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From Use, In Use, and For Use
From Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
The Lord's Omnipresence and Omniscience can be Comprehended
The omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord can be comprehended also from the creation of the universe; for the universe was so created by Him that He is in things first and in things last, in the center and in the circumferences, and that the things in which He is are uses. This can be seen to be true from the creation of the universe, from the life of man, and from the essence of uses.
The creation of the universe can be in no way so well understood as from types of it in the heavens. There creation is unceasing and instantaneous, for in the spiritual world lands exist in a moment, and upon them paradisal gardens, and in these trees full of fruits, also shrubs, flowers, and plants of every kind. When these are contemplated by one who is wise, they are found to be correspondences of the uses in which the angels are, to whom they are given as a reward. The angels, moreover, in accordance with their uses have houses given them, full of utensils and beautiful things according to uses; also garments according to their uses, and food that is esculent and palatable according to their uses, and delightful conversations, which also are uses because they are recreations. All these things are given them gratuitously, and yet on account of the uses they perform. In a word, the whole heaven is so full of uses that it may be called the very kingdom of uses.
Those, on the other hand, who perform no uses, are sent into the hells, where they are compelled by a judge to perform tasks; and if they refuse no food is given them and no clothing, nor any bed but the ground, and they are scoffed at by their companions as slaves are by their masters. The judge even permits them to be their bond servants, and if they entice others from their tasks they are severely punished. All this is done until they yield. But those who cannot be made to yield are cast out into deserts, where a morsel of bread is given them daily, and water to drink, and they dwell by themselves in huts or in caves; and because they perform no uses the land about them is so barren that a grassy sod is rarely seen upon it. In such deserts and hells I have seen many of noble descent, who in the world gave themselves up to idleness, or sought offices, the duties of which they discharged not for the sake of use but for honor and gain, which were the only uses regarded.
The uses performed in the heavens and the tasks done in the hells are in part like those done in the world, although for the most part they are spiritual uses, that cannot be described by any natural language, and (what I have often wondered at) do not fall into the ideas of natural thought. But this is generally the case with what is spiritual. In the unceasing and instantaneous creation of all things in the heavens there can be seen as in a type the creation of the universe with its globes, and that there is nothing created in these except for use, and in general, one kingdom of nature for another, the mineral kingdom for the vegetable, this for the animal, and both for the human race, that they may serve the Lord for performing uses to the neighbor.
From the life of man. When this is regarded from the creation of all things in it no part will be found that is not for use, not a fiber or minute vessel in the brains, in the organs of sense, in the muscles, or in any of the viscera of the thorax and the abdomen, or anywhere else, that is not for the sake of use in general and in particular, thus for the sake of the whole and of each thing connected with it, and not for its own sake. The greater forms, which are called members, sensories, muscles, and viscera, which are made up and organized from fibers and vessels, all are formed from use, in use, and for use, so that they may be simply called uses, of which the whole man is composed and formed. It is therefore clearly evident that they have no other origin and no other end than use.
That every man likewise was created and born for use is clearly evident from the use of all things in him, and from his state after death, when, if he performs no use, he is accounted so worthless that he is cast into infernal prisons or into desert places. That man is born to be a use is clear also from his life; for a man whose life is from a love of uses is wholly different from one whose life is from a love of idleness. By a life of idleness is meant a life made up of social interaction feasting, and entertainments. A life from the love of uses is a life of love of the public good and of love to the neighbor, and also a life of love to the Lord, for the Lord performs uses to man through man, consequently a life of the love of uses is the spiritual Divine life, and everyone who loves a good use and does it from a love for it is loved by the Lord, and is received with joy by the angels in heaven. But a life of the love of idleness is a life of the love of self and the world, and thus a merely natural life; and such a life does not hold the thoughts together, but diffuses them into every vain thing, and thereby turns man away from the delights of wisdom and immerses him in the delights of the body and of the world alone to which evils cling; therefore after death he is let down into the infernal society to which he has attached himself in the world, and is there compelled to work by force of hunger and lack of food. By uses in the heavens and on the earths are meant the ministries, functions, and pursuits of life, employments, various domestic tasks, occupations, consequently all things that are opposite to idleness and indolence.
From the essence of uses. The essence of uses is the public good. With the angels the public good in the most general sense means the good of the entire heaven, in a less general sense the good of the society, and in a particular sense the good of the fellow citizen. But with men the essence of uses in the most general sense is both the spiritual and the civil good of the whole human race, in a less general sense the good of the country, in a particular sense the good of a society, and in an individual sense the good of the fellow citizen; and as these goods constitute the essence of uses, love is their life, since all good is of love and the life is in the love. In this love is everyone who takes delight in the use he is in because of its usefulness, whether he is a king, a magistrate, a priest, a minister, a general, a merchant, or a workman. Everyone who takes delight in the use of his function because of its usefulness loves his country and fellow citizens; but he who does not take delight in it because of its usefulness, but does it solely for the sake of self, or solely for the sake of honor and wealth, does not in his heart love his country and fellow citizens, but only himself and the world. This is because no one can be kept by the Lord in love to the neighbor unless he is in some love for the public good; and no one can be in that love unless he is in the love of use for the sake of use, or in the love of use from use, thus from the Lord.
Since, then, each thing, and all things in the world were created in the beginning for use, and in man also all things were formed for use, and the Lord from creation regarded the whole human race as one man, in which each individual is likewise for use or is a use, and since the Lord Himself, as has been said above, is the life of that man, it is clear that the universe was so created that the Lord is in things first and in things last, also in the center and in the circumference, that is, in the midst of all, and that the things in which He is are uses. And from all this the Lord's omnipresence and omniscience can be comprehended.
(Apocalypse Explained 1226)
http://lastchurch.blogspot.ca/
Posted on June 4, 2017 by havau22	| Leave a comment
THE SCIENCE OF CORRESPONDENCE
THE END OF CREATION HAS FORM [existat] IN OUTMOSTS, WHICH END IS THAT ALL THINGS MAY RETURN TO THE CREATOR AND THAT THERE MAY BE CONJUNCTION.
