Matters of Consequence by Copthorne Macdonald

The 15 Matters of Consequence

In its fifteen chapters, the book discusses fifteen interlinked “matters of consequence” — fifteen aspects of the human situation that we need to know about if we want to understand our place in the scheme of things, live our lives fully, and create a sustainable and more equitable world society.  The fifteen points of focus which the book explicates and integrates are:

Part I  —  Big–Picture Reality

Matter of Consequence 1          The Nature of Primal Reality   
Science and the perennial philosophy agree: reality has an enduring medium-like aspect (energy/Spirit/Brahman) and a transient message-like aspect (information/form/maya).

Matter of Consequence 2          The Development of Complexity          
Over the past 15 billion years, energy — guided by laws-of-nature rules — has created a vast array of informational structures ranging from uncomplicated atoms to extremely complex human beings and ecosystems.

Matter of Consequence 3          Human Mentality         
This process also created minds in which awareness is impressed with mind-content information, and in which selective attention to that information helps the individual analyze situations and decide on courses of action.

Matter of Consequence 4          The Question of Cosmic Purpose        
Our purposeful universe is engaged in creative and playful adventuring on the grandest scale, enriching and up-leveling what already exists when circumstances permit.

Part II  —  Humanity’s Contextual Reality

Matter of Consequence 5          Sociocultural Context  
Although consumerism and getting rich continue to be widely held values, millions of people in Western societies are replacing material values with the values of community, sustainability, economic equity, self-actualization, and subjective well-being.

Matter of Consequence 6          Economic Context    
Societies spawn economic subsystems to provision their members, but financial and corporate interests have transformed local economies into a global megasystem that often neglects provisioning, bypasses human needs, and controls societal decision-making. 

Matter of Consequence 7          Biospheric Context      
Damage to natural systems is now so extensive that serious threats to human civilization loom.

Part III  —  Personal Reality

Matter of Consequence 8          Self–Knowledge and Other Bad News  
Given a brain/mind system designed to meet the needs of our hunter-gatherer forebears, it behooves us to understand its many deficiencies and learn how to overcome them.

Matter of Consequence 9          Freedom, Responsibility, and Ethical Sensibility
Much of the fog that surrounds ethical issues dissipates when we see that there is a primal ethic — called holonic relationship — built into the basic structure of physical reality.

Matter of Consequence 10        Developing Deep Understanding         
Both personal fulfillment and global transformation are facilitated by the development of deep understanding — a variety of wisdom in which psychological/spiritual development is integrated with meaningful intellectual knowledge.

Matter of Consequence 11        Significant Doing        
We want our lives to matter, and living them with awareness and wisdom-illuminated intention is the path to maximum significance and deepest personal satisfaction.

Part IV  —  The Future

Matter of Consequence 12        The Art of Predicting the Future
We are pretty good at predicting the future 15 seconds from now, but even with the best available tools it is impossible to predict the distant future.

Matter of Consequence 13        The Art of Creating the Future 
If we deeply understand our present situation and envision a future that transcends its problems and limitations, we can then turn that vision into reality if we maintain the vision, adopt helpful principles and approaches, and harness available resources in creative ways.

Matter of Consequence 14        The Year 2050 Vision   
In one such vision, life in 2050 is characterized by physical sustainability and economic equity, vibrant local and global communities, lifelong learning, psychological/spiritual development, and personal/cultural creativity.

Matter of Consequence 15        Doing What Needs To Be Done
Deep understanding is the ideal preparation for a range of personal actions that include creating transformational community, informing and educating others, transforming politics, and engaging in social invention.