Replying to LO27720 --
Dear Organlearners,
Leo Minnigh <l.d.minnigh@library.tudelft.nl> writes:
>Thinking of this, I was looking for another definition
>of wholeness. A definition that suits my own
>comprehension; it does not mean that you should
>agree with it.
(snip)
>So if I translate these two ideas into numbers:
>
>Smuts: (2 + 10) > 2 + 10
(3 + 9) > 3 + 9
(4 + 8) > 4 + 8
(5 + 7) > 5 + 7
(6 + 6) > 6 + 6
>
>Newton: 2 x 10 = 20
3 x 9 = 27
4 x 8 = 32
5 x 7 = 35
6 x 6 = 36
(snip)
>But the idea of Newton fits better in my feeling of
>holism: under balanced conditions, the best result
>will be reached and this feeling is clearly sustained
>by these simple examples.
(snip)
>Thus my definition of holism will be:
>
>Holism is the product of its parts; holism is maximised
>if its parts are balanced.
Greetings dear Leo,
Thank you for your delightful example. (To keep it short, I had to snip
some sections.) In what I am now going to do, I do not intend at all to
criticise you. As you changed Smut's definition to suite your own
comprehension, I am going to change yours to suite my own. I do it because
I am deeply under the impression that the word "harmony" tells much more
than the word "balance".
In an entropy landscape there is much balance at the valley of
equilibirum, but very little of it at the ridge of chaos. One of the main
reasons why a rift develops in this abyss so that it becomes an edge of
chaos with possible disaster going beyond it, is the loss of harmony. This
harmony has to be repaired to make the abyss a minor gulley which can
safely be crossed. Beethoven tells this in many of his compositions by way
of music.
The harmony involves all 7Es (seven essentialities of creativity) and not
merely wholeness. The word balance is related to the essentiality liveness
("becoming-being"). When "beings" balance each other, there is little, if
any, "becoming" between them. It means for me that there is too much
"being" and too little "becoming". It lacks harmony between "becoming" and
"being".
>This idea was formulated in my mind last
>weekend, during a long walk with dog Terra
>in storm winds and heavy rains.
Most of Beethoven's creative jewels were formed when he walked like you
where more of nature can be experienced. With hands clasped behind his
back he used to hum which sounded to outsiders chaotic like that of an
imbicile, but inside his head he was constructing a little jewel which he
called a sketch. As soon as possible, even during the walk, he would jot
this sketch in a sketch book wiith a pencil. I would not be surprised if
you act similarly!
Anyway, thank you very much for your jewel of a sketch which you jotted
down for us. I love it because it does reflect this "increasing
wholeness"=holism which as form has to manage the "increasing entropy"=LEP
(Law of Entropy Production) as its content. Because of this management
evolution rather than devolution is the outcome..
Let us look at the number 8 and do to it what you have done. I use the
number 8 not because it is generated by 2x2x2, but because of your "8-the
force" which I think is the harmony between the 7Es. I am going to
"compose" Dwig's sketches also into the compoisition, although I wonder if
he at this stage can see where it will lead to. Perhaps my humming is
still too chaotic. Look at the following pattern which can be generated
according to the example which you have set.
1x7=7 < 1+7=8
2x6=12 > 2+6=8
3x5=15 > 3+5=8
4x4=16 > 4+4=8
The first line is an explicit exception to the other three lines. Here the
product is less than the sum! This should act as warning that we have to
seek another possible exception, one that is definitely implicit because
we cannot see it yet. This is how David Boehm would have thought -- seek
the implicate order too! According to balance the fourth line ought not to
be in question so that the implicit exception ought to be in the second or
third line. Which one would it be?
So let us endeavour for greater harmony by bringing Dwig into the
composition, doing the same for the number 13. He ought now to recognise
where I am heading to.
1x12=12 < 1+12=13
2x11=22 > 2+11=13
3x10=30 > 3+10=13
4x9=36 > 4+0=13
5x8=40 > 5+8=13
6x7=42 > 6+7=13
Again we have the explicate exception in the first line. But where is the
implicate exception? Well master Beethoven might have said "bring the two
sketches together for the implicate to become explicate". What does the
two sketches above have in common?
The two numbers 8 and 13 are parts of the Fibonacci series of
numbers -- 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, .... They are generated
according to the rule
past number + present number = future number
In other words, add the last two to get the next. For example,
2+3=5, [3+5=8,] 5+8=13, 8+13=21. The Fibonacci numbers as a whole
(involving multiplication rather than addition) also have a most
beautiful emergent property called the golden ratio (golden section).
Its value "psi"=1·61803 39887.... The site
< http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fib.html >
has wonderful information on the Fibonacci numbers and how they
occur in nature and culture! However, I want to stress the following.
Do the next calculations:
2x1·61803 39887.... =
3x1·61803 39887.... =
5x1·61803 39887.... =
8x1·61803 39887.... =
13x1·61803 39887.... =
21x1·61803 39887.... =
34x1·61803 39887.... =
Keep on with the pattern until you discover a new kind of
holism="increasing wholeness". I am not going to describe it any futher,
but wait on your description.
Let us go back to Leo's jewel used to generate the patterns for the
numbers 8 and 13. Can we now detect the implicate exception? Yes, it is
the last line in each depicting the maximum product in which the two
factors are closest to balance (such as in 13) or actually in balance
(such as for 8). When we go to higher Fibonacci numbers the picture
becomes even clearer. It is all lines following the line in which the two
numbers are Fibonacci numbers. For example, for 21 it would be the two
lines 9x12 and 10x11 while for 34 it would be the four lines 14x20, 15x19,
16x18 and 17x17. Can you fellow learners already spot a pattern in the
implicate exceptions too?
The Fibonacci numbers are profoundly rich in the essentiality liveness
("becoming-being"). We have used "increasing liveness" to control the
increases in the products of Leo's jewel before the ultimate maximum has
been reached. Leo have used only "increasing wholeness" since he want to
illustrate that it means holism. There is nothing wrong with it. But I
want to go beyond that to illlustrate what "increasing in all 7Es" means.
It means "constructive creativity".
>I have enjoyed the storms outside and inside my head.
So did I. Thank you.
With care and best wishes,
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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