In the first place, something shall be said about ends. There are three things that follow in order, called first end, middle end, and last end; they are also called end, cause, and effect. These three must be together in every thing, that it may be anything. For a first end without a middle end, and at the same time a last end, is impossible; or, what is the same, an end alone, without a cause and an effect is impossible. Equally impossible is a cause alone without an end from which and an effect in which it is, or an effect alone, that is, an effect without its cause and end. That this is so may be comprehended if it be observed that an end without an effect, that is, separated from an effect, is a thing without existence, and therefore a mere term. For in order that an end may actually be an end it must be terminated, and it is terminated in its effect, wherein it is first called an end because it is an end. It appears as if the agent or the efficient exists by itself; but this so appears from its being in the effect; but if separated from the effect it would instantly vanish. From all this it is evident that these three, end, cause, and effect, must be in every thing to make it anything. [DLW167]
It must be known further, that the end is everything in the cause, and also everything in the effect; from this it is that end, cause, and effect, are called first end, middle end, and last end. But that the end may be everything in the cause, there must be something from the end [in the cause] wherein the end shall be; and that the end may be everything in the effect, there must be something from the end through the cause [in the effect] wherein the end shall be. For the end cannot be in itself alone, but it must be in something having existence from it, in which it can dwell as to all that is its own, and by acting, come into effect, until it has permanent existence. That in which it has permanent existence is the last end, which is called effect. [DLW168]
These three, namely, end, cause, and effect, are in the created universe, both in its greatest and least parts. They are in the greatest and least parts of the created universe, because they are in God the Creator, who is the Lord from eternity. But since He is Infinite, and in the Infinite in finite things are one distinctly (as was shown above, n. 17-22), therefore also these three in Him, and in His infinites, are one distinctly. From this it is that the universe which was created from His Esse, and which, regarded as to uses, is His image, possesses these three in each and all of its parts. [DLW169]
The universal end, that is, the end of all things of creation, is that there may be an eternal conjunction of the Creator with the created universe; and this is not possible unless there are subjects wherein His Divine can be as in Itself, thus in which it can dwell and abide. In order that these subjects may be dwelling-places and mansions of Him, they must be recipients of His love and wisdom as of themselves; such, therefore, as will elevate themselves to the Creator as of themselves, and conjoin themselves with Him. Without this ability to reciprocate no conjunction is possible. These subjects are men, who are able as of themselves to elevate and conjoin themselves. That men are such subjects, and that they are recipients of the Divine as of themselves, has been pointed out above many times. By means of this conjunction, the Lord is present in every work created by Him; for everything has been created for man as its end; consequently the uses of all created things ascend by degrees from outmosts to man, and through man to God the Creator from whom [are all things] (as was shown above, n. 65-68). [DLW170]
To this last end creation progresses continually, through these three, namely, end, cause, and effect, because these three are in the Lord the Creator (as was said just above); and the Divine apart from space is in all space (n. 69-72); and is the same in things greatest and least (77 – 82); from which it is evident that the created universe, in its general progression to its last end, is relatively the middle end. For out of the earth forms of uses are continually raised by the Lord the Creator, in their order up to man, who as to his body is also from the earth. Thereafter, man is elevated by the reception of love and wisdom from the Lord; and for this reception of love and wisdom, all means are provided; and he has been so made as to be able to receive, if he will. From what has now been said it can be seen, though as yet only in a general manner, that the end of creation takes form [existat] in outmost things; which end is, that all things may return to the Creator, and that there may be conjunction. [DLW171]
That these three, end, cause, and effect, are in each and every thing created, can also be seen from this, that all effects, which are called last ends, become anew first ends in uninterrupted succession from the First, who is the Lord the Creator, even to the last end, which is the conjunction of man with Him. That all last ends become anew first ends is plain from this, that there can be nothing so inert and dead as to have no efficient power in it. Even out of sand there is such an exhalation as gives aid in producing, and therefore in effecting something. [DLW172]
Author: EMANUEL SWEDENBORG (1688-1772)
http://www.scienceofcorrespondences.com/ends.htm
http://www.theisticscience.org/
Posted on May 20, 2017 by havau22	| Leave a comment
I am experiencing cloudy weather today. Yet, in spite of Scripture's insistence that the Lord will "cometh with clouds" (Rev. 1:7) I am confident that I will not see a great seven-headed dragon outside my window and threatening a pregnant woman standing on the moon.
By every indication, the New Testament seems to suggest that the Lord's Second Coming was close at hand. Scripture even mentions this happening within the same generation of those who heard Jesus speak. Now, two millennia later, the Lord still has not delivered on His promise of returning. Or did He?
Scripture makes it quite clear that the great battle between the armies of the great red Dragon and Michael during the end times will take place in heaven (Rev. 12:7). The Lord also makes it clear that when He makes His return, people will be unable to point to any particular location when He states: "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke, 17:21).
The Second Coming is not a physical event (nor does God kick ass).
So, if there is something truly new to be revealed by God's Revelation it is that all the spectacular events of the Apocalypse occur within our innermost being and spirit. This is not the view of Christian orthodoxy, which remains in obscurity to a potentially new paradigm shift. The quality of a church is based on its understanding of the Lord's Word. Therefore, the Lord's "coming with clouds," means to break through this obscurity with new and deeper teachings pertaining to His Word.
Scripture is a multidimensional document and contains a quantum vocabulary of discrete and more expanded meanings. The Holy Word contains deeper narratives concerning our spiritual predicament and the way to make our inner world a heavenly abode for the Lord.
The first coming of the Lord is physical. The second is psychical, through a real inner awakening of a higher cognitive function. First we see, next we understand.
The Second Coming can happen to each of us at different times. That is how the Lord can promise His return within a generation, that is, within a person's lifetime and "make all things anew." But one risks a personal upheaval (psycho-earthquakes) to his or her current worldview. Armageddon represents our personal resistance to this new dispensation from the Creator.
These ideas are based on the remarkable writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, an eighteenth century scientist, philosopher, mystic and theologian.
Did I cause interesting new synapses in your brain or just step on your toes?
Posted on January 29, 2008by thegodguy
Posted in love, Reality, religion, science, unity | Tagged complexity, Correspondence, god, marriage, neuroscience, paradigm shift, Quantum Physics, quarks, relationship, scripture, Theory of Everything, top-down causation, universe |Leave a comment
Posted on March 8, 2017 by havau22	| 6 Comments
Existence is Relationship
Nothing exists by itself. This insight is actually supported by the discoveries of quantum physics called quantum entanglement, which includes the ideas of non-locality and non-separability. Yet, this holistic concept could just as easily find its expression in a Sunday sermon.
There is a unifying principle in the universe. Physicists seek it in a Grand Unified Theory (or Theory of Everything) and the clergy seek it in God. Therefore, the topic of unity in the universe seems to be a reasonable area where science and religion can begin to have a meaningful encounter with each other. I would even go so far as to say that to the extent to which science and religion cannot be unified one must hold their theories and theologies under suspect. This is the premise I take in my future book, entitled "Proving God." So, for the purposes of this mini-discussion, I would like to provide a few examples of how existence is founded on relationship.
