Mothers of Invention

It is usually assumed that there is an inherent structure to the universe and that it is simply a matter for human beings to discover this structure and thereby understand the laws that govern nature, and man. However, it is more and more evident that such inherent structure does not exist in the universe; that, in fact, there is no structure given in nature. And those events or regularities that we might point to as demonstrating structural coherence may only be a function of the conceptual screens we have chosen to cast over the world in order to fit it into a specific framework, usually in order to manipulate things according to the ends we wish to achieve (ends, moreover, which were prefigured in the very conceptual frameworks chosen). The cosmic regularities, periodicities, etc. we might ‘identify’ in nature are, in this light, only contingent structures, the results of the particular frameworks that we chose to apply.

The structure thereby established is not ‘discovered’ but created by us; it is variable, and can change depending upon the conceptual screens and tools one chooses. This has happened throughout the history of philosophy and science. And, in fact the so-called ‘laws of nature’ that various sciences have ‘discovered’ have been revised and overturned one century after another with further reflection or refinement by means of applying yet new screens. Furthermore a religious screen will give you a quite different structure than a quantum physics screen. And there are any number of other screens we have developed and applied as well in the history of civilization. We are in fact born into a world of screens that we learn to accept as givens; and if not, we wind up in the rather unenviable position of village idiot, genius, outcast, madman, or witch.

One might argue that our primitive fore bearers, our pre-civilized ancestors, also experienced the natural world through some basic conceptual or symbolic screens as well. Certainly we have what we call ‘evidence’ of some rudimentary screens regarding kinship structure, and their relationships to the natural world. But we cannot reconstitute or experience that world quite as the pre-civilized mind experienced it. (Think of Owen Barfield’s work on Saving the Appearances: A Study in Idolatry.)

In fact there emerged in the writings of some of the earliest civilizations a new screening tool early on perfected by the Greeks, and recast by legislators, scientists, and other specialists down through the ages – the syllogism. The syllogism, as a screen, itself signaled the rise of modern scientific and historical consciousness, as did none other; and became embedded as the lynchpin of western rationality. “This is how social laws were made and natural laws were made or ‘discovered’.” (M. Bram) And yet, even modern physics continues to question and overturn previous screens, and the ‘laws of nature’ that we took for granted just decades ago.

One may choose to call our current situation, and the changes it has wrought, ‘progress;’ others may call it unfortunate. Even the concept of ‘progress’ is part of a larger conceptual screen through which we judge and assign meaning and value to the world around us. It is a concept born at the dawn of history, with the beginnings of specialized realms of knowledge – science, religion, polity, economy, etc.

These diverse screens reveal not matters of fact, but rather, different ways of imposing structure on the given (whatever that is); and furthermore such screens can be destructive of the world as given.

But then the question remains, how do we raise and educate our children when we ourselves have forgotten? Do we simply present the world we have structured as absolute fact, and send our youth off the war to convince those non-believers that it is our way or the highway? Or do we acknowledge that the structures we have created, and come to feel comfortable believing-in, are not necessarily the only way of being in the world, and that we may learn from others, what we have buried beneath our own taken-for-granted assumptions. It is a personal, social, political and spiritual question.