Ecology, physics, process philosophies, Buddhism, Daoism, and language: A case study of William Golding’s The Inheritors and Pincher Martin

Much has been written about the ecological perspectives of Buddhism and Daoism, as examples of philosophies which emphasize process, impermanence, interconnectedness, and compassion for nature. And the interconnectedness of the various elements of the biosphere and the Earth’s crust is the basis of ecological Gaia theory. Some physicists and process philosophers have drawn attention to the inadequacies of European languages to represent the world of quantum reality, radical undifferentiated wholeness and interconnectedness, and the dynamism and uncontrollability of the material world. Notable among these were physicists David Bohm and David Peat, who looked to Blackfoot, an Algonquin language of North America, for a better representation of the natural world as interacting processes. This article explores some of the commonalities between Buddhism/Daoism, process philosophies, modern physics and ecological theory. It then addresses the question of the affordances different languages and grammars provide for a deep ecological representation in tune with quantum physics and Buddhism/Daoism. The climax of the article starts with the work of Michael Halliday on the local grammar of William Golding’s The Inheritors (Golding, William. 1961 [1955]. The Inheritors. London: Faber), and performs a similar grammatical analysis of two passages from Golding’s later work Pincher Martin (Golding, William. 1956. Pincher Martin. London: Faber). It concludes that the Neanderthal mind style and life style in The Inheritors and the world of the drowning Pincher Martin are represented in a grammatical style more appropriate for a Buddhist/Daoist/quantum physics/deep ecological worldview of human interaction with the natural world.

Opportunity-as-Hologram, real or artificial in Entrepreneurship

<div> <div> <div> <p>Entrepreneurship concerns actions under uncertainties. Situated within that uncertainties are opportunities that entrepreneurs seek. How are these opportunities seen? Within the entrepreneurial opportunities are seeds with potentialities. Potentialities for profits. They are the reasons that entrepreneurs act up to exploit and to set in motion the entrepreneurial emergence. The intentionality follows with construction of a coherent set of activities or incoherent intuitive moves to pursue the opportunity, including injecting resources and mobilizing social and material networks. How are opportunities discovered, and perceived? The current academic debates feature discovery and creation. Are they existing independently, with pre-existing reality, even without being observed? Or as some argued that opportunities are not pre-existing in space and time with an objective existence but are subjectively and socially constructed. On contact with such opportunities, what spur entrepreneurs to act and what are the forces at work? Are they real or artificial? Can they be holographic representation and provide cues and signals to entrepreneurs to act? Can opportunity-as-hologram explains how entrepreneurs get inspired and motivated to pursuing the opportunities? </p> <p>This paper will explore, revisit and recast perspectives on opportunities and addressing the subtle conceptual issues at the core of entrepreneurship theories that hold the two views, discovery and creation of opportunities to be both valid and mutually non-exclusive, on holographic terms. In the discussion, this paper will explore implicate order and explicate order which are quantum theory concepts theorized by physicist David Bohm as these theories were developed to explain the bizarre and unpredictable behaviours of subatomic particles, which have strong semblance to the same free-spiritedness and free-will self-organization behaviours of entrepreneurs. </p> <p>Our theorization will have implications for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial researches relating to quantum science references. </p> </div> </div> </div>

Opportunity-as-Hologram, real or artificial in Entrepreneurship

<div> <div> <div> <p>Entrepreneurship concerns actions under uncertainties. Situated within that uncertainties are opportunities that entrepreneurs seek. How are these opportunities seen? Within the entrepreneurial opportunities are seeds with potentialities. Potentialities for profits. They are the reasons that entrepreneurs act up to exploit and to set in motion the entrepreneurial emergence. The intentionality follows with construction of a coherent set of activities or incoherent intuitive moves to pursue the opportunity, including injecting resources and mobilizing social and material networks. How are opportunities discovered, and perceived? The current academic debates feature discovery and creation. Are they existing independently, with pre-existing reality, even without being observed? Or as some argued that opportunities are not pre-existing in space and time with an objective existence but are subjectively and socially constructed. On contact with such opportunities, what spur entrepreneurs to act and what are the forces at work? Are they real or artificial? Can they be holographic representation and provide cues and signals to entrepreneurs to act? Can opportunity-as-hologram explains how entrepreneurs get inspired and motivated to pursuing the opportunities? </p> <p>This paper will explore, revisit and recast perspectives on opportunities and addressing the subtle conceptual issues at the core of entrepreneurship theories that hold the two views, discovery and creation of opportunities to be both valid and mutually non-exclusive, on holographic terms. In the discussion, this paper will explore implicate order and explicate order which are quantum theory concepts theorized by physicist David Bohm as these theories were developed to explain the bizarre and unpredictable behaviours of subatomic particles, which have strong semblance to the same free-spiritedness and free-will self-organization behaviours of entrepreneurs. </p> <p>Our theorization will have implications for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial researches relating to quantum science references. </p> </div> </div> </div>