In the current scientific model of atomic structure everything is held together by an exchange of photons, gluons and quarks. In the human body and other forms of bio-complexity in nature, everything is held together by an exchange of labor. Human society is also held together through an exchange of labor and sharing our special talents as well.
Human cognition involves recognition of ratios and proportions, which are relationships (out of which springs mathematical reasoning). Neuroscience is moving closer to the idea that human affection focuses our attention and shapes our memory by forming new relationships between thoughts and ideas (which lead to creative imagination and abstract thinking).
Marriage between two people is a most intimate sharing of each other's lives.
It seems that for anything new to come into existence, previous (a priori) things must coexist, that is, form relationships.
Love is relationship. Religion can be looked at as a lawful strategy for taking the unifying dynamic operating in the universe even further. Loving God and the neighbor represents the epitome of relationship forming. Scripture teaches us that all the law of the prophets hangs on these two expressions of love. (I cannot imagine a legitimate religion that is not founded on those two tenets.)
If there be a unifying principle in the universe, LOVE would make a good one! Here's why. First of all, love is psychical and operates within the human mind. The mind cannot be said to operate in space. Therefore, love gives us a unifying principle of agency that can exist as a special initial condition of a pre-natal universe when time equaled zero (t = 0). Having its domain in pre-space, we are given a unifying principle whereby every created thing can be non-locally connected simultaneously—towards an eternal goal.
Love is the one force that absolutely necessitates the constants of law and a fine-tuned universe because it creates through self-similarity. This self-similarity (correspondence) finds its ultimate expression of unified relationship in the bio-complexities of living organisms and finally the human race through God's covenant. Love also offers a new way to view top-down causation in a way that preserves self-consistency through discrete operations.
The manifest universe emerged out of a conscious living force. Physics (classical and quantum) has to be reformulated to reflect this principle or it will fail to find the answer to the nature of agency in the universe. Religion also needs a paradigm shift.
THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE
Excerpts from the True Christian Religion
by Emanuel Swedenborg
TCR 75
As the subject of this first chapter is "God the Creator", the creation of the universe by Him must also be considered; as in the next chapter on the Lord the Redeemer, redemption will also be treated of. But no one can gain a right idea of the creation of the universe until his understanding is brought into a state of perception by some most general knowledges previously recognized, which are as follows:
(i) There are two worlds, a spiritual world where angels and spirits are, and a natural world where men are.
(ii.) In each world there is a sun. The sun of the spiritual world is nothing but love from Jehovah God who is in the midst of it. From that sun heat and light go forth; the heat that goes forth therefrom in its essence is love, and the light that goes forth in its essence is wisdom; and these two affect the will and understanding of man- the heat his will and the light his understanding. But the sun of the natural world is nothing but fire, and therefore its heat is dead, also its light; and these serve as a covering and auxiliary to spiritual heat and light, to enable them to pass over to man.
(iii) Again, these two which go forth from the sun of the spiritual world, and in consequence all things that have existence in that world by means of them, are substantial, and are called spiritual; while the two like things that go forth from the sun of the natural world, and in consequence all things here that have existence by means of them, are material, and are called natural.
(iv.) In each world there are three degrees, called degrees of height, and in consequence three regions; and in accordance with these the three angelic heavens are arranged, and also in accordance with them human minds are arranged, which thus correspond to those three angelic heavens; and the same is true of everything else in both worlds.
(v.) There is a correspondence between those things that are in the spiritual world and those in the natural world.
(vi.) There is an order in which each thing and all things belonging to both worlds were created.
(vii.) It is necessary that an idea of these things should first be gained, for unless this is done the human mind from mere ignorance of these things easily falls into a notion of a creation of the universe by nature; while on mere ecclesiastical authority it asserts that nature was created by God; and yet, because it does not know how creation was effected, as soon as it begins to look interiorly into the matter, it plunges headlong into the naturalism that denies God. But it would be truly the work of a large volume to explain and demonstrate these statements properly one by one; moreover, the matter does not properly enter into the theological system of this book as a theme or argument; therefore I will merely relate some memorable occurrences from which an idea of the creation of the universe by God may be conceived, and from such a conception some offspring that will represent it may be born.
Posted on June 12, 2014 by havau22	| Leave a comment


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COSMIC DIALECTICS, THE LIBERTARIAN PHILOSOPHY OF JOSEPH DIETZGEN
Posted on March 14, 2012	by Falah
Dietzgen began by asking the question, "What happens when we think?" He observed that the basic thinking process was essentially the same whether done by the greatest scientist or a common person. For "…the simplest conception, or any idea for that matter, is of the same general nature as the most perfect understanding… Thought is work…" 1 By showing this common basis of thought, Dietzgen democratized science and philosophy. Every person's opinion must be valued and thinking must not be especially reserved for an intellectual elite, an approach that puts him at variance with both academia and the marxist specialists in revolution.
