Conatus: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

Form Emerges from Formlessness

The universe started as one thing (Chaos, Formlessness, The One) and has generated — or continues to generate — the multiple things of which we are aware (Order, Form, Being, The Many). There is thus the idea that there is a holism that starts from the ultimate Oneness of the universe through to individual centres of consciousness. All of this could be conceived without the need for a religious or spiritual interpretation of the universe. Or it could be conceived in ways that complement and do not contradict religious beliefs. This, if you like, is the view from the top, down.

Emergence

There are, as we noted above, what we might call trends in scientific thought. Some of the trends are especially puzzling. I just want to mention two trends that are pertinent to the discussion here. One is the dislike of the notion of holism — the idea that everything is connected in a kind of ‘interbeing’. The second trend is a dislike of the notion of hierarchy. I’m not going to argue the case for why I think these two ideas — holism and hierarchy — are important. I’m just going to proceed on the basis that they are useful — indeed, essential — terms. A familiar phrase includes both: The whole is more than the sum of the parts. This ‘more than the sum of the parts’ thing goes by the name of emergence.

There is a familiar and accepted view of

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