Science of the Soul

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There are four questions of value in life... What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for, and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love. -- Johnny Depp

Can there be a scientific study of the human soul? (Soul blog)
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Such a science would be concerned with scientific investigation of the universal human cultural feature of belief in a soul. There are many websites (for example[1][2][3][4][5]) and published books dealing with the idea that there can be a science of the soul. These various approaches to a science of the soul range from that of Francis Crick (very materialistic[6]) to many New Age speculations about how non-material spirit links through a soul to our material bodies.

Science, Pseudoscience, Protoscience?Edit

Two conventional positions within modern Western culture have dominated attitudes about the soul. According to one view, souls clearly exist and the idea that science could have anything to say about souls seems absurd. According to the other major perspective, souls clearly do not exist and it would be a waste of time to attempt a scientific study of the soul. One minority view suggests that there has long been available objective evidence of the soul, but that the "scientific establishment" will not admit the facts because they do not fit into conventional materialistic thinking. It is also possible that some scientists would like to work within a science of the soul, but they fear being rejected by their scientific peers.
Probably the most prominent recent attempt by a group of trained scientists to develop a scientific study of the soul comes from the efforts of quantum physicists. Some proposals have been advanced by which unconventional physical processes might account for the existence of conscious beings beyond the domain of conventional material objects. At best, such efforts are protoscience, with their advocates struggling to gain recognition from their peers to the effect that they are actually doing science. A harsher view is that such attempts to develop a physical account of the soul should be classified as being pseudoscience.
However, one aspect of the science of the soul seems to have been clearly established within the bounds of conventionl science. Francis Crick's book The Astonishing Hypothesis has the subtitle, "The scientific search for the soul". Crick holds the position that one can learn everything knowable about the human soul by studying the workings of the human brain. In his book, Consilience, E. O. Wilson took note of the fact that sociology has identified belief in a soul as one of the universal human cultural elements. Wilson suggested that biologists need to seriously investigate how human genes predispose people to believe in a soul. Daniel Dennett has championed the idea that the human survival strategy is heavily dependent on adoption of the intentional stance, a behavioral strategy that predicts the actions of others based on the expectation that they have a mind like one's own (see theory of mind). This behavioral strategy is probably facilitated by mirror neurons in brain regions such as Broca's area. The intentional stance is so successful that people tend to apply it to all aspects of human experience leading to animism and other conceptualizations of soul. Thus, we can clearly begin a scientific investigation of the soul by studying how it is that our genes predispose us to belief in a soul.

Multidisciplinary studiesEdit

This Science of the Soul Wiki should be fundamentally multidisciplinary and it would be desirable to invite many others from outside to join in the development of this wiki and share their perspectives. Since science as a human enterprise and investigation of the soul have often diverged, it will be important restrict material at this proposed wiki to efforts that have a real connection to science. Much of the material in this proposed wiki is expected to be speculative, but the wiki's rules for article style should force participants to try to frame all discussion in the language of science. Speculations about the nature of the soul will need to be expressed in terms of hypotheses and the goal of finding objective methods to test those hypotheses. h

List of multidisciplinary approaches to soul scienceEdit

• Lyricus - The Wingmakers and Lyricus Teaching Order approach to the soul.