"The knowledge and study of this theory cannot be left to any particular guild…general thought is a public matter which everyone should be required to attend to himself." 2__ But what does happen when we think? What is the innate process that underlies thought, whether thinking about plowing a field, contemplating the cosmos or just plain day-dreaming? Thought requires the formation of concepts about the world, a process which involves two differing aspects: "By means of thought we become aware of all things in a twofold manner, outside in reality and inside in thought…Our brain does not assimilate the things themselves, but only their images. The imagined tree is only a general tree. The real tree is different from any other. And although I may have the picture of some special tree in my head, yet the real tree is still different from its conception as the specific is different from the general." 3
One must not make the mistake of confusing one's mental pictures of the world with reality itself. The real, existing thing is not exactly like the generalization which is formed in the mind. "What abstract thing, being, existence, generality is there that is not manifold in its sense manifestations, and individually different from all other things? There are no two drops of water alike." 4
Thought is a process of forming generalizations out of specific incidences or things. Thinking involves, "…the specific and individual things of the world and our generalizations about them. Thought involves generalization. The common feature of all separate thought processes consists in their seeking the general character or unity which is common to all objects experienced in their manifold variety…" 5__But generalization isn't all we do when we think, nor is it without inherent problems. If we take our generalizations to an extreme we can easily get lost in what are essentially our own mental constructions. We trap ourselves by thinking our productions are reality. This is whathappens to people who get caught up in extreme religious or political cults. To bring ourselves back down to reality it is necessary to never forget the individual and specific aspects of things. "Mere generalization is one-sided and leads to fantastical dreams. By this method one can transform anything into everything. It is necessary to supplement generalization by specialization… the general must be conceived in its relation to its specific forms, and these forms in their universal interconnection." 6
CONTRADICTION INHERENT IN THOUGHT
Hence though is a process which involves a relationship between two opposing aspects; the aspect of generalization and the aspect of specialization. To think means to always be engaged in a contradictory process. "For consciousness generalizes differences and differentiates generalities. Contradiction is innate in consciousness and its nature is so contradictory that it is at the same time a differentiating, a generalizing and an understanding nature. Consciousness… 7 recognizes that all nature, all being, lives in contradictions, that everything is what it is only in co-operating with its opposite…" 8
As with generalization, there is a trap we must avoid. One can get so caught up in the contradictions confronting us it becomes impossible to make decisions. However, it is possible to achieve some sort of balance or synthesis between opposite views and the contradictions can, at least in part, be overcome. "…reason develops its understanding out of contradictions. It is in the nature of mind to perceive…the nature of things by their semblance, and their semblance by their nature… or in other words to compare the contrasts of the world with one and other, to harmonize them. " 9
THE LIMITATIONS OF OUR KNOWLEDGE
It should be obvious by now, this contradictory process of generalization or concept formation gives us only a limited understanding of the world. That ten people witnessing a traffic accident might have ten different versions o what happened is perfectly understandable. What we are doing is forming our concepts about the world through our thinking processes, resulting in a viewpoint which approximates reality, but is not reality itself. Hence, and this should be engraved on stone in letters two feet high, there is no perfect human knowledge or truth. "Our brain is supposed to solve the contradictions of nature. If it knows enough about itself to realize that it is not an exception from general nature…then it also knows that its clearness can differ but moderately from the general confusion…The contradictions are solved only by reasonable differentiation…extravagant differences are nothing but extravagant speculations…and it is a relic of untrained habits to differentiate in an absolute manner…10 the rule [is] not to make exaggerated, but only graduated distinctions. Compared to the wealth of the Cosmos, the intellect is only a poor fellow" 11
Given the difficulty of attaining a clear understanding of reality it comes as no surprise that Dietzgen regarded truth in relative terms. There could be no such thing as absolute truth. "A perfect understanding is possible only within limits." 12 While truth with a capital "T" is unattainable, this should not stop us from trying to get as near to the goal of absolute truth as possible. "The improvement in the method of thinking is like every other improvement, a limitless problem, the solution which must always remain unachieved. This, however, must in no way keep us from striving after it." 13
THE IMPORTANCE OF ERROR
No absolute separation existed between truth and error for Dietzgen. All truths contain some amount of error, and all errors contain some amount of truth. "Truth and error differ only comparatively, in volume of degree…like all other opposites in the world…Everything, every sense perception, no matter how subjective is true, a certain part of truth." 14
Aside from fanatics and dogmatists, it is not very difficult to admit a truth might contain some element of error, but what about the idea that truth can be found in error? This is not such an offbeat concept when you realize even the wildest dreams are based upon material ultimately taken from the real world, in the manner that the fantasy of the unicorn is constructed by mentally attaching a narwhal's horn upon the head of a horse. "Error results from universalizing or absolutizing some aspect of limited applicability, or as in the case of the narwhal horn, placing something, which would otherwise be real and true, where it does not belong. Error…arises when the faculty of thought…inadvertently or short-sightedly and without previous experience concedes to certain phenomena a more general scope. 15 …people follow the usual course of short-sightedness and make their private standpoint a universal one. 16 …all distinctions are only quantitative, not absolute, only graduated, not irreconcilable…Instead of realizing the limited applicability of its rules by the existence of opposing practices, convention seeks to establish an absolute applicability of its rules by
simply ignoring the cause of the opposition. This is a dogmatic procedure. " 17
THOUGHT MUST HAVE AN OBJECT
Dietzgen made the observation that thought must have an object, i.e., one must think about some thing, even if it consists only of thinking about thought itself. Hence, no disembodied thoughts – thoughts without an object. These objects of thought are taken from the external world (and also from the psyche, a point not known by the pre-Freudian Dietzgen). Therefore the world ultimately proceeds human thought. In this manner the Proletarian Philosopher declared himself to be a materialist, but he was not satisfied by the usual meaning of the term. "We…must not be satisfied with simply following the example of the old materialist who reduced everything to ponderable atoms. Cosmic matter has not only gravity, but aroma, light and sound – and why not also intelligence? The conception of matter must be given a more comprehensive meaning. To it belongs all phenomena of reality." 18
IDEALISM VS. MATERIALISM
He attributed the dispute between idealism and materialism to the absolutizing of the differences between the two concepts. "The idealist regards reason alone as the source of all understanding, while the materialist looks upon the world of sense perceptions in the same way. Nothing is required for a solution of this contradiction but the comprehension of the relative interdependence of these two sources of understanding…But these distinctions belong to the one common genus which constitutes the distinction between the special and the general. 19 The idealist overestimated the idea, the materialist matter, both were dreamers…both distinguished mind and matter in a fantastic, unreal way. Neither of them raised themselves to the consciousness of unity and monism…of Nature which is not either material or mental, but one as well as the other." 20 The old materialists dealt in irreconcilable opposites just like the idealists." 21
The world contains both mental and material, both are real and all that is real is what makes up the material world. Everything that has an effect upon the world is real, ie., material. "We distinguish between the object of sense perception and its mental image. Nevertheless the intangible idea is also material and real. I perceive my idea of a desk just as plainly as the desk itself. True, if I choose to call only tangible things material, then ideas are not material…Mind is as real as the tangible table…While the idea of these things is different from the things themselves, yet it has that in common with them that it is as real as they are." 22
The division between our ideas and the "real material reality" is not absolute. Consider the effect of the imagination. Our imaginary creations are both non-real (not existing) and yet have some reality since they are based ultimately upon the objectively existing world. These fantasies can also have a major impact upon us, think only of the insane ideas of Hitler or Stalin. "…there is only a moderate distinction of degree between purely imaginary things and so-called real things." 23
Dietzgen also valued the imagination. "Fantasy has certainly a positive power, and speculative intuition…very often precedes empirical and inductive understanding. " 24
CRITIQUE OF MATERIALISM
He attacked materialism as being itself a kind of idealism. "Inasmuch as the materialist speaks ironically of formless matter and matterless forms, in the same breath with perishable forms of imperishable matter, it is plain that materialism is not any more informed than idealism as to the relation of content to form, of a phenomenon to the essential nature of its subject. Where do we find such eternal, imperishable, formless matter?" 25
Dietzgen had no patience for the argument that reduced ideas and the supposedly non-material to mere derivatives of "matter". "…matter is to the old materialists the exalted subject, all other things subordinate prejudices…an antiquated, narrow thinking which has taken no notice of the work of German dialecticians. It must be understood that subjects are composed exclusively of predicates.26 We see the distinguishing mark between the mechanical materialists…and the Social Democratic materialists… in that the latter have extended the former's narrow conception of matter as consisting exclusively of the Tangible to all phenomena that occur in the world." 27
It was wrong to separate mind and matter in an extreme fashion. The only way to come to an understanding of reality is to see the mental and physical in their unity. "Matter" is a mental construct, but "mind" cannot exist without the material world of objects and forces. "…mind is material and things are mental. Mind and matter are real only in their interrelations. " 28
The word "matter" was not sacred for Dietzgen and he was not afraid to abandon it for a more inclusive term and thereby do away with the dualism of idealism vs. materialism. "Solid and liquid, wood and metal are quite correctly summed up under the notion "matter". Why should we not be justified in summing up all things under the term "empirical truth" or "empirical phenomenon?…Through the common origins all antagonisms are reconciled and bridged over. Diversity is but a form: in their essence all things are alike…we find what is more and more being proved by natural science, that seemingly essential differences are but differences in degree…The cause effects and the effect causes. 29 And those who dislike this generalization of the word "matter" may instead, speak of "phenomena"… the name of the general species, to which everything belongs, the ponderable and the imponderable, body and soul." 30
Nonetheless he was willing to accept the name "materialist", but with a proviso, "But now we Social Democrats accept the name [of materialists] with which our opponents think to abuse us, because we know that "the stone which the builder refused is become the head corner stone." We would equally be justified to call ourselves idealists, inasmuch as our system is based on the final results of philosophy, on the scientific investigation of ideas…" 31
In rejecting the materialism which reduced all phenomena to "matter", Dietzgen also rejected the theory of knowledge know as "reflection theory". This ideological construct, promoted by Lenin in his vulgar diatribe, Materialism And Empireocriticism, judged concepts and ideas to be mere copies or reflections of the "material world", in the manner that a camera reproduces an image.
