

Three Circumstances That Could Test Democracy to the Core—and the Long-Term Implications

Three circumstances that people in the U.S. could confront in the years immediately ahead could well challenge the viability of democratic governance as we know it. Recognizing them can help us engage them with the foresight needed if they are … Read More

How Understanding Why We See Such Extreme Polarization Today Is Key To Getting Beyond It

I gave my most recent book Perspective and Guidance for a Time of Deep Discord the subtitle: “Why We See Such Extreme Social and Political Polarization and What We Can Do About it.”  Today conflict between ideological factions has become … Read More

The Next Ten Years: Righting the Ship? Chaos and Absurdity? Or Engaging a Needed New, More Mature Chapter in How We Understand and Act?

A major part of my task as cultural psychiatrist and futurist is to alert people to circumstances where how we respond and the perspectives we bring could have major consequences—to serve as something of an early warning system. It is … Read More

Announcing an Important and Timely New Book: “Rethinking How We Think”

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I’ve just released a new book that blog readers should find of particular interest. Titled Rethinking How We Think: Integrative Meta-Perspective and the Cognitive “Growing Up”On Which Our Future Depends, it applies a more cognitive science approach than previous books … Read More

The Surprising Key to Rethinking Gender—It Has Never Been What We Thought It Was (A Cultural Maturity “Thought Exercise”)

In a recent post, I observed that modern age Romeo-and-Juliet–style romantic love is not only not some ideal and end point in love’s evolution, in fact it is not even what we have assumed it to be about. Rather than … Read More

Understanding the Significance of Cultural Maturity and the Ideas of Creative Systems Theory—Current Perspective

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  (This is a lengthy piece. But it is particularly important for the perspective it provides.) I formally introduced the concept of Cultural Maturity and the basic ideas of Creative Systems Theory over forty years ago. In the years since, … Read More

Seven Questions On Which Our Future Depends—Perspective From a Different Kind of Futurist

I approach the future differently than most people whose work addresses what may lie ahead. Most futurists focus on new technologies, or possibly on obstacles that might present themselves in our efforts at technological advancement. I see the questions on … Read More

Why Science and Religion Need Not Be At Odds: A Brief Look at How Creative Systems Theory Reconciles this Most Fundamental of Conflicts

[The following reflections are adapted from two of my most recent books: Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future and Quick and Dirty Answers to the Biggest of Questions.] The concept of Cultural Maturity proposes that the reason many ultimate … Read More

Creative Systems Theory—Addressing the Challenge of Culturally Mature Conception (An Introductory Overview— long form)

Creative Systems Theory presents a comprehensive framework for understanding purpose, change, and interrelationship in human systems. It is radically significant both for the practical usefulness of its ideas and for the fact that it represents the kind of conceptual perspective … Read More

The Future of Morality: Why Moral Decisions in Times Ahead Will Require Skills New to Us as a Species (Long Form)

The moral dimension today presents a startling—and easily unsettling— circumstance. Effectively addressing moral challenges is requiring new human capacities, capacities that before now we could not have fully understood, much less applied. In part this is because we confront new … Read More

Beyond “Chosen People” and “Evil Others”—An End to War as We’ve Known It and Other Not Insignificant Consequences—Long Form (With Commentary Pertinent to the Recent U.S. Presidential Election)

The best argument for the concept of Cultural Maturity’s importance is the most basic: not only our future well-being, but perhaps our survival, will depend on changes it describes. As far as survival-related consequences, the most immediate concerns whether we … Read More

The Radical Implications of a New Maturity in Our Relationship With Death — Long Form

One of the most significant new capacities that accompanies Cultural Maturity changes is the ability to engage limits in more sophisticated ways. Of particular importance, we become better able to recognize that some limits are inviolable. Nothing more defined the … Read More

A Different Kind of Idea—Implications for Cultural Maturity’s Challenge and Significance

The concept of Cultural Maturity and other contributions of Creative Systems Theory represent not just fresh thinking, but a fundamentally different kind of idea than we are accustomed to. Appreciating how this is so helps highlight what makes these notions … Read More

Medicine’s Most Important Question in the Long Term Will Take Most People By Surprise: “What Is a Body?”

When we look to medicine’s future, we tend to think in terms of technological advancements such as exotic transplant surgeries and gene-centered treatments. But in the long term, some very different kinds of concerns become pivotally important. In an earlier … Read More

Rethinking How We Think: The Critical Role of Multiple Intelligences

When it comes to culturally mature understanding, one of the most essential recognitions can also initially be particularly hard for people to get their minds around: the simple fact that intelligence has multiple aspects. Culturally mature systemic perspective requires that … Read More