Preeminence of Myth and the Decline of Instrumental Reason

Jean Gebser (1905-1973) was a philosopher who examined how cultures are generated, situated and oriented in the world. He explored meaningful interconnections between cultures, seeking to provide a fuller account of their nature and workings. Gebser was a man of science, the arts and mysticism, who was interested in the direct human experience of unity with the divine. He perceived the fullness of humankind to occur in the coalescence of spirituality and consciousness. This essay provides an intellectual biography of Gebser's two-volume work, The Ever-Present Origin, Part I: Foundations of the Aperspectival World and Part II: Manifestations of the Aperspectival World. An overview of the chapters in this volume, emphasizing the preeminence of myth and the decline of instrumental reason, is then presented. Gebser's writing offers a valuable contribution to understanding how humans are situated in the all-of-life with respect to our contemporary spatiotemporal condition of chaos. The collection of essays represents the Gebserian way to explicate the limits of modern Western deficient mental structure, in the form of 'instrumental reason'. The work of Gebser is well known in various parts of the world and has now appeared in Lithuania where it is received with great interest, specifically in light of questions of national identities, mythological backgrounds, and questions of globalization. The essays represent research from scholars of diverse disciplines and civilizations; their contributions to Gebser's scholarship and the understanding of the current turmoil form a framework on how any local culture can benefit from Gebser's work.