Kalbos vaidmuo Pierre Teilhard de Chardin evoliucijos teorijoje
The Role of Language in Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s Theory of Evolution

Summary/Abstract: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin presents a consistent theory of a human being which is introduced together with the idea of evolutionary development of Earth. His story encompasses all spheres of human life (biological, psychical, spiritual) viewed from both scientific and religious perspectives. His theory is presented as a scientific attempt to show what can be seen and not as a metaphysical idea about ontological status of the world and its reasons or an apology to Christianity. This article suggests that the language itself gives an ontology despite Teilhard de Chardin’s attempts to avoid it. Moreover, the need to use language restricts the expression of his main ideas. The aim of this article is to show what metaphysical premises are in the background due to language Teilhard de Chardin uses and what image of the world is formed. The aim is achieved by investigating main concepts in “The Phenomenon of Man”, analysing their description and evaluating limitations of language posed for the main ideas. It can be observed that the main concepts Teilhard de Chardin uses in order to express his observations about the development of the world, such as unification, interior or evolution, point to the idea of an ever changing world which is nothing like a stable object. Nevertheless, this image (perhaps due to the fact that it has to be an image) is told using concepts providing a very stable frame of the story, such as a space-time continuum or the principle of complexity. Therefore his evolutionary theory is “forced” to base itself on metaphysical background given by the scientific attitude and language itself, which provides images of such stable concepts. Language becomes a tool to overcoming obstacles created by the language itself.

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