Biology of BeliefEdit

One of the areas of science that is mentioned in the Wingmakers material as being important for scientific understanding of the soul is the study of cultural evolution. Just as the study of genes has become central to biology, memes (cultural units of inheritance) are central to the study of culture. Beliefs are memes and we can describe beliefs as being formed by neuronal networks in brains. Complex human behaviors such as belief in a non-material soul may be shaped by the human genome.
Philosopher Dan Dennett has popularized the idea that humans make use of "the intentional stance" as a key component of the human survival strategy. Evolutionary psychologists have introduced the related term "theory of mind" to describe the fact that for some species of animals each individual seems to have an innate ability to respond to other individuals by making the assumption that other individuals have their own mind and share similar thoughts, emotions and sensory perceptions. There is currently a lot of experimental work being done to determine which species are able to constructively shape their social behavior by making correct assumptions about what other members of their social group are likely to know at any given time.
The intentional stance is such a successful behavioral strategy that people tend to automatically apply it all the time. In many situations we even try to understand and interact with inanimate objects as if they have a human-like mind. As our scientific understanding of the natural world has grown, we have been able to increasingly account for many processes in nature by making use of the "physical stance". We can come to identify sets of mechanical rules which govern many natural processes.
In the past few decades it has become possible to ask if purely physical processes can account for human thought, beliefs, consciousness and what people in all human cultures have conceptualized as the human soul. Some neurobiologists have suggested that we can account for human beliefs about the soul in terms of conventional physical processes that take place in our brains. A path of discovery that is open to us is by way of biology and our increasing understanding of how the brain allows us to have the beliefs that we have. Our innate use of the intentional stance is fundamental to the kinds of beliefs we tend to have.
To what extent does the intentional stance shape human beliefs about the nature of the soul? The ability of the human brain to adopt the intentional stance makes it natural for people to imagine spirit or mind in all parts of the world we find ourselves in. Since the physical basis of most complex and interesting phenomena are not easily accessible to our senses, it is easy for us to imagine that there are non-physical spirits or minds or souls that make things happen in the world.
If this view is correct, then we have to expect a natural progression of change in human thinking about why things happen in the world. Our species evolved under conditions of ignorance about physical processes, conditions that have favored the idea that non-material spirits are dominant. As hard-won scientific knowledge about the physical world has accumulated, the number of processes that might require the intervention of spirit has decreased and it has been possible to assume that purely mechanical forces account for what happens in many situations. 100 years ago there was much debate about what Life is. Vitalists were sure that physical objects such as dead molecules could never account for Life. However, biochemists were able to discover the special molecules that make life possible and now we have an excellent physical account of the difference between living things and non-living things in terms of molecular and cellular processes. Neurobiologists are now asking if our beliefs about the nature of the soul can all be accounted for by the activity of neuronal networks in our brains.

Neo-sciencesEdit

As an example of a topic that would require speculation, the Lyricus website mentions "neo-sciences". It is expected that there will be additional information about the nature of "neo-sciences" in the future at the Lyricus website, but for now the Wingmakers community must speculate. One idea is that neo-sciences center on efforts such as the field of quantum consciousness and the study of interactions between consciousness, spirit and matter.

Historical perspectiveEdit

A portion of the wiki should provide an historical perspective from Aristotle [7] to Blavatsky[8] and on in to the 20th century approaches towards a science of the soul that have been suggested by workers in specialized fields such as physics, computer science, and neurobiology.

Spirit and Soul WebringsEdit

Circle of Soul WebRingEdit

Note: some versions of Internet Explorer do not correctly display to following webring navigation box. Switch to Firefox.

http://Empathic.info/Images/ringlogo_circle_of_soul.jpg

Circle of Soul ___________________________ Join Now | Ring Hub Random << Prev | Next >>

The Circle of Soul WebRing is a community of spiritually based websites that knows no restrictions or biases - the website must only be dedicated to esoteric matters, whether they be religious, New Age, poetry, inspirational writing or any other site with Soul.

Soul WebringEdit

Websites in any way- truth / expression / writing / art / music / &/or soul-related. What is soul? Inpenetrable, unique, perfect - sometimes illusive, always teaching us along this journey called life.

• Return to the soul webring navigation page.

Soul Join Now | Ring Hub | Random << Prev | Next >>

Suggest additional webringsEdit

There are many webrings dealing with spirituality. If you know of any that would be suitable for this website, list them here:

• Multi-Dimensional Science Project would probably be of interest. Comments always welcome to my email address dharao4@yahoo.co.uk. Robert Searle is the contact name, and originator of MDS.

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Categories:

• Science of the Soul
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The Entangled Universe

Einstein's work began a revolution that eventually dethroned the reigning model of physics. Could quantum theory have a similar effect on our understanding of life itself?

Yes Magazine

by Mae-Wan Ho

posted Mar 31, 2000

Over the past 150 years, the field of biology has taken a distinct turn for the worse. It has become
increasingly mechanistic and reductionist, which is why most biologists nowadays are hostile to holistic thinking or any hint of unity in nature.

Reductionism is the doctrine that complex systems can be completely understood in terms of their simplest parts. For example, a physical system is to be understood in terms of its atoms, an organism in terms of its genes, a society in terms of its individuals, and so on. Mechanical reductionism is a commitment to understand all complex phenomena in terms of simple entities that behave according to the laws and assumptions of mechanics.

With the advent of genetic engineering, mechanistic biology has reached its logical, nightmarish
conclusion where organisms, including human beings, are to be genetically manipulated and cloned. Already, the genetic material of a human being has been injected into a cow's egg, with alarming implications.

