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book:the-tree-of-knowledgeThe Tree of Knowledge
Maturana and Varela's 1987 book on the biological roots of human understanding and autopoiesis.
Extracted from this book
Claims (22)
- A new form of physics, a modified physics, must reconcile self and matter, extending current physics while leaving it nearly intact.The positive program of the chapter: a cosmology that makes sense of architecture and self.
- Inner light in a great painting touches to the heart of existence, to the core of what the universe is, not merely a cognitive zap.Alexander's claim about the profound nature of aesthetic experience, contrasting with mechanistic dismissal.
- It is the nature of matter itself which is at stake; our despair follows from the belief that matter is machinelike.The root problem is the conception of matter; architecture and meaning depend on transforming this conception.
- Late-20th-century holistic science still describes mechanisms; it has not overcome the mechanistic character of its models.Even the beautiful descriptions of wholeness by scientists like Mae-Wan Ho remain mechanistic in detail and have not solved the bifurcation.
- Listening to Mozart's 40th symphony, something magnificent is happening; the music strikes to the core of the cosmos, not merely activating pleasure centers.An example of an experience that the mechanistic cosmology cannot accommodate, indicating its inadequacy.
- Matter-space must be potentially living, center-making, possibly even conscious stuff.A key proposition for the new cosmology: space-matter has the inherent capacity for life and self-connection when centers intensify.
- Ornament and function arise from a single evolving morphology; in a living building they are one.The alternative to the mechanistic split, crucial for a vital architecture.
- Religion and spirituality cannot solve the world-picture problem because they do not change the underlying mechanistic view of matter.Spiritual overlays are frosting on the mechanistic cake; they do not penetrate or affect the way matter is conceived to work.
- Tacit Assumption 1: What is true is only the body of facts which can be represented as lifeless mechanisms.First of ten tacit ultra-mechanistic assumptions underlying current cosmology that must disappear for vital architecture.
- Tacit Assumption 10: The instinct that there is deeper meaning in the world is scientifically useless and must be ignored.Tenth tacit assumption, the culmination making the search for meaning scientifically empty.
- Tacit Assumption 2: Matters of value in architecture are subjective.Second tacit assumption, identified as nearly the central tenet of modern architecture.
- Tacit Assumption 3: Modern conceptions of human liberty require all values be viewed as subjective; objective value is suspicious.Third assumption linking political freedom to value subjectivism, undermining objective judgments in architecture.
- Tacit Assumption 4: The basic matter of the world is neutral with regard to value; matter is inert.Fourth assumption that the universe is made of inert material blindly following laws.
- Tacit Assumption 5: Matter and mind, the objective outer world and subjective inner world, are entirely different and disconnected realms.Fifth assumption, the core of Whitehead's bifurcation, making the self homeless in the cosmos.
- Tacit Assumption 6: Art is an intense social phenomenon but has no deep importance in the physical scheme of things.Sixth assumption denying art a fundamental role in the structure of the universe.
- Tacit Assumption 7: Ornament and function in a building are separate and unrelated categories.Seventh assumption, a cosmological split that leads to arbitrary decoration and dead functionalism.
- Tacit Assumption 8: At a profound level, architecture is irrelevant.Eighth assumption that building has no special importance beyond engineering or image-making, underlying society's treatment of the built environment.
- Tacit Assumption 9: The intuition that something profound is happening in a great work of art is, in scientific terms, meaningless.Ninth assumption negating the deep significance of aesthetic experience within the scientific picture.
- The ongoing rift between the mechanical-material picture of the world and our intuitions about self and spirit has destroyed our architecture and our sense of self-worth.Central thesis linking cosmology to the spiritual barrenness of modern architecture.
- The ten tacit assumptions form the mental prison we currently inhabit and are the origin of the meaningless world-picture.Alexander's summary statement asserting the pervasiveness and harm of the ultra-mechanistic assumptions.
- Value in architecture can be objective and real, not merely subjective; the degree of life in buildings is a fact that can be observed.A direct challenge to the second and third tacit assumptions, fundamental to Alexander's view of building.
- Whitehead's bifurcation remains unsolved today; the self does not yet have a place in the scientific world-picture.Alexander's core diagnosis: despite holistic trends, the rift between self and matter has not been healed.
Findings (1)
- Bell's theorem: experiments by Aspect, Clauser, and Freedman show instantaneous correlations between distant quantum particles, violating local realism.A foundational empirical result undermining mechanistic separability, cited as evidence that the whole influences local events.
Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count
Chapters (1)
chapter
- The opening chapter of The Nature of Order, Vol. 4, diagnosing the inadequacy of mechanistic cosmology and setting the stage for a new worldview that reconciles self and matter.
Thinkers (1)
thinker
- Francisco VarelaauthoredCo-originator of autopoiesis concept and enactivist approaches to cognition and embodied mind.