The Way of Evolution: Philosophical Essays

Originally dating from 1981, this collection of essays is thematically more homogeneous than anything previously written by John O'Loughlin in the genre, and reflects a newly-acquired optimistic outlook on evolutionary progress as something that should culminate in a future paradise having nothing whatsoever to do with the cosmic inception of life. Art, literature, music, sex, gender, history, technology and religion are the principal themes under consideration here, and they are generally treated in relation to the author's philosophy of evolution, which owes not a little to the estimable likes of Friedrich Nietzsche, Oswald Spengler, and Teilhard de Chardin. As usual for Mr O'Loughlin's writings of this period, 'The Way of Evolution' ends with an appendix in the form of aphorisms, which both summarize and encapsulate its overall philosophy. - A Centretruths Editorial.