the trouble with Grand Theories

As we get great new insights from a particular field of knowledge, the temptation arises to believe that this field of knowledge is the key to all knowledge.

The current mystique of "information," for instance, is a cultural phenomenon of this type. It is closely akin to the rage about genetics -- or the genetic "code," an analogy that owes at least as much to computer code as it does to cryptography.

When a new idea makes a big difference in our world, we get the idea that it must matter to God, too, and that we are finally onto God's secrets. A brief history of these Grand Theories might go like this:

• As we formed our first "primitive" societies, we learned the importance of kinship and unity; therefore we decided that everything on earth is explained by kinships just like those among human groups ("the sun is the moon's brother")
• We discovered gods; therefore, as we became civilized, we decided that every object, emotion, drive, notable event, and individual has a divine force that is controlled by its particular god (the principle behind Mesopotamian science)
• We discovered mathematics; therefore we decided (with Egypt and Greece) that all the world is number
• We received holy scriptures; therefore, all truth is revealed by God, and nothing that conflicts with revelation can be true
• We discovered the scientific method, and this method, therefore, is the key to finding and evaluating all truth
• We discovered order in the universe; therefore all things are governed by natural law
• We discovered evolution of species; therefore "survival of the fittest" predicts the outcome of all contact between unlike entities (begging the question of how to define "fittest")
• We learned that reality, as we perceive it, only exists within the cerebral cortex; hence we devised solipsism, which says that only my cerebral cortex exists (this one didn't really catch on)
• We discovered that the order in the universe is illusory; therefore order and meaning in general are illusory, and there is no God
• We transformed our environment through applied science, so we developed faith in the Unified Theory -- a single equation that will explain all of reality and predict both weather patterns and temper tantrums
• We applied information processing technology to nearly every area of daily life; therefore ultimate reality is conceived of in terms of "data." Genetic data must determine our character, health, and destiny; and reiterative fractal data is essential reality, "already enfolded in the depths of the cosmos"

This is not to say that the theories have no point or purpose. They each have an insight to offer, so in a way they are all true. Each of them has served the function of religion for some people -- but none of them are "It."

It's unfortunate that, as each little theory is discovered or rediscovered, we manage to forget all the others that came before, each providing its own piece of the puzzle.

The starting point for this little essay was an online discussion of Wholeness and the Implicate Order, a Jungian-flavored book by David Bohm:

Fractal geometry illustrates that shapes have self-similarity at descending scales. In other words, the form, the information, is enfolded -- already present in the depths of the cosmos. So this is reminiscent of the Implicate Order. Iteration liberates the complexity hidden within it. It is not dissimilar to Bohm's law of holonomy: a "movement in which new wholes are emerging."

I reserve my assent to all of this simply because of the power it ascribes to "information."

But this is not to reject the discovery. Fractal geometry, like the other Grand Theories, does offer a piece of the puzzle. I wrote to the Jungian discussion list:

What is most intriguing is the "tension" aspect of fractals -- because individuation is a meeting of opposites, and because the closer you get to "truth," the more you run into paradox. Which is why I'll sum up with: Yes, the forms of things are present in the depths of the cosmos. No they aren't.

I'm not sure that the point of individuation is to resolve such a paradox.

what the words mean

Epistemology

The branch of philosophy dealing with the concept of knowledge -- its nature, origin, properties, etc.

Individuation

According to Carl G. Jung, it means "the process by which a person becomes a psychological 'in-dividual,' that is, a separate, indivisible unity or 'whole.'" In Jungian thought, individuation is the goal of life.