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Science, Order and Creativity
In Science, Order and Creativity, David Bohm and F. David Peat argue that science has lost its way in recent years and needs to go beyond a narrow and fragmented view of nature and embrace a wider holistic view that restores the importance of creativity and communication for all humanity - not just scientists. The result of a close collaboration by one of the 20th century's greatest physicists and thinkers, David Bohm, with leading science writer F. David Peat, provides a rare combination of profound reflection and clear exposition that can be appreciated by anyone concerned with science and its importance in our lives. This new edition includes a new preface and an extended additional chapter by Peat which draws upon further discussions with David Bohm before the latter's death in 1992. A fascinating diagnosis and considered proposal for a cure for science's ills, it is also very accessible entry point to the work of David Bohm. Bohm and Peat contend that science has lost its bearings in the last century in favour of a narrow, abstracted, fragmented approach to nature and reality. Tracing the history of science, Bohm and Peat offer intriguing new insights into how scientific theories come into being, how to eliminate blocks of creativity and how science can lead to a deeper understanding of society, the human condition and the human mind itself.
328 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1987
38 people are currently reading
1114 people want to read
About the author
David Bohm
68 books447 followersDavid Joseph Bohm (December 20, 1917 – October 27, 1992) was an American scientist who has been described as one of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th century and who contributed innovative and unorthodox ideas to quantum theory, neuropsychology and the philosophy of mind.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
August 3, 2023
if you like this review i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
270318: premise 1) the universe is generative explicit and implicit order on all scales, all beings, all perspectives... premise 2) science in its historical project has best explored, understood, worked creatively to uncover this truth... premise 3) as a secular ground science is offered as a technique to creatively order all our universe and worlds...
hypothesis: read this book and all will come clear...
result: well i give it a five, possibly sentimental, as this argument of order and creativity seems like how i would once have thought, as son of a scientist, as deeply indoctrinated in values of this perspective, as a youth convinced science could ultimately explain everything,... this is not technically a philosophy text (lacks footnotes etc...) but more a philosophically-inclined reading of our human project primarily in western sciences, and for this noble thesis and though not convinced i feel this gives certain insight of the way the universe and worlds are to those thinkers embedded in science, not as particular ‘beliefs' but as process, and the productive tension between current order perhaps rigid and static and the new thinking beyond this current scientific order...
there are interesting examples of creative transcendence of old modes of thought- the Newtonian absolute space to relativity space of Einstein, the later conflict of quantum physics between Einstein and Bohr. Bohm contends that the model of 'paradigm shift' is true but 'scientific revolution' is mistaken, that the work of 'normal science' is in fact always incorporating new insights, that some ground of the new is actually the continuance of the old 'order'... this goes as much into psychology and sociology of scientists and their world, as into unquestioned success of new 'order'... i believe i have read that all scientific theories go through three stages that can be summed-up in one word each: 1) that's (nonsense!) 2) that's true but (trivial!) 3) that's (obvious!)...
the authors here extend the changing order of science together with changing order of arts and society and religion... if you want a 'grand narrative' you have it here: the world is order and order is science and art is expressed creativity of this order and inspiring future order... and then the heartening assertion is that 'creativity' is a natural, universal, human aptitude, and what we have to do, on individual, educational, social, scales- is to remove 'blocks' to its function in our universe and our worlds...
270318: premise 1) the universe is generative explicit and implicit order on all scales, all beings, all perspectives... premise 2) science in its historical project has best explored, understood, worked creatively to uncover this truth... premise 3) as a secular ground science is offered as a technique to creatively order all our universe and worlds...
hypothesis: read this book and all will come clear...
result: well i give it a five, possibly sentimental, as this argument of order and creativity seems like how i would once have thought, as son of a scientist, as deeply indoctrinated in values of this perspective, as a youth convinced science could ultimately explain everything,... this is not technically a philosophy text (lacks footnotes etc...) but more a philosophically-inclined reading of our human project primarily in western sciences, and for this noble thesis and though not convinced i feel this gives certain insight of the way the universe and worlds are to those thinkers embedded in science, not as particular ‘beliefs' but as process, and the productive tension between current order perhaps rigid and static and the new thinking beyond this current scientific order...