Fortunately, there is a long overdue science of the organism that is taking shape. It takes biology beyond the mechanistic era, connecting it to the organic revolution that has been gathering momentum in the rest of Western science, especially within the past twenty years. This science of the organism restores all the qualities that have been exorcised from life and nature, thereby reaffirming and extending our intuitive, poetic, and even romantic notions of nature's unity.

I would like to convince you to reject reductionist biology, not just because of its inherent dangers, but because there are positive, rational, ecological, life- enhancing, fulfilling, and aesthetic reasons for embracing the organic alternative.


Escape from Plato's cave

Denis Diderot (1713–1784), encyclopedist, polymath, and major figure of the French Enlightenment,
describes a dream he had after an evening spent reading Plato:

As in Plato's story, he finds himself imprisoned in a cave, sitting in the middle of a crowd of men, women, and children. Their hands and feet are in chains and their heads are clamped so they cannot look around. The majority are eating, drinking, laughing, and singing. They are not bothered in the least by their chains, even to the extent that they look with some hostility at those who try to free themselves or help others to do so. They have their backs to the entrance of the cave and are only able to look at the far end, where a great screen is hung.

Diverging from Plato's story, Diderot dreamt that standing behind him were kings, ministers, priests, doctors, apostles, prophets, theologians, politicians, rogues, charlatans, makers of illusions, and the whole troupe of merchants of hopes and fears. Every one of them has different colored slides and is projecting
onto the great screen scenes that are so lifelike that the prisoners take them to be real.

Diderot adds that if an intelligent person grows suspicious and, with painful effort and contortion, overcomes the powers that keep his head turned and scales the wall to escape from the cave, “he had better take care if he ever returns to keep his mouth shut as to what he has seen…”

Diderot is inviting us to overcome the tyranny of powers that be, and the even greater tyranny of habit to see nature in ways that are dictated by intellectual laziness, convention, and “common” sense. Today, more than two centuries later, Diderot's dream may be read as an allegory for the rejection of the mechanistic worldview: we must turn around, escape from the cave, and see and experience the real world.

The 20th century has produced revolutionary scientific developments which have exposed the grand illusion of the mechanistic universe for what it was – abstract, projected images of reality. The first upset came when Einstein's relativity theory broke up Newton's universe of absolute space and time into a multitude of space-time frames in which space and time are no longer neatly separable. Furthermore, each
space-time frame is tied to a particular observer. Thus, each observer has a unique clock and a unique map. Stranger still for Western science, quantum theory demanded that we stop seeing things as separate, solid objects with definite locations in space and time. Instead, we should see them as delocalized, indefinite, mutually entangled entities.

Two properties of quantum systems that pose the greatest difficulties for the mechanistic framework are quantum superposition and quantum non-locality. I will describe how these concepts relate to the science of the organism, but first let me explain what they are.


Schrödinger's cat

Quantum superposition is usually presented as the paradox of Schrödinger's cat (which is not at all kind to cats). In this parable, the cat is kept inside a box with an atom that has a probability to decay radioactively. When it does, it sends a signal that triggers cyanide gas to be released to kill the cat. According to quantum theory, unless and before the box is opened by someone (the observer), the cat is in a quantum superposition of being dead, being alive, and being both dead and alive simultaneously. This strange, indefinite quantum system can be described by a wave function of the quantum superposition of all the possibilities, and is real, in the sense that it can be experimentally created in many forms. However, once the indefinite quantum system is observed by a macroscopic, classical instrument such as a person, it suddenly collapses into a definite state. When the box containing Schrödinger's cat is opened, it ceases to be a quantum system, and the cat will be observed in one of two definite states: either dead or alive.

This collapse of the wave function is generally thought to represent a transition between the quantum and the classical domains – the former is a domain of elementary particles and the latter of ordinary macroscopic systems, like human beings and houses. However, not all physicists are happy with dividing the world up into quantum and classical domains. Many argue, as I do, that quantum physics actually applies to the whole of reality.


Non-local entanglement

Non-locality is usually presented as the Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen paradox (the EPR paradox).
Although Einstein contributed a lot to quantum theory, he could never accept how the theory sometimes fails to describe reality, leading to many paradoxes, including quantum superposition. The intangible, indefinite quantum state bothered him, as it continues to bother many physicists. Something told Einstein that “God does not play dice!” He assumed there must be a deeper structure underlying quantum mechanics that can represent reality without the contradictions inherent in the accepted theory.

