Genetic Theory of Reality

James Mark Baldwin left a legacy that has yet to be fully examined, one with profound implications for science and the humanities. In some sense it paralleled that of his friend Charles Sanders Peirce, whose semiotics became understood only a century later. Baldwin was trying to make sense of complex biological and social processes that only now have come into the limelight as biological sciences have re-emerged in psychology. Baldwin's focus on development, based on the observation of his own children and extrapolated to his general theoretical scheme, is fully in line with where contemporary biological sciences are heading. This is exemplified by the bounded flexibility of the work of the genetic system. The general principle of persistent exploration of the environment with the result of creating novelty, which was the core of Baldwin's theoretical system, has since the 1960s become the guiding idea in genetics. Contemporary developmental science is rooted in Baldwin's thinking. In his new introduction, Jaan Valsiner shows that Baldwin's Genetic Theory of Reality demonstrates how human beings are in their nature social beings, establishes an alternative conceptualization of evolutionary theory, and formulates a system of developmental logic, all of which serve as the foundation for developmental psychology as a whole. This is a work of social science rediscovery long overdue.

Introduction to the Transaction Edition by Jaan ValsinerSupplementary Commentary by Patrick BatesonPrefacePART I: INTRODUCTION: GENETIC INTERPRETATIONCHAPTER 1: THE PROBLEM: GENETIC MORPHOLOGY 1. The Question of Interpretation 2. The Historical Problem 3. The Intrinsic Problem 4. Scheme of TreatmentCHAPTER II: INDIVIDUAL INTERPRETATION 1. The Nature of Interpretation 2. Interpretation as an Organisation of Interests 3. Interpretation as the Social Organisation of Interests 4. The Progression of Interpretation 5. The Realities as InterpretedCHAPTER III: THE PARALELLISM BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL AND RACIAL INTERPRETATION 1. The Question of Racial Interpretation 2. Racial Interpretation as Organised Social Interest 3. The Stages of InterpretationPART II: DEVELOPMENT OF INTERPRETATIONCHAPTER IV: EARLY RACIAL INTERPRETATION: ITS PRELOGICAL CHARACTER 1. General Character of Early Racial Interpretation 2. The Social Character of Early Racial Interpretation 3. The a-Dualistic Character of Early Racial Interpretation 4. The Relatively a-Logical Character of Early Racial InterpretationCHAPTER V: EARLY RACIAL INTERPRETATION: ITS POSITIVE CHARACTER 1. The Social Organisation of Primitive Interest 2. The Affective Nature of Primitive Generalisation 3. Imitation and Ejection in Primitive Thought 4. Primjt1ve Animism and Mysticism 5. The Rise of Mediate or Logical InterpretationCHAPTER VI: THE RELIGIOUS INTERPRETATION 1. The Religious Interest 2. The Religious Experience 3. The Religious Object: its Personal Meaning 4. The Religious Object: its Ideal Meaning 5. The Development of the Religious Meaning: its Logic 6. The Social Character of ReligionCHAPTER VII: RELIGIOUS REALITY AND RELIGIOUS NEGATION 1. The Religious Object as Existing 2. The Union of Ideal and Actual in Religious Reality 3. The Religious Antinomy 4. Religious Negation: I. the Non-Religious or Secular 5. Religious Negation: II. The Irreligious or Profane 6. Profane Reality: the Arch-Devil 7. The Philosophy of Religion: Religion as Organ of ValueCHAPTER VIII: LOGICAL INTERPRETATION 1. The Transition to Logic: the Role of Imagination 2. The Problem of Reflection 3. Logical Theories: Scheme of TreatmentCHAPTER IX: LOGICAL INTERPRETATION: MEDIATION THEORIES 1. Actuality Theories: Intellectualism 2. Examination of Intellectualism 3. Ideality Theories: Voluntarism 4. Examination of VoluntarismCHAPTER X: IMMEDIATE THEORIES: I. THOSE BASED ON THE PRIMITIVE AND THE TRANSCENDENT 1. Their Basis: Immediacy 2. Theories Based on Primitive Immediacy (Primitive Mysticism, Subjectivism, Idealism) 3. Theories based on the Immediacy of Completion or Transcendence (Intuitionism, Dogmatic Spiritualism, Criticism, Absolutism) 4. ResultsCHAPTER XI: IMMEDIATE THEORIES OF REALITY: II. THOSE BASED ON THE IMMEDIACY OF SYNTHESIS 1. The Immediacy of Synthesis 2. The Use of the Immediacy of Personality (Higher Mysticism, Super-Personal Theories) 3. The Synthesis of Feeling (Platonic Love, Constructive Affectivism, Faith Philosophy) 4. The sthetic Synthesis (Aristotle, Kant, Schelling)CHAPTER XII: RESULTS OF THE HISTORICAL SURVEY: THE DEMAND FOR AN INTRINSIC SYNTHESIS 1. The Presupposition of Truth and the Postulate of Value 2. The Fruitful Method, GeneticPART III: JESTHETIC IMMEDIACYCHAPTER XIII: THE INTRINSIC SYNTHESIS, STHETIC 1. The First Step: Imaginative Semblance 2. The sthetic Interest Synthetic in the Sense of Intrinsic or Autotelic 3. The sthetic Object Synthetic in the Sense of a-Dualistic 4. The sthetic Ideal Synthetic in the Sense of Syntelic 5. The sthetic Reality Inclusive and Privative 6. The sthetic Reality a Synthesis of Universal and SingularCHAPTER XIV: THE sTHETIC INTERPRETATION 1. sthetic Realisation as Reconciliation of the Presupposition and the Postulate 2. sthetic Realisation as Reconciliation of Actuality and Ideality 3. sthetic Realisation as Reconciliation of Freedom and Necessity 4. sthetic Realisation an Immediacy both of Reconciliation and of Fulfilment 5. sthetic Intuition a Union of Theoretical and Practical-and More 6. sthetic Reason and Absolute BeautyPART IV: CONCLUSIONSCHAPTER XV: PANCALISM: A THEORY OF REALITY 1. What Reality Must Mean 2. Sorts of Relativity 3. The sthetic Content a Non-Relative Whole 4. The sthetic, a Non-Relative Mode 5. The sthetic, a Non-Relative Acceptance 6. The sthetic Non-Relative as Respects the Relation of Knower and Known 7. The Knower and his Experience: PancalismCHAPTER XVI: COROLLARIES 1. The Nature of Reality 2. The Only Alternative-Pluralism 3. Pancalism, a Constructive AffectivismGlossary of TermsAppendix AAppendix BAppendix CIndex