No end to flux

George Clark, 28 March 2008

There may have been times and places where people felt that "God's in his Heaven, All's right with the world!". The general world view was robust and reinforced through routines, rituals and stereotypes. There would have been certainty and cognitive closure.

No doubt: stick with tradition.

But, for many people, me included, our post-modern times are not like that. Contemporary free-thinkers are inclined to the view that "the only certainty is doubt" and that "the only constant thing is change". Science no longer deals with "the truth" but rather with "the best working hypothesis in the light of evidence presently available".

Ongoing doubt: go with the flow.

But, for many people, me included, the open, emergent, mode of thinking is tough to deal with. The average human brain seems to need certainty and cognitive closure. One way of managing this is to make a virtue of necessity and to have no doubt about the constancy of change. Some thoughts from holistic systems theory can help with this. The essential idea is that any 'thing' is made up of littler things and is simultaneously part of some bigger thing(s).

Consider the 'thing' which is your human mind. It generates 'meaning' and 'action'. What are the littler 'things' that make it up and what is the greater 'thing' of which it is part?

Your mind creates mental formations as a result of causes and conditions.  The causes and conditions are rooted in instinct, culture or chance; the mental formations have conscious and unconscious components. There is an ongoing internal flux as these littler bits interact  (a) with each other and (b) with the external environment.

And your mind is a small part of that bigger 'thing' which is the external (to you) environment. This has at least two components: the social and the physical.

We are social animals so each individual mind will have causes and conditions that are rooted in its cultural context which has many dimensions: political, economic, spiritual etc. Note that the interactions are two-way: we change the world by our presence while it is changing us.

And we also exist in a physical environment which supplies us with food, clothing and shelter. The interactions are again two-way. We are components of the planet's  living system which interacts constantly with the soil and the climate. We feed on  plants and animals and end up as fertiliser!

Note that the 'things' of systems theory go all the way up and all the way down. We can think in terms of a cosmic zoom.

Going up we have the planet, solar system, universe and the mind blowing concept of an infinite and eternal multiverse which is in an endless state of flux.

Going down we have organs, tissues, cells, molecules, atoms, and then we enter the counter-intuitive quantum world where matter and energy are interchangeable and in endless flux ('thingness' slips through our fingers).

SO – does this help with certainty and cognitive closure on your world view in the post-modern age? Does it help to solidify the flux: if only for a short time?

We can leave the last word to the awe-full Albert Einstein:

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. You cannot help but be in awe when you contemplate the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality. It is enough if you try merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity."