The emerging Primal
episteme (Birkin & Polesie 2011) is based upon a new possibility of knowledge (Foucault 1970). Science now provides a view of the origins of the
world and of ourselves that simply was not available when the Modern episteme
or age was established. The transition from Modern to Primal can be summarised
as going from
- abstract knowledge belief systems in Modern human sciences produced by and for mankind (which provides an epistemological or knowledge foundation); to
- trust in the findings of empirically-grounded science that so accurately and thoroughly describes and explains our world and ourselves (which provides an ontological or “being” foundation).
This kind of
epistemic transition is not “forced” upon a recalcitrant mankind that
has to obey its new sets of rules. It is
rather an opportunity for new ways of thinking about ourselves and the world that
are created by pioneers who adopt the new episteme. They have adopted new epistemes in the past usually without
using any kind of epistemic analysis knowledge
or methods. They simply flourished and enthusiastically used the fresh insights
that the "new episteme" provided in their own areas of knowledge to carve out a
different kind of world, a whole new world.
