Stuart Kauffman
Reinventing the Sacred

Penn Humanities Forum on Origins

University of Pennsylvania
October 3, 2007
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Science since Newton and Laplace has attempted to reduce all phenomena to particles (or strings) in motion. This reductionism has failed to describe the origins of life, agency, meaning, or consciousness, nor can it predict the way the biosphere or human culture will evolve in the future. We live in an “emergent universe” instead, a biosphere of ceaseless creativity blossoming with ever-erupting origins.