there are interesting examples of creative transcendence of old modes of thought- the Newtonian absolute space to relativity space of Einstein, the later conflict of quantum physics between Einstein and Bohr. Bohm contends that the model of 'paradigm shift' is true but 'scientific revolution' is mistaken, that the work of 'normal science' is in fact always incorporating new insights, that some ground of the new is actually the continuance of the old 'order'... this goes as much into psychology and sociology of scientists and their world, as into unquestioned success of new 'order'... i believe i have read that all scientific theories go through three stages that can be summed-up in one word each: 1) that's (nonsense!) 2) that's true but (trivial!) 3) that's (obvious!)...
the authors here extend the changing order of science together with changing order of arts and society and religion... if you want a 'grand narrative' you have it here: the world is order and order is science and art is expressed creativity of this order and inspiring future order... and then the heartening assertion is that 'creativity' is a natural, universal, human aptitude, and what we have to do, on individual, educational, social, scales- is to remove 'blocks' to its function in our universe and our worlds...
May 8, 2013
An absolutely essential read. Bohm covers many topics, some of which are:
- Fragmentation in scientific disciplines and divergence from application of the scientific process as a method of finding universal truths. He argues that while science can be divided into branches for ease of progress, it must be kept in mind that these subdisciplines are not mutually exclusive and must be considered at all times as abstractions of one another, where, for instance the unsolved problems of quantum mechanics have significant implications on biology and artificial intelligence. This fragmentation is further amplified by lack of an unambiguous language among scientists of even the same discipline for dialogues to be carried out.
- His theory of implicate order, reminiscent of and likely influenced by Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy, where he argues that material existence is merely a manifestation (an explicit order) emerging out various levels of implicit order which in turn give rise to one another. He makes his point through a series of analogies which are simply genius in their construction and give a mathematically elegant alternative worldview, where much of the fragmentary problems across various disciplines of modern science are solved. His worldview has significant implications, not only for scientific disciplines but also for unsolved problems such as the origin of consciousness, the possibility of AI, and so on.
- Creativity and art and how his theories of generative and implicate order affect these disciplines. Again, Bohm makes his point through rhetoric and analogies which appeal very much to intuition.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will be reading his seminal work, "Wholeness and the Implicate Order" for further elaboration on his views.
- Fragmentation in scientific disciplines and divergence from application of the scientific process as a method of finding universal truths. He argues that while science can be divided into branches for ease of progress, it must be kept in mind that these subdisciplines are not mutually exclusive and must be considered at all times as abstractions of one another, where, for instance the unsolved problems of quantum mechanics have significant implications on biology and artificial intelligence. This fragmentation is further amplified by lack of an unambiguous language among scientists of even the same discipline for dialogues to be carried out.
- His theory of implicate order, reminiscent of and likely influenced by Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy, where he argues that material existence is merely a manifestation (an explicit order) emerging out various levels of implicit order which in turn give rise to one another. He makes his point through a series of analogies which are simply genius in their construction and give a mathematically elegant alternative worldview, where much of the fragmentary problems across various disciplines of modern science are solved. His worldview has significant implications, not only for scientific disciplines but also for unsolved problems such as the origin of consciousness, the possibility of AI, and so on.
- Creativity and art and how his theories of generative and implicate order affect these disciplines. Again, Bohm makes his point through rhetoric and analogies which appeal very much to intuition.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will be reading his seminal work, "Wholeness and the Implicate Order" for further elaboration on his views.
July 27, 2016
This is an amazing book! 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 and its relation to order. It has also given me new insights into the history of 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-date
The 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 interpretation
David 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 order
Bohm 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 consciousness
Creativity 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 order
Within 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 society
Orders 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 creativity
The 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!
Up-to-date
The 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 interpretation
David 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 order
Bohm 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 consciousness
Creativity 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 order
Within 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 society
Orders 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 creativity
The 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!
October 24, 2019
Since reading David Bohm: Wholeness and the Implicate Order, 1980, Routledge, (Master e-book ISBN, reprint 2005), I am especially interested in knowing more about later thinking by the author, a theoretical physicist, about wholeness and the implicate order.
The generative order is primarily concerned not with the outward side of development and evolution in a sequence of succession, but with a deeper and more inward order out of which the manifest forms of things (in time, space, distance) can emerge creatively. Indeed this order is fundamentally relevant both in nature and in consciousness.
The implicate order is a particular kind of generative order with broad significance in physics, biology, consciousness, and the overall order of society and each human being.
