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question:is-the-principle-of-unfolding-wholeness-a-new-autonomous-principle-more-fundamental-than-other-physical-laws-or-merely-a-concise-way-of-gathering-together-known-results

Is the principle of unfolding wholeness a new autonomous principle more fundamental than other physical laws, or merely a concise way of gathering together known results?

Alexander's self-posed epistemic question about the status of his own principle

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Hypotheses (1)

hypothesis

If new predictions about physical processes were to follow from the principle of unfolding wholeness, it may be a deeper and more significant autonomous principle rather than merely a redescription of known results.
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Alexander's conditional about the epistemic status of his proposed principle

Related by similarity (8)

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Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

The principle of unfolding wholeness is a new principle, not automatically given by non-linear dynamics, catastrophe theory, or bifurcation theory, necessary to explain the appearance of living structure.claim0.910
Alexander's central assertion that existing frameworks are insufficient and a genuinely new principle is required
The principle of unfolding wholeness is purely geometrical in character, not arithmetical and not energy-based, distinguishing it fundamentally from least action.claim0.884
Alexander's characterization of what makes his principle novel relative to least-action formulations
Principle of Unfolding Wholenessframework0.880
The principle that every natural process is governed by a step-by-step unfolding where each step preserves the structure of the wholeness, introduced in Chapter 1 and elaborated here.
If the unfolding of wholeness is correctly followed, then every part becomes unique.hypothesis0.835
Prediction that adherence to the proper process guarantees uniqueness.
In nature the principle of unfolding wholeness creates living structure nearly all the time. Human designers, who are not constrained by this unfolding, can violate the wholeness if they wish to, and can therefore create non-living structure as often as they choose.quote0.827
Encapsulates the distinction between natural and human-made order, central to Alexander's critique of contemporary architecture.
The proper unfolding of wholeness is both an unfolding of space from the culture which exists, and an unfolding of a new future culture from the culture of the presentclaim0.814
The core theoretical synthesis linking cultural wholeness to structure-preserving transformations
Exact repetition flies in the face of the fundamental principle of unfolding.claim0.811
Critique of modern structural repetition as contradictory to the idea that each part should be unique.
unfolding of wholenessconcept0.806
The process by which new centers emerge naturally from existing ones without forcing; the essence of morphogenetic sequences.