Holistic Traditions and the Suppression of Participation
- Reporter 21
- 04 Mar, 2025
Before the Scientific Revolution, there existed rich traditions of participatory knowing: Hermeticism, alchemy, and animistic worldviews regarded the universe as alive and interconnected. Knowledge involved a subjective, emotional, and spiritual engagement with nature. Berman highlights thinkers like Giordano Bruno and Paracelsus who represented these holistic traditions. However, these traditions were systematically marginalized or destroyed because they threatened the emerging mechanistic paradigm. Berman explores how the mechanistic worldview reshaped not only science but also society: Human beings themselves came to be seen as machines, leading to a dehumanized view of labor, education, and politics. The rise of capitalism reinforced this mechanization by valuing productivity, efficiency, and control over natural processes. Bureaucracy and industrialization further alienated individuals from meaningful work and community life. The result is a society focused on manipulation and domination rather than participation and connection.The Mechanization of Society
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