"Nothing more insipid has been said of truth and knowledge than…that truth is the conformity of our knowledge with its object. How can a picture "conform" to its model? Approximately it can…But to be altogether alike, quite the same as the original, what an abnormal idea! Thus we can only know Nature and her parts relatively, since even a part, though only a relation of Nature, possesses again the characteristics of the Absolute, the nature of the ALL- EXISTENCE which cannot be exhausted by knowledge." 32
THE UNITY OF THE WORLD
Dietzgen called his philosophy monist, which refers to the view that all existence is ultimately unified. This unity was not just something that popped into his head as a good idea, but was innate in the human mind.
"Consciousness is in itself consciousness of the infinite. Our settled conviction of the unity of the universe is an inborn logic. The unity of the world is the supreme and most universal category. A closer look…reveals the fact that it carries its opposite, the infinite multiplicity. 33 With our hands we grasp only the tangible, with our eyes only the visible, but with our conception we grasp the whole Nature, the Universe. 34 Consciousness signifies the knowledge of being. It means having at least a faint inkling of the fact that being is the universal idea. Being is everything; it is the essence of everything…the human intellect knows of no absolute separation of any two things, although it is free to separate the universe into its parts for the purpose of understanding. 35 Perfectly true, perfectly universal, is only the general existence, the Universe, the absolute quantity. But the real world is absolutely relative, absolutely perishable, an infinity of manifestations…. All truths are simply parts of this world, partial truths…The general mark of truth is existence…" 36
Reality can not be reduced to either ideas or matter, (both being human constructs) however the one "thing" we it can be resolved into is the Universe or the Totality. Here, he believed, was the only solid place to anchor a philosophy, for all finite concepts proved ultimately illusory.
Upon this firm ground Dietzgen was able to reconcile the classical problems of philosophy such as free will vs. determinism, matter and force, cause and effect, and materialism vs. idealism. These opposites were not as opposed as people thought, or as he stated, "We do not conceive the forces as mere predicates of matter. Our conception of matter and force is, so to speak, democratic. One is of the same value as the other; everything individual is but the property…of the entire Nature…" 37
We assume the underlying unity of the world in our everyday actions, hence the Tanner's a priori is indeed a most basic assumption of our consciousness. We would not be able to function for any length of time without the associated concepts of the existence, coherence and oneness of the world. Science is based upon this essential idea and would be impossible without it. And if the world was dualistic, and there was another truly separate existence, we would not be able to know about it. Hence absolute separation is meaningless.
He dealt rather extensively with the problem of cause and effect. Science searches for the reasons for events and it is considered an important discovery when a causal link is discovered. (We are told that germs cause disease.) The problem for both the metaphysician and the scientist is that we rarely find THE cause of something and our discoveries often give rise to more questions. (If germs cause disease, why are we not sick all the time, since we are continually surrounded by germs?) "Thus things become mutual causes and mutual effects. The entire world of phenomena, of which thought is but a part, is an absolute circle, in which the beginning and end is everywhere and nowhere, in which everything is at the same time essence and semblance, cause and effect, general and concrete. Just as all Nature is in the last instance one sole general unity…so this same Nature…is the final cause of all things. 38 Causes are, in the last instance, not noticed and furnished by means of…the sense perceptions. They are supplied by the faculty of thought…not "pure" products of the faculty of thought, but are produced by it in connection with sense perceptions…Causes are mental generalizations of perceptible changes…The speculative cause creates its effects. But in reality the effects are the material out of which the brain, or science, forms its causes. The cause concept is a product of reason…married to the world of sense perceptions." 39
Thus Dietzgen once more combats arrogance, the sort one finds with the technocrat and his "scientific plans", and the Marxist-Leninist and his "economic laws". We should not glorify our discoveries, ideas or concepts, for these are all demarcations of reality we have made. Our knowledge is more than likely to be gray and fuzzy rather than sharply outlined black and white. Not that our mental toil results in complete untruth or everything is subjective fantasy, but our constructs are merely an approximation of reality. Our knowledge is always limited, partial knowledge, and to think otherwise is to fall into a deep and dangerous error. As the millions of victims of Twentieth Century arrogance can attest.