In order to try to show that this was the case, Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen proposed a thought experiment, or gedanken experiment (which in the end overcame their objections, especially when the
experiment was actually carried out). The experiment consists of elementary particles that are prepared in pairs and are allowed to move apart in opposite directions. According to quantum theory, if we measure a property of one of the pair, such as spin, the other of the pair would have a correlated property. For example, if the first particle is measured as spin up, we would find the other to be spin down; if the first is spin left, the second would be spin right, and so on. It would be so regardless of which property is measured, and no matter how far apart the particles are when the measurements are made.

The results cannot be explained by any model that involves local interactions, say, by a signal being sent from one particle and measured by the other. Such a signal, if it exists, would have to take no time at all to travel, which is considered impossible in classical physics. The conclusion that has to be drawn is that the effect of measurement (the collapse of the wave function) of one particle is somehow instantaneously communicated to the other one. Before measurement, neither particle actually had the definite property, and the separated particles comprised a single coherent system. The particles existed in a pure state (like Schrödinger's cat), and each particle in the pair could be described with an identical wave function.

By extrapolating the experimental results, the two particles could be light-years apart and still the collapse of the wave function of one particle instantaneously collapses that of the other.

Schrödinger introduced the concept of entanglement in 1935 to describe the phenomenon of non-locality. The two particles are, so to speak, entangled with each other in a pure, coherent state. “Entangled” is such a wonderful word to describe this inseparable oneness. The two particles do not even have to be prepared
together so that they are originally one system. Experimentally, one can allow any two particles of matter, including big particles like neutrons and protons, to be produced at distant and unrelated sources. As soon as they have come together and have interacted, they become entangled with each other long after they have collided and separated. They have become one quantum system. Could it not be so for macroscopic particles like human beings?

And there is something else. It matters who does the observing and how. The potential observer and
the observed are also entangled with each other. The so-called observer actually takes part in determining the outcome. Once the intention for observing is there, the entanglement begins. For example, the moment two people decide to attend a meeting, they have become entangled with one another, even though they could be on opposite sides of the globe. And once they have interacted, they shall remain entangled with one another long afterwards, perhaps ever after.


The universe of organisms

In the aftermath of quantum theory, English philosopher Alfred North Whitehead declared that physics had to be entirely rewritten in terms of a general theory of the organism. He proposed that inert objects with simple, definite locations in space and time do not exist. Instead, all nature is alive with process and happenings. The totality of all that happens is a pattern of flows and influences, now diverging from one locus, now converging towards another in such a way that “each volume of space, or each lapse of time includes in its essence aspects of all volumes of space, or of all lapses of time.”

In Whitehead's organic universe, everything is an organism, from elementary particles such as photons and electrons to human beings and galaxies. Each organism is a field of coherent activities that draws on its experience of the environment to make itself whole, while aspects of itself are communicated to others. The realization and maintenance of self and other are thus completely intertwined. The self is delocalized over all that we experience, just as all that we experience is entangled within our being.


Crystal consciousness

Given this background, I propose that the organism is, in the ideal, a quantum superposition of coherent activities, with instantaneous, non-local intercommunication throughout the system.

My claims about the coherence of the organism are based on empirical findings from our own laboratory, as well as from established laboratories around the world. These are described in detail in the second edition of my book, The Rainbow and the Worm. Perhaps the most suggestive evidence for the coherence of the organism is our discovery, in 1992, that all living organisms are liquid crystalline.

The discovery is based on the polarized light microscopy that earth scientists have used to study mineral crystals and other materials with a high degree of molecular order, such as liquid crystals. A small modification of the optical system allowed us to look for crystalline molecular order in whole, living organisms such as the Drosophila larva, Daphnia, and brine shrimp. In this technique, color and its intensity indicate molecular structure and the degree to which the molecules are ordered. If there were no molecular order, no color would be generated in the images.

In the breathtaking color images we generated, one can see that the activities of the organism are fully coordinated in a continuum from the macroscopic to the molecular. The organism is coherent beyond our
wildest dreams. Every part is in communication with every other part through a dynamic, tunable, responsive, liquid crystalline medium that pervades the whole body, from organs and tissues to the interior
of every cell. Liquid crystallinity gives organisms their characteristic flexibility, exquisite sensitivity, and responsiveness, thus optimizing the rapid intercommunication that enables the organism to function as a coherent whole.


