Wholeness and the Implicate Order (Routledge Classics) | David Bohm

Wholeness and the Implicate Order (Routledge Classics) | David Bohm | Integrality

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Wholeness and the ...

	Wholeness and the Implicate Order (Routledge Classics) David Bohm Routledge, 2002 - 284 pages average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

In this classic work David Bohm, writing clearly and without technical jargon, develops a theory of quantum physics which treats the totality of existence as an unbroken whole.

The "real" way to think about wholeness

The fragmented muddle that Quantum Physics has made of "the way we used to view the world," is at last confronted "head on" in this densely packed but short monogram. It is not an easy ride, but this, one of Einstein's last and most famous students, takes it on with the zeal and the relish of a young boy. Here, Dr. Bohm attempts to answer some of the most perplexing philosophical questions to face us since Zeno's paradox. The most important of which are: What is the nature and relationship of consciousness to the underlying reality of which it is a part? And also: What is the underlying commonality between the "relativistic order" and the "quantum physical Order?"

However, before he can address these, the first of several questions he attempts to answer, he is required to invent his own conceptual machinery in order to "work around" our own deeply embedded fragmented thinking. In the process of doing so, he comes up with a new way of understanding what a "universal order" is; a new way of using our language (what he terms Rheomode); a host of new theoretical and conceptual "constructs," the most important of which being his notion of the "enfolding" and "unfolding" of a holomovement, also known as the "Implicate Order." With these radically innovative conceptual inventions he leads us on a mathematical ride to new vistas for dispensing with our old fragmented Cartesian worldview and coming to grips with a new unified conceptual worldview and a new conceptual order.

Nailing down this new conceptual machinery turns out to be a daunting task, and each of his new concepts could fill a monogram onto itself, but in stride, Bohm takes them all on in this short book with poise and a great deal of clarity. His writing necessarily is as precise as his thinking, but always lively and never obsessive or forced. However, that this is true makes it only slightly less difficult for the reader to grasp the ideas in this manuscript. This book is neither for the faint of heart, nor for the causal non-scientific reader.

Even though Bohm provides an overview of the main themes needed to understand the content of this book, one still needs at least a rudimentary "and an independent" understanding of the basic problems and experiments of both Relativity Theory and Quantum Mechanics, and should at least be able to follow the main content and themes of the rather abstract mathematics that is introduced to support his ideas from chapter four on. Also, an additional word of warning is in order: this is not a book that can be "scanned" or "speed read." Many of the concepts are difficult and build on each other progressively. Missing the real intent and understanding of an earlier concept, as is true elsewhere, is particularly fatal to a full understanding of the later content of this book. That said, the rewards are great, the least of which is not that one gets to sit at the table of one of the great minds of ours, or any time.

What the Book is about:

In our current worldview, the three dimensions of space and the fourth of time, makes up the fundamental "axes" as well as "axioms" of "Cartesian reality" as we have come to understand it. This fragmented universe of four dimensions, that has so fatally separated mind from body, has served us well and is the best we have been able to come up with so far. However, as is the case with the four forces of nature, there has been the nagging and lingering suspicion among scientists that at a deeper level of understanding, these dimensions could very well just be part of a more integrated, continuous and singular reality, that is to say part of a larger existential and non reductive whole. Relativistic and quantum physics have traditionally approached this problem from different ends of the conceptual microscope, using "orders" peculiar to their respective conceptual modalities. However, against this philosophical backdrop, it is as clear as day to Professor Bohm that there is only one common reality and that a common more "universal order" must lie at the substrate and at the intersection of these two competing views of reality. As a result, he posits an idea he calls the "implicate order" which in his view, is this broader, continuous unified conception of reality all scientists have been in search of.

The problem is how to get from "here" to "there" -- from our present deceptively fragmented picture of reality (Bohm's "explicate Order), to a more unified vision of it (that is to his, "Implicate Order").

The missing conceptual link is that reality is not just a reductive Newtonian clockwork of many distinct and disparate parts, but is a continuous whole in a constant state of "connected motion," motion that also includes the movement of our consciousness!