THE PROBLEM OF LANGUAGE
Dietzgen realized that many problems of philosophy arose with the inadequate use of language. In this manner he foreshadowed Wittgenstein and the analytic philosophers. "The inertia which has prevented the one-sided idealists on the one hand and the one-sided materialists on the other from coming to a peaceful understanding may be traced to one of those slips of the tongue. We lack the right terms for designating the relationship between spiritual phenomena…and the tangible…things on the other." 40 He did not take words as reality, as do so many intellectuals, but regarded them as symbols. "Words are names, which do not, and cannot, have any other function than that of symbolic illustration." 41
SCIENCE AND SCIENTISM
Like virtually all 19th Century thinkers, Dietzgen considered his works to be scientific. By this time, (the 1870's) the term "Science" began to change meaning. Previously, any organized body of knowledge was considered a science and there was nothing smacking of pretentiousness or scientism in speaking about the science of cookery or scientific socialism. With the rise of Positivism and materialism came a new and vastly more restricted use of the word. "Science" was now restricted to those areas of inquiry which applied the methodology of the natural sciences. Positivism engaged in a search for the immutable laws of nature which are supposed to exist independently of the observer. Any other approach was deemed unscientific or pseudo-science and was soon to be condemned in language similar to that used by 16th Century heresy-hunters. Science had become a new absolutism and a new superstition. This was too much for the Tanner to stomach. "There are among us a good many people who, instead of regarding science as a handmaid to civilization, idolize and worship it… They are like the barbarians who turned the natural and social law into a divinity…It is incumbent upon social democracy to destroy both religious and scientific superstition." 42
He reproached scientists and academics for their elitism and considered them to be as idealistic (in the philosophical sense) as the materialists whose philosophical offspring they undoubtedly were. "Having materialized everything spiritual, there remained nothing for the professors but to spiritualize their own profession, science. They assume academic knowledge to be of a different type than say, the knowledge of the peasant, the dyer or the smith. Scientific agriculture is, however, only insofar ahead of usual farming that its rules or knowledge of the so-called natural laws are generalizations of a more comprehensive kind. They but differ from each other in degree and not in essence…we want to overcome the claims of the aristocracy of intellect. 43 Modern science is even today still animated by the bias of the materialists of the 18th Century." 44
Positive science can give us knowledge of certain aspects of the world, but it is left to another form of thinking (or science) to understand the world. Natural science was subordinate in one sense to philosophy – that science which investigates those basic questions that natural scientists usually take for granted. These are questions such as, "What is thought?", "What is truth? and "Why Existence when there could be nothing?" Positivist science refuses to even allow such questions to be asked. "Natural science in its narrower sense cannot give us the monistic conception of the world…[this] is investigated by a
separate science some call Logic, or Epistemology or Dialectics." 45
DIETZGEN'S INDIVIDUALISM
Rooted in the concept that all thought is in essence similar, Dietzgen's philosophy is from the beginning democratic and egalitarian. One person may know more than another, but the differences between individuals are only quantitative, not qualitative. To be human is to have the capacity for reason. Such a viewpoint has a high regard for the individual, since each person's opinion, and therefore each person, is seen as having intrinsic value.
An essential concept of individuality also exists within his philosophy, which is shown by the fact that "each drop of water differ[s] from every other." And if water drops are individuals, consider the individuality of that complex creature, Homo sapiens, or as he stated, "humanity is an idea, while man is always some special person." 46
DIETZGEN'S CONCEPT OF HISTORY
Dietzgen's concept of history is related to his evaluation of the individual. "It is only the consciousness of individual freedom which creates sufficient unconcern for the rules made by others to permit a brave advance, which emancipates us from striving for an illusory absolute ideal, for some "best world"…" 47
His "unconcern for the rules made by others" allowed him to break with the SLP and go to the aid of the beleaguered anarchists. His hostility toward utopianism is also evident. At a time when a highly determinist view of history virtually expunged the factor of human will, the Tanner noted, "…humanity revolutionizes its highest standards, in short, it makes history." 48
His holistic view of man, history and nature protected him from falling into both the utopian trap and its opposite, the sort of despair we see so much of today. Nor did he have a blind belief in progress like so many of his contemporaries. "Progress picks up the child and then pours the water out of the bathtub…The present wealth of civilization is due only to the economic administration of the acquirements of the past. Evolution is as much conservative as it is revolutionary, and it finds as much wrong as right in every law. 49 I am even inclined to admit that the task of developing our labor power to that degree of prodigious fertility which we see today, has necessitated a privileged governing class as well as the exploitation of the masses. I am ready to acquiesce patiently in the misery of the past, and bear it no grudge or
malice…" 50
Social evolution is not nihilistic, no clean-slate wiping away of the past and as much is retained as is rejected. Both the radical and the conservative are necessary. Nor is there a need to have someone to blame for the world's kills, history just IS and we are all part of it.
"At the same time we are thus reconciled with the world as it really is, because we no longer regard it as the unsuccessful realization of that which cannot but be. The world is always
right. Whatever exists, is right and is not fated to be otherwise until it changes. Wherever there is existence, which is power, there is also right without further condition, because it is right in a formative stage. Weakness has no other right than striving for supremacy… forcing a recognition of its long denied needs. " 51
Unlike some anarchists who think it possible to completely abolish power, Dietzgen recognized that existence is power. The "weak" are undoubtedly the laboring classes, who in their struggle for recognition of their needs, overcome this weakness. That "the world is always right" seems appalling in an era which has seen the likes of Stalin and Hitler. However, this restatement of Hegel's oft quoted and always misunderstood, "Real is Rational", is not a whitewash of the crimes of history. It merely states that history is a process in which events have causes – in the limited sense of cause and effect that Dietzgen uses. Hitler, for example, did not fall from the sky, nor were the German people seized by temporary madness, his rise to power was caused the authoritarianism of German culture, the punitive Versailles Treaty, the destruction of the middle class, the Communist threat etc.,
DIETZGEN AND THE SPIRITUAL
Dietzgen expressly rejected atheism… 52
We have seen in Dietzgen's philosophy that human knowledge is limited and that the only Absolute which exists is the Totality of Existence or the Universe. (By Universe, he did not mean what astronomers mean by it, rather he meant Existence – all that has ever
happened, all that is happening now, all that will happen) He observed that if the anthropomorphism, superstition and hocus pocus was stripped away from religion what was left was the Absolute. God is another word for the Absolute or the Totality of Existence.
"…the all-perfect Being, with the conception of God, with the Substance of Spinoza, with the "thing in itself" of Kant, and with the Absolute of Hegel, has its good reason in the fact
that the sober conception of the Universe as the All-One with nothing above or outside or alongside of it, is the first postulate of a skilled and consistent mode of thinking… 53
History shows us not only the negative and ridiculous side of the religions, customs, institutions and ideas of the past, but also their positive, reasonable and necessary side….when religion was a more serious affair, it was also less dualistic. 54 The devil was but a tool, the earthly life but a transitional term of probation for the eternal life. There was a centre of gravity and system. In comparison with modern half- heartedness…religion did encompass the whole in a monistic manner… 55 Religion could not be written off as superstition or a plot by priests to control the people with fears of a vengeful divine king. Like everything else, it has a rational core.
