Big Picture posts include contributions of a more overarching or conceptual sort. Ideas may have their origins in the thinking of any cultural sphere or conceptual persuasion, but they share that they contribute in some significant way to culturally mature understanding. On occasion, posts will specifically introduce notions from Creative Systems Theory.
Respected thinkers have lately been putting forward more dynamic explanations for the workings of conscious awareness. In each case, there is the claim that the picture presented is fundamentally new. In my book Creative Systems Theory: An Overarching Theory of … Read More
In previous posts, I’ve argued that we today confront a Crisis of Purpose. I’ve described how we need a new kind of guiding narrative and new ways of thinking if our future is to be bright. I’ve also proposed that … Read More
The development of Creative Systems Theory has had a pivotal place my life since I was in my mid twenties. This is no less the case now as I enter my seventies. I continue to find fascination with exploring and … Read More
In my recent book Quick and Dirty Answers to the Biggest of Questions, I describe how Creative Systems Theory helps us address all manner of “ultimate questions”—big picture concerns that in times past have tended to leave us baffled. The … Read More
In my book Quick and Dirty Answers to the Biggest of Questions, I describe how Creative Systems Theory helps us address all manner of “ultimate questions”—big picture concerns that in times past have tended to leave us baffled. In other … Read More
There are few more important human questions than that of identity—just what it means to be a person. We can easily assume that its answer is obvious—I look in the mirror and there I am. But in fact the answer … Read More
In these times of extreme social/political polarization it can be unsettling—indeed frightening—just how differently people with conflicting views can see things. We can legitimately wonder if the discord we encounter today will in time put the whole democratic experiment in … Read More
In an earlier post that looked at the concept of Cultural Maturity’s big-picture significance, I briefly described a recent recognition that provides insight important to effective culturally mature advocacy. As I’ve finished up my new three book series and begun … Read More
[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
If we are to confidently draw on the concept of Cultural Maturity, it is essential that we have solid evidence for its conclusions. If accurate, the concept could not be more important. It claims to provide a new guiding narrative, … Read More
Addressing future moral challenges will require new human capacities, capacities that before now we could not have fully understood, much less applied. In part this is because we will be confronted by new kinds of moral questions—for example, those that … Read More
Six months have now passed since the release of the last volume in my new three-book series. Working on the series has taken the larger portion of my creative energy over the past fifteen years. Finishing up has provided time … Read More
My last two posts emphasized how culturally mature perspective requires that we bring greater complexity to how we think (see The Crisis of Gun Violence and Seeking More Effective Middle East Policy). Each also addressed how culturally mature perspective makes … Read More
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
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
The origins of the ideas on which this blog is based are worth taking time with if for no other reason than that they make a fascinating detective story. But they are worthy of our attention, too, because they have … Read More
I was invited recently to comment on how our cultural narrative—the stories we tell—has evolved over time, and how it continues to evolve today. It is a great topic, and one that makes a particularly accessible entry point for understanding … Read More
The most readily understood evidence for the importance of Culturally Maturity is the kind we find with “Front Page News” posts on this site: Culturally mature perspective makes essential challenges of our time more understandable and addressable. But there are … Read More
It would be nice if being an advocate for culturally mature understanding and action were easier than it is—-if suggestions put forward were more often immediately celebrated and readily grasped. A few reflections on just what makes such advocacy the … Read More
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
When it comes to evaluating the ultimate significance of the concept of Cultural Maturity and the application of a creative frame, no question is more important than just how they fit into the larger story of human understanding. I’ve addressed … Read More
While I repeatedly draw on the analogy between personal second –half-of-life maturity and the tasks of our time in making the argument for Cultural Maturity, I am careful to emphasize that personal maturity and “growing up” in this species sense, … Read More
It is important to recognize a kind of confusion that can come when first encountering the concept of Cultural Maturity. It can have people either be attracted to the notion for wholly wrong reasons, or dismiss the concept because they … Read More
Excerpted from Hope and the Future: Culturally mature perspective confronts us with a realization that has striking implications not just for how we think about who we are.: The Modern Age picture of individuality—in which we have taken appropriate pride—reflects … Read More
Cultural Maturity’s cognitive changes bring fresh perspective to every realm of understanding, from the arts to the hard sciences. But most obviously significant is how culturally mature perspective challenges us to rethink domains of understanding that have to do specifically … Read More
The concept of Cultural Maturity highlights how the critical tasks before us as a species require that we think and act in newly sophisticated ways. We can appreciate this challenge by noting how often today’s essential questions demand that we … Read More
This post helps clarify the concept of Cultural Maturity by taking a quick look at how it compares and contrasts with other views of our long-term future. In my upcoming book, Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future, I divide the … Read More
We can think of all the various “crises” of our time as aspects of a single, more encompassing crisis of story—in the end, a crisis of purpose. The guiding stories we have known and lived by—the American Dream, progress’s promise of … Read More
The idea of a needed new human maturity—especially when filled out with Cultural Maturity’s more detailed observations—is unusual as much for the specifically developmental kind of concept it represents as for its particular conclusions. This difference is key to how … Read More
To fully grasp what culturally mature awareness and leadership ask of us, it is important to appreciate what ultimate defines it. We can think of Cultural Maturity in terms of today’s increasingly demanding challenges and the greater sophistication needed to … Read More