Personal Evolution: The Major Basis for Solving Societal Problems

Abstract: 1. Thomas S. Kuhn’s understanding of how scientific revolutions occur (In his The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 1962) is based on changing the fundamental assumptions, or “paradigms,” supporting a given scientific theory. Just as this occurred in the change from Newton's to Einstein's laws of motion, so can we achieve it by changing from our bureaucratic toward an evolutionary way of life. We can move away from our assumptions of narrow specialization, persisting hierarchy, and personal conformity, and toward interdisciplinary behavior, persisting equality, and personal autonomy. And we can chart our daily progress. Everyone can continue to evolve without any limit by learning an interdisciplinary science of human behavior. We can then help to solve our escalating societal problems, like the threat of nuclear war, climate change, and negative impacts of AI. This can be achieved by learning an interdisciplinary science of human behavior. We Follow Confucius: “It Is Man Who Can Make The Way Great, And Not The Way That Can Make Man Great.” 2. To acomplish this, one can begin by learning “EVOLUTIONARY HEART.” Whenever you perceive anything, you can become aware of yourself, the perceiver, as the most evolved entity throughout the entire known universe. By so doing, you can gain an ever more confident self-image, yielding ever greater emotional power to solve problems. Following Jonathan H. Turner’s book, On Human Nature (2021), we are “the most emotional animals on earth.” Phillips’ doctoral dissertation (1956) emphasized the power of self-image. Walt Whitman: “I Celebrate Myself, I Sing Myself.” 3. One can then employ the practice of “EVOLUTIONARY HEAD” to maintain one’s emphasis on evolutionary heart, continuing to gain awareness of one’s own situation as the very jewel of the universe. The result, over time, will be a new habit, eliminating one’s former outward orientation. This attention to oneself as well as others follows the interdisciplinary breadth of Francis Bacon (“I have taken all knowledge to be my province”) and C. Wright Mills, whose The Sociological Imagination (1959/2000) was rated by the International Sociological Association as the second most influential book for sociologists of the entire 20th century. We Also Follow John Dewey’s Vision Of Democracy As Requiring The Focus Of “All Political Institutions And Industrial Arrangements” On “The All-Around Growth Of Every Member Of Society” (Reconstruction In Philosophy, 1920/1948). 4. This new inward-outward orientation, based on both evolutionary heart and head, can focus on “EVOLUTIONARY HAND,” moving to fulfill our human potential by improving ever more of our personal situations. Following a scientific approach, just as George Kelly saw everyone as a scientist in his A Theory of Personality (1963), we can learn to record successful improvements in our lives in a brief phrase or sentence. For example, Phillips has recorded over 300 examples of his own very personal achievements—such as losing weight, eating more healthful foods, and learning to relax and smell the flowers—over a 10-day period. All human beings have this potential for continuing achievements or personal evolution. We Follow Jane Addams: “The Cure For The Ills Of Democracy Is More Democracy.” 5. This focus on the enormous power of the individual is central to our book, Creating Life Before Death: Before Disaster Strikes The Ship Of State, 2nd edition (2024). Chapters 1 and 2 center on head, 3 and 4 on heart, and 5 and 6 on hand. Chapter 7 sets the stage for over 20 new articles which continue to build on that book. Phillips in a sonnet he published (1954), in an article based on his doctoral dissertation (1956), and in two essays he was invited to present in Contemporary Sociology (2019 and 2020), demonstrated the necessity forsociologists to recognize the power of the individual. We all can learn how to contribute toward solving the problems threatening the very existence of the human race. We need a growing awareness of existing threats to the extinction of humanity. In addition, we require the evolutionary development of ever more of us who can illustrate their own continuing growth. We follow Jane Addams' Democracy and Social Ethics (1902), Fred Polak's The Image of the Future (1961/1973), George Kelly's A Theory of Personality (1963), Charles A. Reich's book on the counterculture of the 1960s, The Greening of America (1970/1995), Jonathan Turner's On Human Nature (2021), and Luke Kemp's Goliath's Curse (2025).