2
Essences of Interaction
Without Boundaries: Oneness
The first one to have advocated that nature had oneness of character and a
reality as only a whole was Parmenides* (Kirk et al. 2009). The view ascribed
to Parmenides for philosophical inquiry is captured in three questions: What
is it that is? What is it that is not? What is it that cannot be? This reinforces
unity as the object of knowledge—the universal element of nature. That
unity as an object is what we term as integration. The process of integration
is to unify.
Since 500 BC Parmenides’ tenor of logic has inspired thinking about time,
motion, change, and unity. But not everyone agreed. In a lecture on the
philosophy of science in 1967, Professor Paul Feyerabend (University of
California, Berkeley) showed respect for Parmenides’ logic of enquiry, but
condemned his Monist logic. Later, Feyerabend wrote, “This theory illustrates a desire that has propelled the Western sciences from their inception
up to the present time—the desire to find unity behind the many events that
surround us” (Feyerabend 1993). However contorted or prescient the Western
philosophical lineage is from Parmenides to the present day, all disciplines
and methods of research are affected. But to suggest that the provenance is
faulty is counter to the splendid logic that should guide inquiry:
Knowledge is not a series of self-consistent theories that converges
towards an ideal view; it is not a gradual approach to the truth. It is
rather an ever increasing ocean of mutually incompatible (and perhaps
even incommensurable) alternatives, each single theory, each fairy tale,
each myth that is part of the collection forcing the others into greater
articulation, and all of them contributing, via this process of competition, to the development of our consciousness. Nothing is ever settled . . .
Feyerabend (1993)
The profound influence of Parmenides on Socrates and Aristotle speaks to
the inherent attractiveness and objective importance of this general notion
* Parmenides of Elea (se. 500 BC).
29
Essences of Interaction
Without Boundaries: Oneness
The first one to have advocated that nature had oneness of character and a
reality as only a whole was Parmenides* (Kirk et al. 2009). The view ascribed
to Parmenides for philosophical inquiry is captured in three questions: What
is it that is? What is it that is not? What is it that cannot be? This reinforces
unity as the object of knowledge—the universal element of nature. That
unity as an object is what we term as integration. The process of integration
is to unify.
Since 500 BC Parmenides’ tenor of logic has inspired thinking about time,
motion, change, and unity. But not everyone agreed. In a lecture on the
philosophy of science in 1967, Professor Paul Feyerabend (University of
California, Berkeley) showed respect for Parmenides’ logic of enquiry, but
condemned his Monist logic. Later, Feyerabend wrote, “This theory illustrates a desire that has propelled the Western sciences from their inception
up to the present time—the desire to find unity behind the many events that
surround us” (Feyerabend 1993). However contorted or prescient the Western
philosophical lineage is from Parmenides to the present day, all disciplines
and methods of research are affected. But to suggest that the provenance is
faulty is counter to the splendid logic that should guide inquiry:
Knowledge is not a series of self-consistent theories that converges
towards an ideal view; it is not a gradual approach to the truth. It is
rather an ever increasing ocean of mutually incompatible (and perhaps
even incommensurable) alternatives, each single theory, each fairy tale,
each myth that is part of the collection forcing the others into greater
articulation, and all of them contributing, via this process of competition, to the development of our consciousness. Nothing is ever settled . . .
Feyerabend (1993)
The profound influence of Parmenides on Socrates and Aristotle speaks to
the inherent attractiveness and objective importance of this general notion
* Parmenides of Elea (se. 500 BC).
29