He did not blush at being called an atheist, but religion didn't terrify him. "If he is an atheist who denies that perfection can be found in an individual, then I am an atheist. And if he is a believer in God who has the faith in the "most perfect being" with which not alone theologists, but also Cartesius and Spinoza have occupied themselves, then I am one of the true children of God." 56
The problem with religion according to Dietzgen, was that it personified God in a symbol such as the Father or the Divine King, and at least in its popular form, the symbol came to be taken for the reality. Thus we have the childish view of God as an old man on a cloud writing down our sins in a great book. The Absolute is far beyond anything so earth-bound and anthropomorphic as this sort of personification, or as Dietzgen stated, " …the infinite, eternal, is not personal, but objective." 57
Orthodox religion had become overly transcendental and had forgotten immanence – the Absolute had been removed from the world and this was wrong. "The relative and the absolute do not lie so far apart as it is painted to man by that uncultivated sense of Infinity called Religion… The Absolute and the Relative are not separated transcendentally, they are connected with each other so that the Unlimited is made up of an infinite number of finite
limitations and each limited phenomenon possesses the nature of the Infinite." 58
One final quote shows attitudes reminiscent of the Sermon On The Mount:
"Never be harsh in your judgments of others…In order to act courteously, you must think courteously. Virtue and faults are combined. Even the rascal is a good fellow and the just sins seven times a day." 59
Had Dietzgen's views been adopted by the labor movement, the world might have been saved much misery. Many militants dismissed religion as a lot of superstition, as such they could never understand the hold it had on the population. In Catholic countries, their hostility tended to divide the work force into believers and anti-clericals, rather than splitting the Catholic masses away from the reactionary hierarchy. This division helped to pave the way for Fascism.
DIETZGEN'S POLITICS
While he resided in Germany, Dietzgen was a member of the Social Democratic Party. This did not mean he was a State Socialist, for what he proposed was a system of co-operative production and not State ownership. "…[humanities] savior can only be found in co-operative, brotherly work…60 Only from the abolition of class rule, from the transformation of the selfish capitalistic organizations into co-opertive instruments of production will issue the true brotherhood of man." 61
How was the co-operative commonwealth to come about? Certainly not through the manipulations of a gang of know-it-alls. It was necessary to "…emancipate the working class through the workers themselves. 62 …a more equitable and popular distribution of economic goods can be realized by a democracy only [not] the rule of a clique under the pretense of intellectual superiority…" 63
Social change would not come about through missionary work, nor utopian schemes either. We look for salvation not to religious, political and social enlightenment, but see it growing organically out of the development of social economy. "We don't look for salvation in subjective schemes, but we see it growing as a sort of organic product out of the inevitable course of actual development. All we do is facilitate its birth. …which emancipates us from striving for an illusory absolute ideal, for some "best world"…" 66 "We too demand the restoration of our human rights…this…is no idle speculation, but is the natural outcome of present material wants…[the co-operative economy is]…quite in keeping with the nature of the present system: it must come: its materials are being produced and multiplied daily. The capitalists are the real silk-worms…The premature question about the future, When, Where, and How need not trouble us, it is indeed an idle "philosophic" speculation. 67 …the society we are striving for differs from the present but by modifications. The society of the future is contained in the present society as the young bird is in the egg." 68
Positivism with its so-called Eternal Laws is rejected in politics as well as philosophy. Nor must activists do more than educate in the broadest sense. They are not military commanders. "Social Democracy does not seek to establish eternal laws, permanent institutions or unchangeable forms; it seeks the salvation of mankind. The indispensable means…is mental enlightenment." 69
Dietzgen's philosophy, founded on tolerance, could only demand a political practice that was tolerant and allowed a broad range of opinions to exist. "We must in practice be tolerant in the extreme and surely no Social Democrat would ever think of putting any Party member into a straight jacket of uniformity." 70
There is little in English on Dietzgen's economic ideas. That which does exist is interesting in the way it foreshadows later developments. Unlike most leftists of his day, he saw that a well paid work force was necessary for economic development, whether capitalist or social democratic. "The prime necessity to an advance in civilization is freedom of the people to participate in consumption…wealth, once the stimulator of progress, is now turning into a factor of historical stagnation…on the whole it must be admitted that the growth of production is kept in check by the question of consumption. " 71
"Business is at a standstill, and there is no demand for goods. The only way out of this calamity is participation of the masses in consumption; the wages must be increased and
labor time reduced. But the well-fed capitalist…is too narrow minded to pay the producer of his wealth, the worker, well… Not only social democracy, but the national economics
demand a larger consumption, a wider market for its products." 72
A DIETZGEN BIBLIOGRAPHY
Casey, Fred, DIETZGEN'S LOGIC, Express Co-op, Manchester,1928
Casey, Fred, THINKING, Charles H. Kerr, Chicago 1926
Dietzgen, Eugene, DIETZGEN BREVIER, Munich 1915
Dietzgen, Eugene, JOSEF DIETZGENS SAMLICHE SCHRIFTEN, Wiesbaden 1911
Dietzgen, Joseph, THE POSITIVE OUTCOME OF PHILOSOPHY, Charles H. Kerr, Chicago 1906
Dietzgen, Joseph, SOME OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS, Charles H. Kerr, Chicago 1906
Dietzgen, Joseph, THE NATURE OF HUMAN BRAIN WORK, Red Lion Press, Vancouver 1984
Hepner, Adolph, JOSEF DIETZGENS PHILOSOPHISCHE LEHREN, Stuttgart, 1916
Roland-Hoslt, Henreitta, JOSEPH DIETZGENS PHILOSOPHIE, Munich, 1910
ARTICLES ON DIETZGEN
INDUSTRIAL WORKER, 17/4/1937 "Dietzgen Recalled…"
THE PLEBS, May 1919, Lancelot Hogben, "The Wisdom of Joseph Dietzgen" and Dec. 1928, Fred
Casey, "Joseph Dietzgen"
THE PROLETARIAN, Jan. 1928, Manley T. Swanson, "Joseph Dietzgen and His Work" and Dec.
1928, John Keracher, "Joseph Dietzgen"
INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW, April 1906, Ernest Untermann, "A Pioneer of Proletarian
Science", and Nov. 1907, Marcus Hitch, "Dietzgenism"
REVIEW MARXISTE, April 1929, "Joseph Dietzgen"
RADICAL REVIEW, Jan. 1919, A.A. Doblin, "The Proletarian Philosophy of Joseph Dietzgen"
HISTORY OF IDEAS, Vol 19, No. 1, Lloyd Easton, "Empiricism and Ethics in Dietzgen".
JOURNAL OF ADULT EDUCATION, Oct. 1928, Dorothy Emmett, "Joseph Dietzgen, the
Philosopher of Proletarian Logic."