New generative orders, with their hierarchies of line, form, movement, and color, require the viewer to respond in unique and creative ways that are, for this reason, disturbing.
The first attempts the Impressinaists made to exhibit their paintings were met with considerable ridicule and critical attack. In place of the traditional orders and schemes of nineteenth-century French art, Monet had begun to use spots of primary color in an attempt to express his perceptions of nature through a new way of re-creating, in the canvas, a sense of the order of space. Thus, if you stand close to such a painting, you become aware of the pattern and strength of the color and of its apparent lack of representational form, but as you step back, a whole world with its three-dimensional order seems to come into being.
What is essential to implicate or enfolded order is the simultaneous presence of a sequence of many degrees of enfoldment with a similar difference between them. Such an order cannot be made explicit as a whole but can be manifested only in the emergence of successive degrees of enfoldment.
The implicate order is a generative order. In quantum field theory, the second implicate order is the source from which the forms of the first implicate order are generated. If there are higher implicate order, then a similar generative order will prevail throughout all the levels. Ultimately, it is, of course, the holomovement and what may lie beyond, from which all is generated.
Thought (idea) is definitely in the implicate order. The very word implicate (connect, involve), meaning enfolded, suggests that one idea, one feeling envelops another and that a train of thought is a process of enfoldment of a succession of implications.
The explicate form of all this is the structure of society. The implicate form is the content of the culture, which extends into the consciousness of each person. For example, the laws and customs of the nation do not operate as external forces that are alien to the people on whom they act. Instead, they are the expressions of the very nature of these people, and in turn, they enfold to contribute to this nature.
How is music comprehended? A particular note may be sounding in awareness, but at the same time, a kind of reverberation of a number of earlier notes can also be sensed. Such an echo is not the same as recollection or memory. Instead, it is more like a part of an unbroken enfoldment and unfoldment of the notes concerned into ever subtler forms, including emotions and impulses to physical movement, as well as a kind of 'etherial' echo of the original musical notes with the mind. Indeed if successive notes are played several seconds apart, then they no longer combine in such a way to convey the powerful sense of the unbroken flow that is essential to the meaning of the music.
The implicate and generative orders are ultimately the ground of all experience. Through habits of thought and language, people have come to take the explicate world as the real ground, and the implicate and generative order as something secondary to the explicate world.
The potential for creativity is natural, but an excessively rigid attachment to fixed programs in the tacit infrastructure of consciousness is what prevents this creativity from acting.
The ultimate aim of this book has been to arouse an interest in the importance of creativity. All significant changes have begun to manifest themselves n a few people at first, but these were only the seeds of something.
What I learned: one begins to feel the reality of the interconnectedness of existence.
The generative order is primarily concerned not with the outward side of development and evolution in a sequence of succession, but with a deeper and more inward order out of which the manifest forms of things (in time, space, distance) can emerge creatively. Indeed this order is fundamentally relevant both in nature and in consciousness.
The implicate order is a particular kind of generative order with broad significance in physics, biology, consciousness, and the overall order of society and each human being.
New generative orders, with their hierarchies of line, form, movement, and color, require the viewer to respond in unique and creative ways that are, for this reason, disturbing.
The first attempts the Impressinaists made to exhibit their paintings were met with considerable ridicule and critical attack. In place of the traditional orders and schemes of nineteenth-century French art, Monet had begun to use spots of primary color in an attempt to express his perceptions of nature through a new way of re-creating, in the canvas, a sense of the order of space. Thus, if you stand close to such a painting, you become aware of the pattern and strength of the color and of its apparent lack of representational form, but as you step back, a whole world with its three-dimensional order seems to come into being.
What is essential to implicate or enfolded order is the simultaneous presence of a sequence of many degrees of enfoldment with a similar difference between them. Such an order cannot be made explicit as a whole but can be manifested only in the emergence of successive degrees of enfoldment.
The implicate order is a generative order. In quantum field theory, the second implicate order is the source from which the forms of the first implicate order are generated. If there are higher implicate order, then a similar generative order will prevail throughout all the levels. Ultimately, it is, of course, the holomovement and what may lie beyond, from which all is generated.
Thought (idea) is definitely in the implicate order. The very word implicate (connect, involve), meaning enfolded, suggests that one idea, one feeling envelops another and that a train of thought is a process of enfoldment of a succession of implications.
