David Bohm proposed a radically new conception of order, and in doing so made a distinction between the implicate and explicate order, which he characterised as follows:
- In the enfolded [or implicate] order, space and time are no longer the dominant factors determining the relationships of dependence or independence of different elements. Rather, an entirely different sort of basic connection of elements is possible, from which our ordinary notions of space and time, along with those of separately existent material particles, are abstracted as forms derived from the deeper order. These ordinary notions in fact appear in what is called the "explicate" or "unfolded" order, which is a special and distinguished form contained within the general totality of all the implicate orders (Bohm, 1980, p. xv).
Radical challenges to prevailing views
In proposing this new notion of order, Bohm proposed genuinely radical challenges to prevalent deep-rooted presuppositions, particularly those evident in physics, including:
- The presupposition that phenomena are reducible to fundamental particles and laws describing the behaviour of particles, or more generally to any static entities, whether separate events in space-time, quantum states, or static entities of some other nature
- Related to (1), the presupposition that mathematical prediction of statistical aggregates is what human knowledge is most fundamentally concerned with
- Also related to (1) and (2), the presupposition that an analysis or description of any aspect of reality (e.g. quantum theory, the speed of light) can be unlimited in its ___domain of relevance
- Related to (1) through (3), the presupposition that the Cartesian coordinate system, or its extension to a curvilinear system, is the deepest conception of underlying order as a basis for analysis and description of the world
- The presupposition that there is ultimately a sustainable distinction between reality and thought, and the corresponding presupposition of a fundamental distinction between observer and observed in an experiment or any other situation (other than a distinction between relatively separate entities valid in the sense of explicate order)
- The presupposition that it is, in principle, possible to formulate a final notion concerning the nature of reality; e.g. a Theory of Everything
Bohm’s proposals have, somewhat ironically, often been dismissed either largely or entirely on the basis of such presuppositions, apparently without due consideration for, and scrutiny of, the inherent challenges presented by his contestations.
Bohm’s paradigm is inherently antithetical to reductionism, in most forms, and accordingly can be regarded as a form of ontological holism. On this, Bohm noted of prevailing views among physicists: "the world is assumed to be constituted of a set of separately existent, indivisible and unchangeable 'elementary particles', which are the fundamental 'building blocks' of the entire universe … there seems to be an unshakable faith among physicists that either such particles, or some other kind yet to be discovered, will eventually make possible a complete and coherent explanation of everything" (Bohm, 1980, p. 173).
In Bohm’s conception of order, then, primacy is given to the undivided whole, and the implicate order inherent within the whole, rather than to 'parts' of the whole, such as particles, quantum states, and continua. The whole encompasses all things, structures, abstractions and processes, including processes that result in (relatively) stable structures as well as those that involve metamorphosis of structures or things. Importantly, parts may be entities normally regarded as physical, such as atoms or sub-atomic particles, but they may also be abstract entities, such as quantum states. Whatever their nature and character, these parts are considered in terms of the whole, and in such terms, they constitute relatively autonomous and independent "sub-totalities". The implication is that nothing is entirely separate or autonomous.
Bohm (1980, p. 11) said: "The new form of insight can perhaps best be called Undivided Wholeness in Flowing Movement. This view implies that flow is, in some sense, prior to that of the ‘things’ that can be seen to form and dissolve in this flow". According to Bohm, a vivid image of this is afforded by vortex structures in a flowing stream. Such vortices can be relatively stable patterns within a continuous flow, but such an analysis does not imply that the flow patterns have any sharp division, or that they are literally separate and independently existent entities; rather, they are (most fundamentally) undivided. Thus, according to Bohm’s view, the whole is in continuous flux and hence is referred to as the holomovement (movement of the whole).
Quantum theory and relativity theory
A key motivation for proposing a new notion of order was the incompatibility of quantum theory with relativity theory, in terms of certain experimental contexts and corresponding analytic context. Bohm (1980, p. xv) summarised the situation in the following terms:
- …in relativity, movement is continuous, causally determinate and well defined, while in quantum mechanics it is discontinuous, not causally determinate and not well-defined. Each theory it committed to its own notions of essentially static and fragmentary modes of existence (relatively to that of separate events connectable by signals, and quantum mechanics to a well-defined quantum state). One thus sees that a new kind of theory is needed which drops these basic commitments and at most recovers some essential features of the older theories as abstract forms derived from a deeper reality in which what prevails is unbroken wholeness.
Bohm maintained that relativity and quantum theory are in basic contradiction, and that a new notion of order should begin with that which both point toward: undivided wholeness. This should not be taken to imply that he thought such powerful theories should be discarded: rather, he argued that each was relevant in a certain context (in the explicate order) rather than having unlimited relevance, and that apparent contradictions stem from attempts to overgeneralize by superposing the theories on one another (implying greater generality than is warranted).
