E-Book Content
The Foundations of Science: The Missing Parameter Arthur M. Young
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Y65 1985
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BROADSIDE EDITIONS
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THEFOLINDATIONS OFSC Missing Parameter summ artzt vincingly spelled out in Arthu REFLEXIVE UNIVERSE anc TRYOFMEANING. Therea somerhing crucial is lacking ir world view is widespread, Eur back on gen eralizations. In contrast, young,s targeting is precise, his evidence detailed. science-, he demonstrates, has failed to grasp th. fundamental orga nizingrore of the ;;;;'rum of action, or photon, which has the measure formula of angular moqentum (mlzltl anJgoverns the countlesscycles of action tlrrorgi which cosmos and consciousness evolvel Here, he argu-es, we find ourselves unavoidrbit confronted with the underlying purposefulness of the univers e. Examini, g .o"'rrtri b u ti o iro * Planck and Heisenberg]fro* Bateson", and Bohm and szent-Gyor#i, young provides an overview of the effects of quarrt,r* physics and the consciousness movement on the history of science . . . . Essential reading for anyone perplexed about the nature of reility.
$ grduate of Princeton university Arthur
Yt. Young, deyeloper and design ei'of ,h. Bell lglicopter, is the author of Tb; Reflexiie uniugrse, and The Geometry of Meani,nrg and founder of the Institute-for the Studj, of consciousness in Berkeley, california.
RosERr BrucGS AssocrArEs ISBN#
0-931191_03_3
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE: The Missing Parameter
Arthur M. Young
ROBERT BRIGGS ASSOCIATES SAN FRANCISCO
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE was originally titled "Are the Foundations of Science Inadequate?" and published in Vol. 7, No. 1, of ReVision. It is reprinted here with the kind permission of ReVision. All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publishers, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a written review for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper or broadcast. Copyright © 1984 ReVision Printed in the U.S.A. Published by Robert Briggs Associates Box 9 Mill Valley, California 94942 Designed by Mark Ong First Broadside Edition 1985 ISBN# 0-931191-03-3 '>
The recent interest in a cosmology or paradigm which can explain man and life has rarely been accompanied by any attempt to criticize or restructure science. However, in recent years several eminent scientists have expressed the need in science for a recognition of something other than the parameters mass, length, and time, which have so far served as the foundations of physics. These criticims strike at the core of science and have an important bearing on its implications, especially for man and his place in the universe. My two books, The Reflexive Universe (1976) and The Geometry of Meaning (1976), written in the early 1960s, were based on my sense of this need in physics and other sciences. The following gives a brief account of the growth of science and its cleavage of our culture, then comments on the consciousness movement and on the contributions thereto which come closest to my own ideas, thereby giving the reader an introduction to my theory of process. Then I shall quote from several well-known scientists who, independently of the consciousness movement, have indicated the need in science for what amounts to an added parameter. I shall conclude with what I believe this parameter to be. Over the 300-odd years since the origin of modern science (in Newton and the Copernican revolution), there has been, of course, criticism of science. Blake rebuked Newton for his single vision; Bergson proposed that evolution could only be accounted for by what he called an elan vital; and countless others claimed that science simpl