Foundations for a New Civilization: Structure, Change, & Tendency in Nature & Ourselves

The Canadian philosopher, Will Crichton, presents a revolutionary philosophical system in this book. It offers a fully naturalistic account of experience. It presents an explanation of consciousness and opens the door to naturalistic theology. The book contains a unique analysis of experience that embraces modern physics, psychology, religion, and culture within the same view of reality.

“Crichton’s work furnishes a foundation for a psychology that includes the reality of consciousness on the same foundation as the reality of the body and brain. Natural existence includes both conscious experiences and atoms. The source of consciousness exists in a purely naturalistic, though not entirely material, universe. His system is pregnant with psychological theories…” - From the Afterword by Carl Semmelroth PhD

“I approached Crichton's book with total skepticism. A new system of philosophy in 214 pages? Now I'm not sure I will ever stop re-reading it. He starts with an analysis of structure, change and tendency (causation). This analysis takes him on a journey that makes spectacular visits to most of the major problems in the history of philosophy. And his vehicle is logic. Problems involving discontinuous change, Hume's view of causation, time, multiple universes lead him surprisingly to revolutionary views concerning cultures and ethics and God. “The book's organization makes it as easy as is probably possible to follow Crichton's system. He puts his proofs in an appendix and devotes the major portion of the book to a summary of his views. But watch out. This work has practically no redundancy. Each sentence requires serious consideration and sometimes a lot of thought. And they just keep coming at you. “This once in a lifetime book deserves more than 5 stars.” - From a customer review on Amazon of a former edition.

This book presents a ground-breaking way of thinking about reality starting with structure, change, and tendency as categories encompassing everything in space and time, at all scales and levels of organization. The principle of causality derived from the logical analysis of these categories reveals a transcendent factor accounting for natural tendencies governed by previously existing patterns. Crichton’s account of ethics and health is derived from the nature of consciousness and individuality. It demonstrates the indispensability of ethics to individual health as well as the economic welfare of a community and its quality of life. Physics has been a halfway house from supernaturalism to naturalism – its “laws” being supernatural in principle. Crichton’s presentation of a purely naturalistic view of causation as tendency furnishes a more natural home for the physical sciences. It replaces the notion of laws that govern nature, from “above” nature, with the notion of tendencies that develop over space time as a product of nature. Crichton’s account of nature includes the findings of modern science, but furnishes a better understanding of elementary reality and nature. By showing how individuality is the basic tendency of nature, including our individualities as persons, it paves the way for a revitalized civilization.

Will Crichton received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from The University of Michigan. He was a Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Toronto teaching philosophy for many years. He is co-author of a new translation of Rilke's The Duino Elegies. He resides in Toronto.