BOOKS WHICH MENTION DIETZGEN AT SOME LENGTH
Aldred, Guy, PIONEERS OF ANTI-PARLIAMENTARIANISM, Strickland Press, Glasgow, 1940
Craik W.W., THE CENTRAL LABOUR COLLEGE, Lawrence and Wishart, London 1964
Jackson T. A. DIALECTICS
Lenin, Vladimir, MATERIALISM AND EMPIRIOCRITICISM, Progress, Moscow
Buick, Adam, "Joseph Dietzgen" Radical Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, London 1931
Pannekoek, Anton, LENIN AS PHILOSOPHER, Merlin, London, 1975
Sheehan Helen, MARXISM AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
1. Dietzgen, Joseph, NATURE OF HUMAN
BRAIN WORK, Red Lion Press, Vancouver,
1984, p.16
2. ibid., p.2
3. ibid, p.19
4. ibid, p. 47
6. Dietzgen, Joseph, THE POPULAR
OUTCOME OF PHILOSOPHY, Kerr,
Chicago, 1906, p.357
7. op cit, p.33
10. Dietzgen, POPULAR OUTCOME… 350
11. ibid, p.430
12. Dietzgen, NATURE…50
13. op cit., p.265
15. ibid, p.51
16. ibid., p.12
One problem which Dietzgen does notvdeal with are errors which disguise themselves as truths. In this situation arguments may be logical and contain
obvious truths yet result in often dangerous falsehoods. The false syllogism is one example. Take the Stalinist version; "Fascists hate Communism, anarchists too hate Communism, therefore anarchists are fascists".
18. Dietzgen, Joseph, SOME OF THE
PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS, Kerr, Chicago,
1906, p.221
19. op cit., p.77
20. Dietzgen, SOME… 294
See physicist David Bohm,
WHOLENESS AND IMPLICATE ORDER,
p.11, "…mind and matter are not separate
substances. Rather they are different
aspects of one whole…"
23. Dietzgen, POPULAR…367
24. ibid, p.9
26. Dietzgen, SOME…295
27. ibid, p. 298
For the physicist Mendel Sachs,
EINSTEIN VS. BOHR, p.17, "…the universe
is not the sum of its parts… but is rather a
closed system without actually separate
parts."
David Bohm, WHOLENESS…7,
"…wholeness is what is real and
fragmentation is the response to this
whole to man's action, guided by illusory
perception, which is shaped by
fragmentary thought."
John Stuart Mill also "…regarded the
uniformity of nature as the ultimate
premise of all inductions." Martin Gardner,
ORDER AND SURPRISE, p.60
38. ibid p. 64
46. Dietzgen, NATURE…123
50. Dietzgen, SOME…97
52, George Lichtheim, MARXISM,
Routledge, London, 1964, p.242
53. op cit, p.274
58. Dietzgen, SOME…288-289
59. INDUSTRIAL WORKER, 17 April 1937,
68. VOLKSTAADT, as quoted in
INDUSTRIAL WORKER, op cit.
For authoritarians who find such
opinions smacking of "liberalism", consider
Errico Malatesta, "…one must seek ways of
reaching agreement; or if, …agreement is
not possible, we must know how to
tolerate each other…nobody can be
absolutely certain of being in the right…"
LIFE AND IDEAS, p.30
71. op cit, p.98-99
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Music star Cyndi Lauper, who gave a benefit concert for The MIND Center, is shown above with MIND Center Director Dr. Thomas Mosley (left) and Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs at UMMC.
Alzheimer's disease is devasting illness that robs victims of their memories and ability to complete simple tasks. It takes a huge toll on families and strains the healthcare system. According to the Alzheimer's Association, it is the most expensive disease in America with annual costs for Alzheimer's and other dementias estimated at $277 billion.
At the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), vitally important research into the causes and possible preventions and treatments for this disease are being done at The MIND (Memory Impairment and Neurodegenerative Dementia) Center.
Researchers and clinicians at The MIND Center are conducting multiple industry-sponsored clinical trials in patients with a diagnosis of early Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive impairment, a prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease or other dementias, said Dr. Juebin Huang, associate professor of neurology at The MIND Center at UMMC.
Huang is the leading investigator and Andrew Majeste, RN, BSN, is the study coordinator for the clinical trials program. Patients and family who are interested in learning more about these clinical trials can contact Majeste at (601) 984-5490.
Dr. Gwen Windham, UMMC professor of medicine, division of geriatrics, said The MIND Center's research on vascular contributions to cognitive decline and dementia risk is widely cited in the scientific literature and is considered a driving force among scientific communities that promote early detection and treatment of vascular risk factors.
There is also help provided to patients. The MIND Center Clinic, along with many other clinics specializing in the evaluation and treatment of memory complaints, often provides counseling and treatment to patients when they identify lifestyle and vascular risk factors.
Researchers feel a sense of urgency about the work because of the rapidly growing number of Americans who are expected to develop Alzheimer's. Windham said by 2050, the prevalence of dementia will quadruple, by which time one in 85 persons worldwide will be living with the disease.
The MIND Center Director Dr. Thomas Mosley has done work that led to discoveries that cognitive decline begins much earlier than previously thought. Brain changes such as atrophy, vascular disease and silent strokes are surprisingly common, even in healthy, middle-aged people. Mosley's work using state-of-the-art brain imaging and new genetic technologies has led to discoveries including that the cause of these abnormalities may be associated with cardiovascular disease.
Windham said the failure of numerous pharmacologic interventions in later life and after symptoms have begun speak to the importance of identifying the beginning stages of the pathological changes earlier in life.
The MIND Center currently has 16 active studies funded by the National Institutes of Health totaling over $16 million in federal research dollars. The MIND Center's flagship Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Neurocognitive Study is one of the largest and most comprehensive investigations ever undertaken to identify mid-life risk factors for late-life cognitive decline and dementia.
The MIND Center currently employs more than 80 staff and faculty at UMMC and has cumulatively brought in over $90 million in federal research funding. Windham said this is not only good for UMMC, but stimulates economic growth in Mississippi. According to a study conducted by the Association of American Medical Colleges, every dollar invested in research at medical school and teaching hospitals results in $2.60 of economic activity.
"Additionally, The MIND Center has strong philanthropic support from the private sector and the backing of the Mississippi legislature which has appropriated funding to support its research and clinical services for the past five years," she said.
Pop singer Cyndi Lauper, a Grammy, Emmy and Tony Award-winner, appeared in a benefit concert in Jackson for The MIND Center on Oct. 25.
For more information about The MIND Center's research or clinical care, visit umc.edu/mindcenter or contact 601-815-4237 or mindcenter@umc.edu.