Life as an organism

With our new view of the coherent organism, think of each organism as an entity that is not really confined within the solid body we see. The visible body just happens to be where the wave function of the organism is most dense. Invisible quantum waves are spreading out from each one of us and permeating into all other organisms. At the same time, each of us has the waves of every other organism entangled within our own make-up.

In a very real sense, no person is alone, no man is an island. We are not isolated atoms, each jostling and competing against the rest in a Darwinian struggle for survival of the fittest. Instead each of us is supported and constituted, ultimately, by all there is in the universe. We are at home in the universe. In this entangled
universe we cannot do violence to our fellow human beings or our fellow inhabitants of the Earth without doing violence to ourselves. And the most effective way to benefit oneself may be to benefit others.

Most of all we are not impotent observers outside nature, subject to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Instead we are participants in the creation drama that is constantly unfolding. We are constantly co-creating and re-creating ourselves and other organisms in the universe, shaping our common futures, making our dreams come true, and realizing our potentials and our ideals.

---

Adapted from a speech by Mae-Wan Ho at the Bioneers conference, October 29th, 1999, and her forthcoming book, The Love of the Magician© 1999 by Mae-Wan Ho. Reprinted by permission of the author.Mae-Wan Ho,PhD is a Reader in Biology at the Open University, UK, where she researches and teaches the physics of organisms and sustainable systems. She has over 150 publications including her influential book, The Rainbow and the Worm: The Physics of Organisms.

Holism in science

Holism in science, or Holistic science, is an approach to research that emphasizes the study of complex systems. This practice is in contrast to a purely analytic tradition (sometimes called reductionism) which aims to gain understanding of systems by dividing them into smaller composing elements and gaining understanding of the system through understanding their elemental properties. The holism-reductionism dichotomy is often evident in conflicting interpretations of experimental findings and in setting priorities for future research.

Contents  [hide]  1 Overview 2 Topics in Holism in science 2.1 Alternative to reductionism 2.2 Opposing views 3 Applications of holism in science 3.1 Cognitive science 3.2 Quantum physics 3.3 Biology 3.4 Other examples 4 The study of holism in science 4.1 Writers on holistic science 4.2 Holistic science in academe 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Overview

Holism in science is an approach to research that emphasizes the study of complex systems.^{[citation needed]} Two central aspects are:

1. the way of doing science, sometimes called "whole to parts," which focuses on observation of the specimen within its ecosystem first before breaking down to study any part of the specimen.
2. the idea that the scientist is not a passive observer of an external universe; that there is no 'objective truth,' but that the individual is in a reciprocal, participatory relationship with nature, and that the observer's contribution to the process is valuable.

The term holistic science has been used^[who?] as a category encompassing a number of scientific research fields (see some examples below). The term may not have a precise definition. Fields of scientific research considered potentially holistic do however have certain things in common.^{[original research?]}
First, they are multidisciplinary. Second, they are concerned with the behavior of complex systems. Third, they recognize feedback within systems as a crucial element for understanding their behavior.
The Nature Institute, a research institute in holistic science, describes the necessity for Holism in science as follows

Modern science has increasingly moved out of nature and into the laboratory, driven by a desire to find an underlying mechanistic basis of life. Despite all its success, this approach is one-sided and urgently calls for a counterbalancing movement toward nature. Only if we find ways of transforming our propensity to view and control nature in terms of parts and mechanisms, will we be able to see, value, and protect the integrity of nature and the interconnectedness of all things. This demands a contextual way of seeing." "About the Nature Institute". Archived from the original on November 23, 2010. http://www.natureinstitute.org/about/index.htm. Retrieved December 23, 2010.

The Santa Fe Institute, a center of holistic scientific research^{[dubious – discuss]} in the United States, expresses it like this:

The two dominant characteristics of the SFI research style are commitment to a multidisciplinary approach and an emphasis on the study of problems that involve complex interactions among their constituent parts. "Santa Fe Institute's Research Topics". Archived from the original on January 15, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060115042406/http://www.santafe.edu/research/indexResearchAreas.php. Retrieved January 22, 2006.