The trick Bohm uses to nail down his idea however is to remind us that the movement that is taking place is only in the "relationships" and "processes" among the connected parts of the same universal whole, that is the constant "enfolding and "unfolding" of reality onto itself. We don't need the illusion of separate parts to understand the underlying reality, only movement: It is movement (like the vortex in an eddy of water that rises and then disappears back into the flow) and their relationships that give us this illusion of discrete parts and separate mechanical functioning.

It is this movement -- the "enfolding" and "unfolding" itself -- that IS "the reality," not the names we give to our own self-defined illusionary parts. This "flowing reality" away from and back into itself, constitutes a change in the conceptual paradigm of our reality in the same sense as that discussed by Thomas Khun in his "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." In other words, since our fragmented reality must necessarily be incomplete -- if not incorrect altogether -- it thus must also give way to a proper and much broader and much needed conceptual refinement.

That is my understanding of this book.

One of the reviewers, Professor Stahl, has given the very helpful suggestion of reading 'Space, Time and Beyond' by Fred Alan Wolf and Bob Toben; and Robert Nadeau and Menas Kafatos' "The Non-Local Universe," as well as, "In Search of Reality" by Bernard d'Espagnat, which I did. The last two of these were very useful indeed; the first one less so. I would add to Professor Stahl's list two other important book: Both are Professor Bohm's own books in which he is interviewed about precisely these very ideas. The first is called "Unfolding Meaning: A Weekend of Dialogue with David Bohm (Ark paperback, London 1985). The second is called "Thought as a System," 1992, published by Routledge.

In this last reference, Bohm makes clear that it is our language and our slavish reliance on our faulty measuring devices that has gotten us into trouble and that has led our conceptualization astray and into deep water. However, there is much too much to say about this book without reviewing it separately, as I will soon do. Anyway, this book (Wholeness and the Implicate order) will either "turn you on" or "turn you off." It "turned me on." Fifty Stars.

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Integrality

Bohm presents cogent arguments for a world view that is more than a random collection of randomly created micro-billiard-balls. Although parts of the book are dated, it is still worth reading for those interested in metaphysics.

Accurate

This book initially describes the limitations imposed on us by the language we have developed, which in turn affects our world view, so to use that same language to review it is somewhat futile, if one accepts the premise of the narrative, which I do.

In as few words as possible, there is a lot of truth here.

(I am surprised no reviewer has mentioned Science and Sanity by Alfred Korzybski. It sits on a completely different library shelf, and comes from a different perspective, but from what I remember from reading it 10 years ago, It covers some common territory. If you are familiar with those concepts, and have some fairly rudimentary 20th century physics theory, then you have a journey here which should help you see the world as it very likely is.)

For example, when we are young, we are taught that an atom is a very small particle, which may be a helpful way of looking at it, but in fact does not accurately define it. So if we become reliant on that, or any definition, which we tend to do, that definition begins to obscure, rather than reveal the truth. Perhaps an atom is an energy field. But if we attempt to define energy, we will clearly have developed another obstacle.

We need a vantage point to see and describe our universe more effectively, and that is what this book starts by giving us.

To describe this book as poorly written or hard to read, with no disrespect, I think may be to miss the point. Our way of looking at the world since the start of recorded history has not helped us greatly - we can see that by just looking around. To correct it is probably not going to be a walk in the park, but this book may be a start.

That said, I think you would have to really enjoy both the topic and reading itself for me to recommend this book to you, as it sometimes has a textbook, rather than narrative feel. Nonetheless, 5 stars.

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Brilliant scientists have amazing thoughts and theories

This book is an excellent brief thought of the briliant scientific achievement from Newton, Einsten, etc... making you to think about their correlation with the nature complexity. The scientists have given us equations from simple and limited tests in order to be used in a wider manner, on the other hand the nature is much more complex than that and correlates all the variances non-linearly to release the proper and substantial output. The extensive effort to create an unique and general physics law/equation which cover from the quantum mechanics to the universe is a though task. Dr. Bohm gives you the chance to think about that using a simple and enthusiastic written.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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