The Evolution of Energy and Meaning: Empirical Idealism: The Notebooks of G. E. Roseberry

The notebooks of G. E. Roseberry were found stored in an antique trunk in a closet of his house in southwest Virginia. Their guiding thought is the evolution of meaning through history. It is argued that meaning is grounded in energy structures and therefore to be found before the existence of man or even life. The writings see the growth of meaning through the stages in the evolution of the universe from the quantum vacuum through matter, life, consciousness, knowledge, culture and in existence in its totality. Meaning then is seen as evolving in depth and breadth as well as time. G. E. Roseberry called this empirical idealism with empirical apparently referring to the evolution of the universe and idealism referring to the perception of stages within the process and the assignment of meaning to these stages.