[edit] Topics in Holism in science

[edit] Alternative to reductionism

The holistic premise is that there is a possible qualitative difference between an entire system and its parts: that modularisation may fail. As applied to science, holists may generally assert that this difference can warrant the kind of rigorous scrutiny typical of scientific inquiry. The distinction of approach then lies not so much in the subjects chosen for study, but in the methods and assumptions used to study them.
Though considered by some^[who?] as alternative, holistic methods are not generally at odds with the classical scientific method.^{[citation needed]} Where holistic scientists come from a standard science background, holistic work in science tends to be, to varying degrees, a marriage of the two approaches.^{[citation needed]} For example gestalt psychology grew out of early experimental psychology.^{[improper synthesis?]} When the terms are used constructively in the science context, holism and reductionism refer to how empirical evidence is interpreted, and not only to the methods used to produce such evidence.

[edit] Opposing views

Holistic science is controversial. One opposing view is that holistic science is "pseudoscience" because it does not rigorously follow the scientific method despite the use of a scientific-sounding language. Bunge (1983) and Lilienfeld et al. (2003) state that proponents of pseudoscientific claims, especially in organic medicine, alternative medicine, naturopathy and mental health, often resort to the “mantra of holism” to explain negative findings or to immunise their claims against testing. Stenger (1999) states that "holistic healing is associated with the rejection of classical, Newtonian physics. Yet, holistic healing retains many ideas from eighteenth and nineteenth century physics. Its proponents are blissfully unaware that these ideas, especially superluminal holism, have been rejected by modern physics as well".
Science journalist John Horgan has expressed this view in the book The End of Science 1996. He wrote that a certain pervasive model within holistic science, self-organized criticality, for example, "is not really a theory at all. Like punctuated equilibrium, self-organized criticality is merely a description, one of many, of the random fluctuations, the noise, permeating nature." By the theorists' own admissions, he said, such a model "can generate neither specific predictions about nature nor meaningful insights. What good is it, then?"
One of the reasons that holistic science attracts supporters is that it seems to offer a progressive, 'socio-ecological' view of the world, but Alan Marshall's book The Unity of Nature offers evidence to the contrary; suggesting holism in science is not 'ecological' or 'socially-responsive' at all, but regressive and repressive.

[edit] Applications of holism in science

Some scientific disciplines are affected by the holistic paradigm.

[edit] Cognitive science

The field of cognitive science, or the study of mind and intelligence has some examples for holistic approaches. These include Unified Theory of Cognition^{[improper synthesis?]} (Allen Newell, e.g. Soar, ACT-R as models) and many others, many of which rely on the concept of emergence, i.e. the interplay of many entities make up a functioning whole. Another example is psychological nativism, the study of the innate structure of the mind. Non-holistic functionalist approaches within cognitive science include e.g. the modularity of mind paradigm.^{[clarification needed]}
Cognitive science need not concern only human cognition. Biologist Marc Bekoff has done holistic, interdisciplinary scientific research in animal cognition and has published a book about it (see below).

[edit] Quantum physics

In the standard Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics there is a holism of the measurement situation,^{[improper synthesis?]} in which there is a holism of apparatus and object. There is an "uncontrollable disturbance" of the measured object by the act of measurement according to Niels Bohr. It is impossible to separate the effect of the measuring apparatus from the object measured. The observer-measurement relation is an active area of research today: see Quantum decoherence, Quantum Zeno effect and Measurement problem.
In the holistic approach of David Bohm, any collection of quantum objects constitutes an indivisible whole within an implicate and explicate order.^[1][2]
Bohm pointed out that there is no scientific evidence to support the dominant view that the universe consists of a huge, finite number of minute particles, and offered in its stead a view of undivided wholeness: "ultimately, the entire universe (with all its 'particles,' including those constituting human beings, their laboratories, observing instruments, etc) has to be understood as a single undivided whole, in which analysis into separately and independently existent parts has no fundamental status." ^[3]

[edit] Biology

Holistic science sometimes asks different questions than a strictly analytic science^{[clarification needed]} — as is exemplified by Goethe in the following passage:

We conceive of the individual animal as a small world, existing for its own sake, by its own means. Every creature is its own reason to be. All its parts have a direct effect on one another, a relationship to one another, thereby constantly renewing the circle of life; thus we are justified in considering every animal physiologically perfect. Viewed from within, no part of the animal is a useless or arbitrary product of the formative impulse (as so often thought). Externally, some parts may seem useless because the inner coherence of the animal nature has given them this form without regard to outer circumstance. Thus…[not] the question, What are they for? but rather, Where do they come from? (Goethe, Scientific Studies, Suhrkamp ed., vol 12, p. 121; trans. Douglas Miller)

