Species and Artistic Genius

Freud conceives artistic creativity as a sublimation of sexuality.  However, the example of the very young Mozart suggests the converse--that sexuality is a special case of a more general creativity.  Kant attributes Art to Genius, the source of which is Spirit, which he characterizes as an "animating" principle.  Furthermore, his characterization of the genius artist as "nature's favorite" implies that Spirit is not a supernatural force, while the products of such Genius are exemplary for other humans.  So, it clearly follows that Genius is an expression of a Species-drive that, as animating the creativity of the artist, reveals the Psyche of the latter as fundamentally grounded in the Species, and, hence, is an expression of a Superid of which Sexuality, i. e. the Species Reproductive drive, is another special case.

Species and Unconscious

Since Freud's concept of the Id, the 'Unconscious' has generally connoted some selfish drive, often sexual.  However, Spinoza offers a more comprehensive model of human motivation that shows that the Unconscious can transcend the individual Psyche.  For, on that model, where there is a distinction between Conscious and Unconscious, the latter is a Cause of which the former is an Inadequate Idea.  Furthermore, such a Cause can originate anywhere in Nature outside of the individual Mode.  Thus, though Spinoza does not specify them, the Unconscious can include any intra-Species drive, as well as any extra-Species influence.  The familiar example of the former is the reproductive drive, while the realm remains otherwise unknown, except possibly for a Will to Evolve.  In any case, Spinoza shows how 'Superid' might better characterize at least some of the Unconscious than 'Id'.

Humankind, Subsistence, Communication

The production of the means of subsistence, which, according to Marx, is what distinguishes Humankind from other species, might have begun as a compensation for a lack of what others possess, e. g. a knife for claws, but has developed into capacities that far surpass those grounded in natural attributes.  The same can be said for the means of communication, i. e. two humans can do what two butterflies, presumably, cannot--communicate virtually instantaneously while one is at the Greenwich Meridian, and the other at the International Date Line.  Since progress in the means to communicate continues even as the means to subsistence is fully successful, it might be the production of the former, not that of the latter, that distinguishes Humankind from its co-inhabitants of the planet.

Humankind and History

The 'history of the human species' has hardly been about the human species per se.  Usually it has been a narrative featuring individual members or groups of members, even economic classes.  Indeed, the perhaps most influential concept of History, if the pervasiveness of its calendar is any indication, is the Christian, the arc of which is an escape of members from the species, i. e. spanning the divine curse on the race in Genesis 3, to the redemption of individual souls.  Likewise, Darwinism explains the origin of the human race, but without any projection of an ascent to some new species, leaving a vacuum that has been filled by the likes of 'Social Darwinism', which is typically invoked to justify the privileged few.  In contrast, as has been previously discussed, a definite concrete pattern of the millennia-old development of the species has emerged--Planetization--the most conspicuous manifestation of which is the Internet, therefore occasioning a reconsideration of many hitherto accepted theses about it.

Humankind, Planetization, Psyche

In the past century, a combination of technological advances, including aeronautical, has produced empirical confirmation of a long-held hypothesis--that the Earth is approximately spherical.  Furthermore, the virtually instantaneous internal connectivity of the human species has recently been actualized by the Internet.  Together, the two developments have made potentially available to each member of the species the concrete awareness of the Planetization of Humankind, abstractly pre-figured by Kant's concept of a Rational being's consciousness of a Universal Law, though not necessarily with the same imperative.  The impact of this new awareness on the Psyche of any member of the species is still in very early stages.

Human Species, Globalization, Planetization

Since 'globalization' commonly connotes a process associated with Capitalism, a less encumbered term to characterize the millennia-long, and ongoing, achievement of circumambience of the Earth by the human species is 'Planetization'.  Indeed, insofar as the basic unit of Capitalism is either an individual human or a nation, 'globalization' is less appropriate for an essentially species process, than is Socialism.  Now, undetermined to date is whether or not the Will to Planetize is the Will to Power.  For, while the latter commonly signifies control, the former can be satisfied by the achievement of a presence that is integrated into the planetary ecosystem, and which of the two constitutes the terrestrial status of the species has yet to be settled.  The heretofore resistance of American Capitalism to Ecological goals is another reason to distinguish 'globalization' and 'Planetization'.

Psyche, Species, Ecosystem

The anti-Atomist argument can apply to a Species as much as to a Member of a Species.  Accordingly, the history of the human race, as well as any correlated principle that is attributed to it, cannot be isolated from the Ecosystem of which it is a part.  In other words, the Globalization achieved thus far by the human species, as well as the Will to Ubiquity, or any alternative, that can be ascribed to it, is only an abstraction from some function that it serves in the system.  To date, knowledge of that function is not only minimal, but the very concept of the species as integrated into what has traditionally been called Nature, is in its infancy, facing both theological and pecuniary obstacles.  Nevertheless, if the Species is a part of the Ecosystem, and a Member of the Species is a part of the Species, insofar as the Psyche of a Member is determined by a Species-principle, it is also determined by an Eco-principle, however obscure its content might be to date.