The hologram as metaphor for the implicate order
Bohm employs the hologram as a means of characterizing implicate order, noting that each region of a photographic plate in which a hologram is observable contains within it the whole three-dimensional image, which can be viewed from a range of perspectives. That is, each region contains a whole and undivided image. In Bohm’s words: "There is the germ of a new notion of order here. This order is not to be understood solely in terms of a regular arrangement of objects (eg., in rows) or as a regular arrangement of events (e.g. in a series). Rather, a total order is contained, in some implicit sense, in each region of space and time. Now, the word 'implicit' is based on the verb 'to implicate'. This means 'to fold inward' ... so we may be led to explore the notion that in some sense each region contains a total structure 'enfolded' within it". (Bohm, 1980, p. 149). Bohm noted that although the hologram conveys undivided wholeness, it is nevertheless static.
In this view of order, laws represent invariant relationships between explicate entities and structures. Bohm (1980, p. 147) asks us to "consider the possibility that physical law should refer primarily to an order of undivided wholeness of the content of description similar to that indicated by the hologram rather than to an order of analysis of such content into separate parts …". He noted that in physics, the explicate order generally reveals itself within well-constructed experimental contexts as, for example, in the sensibly observable results of instruments.
A common grounding for consciousness and matter
The proposed Implicate Order is a general metaphysical order in tems of which matter and consciousness may both be understood, in the sense that it is proposed that both matter and consciousness: (i) enfold the structure of the whole within each region, and (ii) involve continuous processes of enfoldment and unfoldment. For example, in the case of matter, entities such as atoms may represent continous enfoldment and unfoldment which manifests as a relatively stable and autonomous entity which follows a path in space-time. In the case of consciousness, Bohm points toward evidence presented by Karl Pilbram that memories may be enfolded within every region of the brain rather than being localized (for example in cells or atoms). Bohm (1980, p. 205) goes on to say: "As in our discussion of matter in general, it is now necessary to go into the question of how in consciousness the explicate order is what is manifest ... the manifest content of consciousness is based essentially on memory, which is what allows such content to be held in a failry constant form. Of course, to make possible such constancy it is also necessary that this content be organized, not only through relatively fixed assocation but also with the aid of the rules of logic, and of our basic categories of space, time causality, universality, etc. ... there will be a strong background of recurrent stable, and separable features, against which the transitory and changing aspects of the unbroken flow of experience will be seen as fleeting impressions that tend to be arranged and ordered mainly in terms of the vast totality of the relatively static and fragmented content of [memories]". Bohm also notes that "as with consciousness, each moment has a certain explicate order, and in addition it enfolds all the others, though in its own way. So the relationship of each moment in the whole to all the others is implied by its total content: the way in which it 'holds' all the others enfolded within it". Bohm characterises consciousness as a process in which at each moment, content that was previously implicate is presently explicate, and content which was previously explicate has become implicate, in an analogous fashion to the ink droplet. He said: "One may indeed say that our memory is a special case of the process described above, for all that is recorded is held enfolded within the brain cells and these are part of matter in general. The recurrence and stability of our own memory is a relatively independent sub-totality is thus brought about as part of the very same process that sustains the recurrence and stability in the manifest order of matter in general. It follows, then, that the explicate and manifest order of consciousness is not ultimately distinct from that of matter in general" (Bohm, 1980, p. 208).
Quantum entanglement
Central to this scheme is the notion that objects which seem separated by great distances in the Explicate Order (such as a particular electron here on earth and an alpha particle in one of the stars in the Abell 1835 galaxy, the farthest galaxy from Earth known to humans) may actually be manifestations of the common Implicate Order. The motivation for this perspective is the observation within quantum mechanics of the entanglement of such objects. It should be noted that this view of order necessarily departs from any notion of order which entails signalling, and therefore causality.
He also uses the term unfoldment to characterise processes in which the explicate order becomes relevant (or "relevated"). Bohm likens unfoldment also to the decoding of a television signal to produce a sensible image on a screen. The signal, screen, and television electronics in this analogy represent the Implicate Order whilst the image produced represents the Explicate Order. He also uses a striking example in which an ink droplet can be introduced into a highly viscous substance, and the substance rotated very slowly such that there is negligible diffusion of the substance. In this example, the droplet becomes a thread which, in turn, eventually becomes invisible. However, by rotating the substance is the reverse direction, the droplet can essentially reform. When it is invisible, the order of the ink droplet as a pattern is implicate within the substance.
