Some Thoughts on the Eastern Perspective

A characteristic of Eastern philosophy is that it relates material and contextual causes for phenomena and existence respectively. These two domains are seen as complementary aspects of each other and an implicit whole’ that is more than either. The implicit larger framework, which is obviously inclusive of both the atomistic and (I will say) “contextualistic” views, is known by the metaphysical idea of ‘non-duality’ in Eastern philosophy. But this concept remains rather foreign to most mainstream science, except in specific fields such as quantum theory (e.g., wave-particle duality and the quantum void). Nevertheless, the same general causality template, consisting of four causal aspects of a system, seems to apply to life and complex systems from the cosmos to society.

The IFSR Team 6 Framework developed last Spring in Linz (see post) reflects that complementary relation and holism, and it can be easily referenced to PAR cycles; which may thus be taken more generally. It also relates to over a dozen frameworks existing in management, philosophy, cosmology, native cultures, and environmental/ecosystem assessment frameworks in common use. It also corresponds with Rosen’s and Schroedinger’s concepts of complexity and life, particularly Rosen’s “modeling relation” and the holon view that I’ve been working on. This is an intriguing connection raising the possibility of a universal analytical framework.

I am not mentioning this to promote a specific view or imply some orthodoxy — I realize we have and must have for now a heterodoxy, one that David is working to map conceptually. However, I do suggest it as a target – a way of suggesting that such a generality is possible and setting some intention for the conference to search for it — a pointer, if you will.

This brings me to the point of this email, that I am considering two options in focusing the conference plan. One is as we have seen, focusing on addressing a global issue in sustainability via emerging disciplines associated with Anticipatory Science/Thinking, Crisis Science/Thinking, and Resilience Science/Thinking. This gives an “external” direction as to what social benefit we are addressing. In that case