Science, Order, and Creativity

In this thought-provoking book, two of the last century’s foremost scientific thinkers contend that science has lost its bearings in favor of a narrow, abstracted, fragmented approach to nature and reality. Dr. David Bohm, who has worked alongside Oppenheimer and Einstein, and Dr. F. David Peat, author of Synchronicity: The Bridge Between Matter and Mind, propose a return to a greater creativity and communication in the sciences. They ask for a renewed emphasis on ideas rather than formulae, on the whole rather than fragments, on meaning rather than mere mechanics.
 
Tracing the history of science from Aristotle to Einstein, from the Pythagorean theorem to quantum mechanics, the authors offer intriguing new insights into how scientific theories come into being, how to eliminate blocks to creativity, and how science can lead to a deeper understanding of society, the human condition, and the human mind itself. Science, Order, and Creativity looks to the future of science with elegance, hope, and enthusiasm. And it shows how each of us can work creatively in our own lives to help bring new meaning and order to the universe we share.

The authors deplore the alleged tendency of modern science toward "fragmentation" and the paradigms that seem to fix the accepted structure of each science rigidly between scientific revolutions. Veteran physicist Bohm ( Quantum Theory ) has advocated a causal interpretation of quantum mechanics that is not generally accepted by other physicists. In this book, based on conversations with Peat ( Synchronicity ), Bohm's theory is reviewed in terms accessible to the lay reader, and dialogue with supporters of the standard interpretation is urged. The nature of order and blocks to scientific creativity are also addressed. For comprehensive collections in the philosophy of science. Jack W. Weigel, Univ . of Michigan Lib., Ann Arbor
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