[edit] Other examples

This section may contain original research. (April 2009)

• Ecology, or ecological science, i.e. studying the ecology at levels ranging from populations, communities, and ecosystems up to the biosphere as a whole.
• The study of climate change in the wider context of Earth science (and Earth system science in particular) can be considered holistic science, as the climate (and the Earth itself) constitutes a complex system to which the scientific method cannot be applied using current technology. The first scientist to seriously propose this was James Lovelock. [1] (URL accessed on 28 November 2006)
• In system dynamics modeling, a field that originated at MIT, a holistic controlling paradigm organizes scientific method,^{[clarification needed]} but uses the results of reductionist science to define static relationships between variables in a modeling procedure that permits simulation of the dynamics of the system under study. As mentioned above, feedback is a crucial tool for understanding system dynamics. [2]
• Another example of how holistic and reductionist science can be mutually supportive and cooperative is free-choice profiling.^{[citation needed]}
• As an example of interdisciplinary holistic research. Joe L. Kincheloe, in his work in critical pedagogy, has employed complexity and holism in science to overcome reductionism.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] The study of holism in science

[edit] Writers on holistic science

Goethe, who developed a holistic methodology outlines this method in the essay, The experiment as mediator between subject and object (1772). In the Kurschner edition of Goethe's works, the science editor, Rudolf Steiner, presents Goethe's approach to science as phenomenological, and lays the groundwork for a holistic epistemology in the books The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World-Conception^[4] and Goethe's World View,.^[5]

This article may contain excessive, poor or irrelevant examples. Please improve the article by adding more descriptive text and removing less pertinent examples. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for further suggestions. (May 2010)

The following have written influential books which treat non-reductionist or holistic science:

• Marc Bekoff, American biologist and cognitive ethologist, author of Species of Mind (with philosopher Colin Allen)
• Henri Bortoft, physicist who did postgraduate research on the problem of wholeness in quantum physics with David Bohm, wrote The Wholeness of Nature: Goethe's Way Toward a Science of Conscious Participation in Nature on Goethean Science
• Kenneth E. Boulding, economist and system scientist
• Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955), French paleontologist, biologist, philosopher
• Laurence W. Evans, Author of Nature's Holism that looks at holism through the coevolutionary process
• Murray Gell-Mann, physicist and Nobel laureate, wrote The Quark and the Jaguar, Adventures in the Simple and the Complex on complexity
• Richard Lewontin biologist supporting the theory of group selection and that evolutionary theory must include the feedback loop where the organism actively creates its own ecological niche.
• James Lovelock, scientist and writer
• Alan Marshall, who wrote at great length about all of those listed here in his 2002 book titled 'The Unity of Nature' (Imperial College Press).
• Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela Chilean biologists which developed the concept of autopoiesis
• Ilya Prigogine, Belgian physicist, chemist, and writer, 1977 Nobel laureate in chemistry
• Alexander Rosenberg philosopher of science
• Rolf Sattler, biologist, author of Biophilosophy: Analytic and Holistic Perspectives and other publications on holism.
• Francisco Varela (1946–2001), Chilean biologist
• Alfred North Whitehead mathematician, physicist, and philosopher
• Stephen Wolfram, author of A New Kind of Science
• F. David Peat, holistic physicist and author

[edit] Holistic science in academe

Perhaps due to the inherent multidisciplinary nature of holistic science, academic institutions have been slow to come forward with degree programs for it.^{[original research?]} Those that have done so include Schumacher College in the UK, which offers an MSc degree program in Holistic Science. Several universities have set up centers dedicated to one or more scientific fields where holistic approaches are common. These include the University of Michigan's Center for the Study of Complex Systems, Princeton University's Global Consciousness Project, Rice University's Cognitive Sciences Program, the London Metropolitan University's Centre for Postsecular Studies, and the Hang Seng Centre for Cognitive Studies in Sheffield.
There are also several non-university academic institutions and societies that are dedicated to holistic science or open to holistic ideas. For example, Santa Fe Institute, the Scientific and Medical Network (in Europe), the Pari Center for New Learning (in Italy), and the System Dynamics Society in Albany, New York. There is also the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Petaluma, California. Brazil has its Willis Harman House in São Paulo.

