My lecture, the “Dialectical Laboratory ” (see the "lectures" section of this website) , was given as a sort of parting statement to the St. John’s College community in Santa Fe. But though directed to the college, and expressed by way of references to certain of the “great books” of that tradition, its message is of far broader import. The “dialectical” issue – meaning, a watershed of western thought – is between a science based on mechanical actions between disparate parts, and a holistic science in which wholeness is respected, and whole systems are regarded as fundamental, not as mere aggregations of parts.
Each of these two very different scientific approaches has its rigorous theory, and either can be used to solve engineering problems. But conceptually they are worlds apart, and I am convinced it’s crucial that we follow the way of holism, and learn, before it’s too late, to appreciate and work with systems – from the least living organism to the global environment – which are more than the sum of mechanical parts. Science is moving in this direction, but there is now no time to lose!
Comments on these remarks, as well as on the lecture itself, will be welcome in reponse to this posting.