Embracing A Complex World, Winter 2011
Mechanistic World View / Living Systems World View
Rene
Descartes
Origins ofWestern Science:
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes and Newton
Greek Philosophy, Empiricism
and Analysis through Reductionism
(Machine-Like/Predictability/Control)
/
20-21st Century Contemporary Science
Margaret Mead, Fritjof Capra, Peter Senge, Margaret Wheatley
Concept of Holism and Interdependence
(Self Adaptive/Organic/Self Organizing/
Natural Order)
Between the 16th and 18th centuries there was a dramatic shift in the way people observed and thought about the Universe. This new system of thought was based on the philosophy of Rene Descartes who promoted a mathematical description of nature and the use of analytic thought - the Cartesian System. Descartes' vision was to give a precise and complete account of all natural phenomena with absolute mathematical certainty. To accomplish this he compared natural phenomena with machines. Descartes even drew parallels between a sick man and an ill-made clock.
Later Isaac Newton synthesized the works of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Descartes into a complete mathematical formulation of Nature - Newtonian Mechanics. Towards the end of the 19th century scientists believed that eventually all natural phenomena would be explained by reducing them to the motion and interaction of particles.
/ A new way of thinking called "systems thinking" emerged during the first few decades of the 20th century in some schools of biology, psychology and in ecology.
Ecologists who focused on the study of animal and plant communities observed networks of relationships - the web of life. They found a new way of thinking - thinking in terms of relationships, connectedness, and context.
According to Capra:"We may call this ecological thinking, or systems thinking. It is based on the fundamental shift of perception from the world as a machine to the world as a living system. This shift concerns our perception of nature, of the human organism, and of society.
Systems thinking involves shifting our attention from the parts to the whole, from objects to relationships, from structures to processes, from hierarchies to networks. It also includes shifts of emphasis from the rational to the intuitive, from analysis to synthesis, from linear to nonlinear thinking."
NEWTONIAN THINKING1 / QUANTUM THINKING1
Atomistic and fragmented
Stresses the separate parts and gives rise to specialisation / Holistic and integrated
Stresses relationships and the connections between things
Individual or group
Sees a tension between the individual and the group and/or fears the group being tom apart by allowing individuality / Individual and group
Sees the individual developing in the context of the group -'Each of us is more ourselves through relationships with others'
Either/Or
One best way / Both/And
Many valid paths from A to B. Diversity is a positive and pluralism should be encouraged
Determinate
Value certainty and predictability / Indeterminate
Thrive on uncertainty and ambiguity. 'It's what makes us creative.'
Reductive
Force-driven and top-down. "Reactive" / Emergent
Contextual and bottom-up. Encouraging 'imagination, aspiration, experimentation'
Observer-Observed split
The notion of the detached observer / Participatory universe
'People are not passive units of production, they are partners in a creative relationship ... Co-creative insiders'
Efficiency
Focusing on what is done to the exclusion of why it is done. / Meaning
The context and relationships are used to find meaning and add value. 'A quantum organisation would be vision led and value driven'
/
What are your assumptions about the world?
1. / (a) Thought is a product of brain activity.(b) The universe is more like a thought than a thing.
2. / (a) The universe does not exist for any purpose.
(b) Purpose is found everywhere within the universe.
3. / (a) Most of the universe is dead.
(b) The universe is alive.
4. / (a) Reality can be perceived through the five senses.
(b) There is an extra-sensory reality.
5. / (a) Reasoning is the highest skill possessed by humans.
(b) Reason and intuition are equally valuable skills.
6. / (a) We are probably the only intelligent life-form in the universe.
(b) There is probably intelligent life throughout the universe.
7. / (a) We have a good understanding of our origin and evolution.
(b) We are only beginning to understand our origin and evolution.
8. / (a) We are determined by our genetic inheritance and environment.
(b) We can transcend our genetic inheritance and environment.
9. / (a) The only memories we have access to are our own.
(b) We are capable of collective or transpersonal awareness.
10. / (a) Only the present moment exists.
(b) The past, present and future all exist at some level of reality.
11. / (a) A coincidence is nothing more than a meaningless curiosity.
(b) A coincidence is a meaningful link between different events.
12. / (a) A person who claims to have spontaneous spiritual experiences is probably mentally ill.
(b) Spontaneous spiritual experiences are the natural expression of the higher-self.
13. / (a) Fulfillment is achieved when physiological and safety needs are satisfied.
(b) Fulfillment is achieved when physiological, safety, belonging, self-esteem, self-actualization and self-transcendent needs are satisfied.
14. / (a) Local events rarely have global consequences.
(b) Local events affect the entire universe.
15. / (a) You can understand the whole by studying its parts.
(b) The whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Most of the statements labeled 'a' are based on reductionistic/materialisticassumptions common in the 18th and 19th centuries.
______
1Adapted from: