Steve McIntosh & Carter Phipps: The Evolutionary Worldview—A New Emergence in Spirit and Society

The evolutionary worldview is an emerging cultural perspective—an expanded frame of reality—that transcends and includes the best of what has come before. The evolutionary perspective can be understood as a distinct “worldview” because it provides an expanded set of values, a new way of seeing, and a discrete sense of identity for those who make meaning using its framework.

In this dialogue, authors Steve McIntosh and Carter Phipps will discuss what it means to embrace this new framework and truly become an “evolutionary.” Their focus will include the evolutionary worldview’s specific applications to social and political problems such as climate change.

As well as its promise to help bring about cultural evolution on every front of development, Phipps and McIntosh will also discuss emerging new forms of evolutionary spirituality and the relationship between the infinite and finite aspects of reality. One of the innovations of evolutionary spirituality is its focus on the “evolutionary impulse” that each of us can connect to directly. Cultivating this impulse as a spiritual practice can increase both our motivation and power in our efforts to transform both self and society.

The evening’s presentation and ensuing audience discussion will draw from their new books: Evolution’s Purpose (SelectBooks 2012) and Evolutionaries (Harper Perennial 2012).

Steve McIntosh J.D. is a leader in the integral philosophy movement and author of the books Evolution’s Purpose: An Integral Interpretation of the Scientific Story of Our Origins and Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution. He currently works as a Founding Partner of the new social policy foundation The Institute for Cultural Evolution. In addition to this think tank, and his work in philosophy, McIntosh has had a variety of other successful careers, including founding the consumer products company Now & Zen, practicing law with one of America’s largest firms, working as an executive with Celestial Seasonings Tea Company, and Olympic-class bicycle racing. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia Law School and the University of Southern California Business School, and now lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife and two sons. For more on his work visit www.stevemcintosh.com.

Carter Phipps is an author of Evolutionaries: Unlocking the Spiritual and Cultural Potential of Science’s Greatest Idea (Harper Perennial 2012). For the past decade, as executive editor of EnlightenNext magazine, he has been at the forefront of contemporary spiritual, philosophical, and cultural discourse, and his writings have played a key role in making important new thinking accessible to a wider audience. In 2009, his feature article “A Theologian of Renewal” was awarded a Gold Award for Editorial Excellence from Folio, the leading magazine industry awards. Phipps is a board member of the Open Future Institute. He lives with his wife in Berkeley, California. For more on his work, visit www.carterphipps.com.