David Bohm and F. David Peat explored the meaning of order in Science, Order, and Creativity. They investigated order in science, creativity, and life in general. Our values, and the ways in which we perceive the world, communicate, and act are held in particular kinds of order.
To live within the context of a given order is to exercise a particular perception of the world. Order becomes the basis of behaviour, action, communication, and motivation. This does not mean that a particular order acts causally to produce these effects, but rather the whole spectrum of a person’s (and a society’s) values, motivations, perceptions, and communication actually is that order.
—David Bohm & F. David Peat, Science, Order, and Creativity, p. 281.
Bohm and Peat propose that conflicts within society, and within ourselves, can be traced to contradictions deep within order. What is most significant is not a new idea or theory, but the transformation of order.
Bohm and Peat emphasize that order itself should not be thought of as being single and well-defined. Rather it is a nesting of several different orders. Ideas flow out of order and then feed back to in-form it. Order that is not open to conscious introspection is restraining us.
The orders within which we live are deeply entwined and enfolded in other orders. Some of them reach down into the human body. Only limited aspects of this deeper order can be made available at any one time for conscious reflection and explicitly shared communication.
When Bohm and Peat speak about the need to transform order, it must take place at many levels at once, including verbal reflection and felt sense. A change in order involves a major perceptual shift. While it is always possible to bring certain insights into conscious awareness, others remain hidden.
A new idea often appears more or less complete. Only later are the logical steps constructed. Thinking includes, but also goes beyond the verbal, and the visual, into bodily experience. Thinking always includes components that are not available for introspection. Thinking cannot be reduced to logical algorithms.
Free and open communication is important. Indigenous societies give significance to talking circles where each person can talk directly from the heart. Their views are heard with respect. Disputes do not dissolve into arguments between factions. A person never leaves the circle until resolution is reached. Conflicts are acknowledged openly. Emphasis is placed on the harmony of the group. There is a shared sense of meaning.
When we say that a particular order…is entrenched, we mean that it is manifest not only in the way people, see think, speak, and act but also in the bricks and stone of their buildings and in the global flow of their electronic data.
—David Bohm & F. David Peat, Science, Order, and Creativity, p. 292.
Order not only resides within an individual. It is enfolded within language and how it is used in different contexts. Order is manifest within the way an organization is structured. It is present in the architecture of the building. A change of order involves a change of perception of the meaning we give to all these structures.
A deeper scientific order contains other orders as limiting cases, for example the orders of quantum theory and relativity. A deeper social order provides a deeper and shared sense of meaning that allows a society to live in a relatively harmonious way.
A particular order determines the way a society acts and the values it holds most important. Resolving environmental and societal issues does not so much involve the need for new technology and new legislation as a change of consciousness. This implies a major transformation in the deeper order of human society.
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