The explicate form of all this is the structure of society. The implicate form is the content of the culture, which extends into the consciousness of each person. For example, the laws and customs of the nation do not operate as external forces that are alien to the people on whom they act. Instead, they are the expressions of the very nature of these people, and in turn, they enfold to contribute to this nature.
How is music comprehended? A particular note may be sounding in awareness, but at the same time, a kind of reverberation of a number of earlier notes can also be sensed. Such an echo is not the same as recollection or memory. Instead, it is more like a part of an unbroken enfoldment and unfoldment of the notes concerned into ever subtler forms, including emotions and impulses to physical movement, as well as a kind of 'etherial' echo of the original musical notes with the mind. Indeed if successive notes are played several seconds apart, then they no longer combine in such a way to convey the powerful sense of the unbroken flow that is essential to the meaning of the music.
The implicate and generative orders are ultimately the ground of all experience. Through habits of thought and language, people have come to take the explicate world as the real ground, and the implicate and generative order as something secondary to the explicate world.
The potential for creativity is natural, but an excessively rigid attachment to fixed programs in the tacit infrastructure of consciousness is what prevents this creativity from acting.
The ultimate aim of this book has been to arouse an interest in the importance of creativity. All significant changes have begun to manifest themselves n a few people at first, but these were only the seeds of something.
What I learned: one begins to feel the reality of the interconnectedness of existence.
June 25, 2013
Great book. Bohm & Peat make the case that a healthy society depends on a robust balance of science, art and religion, fundamentally motivated by truth seeking, while weaving in a fascinating description of the pilot wave quantum theory to tie it all together.
March 31, 2014
An outstanding work that shows how a rigid "infrastructure of ideas" can block creativity. It proves the old proverb that it's what you think you know rather than what you don't know that really hurts you.
August 26, 2014
whether you know it or not, you will be criticized. When you pretend to know, you are worshiped.
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October 31, 2021In “Science, Order and Creativity: A Dramatic New Look at the Creative Roots of Science and Life,” the authors, Dr David Bohm and Dr David, Peat, present some innovative ways the social structures and practices can be enhanced for yielding more creative output. Though they bring out many examples from science, their ideas can be applied equally well in other disciplines. Put differently, such a creative surge can be enabled in all areas of life, and it is a change in overall human consciousness. One central theme of the book is enhancing pervasive creativity in such a way that individuals and societies benefit in aspects of well-being and sustainability. In this process, an individual’s connection to the whole or the totality is highlighted.
One of the key themes emerging from this work is taking attention from a sequential explicate order to a more generative, implicate order for society. The term order has a close meaning to structure or framework and includes theories, the infrastructure of concepts, ideas, values and actions. The notion of fragmentation is understood to be one of the aspects that limit creative output. It occurs when researchers and learners get lost in specialised detail while disconnecting from the connection to the whole area of study or the totality. Further, researchers and learners can get conventionally stuck in paradigms and assumptions (tacit infrastructure) used for an extended period, sometimes unknowingly.
Dialogue or generative discussion with open minds and hearts is identified as key to overcoming the above limitations by liberating creativity. Authors insightfully suggest that dialogue plays the role of the immune system by disallowing misinformation. We can infer that the practices of compassion and empathy minimise authority, fixed knowledge and technology, and conformity. For enhancing creative output, being open to multiple interpretations is also suggested through free play (as authors used) and free movement of awareness and attention. In this regard, the authors highlight the need for dynamic unity within plurality. The spirit of dialogue is holding many ideas in suspension without being overly judgemental. Such change of perspectives can be practised in everyday life, not necessarily when revolutionary changes are taking. In contrast to free play, false play or rigidity blocks creativity and healthy evolution.
Towards the end of the book, the authors quite insightfully suggest a planetary shared culture for enhancing creative output. The merger or a middle point of some of the Western and Eastern philosophies is presented. Further, they suggest a balance between outward-oriented practices (extroversion-based) and inward-oriented practices (introversion-based). A similar balance is highlighted between timeless and temporal orders and individual and cosmic orders. Transcendental development makes the individual becomes a union with the totality, thus embracing the interconnected nature of reality. In a planetary culture, philosophies, art and science connect people to the totality. Science requires a well-developed mind devoid of misinformation to make valuable inferences before testing with scientific equipment and measures. Perception-communication (as used by the authors) plays a vital role here towards creative outputs. A scientific attitude based on inquiry is helpful in all walks of life. An artistic attitude is conducive to imagination, creativity and innovation. Education should be based on creative intelligence and intrinsic motivation, not on rewards and punishment. With creative engagement, learners can broaden their perspectives and develop. Gladly, we can see that some of the transformations suggested in the book are already taking place in the world. The authors were much ahead of their time, considering that the book was written about four decades ago.