God, Time, and the Implicate Order Theory

In this article, the God’s relationship to time is viewed from the perspective of modern physics. The purpose is to examine new perspectives by introducing a theory of time that has been unexplored in contemporary theology. The paper begins with an analysis of the two competing views of God’s relationship to time: timelessness and temporality. They are reviewed from the perspective of the special theory of relativity. In contemporary theology, God’s timelessness is usually combined with the block universe theory, which is based on the concept of unchanging spacetime. God’s temporality is usually associated with presentism, which denies the concept of spacetime. This division reflects a central conflict in physics: the mainstream interpretation of the special theory of relativity treats time as unchanging spacetime, while quantum physics treats time as dynamic and flowing. To resolve this conflict between the ontologies of the special theory of relativity and quantum physics, the implicate order theory is introduced. The implicate order theory was developed by David Bohm (1917–1992), one of the most visionary physicists of the 20th century. After introducing the theory, it is applied to the context of God’s relationship to time. This produces interesting new opportunities for theological research.

Bohm`s Quantum Potential Approach to Consciousness from the Perspective of a Four-Valued Logic

Parallel to David Bohm´s development of a realistic interpretation of quantum physics, German philosopher and logician Gotthard Günther worked on a generalization of the classical two-valued logic to satisfy the ontological requirements of quantum physics as well as of cybernetics. Both of these new disciplines introduced information and consciousness into the terminology of science. These terms and concepts need to be reflected in logic, ontology and the theory of science. David Bohm suggested an expansion of his own model by generalization and iteration of the quantum potential to include consciousness and mental states into a new psycho-physical theory. This article proposes Günther´s four-valued logical system of meaning/reflection as a theoretical scientific frame for this expansion of Bohm´s theory and discusses its ontological implications.

Does Developing Moral Thinking Skills Lead to Moral Action?

This paper explores the relationship between thinking and acting morally. Can we transfer critical thinking skills to real life situations? Philosophical practice with clients as well as with school children creates a context for not only being a critical and reflective thinker but also a self -critical thinker and self -reflective thinker. In his book On Dialogue, David Bohm explores the notion of proprioception of thinking; focusing on thinking as a movement. The tacit, concrete process of thinking informs our actions in a way that rational thinking by itself cannot. We can try to impose rational thinking on our tacit, concrete process of thinking but knowing how to be just abstractly, for example, does not necessarily make us act justly in the moment. Philosophical practice puts us in touch with our own tacit, concrete process of thinking. Through dialogue (Bohm, Buber) we become more than skilled rational thinkers ; we become skilled thinking beings.

Creativity in science and the ‘anthropological turn’ in virtue theory

I argue that philosophical studies of the virtues of creativity should attend to the ways that our conceptions of human creativity may be grounded in conceptions of human nature or the nature of reality. I consider and reject claims in this direction made by David Bohm and Paul Feyerabend. The more compelling candidate is the account of science, creativity, and human nature developed by the early Marx. Its guiding claim is that the forms of creativity enabled by the sciences are ultimately valuable insofar as they advance our emancipation from a state of existential alienation. I end by encouraging future investigations of such vertical explanations of the significance of certain virtues in the context of scientific enquiry.

Biografia como gênero na história das ciências – O caso do físico David Bohm (1917-1992)

Neste artigo, analisamos os desafios historiográficos relacionados à produção de biografias no âmbito da História da Ciência. Em especial, discutimos as ideias apresentadas pelo historiador francês Jacques Le Goff (1924-2014) em seu livro São Luís, publicado em 1996. Essa análise, de natureza teórica e metodológica, é cotejada com o esboço panorâmico da biografia do físico norte-americano David Bohm (1917- 1992), recentemente publicada sob o título David Bohm – A Life Dedicated to Understanding the Quantum World. O tema tem relevância também para a história da ciência no Brasil, uma vez que nosso personagem lecionou na Universidade de São Paulo (USP) entre fins de 1951 e início de 1955.