In another analogy, Bohm asks us to consider a pattern produced by making small cuts in a folded piece of paper and then, literally, unfolding it. Widely separated elements of the pattern are, in actuality, produced by the same original cut in the folded piece of paper. Here the cuts in the folded paper represent the Implicate Order and the unfolded pattern represents the Explicate Order.
Many, along with Bohm himself, have seen strong connections between his ideas and ideas from the East. Some proponents of alternative religions (such as shamanism) claim a connection with their belief systems as well.
Connections to other works
Bohm may have known that his idea is a striking analogy to "intensional and extensional aboutness" to which R. A. Fairthorne (1969) insightfully referred information scientists but few paid attention as evidenced by googling. John Searle treated aboutness and network in his Intentionality (1983), contemporarily with Bohm's Wholeness (1983)! Aboutness is as odd as wholeness in sharp contrast. As the former is to the content, so the latter is to the context to the last as the ultimate determiner of meaning. The holistic view of context, hence another striking analogy of wholeness, was first put forward in The Meaning of Meaning by C. K. Ogden & I. A. Richards (1923), including the literary, psychological, and external. These are respectively analogous to Karl Popper's world 3, 2, and 1 appearing in his Objective Knowledge (1972 and later ed.). Bohm's worldview of "undivided wholeness" is contrasted with Popper's three divided worlds. The direct causality among these and other authorships may be actually evident in the implicate order, though apparently not in the explicate order in spite of a great deal of reasonable doubt in terms of locality, ethnicity, ideology, academic tendency, and so on. Bohm and Popper favored Einstein above all.
Suppose that someone intends to convey a definite thought or story with the following word string:
- woman, street, crowd, traffic, noise, haste, thief, bag, loss, scream, police, .....
which looks almost non-sensical as a whole. Then, what will happen to us listeners? We have a dictionary, but we cannot simply sum up the meanings of individual words. That "a whole is more than the sum of the parts" is too plain a saying. There seems to be no grammar to which the speaker might have conformed. He merely suggests rather than tells the story, which in other words is implied or implicit in the word string. From this awkward symbology we can guess the story with varying accuracies, if we are ready to take risks. In this case, the meaning of such symbology may be said to be connotative, implicit, implicate or intensional, in contrast to denotative, explicit, explicate or extensional. Consult a dictionary for these words. And, note that the more context unfolded, the less uncertainty folded. Most importantly, note that interpretation or making sense of Explicate in Implicate Order, that is, aboutness in wholeness or in context is an outstanding analogy as well as the very principle of subject indexing as a prerequisite of information retrieval that has become everybody's everyday concern now! This principle's actual implication for and impact on a number of other disciplines should be unfolded if any. Why not unfold who on earth played an inspiring or leading role in shaping contextualism in the spotlight.
Bohm's views also connect with those of Immanuel Kant in important respects. For example, Kant held that the parts of an organism simultaneously exist in order to sustain the whole, and depend upon the whole for their own existence and functioning. Also, as noted by Bohm, Kant recognized that the process of thought plays an active role in organizing factual knowledge. Hence, theoretical insights are instrumental to the process of acquiring factual knowledge. This perspective is congruent also with an analyis of the function of measurement in physical science by Thomas Kuhn in 1961.
There are connections also to views held by people such as Stuart Kauffman, who noted Kant's perspective on organisms in his book At Home in the Universe. Indeed, Kant's perspective is noted by Kauffman in a section given the evocative title An Unrepentant Holism. Kauffman's concept of an autocatalytic set, as it was originally conceived in terms of molecules, clarifies Kant's perspective in a precise fashion. In his later book Investigations, Kauffman attempts to define, or at least characterize, the notion of an autonomous agent. If viewed as "relatively autonomous", this concept is also potentially congruous with Bohm's view. Bohm's views are also echoed in Kauffman's (2000, p. 137) statement: "... our incapacity to prestate the configuration space of the biosphere is not a failure to prestate the consequences of the primitives, it appears to be a failure to prestate the primitives themselves". Kauffman suggests that such a failure may stem from more generally applicable foundations applicable also within physics. Consistent with Bohm, this potentially calls into question whether we should presuppose that it is possible (even in principle) to formulate a final, and complete, theory of everything.
See also
References
- Bohm, D. (1980). Wholeness and the implicate order. London: Routledge.
- Kauffman, S. (1995). At home in the universe. London: Penguin Books Ltd.
- Kauffman, S. (2000). Investigations. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Kuhn, T.S. (1961). The function of measurement in modern physical science. ISIS, 52, 161-193.
External links
- Interview with David Bohm – An interview with Bohm concerning this particular subject matter conducted by F. David Peat.
- Excerpt from The Holographic Universe – Parallels some of the experiences of 18th century Swedish mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg, with David Bohm's ideas.