The scientific, as well as political, and industrial revolutions that are key to the development of the “modern West” and its worldview from 1500 to WWII are examined. The shattering of the medieval Western worldview through discovering deep space, deep time, deep process, and finally deep consciousness, is traced; connections between this development and the podcast’s earlier discussion of “expansionism” are explored. Understanding WWII as the culmination of the modern Western period and the end of centuries of European imperialism and colonialism is discussed, particularly in relation to how the ideology of “infinite growth” transforms through the war into a global phenomenon.
Some recommended sources for “history of the West” to understand the emergence of the modern Western world & worldview:
Arendt, Hannah. (1968). The human condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Tarnas, Richard. (1991). The passion of the Western mind. New York: Ballantine Books.
Taylor, C. (1989). Sources of the self: The making of the modern identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