[edit] See also

Articles related to holism Cognitive science Complex systems Holarchy Holism Holism in ecological anthropology Holism in science Holistic health Holon (philosophy) Philosophy of biology Scientific reductionism Systems thinking Antireductionism

Systems science portal Articles related to classification of scientific endeavors Cartesian anxiety Demarcation problem Hard science Philosophy of science Pseudoscience Romanticism in science Science wars

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Richard Healey: Holism and Nonseparability in Physics (Spring 2009 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), first published July 22, 1999; substantive revision December 10, 2008, Stanford Encycopledia of Philisophy. Section: Ontological Holism in Quantum Mechanics? (retrieved June 3, 2011)
2. ^ David Bohm, Basil Hiley: The Undivided Universe: An Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Theory, Routledge, 1993, ISBN 0-415-06588-7.
3. ^ David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order, London: Routledge, 2002, p.221
4. ^ "The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World Conception". http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA002/English/AP1985/GA002_index.html. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
5. ^ "Goethe's World View". http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA006/English/MP1985/GA006_index.html. Retrieved 2008-08-28.

[edit] References

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2009)

• Paul Davies and John Gribbin. The Matter Myth: Dramatic Discoveries That Challenge Our Understanding of Physical Reality, 1992, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-671-72841-5
• Henri Bortoft. The Wholeness of Nature: Goethe's Way Toward a Science of Participation in Nature, 1996, Lindisfarne Books, ISBN 0-940262-79-7
• Joe L. Kincheloe. Critical Constructivism, 2005. NY, Peter Lang.
• Joe L. Kincheloe. Teachers as Researchers: Qualitative Paths to Empowerment. 2nd ed, 2003, London, Falmer.
• Joe L. Kincheloe and Kathleen Berry, Rigor and Complexity in Qualitative Research: Constructing the Bricolage, 2004, London, Open University Press.
• Humberto R. Maturana and Francisco Varela. The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding, 1992, Shambhala, ISBN 0-87773-642-1
• Ilya Prigogine & Isabelle Stengers, Order out of Chaos: Man's new dialogue with nature, 1984, Flamingo, ISBN 0-00-654115-1
• Article "What is the Proper Relationship of Holistic and Reductionist Science?" by Karl North
• Article "The Fine Line: (W)holism and Science" by Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D.
• Article "A New Image of Cosmos & Anthropos: From Ancient Wisdom to a Philosophy of Wholeness" by Michael R. Meyer
• Excerpts from Holistic Science — towards a second Renaissance by R.J.C. Wilding (unpublished book in process)
• Article "Concerning the Spiritual in Art and Science" by Mike King (available on-line)
• Article "Patterns of Wholeness: Introducing Holistic Science" by Brian Goodwin, from the journal Resurgence
• Article "From Control to Participation" by Brian Goodwin, from the journal Resurgence
• System Dynamics Resource Page at Arizona State University, hosted by Craig W. Kirkwood
• Introduction to Goethe's Way of Science: A Phenomenology of Nature, edited by David Seamon and Arthur Zajonc. State University of New York Press, 1998
• Bunge.M., Demarcating Science from Pseudoscience. Fundamenta Scientiae, 1982, Vo. 3, No. 3/4, pg. 369-88
• Lilienfeld,S.O. et al. (Eds.): Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology. New York / London 2003
• Olival Freire, Jr.: Science and exile: David Bohm, the hot times of the Cold War, and his struggle for a new interpretation of quantum mechanics (Online article)
• Definition of System Dynamics and Systems Thinking, on System Dynamics Society homepage
• Stenger.V.J., (1999) The Physics of 'Alternative Medicine'. The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine Spring/Summer 1999 Volume 3 ~ Number 1

[edit] External links

This article may contain improper references to self-published sources. Please help improve it by removing references to unreliable sources, where they are used inappropriately. (March 2008)

• The Nature Institute
• Santa Fe Institute
• International Society for the System Sciences
• Schumacher College
• Center for the Study of Complex Systems at the University of Michigan
• Rice Cognitive Sciences Program
• The Scientific and Medical Network
• Princeton University Global Consciousness Project
• Centre for Postsecular Studies at the London Metropolitan University
• The System Dynamics Society
• VERITAS Research Program
• CAHRC Research In Quantum Number Theory
• Institute of Noetic Sciences website
• Janus Head - Goethe's Delicate Empiricism

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