One of the key themes emerging from this work is taking attention from a sequential explicate order to a more generative, implicate order for society. The term order has a close meaning to structure or framework and includes theories, the infrastructure of concepts, ideas, values and actions. The notion of fragmentation is understood to be one of the aspects that limit creative output. It occurs when researchers and learners get lost in specialised detail while disconnecting from the connection to the whole area of study or the totality. Further, researchers and learners can get conventionally stuck in paradigms and assumptions (tacit infrastructure) used for an extended period, sometimes unknowingly.
Dialogue or generative discussion with open minds and hearts is identified as key to overcoming the above limitations by liberating creativity. Authors insightfully suggest that dialogue plays the role of the immune system by disallowing misinformation. We can infer that the practices of compassion and empathy minimise authority, fixed knowledge and technology, and conformity. For enhancing creative output, being open to multiple interpretations is also suggested through free play (as authors used) and free movement of awareness and attention. In this regard, the authors highlight the need for dynamic unity within plurality. The spirit of dialogue is holding many ideas in suspension without being overly judgemental. Such change of perspectives can be practised in everyday life, not necessarily when revolutionary changes are taking. In contrast to free play, false play or rigidity blocks creativity and healthy evolution.
Towards the end of the book, the authors quite insightfully suggest a planetary shared culture for enhancing creative output. The merger or a middle point of some of the Western and Eastern philosophies is presented. Further, they suggest a balance between outward-oriented practices (extroversion-based) and inward-oriented practices (introversion-based). A similar balance is highlighted between timeless and temporal orders and individual and cosmic orders. Transcendental development makes the individual becomes a union with the totality, thus embracing the interconnected nature of reality. In a planetary culture, philosophies, art and science connect people to the totality. Science requires a well-developed mind devoid of misinformation to make valuable inferences before testing with scientific equipment and measures. Perception-communication (as used by the authors) plays a vital role here towards creative outputs. A scientific attitude based on inquiry is helpful in all walks of life. An artistic attitude is conducive to imagination, creativity and innovation. Education should be based on creative intelligence and intrinsic motivation, not on rewards and punishment. With creative engagement, learners can broaden their perspectives and develop. Gladly, we can see that some of the transformations suggested in the book are already taking place in the world. The authors were much ahead of their time, considering that the book was written about four decades ago.
act47-org
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April 26, 2019
Really liked the philosophy as applied to science; was much less convinced by the philosophy as applied to consciousness and culture. In the latter cases the authors seem to play very loose with their their definitions of order, and it makes the last couple chapters rather weak. I do find the idea of implicate order very attractive and enjoyed the analogies of the ink drop in glycerol and the holographic plate.
July 10, 2017
Interesting thoughts and perspectives from a quantum physicist.
Read
February 23, 2020Touching the baseline for creativity in the sciences. Still a favorite to this day! A good orientation to the scientific method!
Want to read
April 18, 2020My next read in the Book Oblivion discussion series!
July 17, 2023
Gooey people do "science"
July 13, 2024
Siempre es d obligada lectura cualquier obra de David Bohm. Una pena que no viviera más años.
Want to read
July 12, 2025don curran recs; sounds like a great follow up to Gold Bug Variations
February 19, 2011
Although many chapters of this book were way over my head, the chapter about creativity was absolutely brilliant.
It is some time ago that I read it, but I want to read the whole book again some time, because it gives a sort of bigger picture in which creativity plays its very important role.
But first I want to read more of David Bohm's other books.
It is some time ago that I read it, but I want to read the whole book again some time, because it gives a sort of bigger picture in which creativity plays its very important role.
But first I want to read more of David Bohm's other books.
March 22, 2015
I really enjoyed this book! The biggest take-home for me was having someone like David Bohm asserting that the function of consciousness is to play, because that is how we learn about our world, and to take ourselves (and our science) to seriously is to "play falsely". I totally agree!
August 21, 2012
Excellent
June 26, 2014
Eye opening. very fun book
March 13, 2024
david bohm one cool ass mofo 🙏
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews