Science, Order and Creativity (Routledge Classics) 1st Edition by David Bohm (PDF)

Description

One of the foremost scientists and thinkers of our time, David Bohm worked alongside Oppenheimer and Einstein. In Science, Order and Creativity he and physicist F. David Peat propose a return to greater creativity and communication in the sciences. They ask for a renewed emphasis on ideas rather than formulae, on the whole rather than fragments, and on meaning rather than mere mechanics. Tracing the history of science from Aristotle to Einstein, from the Pythagorean theorem to quantum mechanics, the authors offer intriguing new insights into how scientific theories come into being, how to eliminate blocks to creativity and how science can lead to a deeper understanding of society, the human condition and the human mind itself. Science, Order and Creativity looks to the future of science with elegance, hope and enthusiasm.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I am an artist. This book was very challenging for me. The first couple of chapters talk about the hierarchical mind set of the scientific community. It’s a bit of a slog but once you get past the critique, the book becomes very rewarding. The discussion of the way things are ordered and perceived is amazing! The authors go into clear and detailed discussions about the two camps of quantum theory and their positions. There are mathematical, philosophical, theoretical and allegorical discussions throughout. There are discussions about the Fourier number that musicians will be familiar with and the discussion of the madelbrot set and fractals is the best explanation I’ve ever read. indeed the whole book answers many questions that a lay person might have about what the specifics of discourse are in the current scientifi community. This book will reorder your perception of the world!

⭐This book made me happy when I read it, definitely a guilty pleasure.

⭐A classic.

⭐:-)

⭐Some amazing scientific paradoxes and phenomena. Seems to beat around the bush by stating the same thing iv different ways.Must be read with other books on the subject to broaden the concepts it tries to analyse.

⭐Great service! A+++++ The book arrived right on time. These people changed my life. What would I do without them?

⭐One of the main purposes of the book is to “draw attention to the key importance of liberating creativity” (p. 271). The book has really deepened my understanding and appreciation of creativity, order, and science. Bohm and Peat view “misinformation” as “pollution” (p. 249). I’d say this book contains very little misinformation. Usually, I mark sections as very interesting, worth noting, and don’t agree while reading. I noticed that my don’t agrees often turned into oh, now I understand.Up-to-dateThe book was first published in 1987. I am impressed by how up-to-date the book feels. Bohm and Peat write for example that “current work in biology hardly takes the quantum theory into account” (p. 198). Yet, they say that “it may turn out that in certain macromolecular processes … quantum correlations may indeed be relevant” (p. 198). This is exactly what has happened almost thirty years later. Quantum mechanics explains nowadays the efficiency of the photosynthesis. Life isn’t possible without quantum coherence.The causal interpretationDavid Bohm worked on “the causal interpretation” of the quantum theory “over a period of several decades, beginning in the early 1950s” (p. 79). The work with this theory “ultimately lead to some … new perceptions about the nature of physical reality” (p. 80). The causal interpretation suggests that “nature may be far more subtle and strange than … previously thought” (p. 86). There is, for example, a “vast range of scale” between the distance now measurable in physics and the “shortest distance in which current notions of space-time probably have meaning” (p. 86). This range is “roughly equal to that which exists between our own size and that of the elementary particles” (p. 86). This means that there is “a vast range of scale in which … yet undiscovered structure” can be contained (p. 86). The causal interpretation introduces profound and radically new notions of order.Notions of orderBohm and Peat explores the meanings and implications of order. Rather than attempting to “make a definition or exhaustive analysis” they instead try to “deepen and extend the reader’s understanding” (p. 98). And, indeed, that is exactly what they do! There are four chapters covering “What Is Order?” (pp. 97–147), “The Generative Order and the Implicate Order” (pp. 148–188), “Generative Order in Science, Society, and Consciousness” (pp. 189–228), and “The Order Between and Beyond” (pp. 275–314). This means that they spend half of the book (170 pages) on discussing order.Bohm and Peat propose that “order pervades all aspects of life and that it may be comprehended as similar differences and different similarities” (p. 146). Orders in general are seen to lie in a spectrum between “simple orders of low degree and chaotic orders of infinite degree of which randomness is a limiting case” (p. 146). Structure is treated as an “inherently dynamic notion” (p. 146). Bohm and Peat introduce the notion of “generative order” (pp. 154–162), followed by the “implicate or enfolded order” (pp. 168–177) and the “superimplicate order” (pp. 177–181).The generative order is relevant to creativity, perception and understanding nature. And the superimplicate order organizes the implicate order. This opens the way for “an indefinite extension into even higher implicate orders, which organize the lower ones, while capable of being affected by them” (pp. 187–188). The implicate order is a very rich and subtle generative order. All this may sound abstract but the implications are significant!Bohm and Peat propose that consciousness is “a generative and implicate order” and that this is how “mind and matter” are related (p. 188). Bohm and Peat bring science, nature, society, and consciousness together in an overall common generative order. And they explore ways in which “order influences perception, communication, and action” (p. 275). Bohm and Peat propose that conflicts in societies can be “traced to contradictions and entanglements deep within unexamined notions of order” (p. 275). For this reason, they ask if it’s possible to move beyond fixed positions to an order that lies both “between and beyond” (p. 275).Creativity and consciousnessCreativity act not only through “free play of thought” but also through “free movement of awareness and attention” (p. 227). These make it possible for “creative intelligence” to unfold toward manifestation through the “stream” of “the generative order” (p. 227). Bohm and Peat investigate the nature of this creativity and what impedes its operation. The essence of the creative act is “a state of high energy making possible a fresh perception, generally through the mind” (p. 270). And creativity can be blocked by the “rigidly fixed tacit infrastructure of consciousness” which blocks the “free play” (p. 271)The generative and implicate orders are particularly significant here. These make it possible to understand “the unfoldment of creativity from ever subtle levels” (p. 271). Thus, if there are “rigid ideas and assumptions in the tacit infrastructure of consciousness” the net result is not only “a restriction on creativity” but also “a positive presence of energy that is directed toward general destructiveness” (p. 271). A clearing up of “misinformation” is therefore needed if “this energy is to be freed from its rigid and destructive pattern” (p. 271).Science and orderWithin science there have been periods of enormous activity combined with occasions when progress have been blocked. Instead of viewing science simply in terms of theories and ideas, Bohm Bohm & Peat suggest that “what is of most significance is … the prevailing scientific order and its transformation” (p. 276). This is because a change in order also involves a major perceptual shift. The “order of science, and indeed of society itself,” is a “nesting and entwining of several different orders,” some static and others dynamic (p. 277).Order and societyOrders are lived and experienced. When orders change rapidly they can produce “confusions and contradictions … within the functioning of society” (p. 278). These “enfolded and entangled orders inform the way we perceive, communicate, and act, both individually and as a society in general” (p. 281). When an order is held by the whole society it is “so deeply ingrained that it is never questioned” (p. 281). Examining and changing orders must therefore take place at many levels at once “including, but also going beyond, verbal reflection” (p. 282). This is profound.Liberating creativityThe problems we face arise from a “complex web of entangled conflicts, confusions, and misinformation in the order of our world” (p. 306). What is needed is considerable creative energy. This creative energy can be liberated when rigid and tacit assumptions are loosened. Bohm and Peat propose that “free dialogue” and “free exchange of ideas and information is of fundamental relevance for transforming culture and freeing it of destructive misinformation” (p. 240).Dialogue can be considered as “a free flow of meaning” (p. 241). Something can happen in dialogue that is “analogous to the dissolution of barriers … in the generative order” (p. 244). In dialogue, “rigid but largely tacit cultural assumptions, can be brought out and examined by all” (p. 244). This is not a “prescription” but “an invitation to the reader to … investigate and explore in the spirit of free play of ideas” (p. 240). I invite you to read the book!

⭐This book is written in a clear and straightforward way, but I found it challenging and it took me a while to finish, mainly because many of the ideas Bohm and Peat advance are unorthodox and subtle. In other words, this is a book about creativity and the authors are themselves quite creative.You need to read the book in full to follow the lines of reasoning and engage with the many rich examples, but let me try to provide a summary of what I took to be the key ideas:____________Rigidly inflexibility in our thinking and interaction leads to fragmentation, maladaptiveness, and destructive tendencies in our individual and social lives, including in science. This inflexibility is perpetuated by tendencies to specialize (thus ignoring wider contexts), denial of the existence of problems, ignoring implicit assumptions, ignoring and downplaying important questions, holding out unwarranted hope for failing paradigms, selective use of evidence, and forcefully imposing inaccurate ideas (reinforced by social consensus).Creativity is a proper means to overcome inflexibility and its consequences, and is a natural need of humans and a natural expression of the universe. Creativity can be achieved through a variety of approaches: free and open-ended play of the mind, willingness to ask questions and challenge assumptions, use of metaphors, avoidance of inflexible reification of categories, working with a simultaneous plurality of hypotheses and allowing them to dynamically interact and evolve, sincere and respectful dialogue, giving ideas and theories gestation time before judging them, interdisciplinary coordination, interpreting theories (ascribing meaning to them) within broader contexts, sensitivity to the artistic (not just aesthetic) aspects of theories, appreciation of different levels of order and unfolding of extrinsic order from “hidden” generative and implicate orders, and engagement with other cultures and subcultures. To be effective, creativity must also be sustained, rather than intermittent or limited to paradigm shifts, and creativity must be applied to the whole of life, not just specialized areas such as the arts and sciences.____________I find the ideas advanced in this book to be very sensible, and I think the need to adopt a creative attitude and approach is even more pressing today than when this book was written more than two decades ago. I therefore highly recommend this book to anyone who senses the need for genuine creativity in science as well as the rest of personal and social life. David Bohm was highly accomplished as both a scientist and a philosopher, and was surely one of the great thinkers of the 20th century, so his books are not to be missed (no offense to Peat, but it’s hard not to be overshadowed by Bohm).

⭐As Einstein proposed we can solve today’s world challenges with the same level of consciousness that they were created with, so this book is for those who seek possibilities

⭐Arrivato come preventivato, nuovo, era quello che cercavo

⭐

⭐Amazing book. David Bohm was definitely a man for our times. His thinking is revolutionary and incredibly relevant given the difficulties we currently face as a human race. Highly recommend.

⭐Bohm’s work is of the highest importance because it leads us away from myopic science to wards a world in which science and spirituality meet and dialogue.

⭐

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