Joseph Needham, MA

Science, Religion, and Reality

MacMillan 1925

Joseph Needham, the English biologist, will give an unusually broad perspective on the field of science which will enable a development of an understanding of the evolution of scientific thought elucidating thhe principles of wholeness. The appropriateness of the firstt quote written in 1925 shows how slightly the metaphysics of science has grown in the last 50 years, despite the growth of ttechnical sophistication.

"It is usually considered inn this present age of universal specialization that the business of men is to speak only about their own affairs, and, if they have any world outlook, to keep it to themselvees...

It is no bad thhing that men should learn caution in speaking of matters which they themselves have not studied. But the ever rising tide of specialization has obscured the fact that there are not a few problems, especially in the fields of pure knowledge, which cannot be understood in terms of one subject...

The most outstanding case, however, in which harm has been produced by the superstition that one means of approach and one only is valid, is the subject of this paper, the whole problem of life itself."

Commentary: Needham expresses here the realization that the knowledge of life itself will not be revealed by an examination from only one perspective. But rather, since life is wholeness and since only wholeness can be understood in terms of wholeness it is very necessary therefore that wholeness be an element in the awareness of anyone attempting to understand life. This realization brings us a solution to the problem which is present in all fields of knowledge today. No field of knowledge is giving a significant, complete nor holistic understanding of life- and I speak of the common ordinary life, which every person knows from his daily routine. The reason that such a knowledge has not dawned is becauuse the attitude prevalent today is that unless knowledge comes ffrom and through-a single channel, it is suspect and of questionable validity. The entire edifice of philosophy is regarded skeptically at this point because it has not developed in a valid overview of the entirety of life.
In short, philosophy reflects the conditions of the time and is at least as fragmented and limiteed in perspective as any of the disciplines- physics, chemistry, or whatever. It is interesting to note that in 1925 Needham has realized the very essence of the problem with which, I contend, we are still burdened. The conditions in the field of knowledge today contain boundaries which are very limited, very narrow and lacking in wholeness. This has occurred in spite of thee attempt to integrate knowledge through interdisciplinary studies. Inter-disciplinary studies has instead produced even more disciplines, for example, bio-chemistry, bio-physics and so on. Thus, as has been the contention throughout this book, it is clear from the perspective in Needham's mind that a broad vision and, if you will, wholeness of perspective, is necessary in order for life itself to be understood. Needham continues with an analysis of the field of knowledge.

"The spectrum of knowledge has been arbitrarily divided up into compartments, whereas the colors really shade into each other quite imperceptibly. Such arbitrary cuttings and shearings have often mutilated the delicate fabric of reality, with the result that there are many questions at the present time most urgently needing the synthesis of two or more illuminations.”

Commentary: This gives further clarification that the field of knowledge is in fact wholeness. It is in fact one unified field which, for the purpose of expression and due to the nature of language, is compartmentalized aand divided into the conventional disciplines, physics, chemistry, history, anthropology, etc. Due to the lack of wholeness in tthe awareness of those who are regarded as experts in some field, a point has been reached where the limitations of the fields themselves are taken to be real. For example the limitations- of physics and the limitations of mathematics, i.e. that is the boundaries of physics, the boundaries of mathematics, are ttaken to be real. That is to say, beyond a certain boundary if one is a physicist one cannot step. This artificial compartmentalization of knowledge has resulted in a wide-spread inability to comprehend the wholeness of life; and further it has produced a feeeling that the notion of wholeness itself is inherently problematical. Our purpose here is to show the necessity for not only the concept of wholeness but for its immediate integration into all the fields of knowledge so that each discipline can begin to formulate, generate, nurture and maintain a holistic perspective on itself and its relationship to all other disciplines. A result of that integration and unification will be the inclusion of knowledge about the unified field of life, consciousness, inn terms of which an understanding of wholeness of life itself will become possible.

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<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> <meta name=ProgId content=Word.Document> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 10"> <meta name=Originator content="Microsoft Word 10"> <link rel=File-List href="ndh1-3_files/filelist.xml"> <title>Joseph Needham, MA Science, Religion, and Reality MacMillan 1925</title>  <style>  </style>  </head> <body lang=EN-US style='tab-interval:.5in;text-justify-trim:punctuation'> <div class=Section1> Joseph Needham, MA Science, Religion, and Reality MacMillan 1925 <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:24.25pt;margin-right:24.0pt;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:49.2pt;line-height:24.5pt; mso-line-height-rule:exactly;background:white'>Joseph Needham, the English biologist, will give an unusually broad perspective on the field of science which will enable a development of an understanding of the evolution of scientific thought elucidating the principles of wholeness. The appropriateness of the first quote written in 1925 shows how slightly the metaphysics of science has grown in the last 50 years, despite the growth of technical sophistication. "It is usually considered inn this present age of universal specialization that the business of men is to speak only about their own affairs, and, if they have any world outlook, to keep it to themselves... It is no bad thhing that men should learn caution in speaking of matters which they themselves have not studied. But the ever rising tide of specialization has obscured the fact that there are not a few problems, especially in the fields of pure knowledge, which cannot be understood in terms of one subject... The most outstanding case, howeverr, in which harm has been produced by the superstition that one means of approach and one only is valid, is the subject of this paper, the whole problem of life itself." Commentary: Needham expresses here the realization that the knowledge of life itself will not be revealed by an examination from only one perspective. But rather, since life is wholeness and since only wholeness can be understood in terms of wholeness it is very necessary therefore that wholeness be an element in the awareness of anyone attempting to understand life. This realization brings us a solution to the problem which is present in all fields of knowledge today. No field of knowledge is giving a significant, complete nor holistic understanding of life- and I speak of the common ordinary life, which every person knows from his daily routine. The reason that such a knowledge has not dawned is because the attitude prevalent roday is that unless knowledge comes from and through-a single channel, it is suspect and of questionable validity. The entire edifice of philosophy is regarded skeptically at this point because it has not developed in a valid overview of the entirety of life. In short, philosophy reflects the conditions of the time and is at least as fragmented and limited in perspective as any of the disciplines- physics, chemistry, or whatever. It is interesting to note that in 1925 Needham has realized the very essence of the problem with which, I contend, we are still burdened. The conditions in the field of knowledge today contain boundaries which are very limited, very narrow and lacking in wholeness. This has occured in spite of the attempt to integrate knowledge through interdisciplinary studies. Interdisciplinary studies has instead produced even more disciplines, for example, bio chemistry, bio-physics and so on. Thus, as has been the conten tion throughout this book, it is clear from the perspective in Needham's mind that a broad vision and, if you will, wholeness of perspective, is necessary in order for life itself to be understood. Needham continues with an analysis of the field of knowledge.<o:p></o:p> "The spectrum of knowledge hhas been arbitrarily divided up into compartments, whereas the colors really shade into each other quite imperceptibly. Such arbitrary cuttings and shearings have often mutilated the delicate fabric of reality, with the result that there are many questions at the present time most urgently needing the synthesis of two or more illuminations.&quoot;<o:p></o:p> Commentary: This gives further claarification that the field of knowledge is in fact wholeness. It is in fact one unified field which, for the purpose of expression and due to the nature of language, is compartmentalized and divided into the conventional disciplines, physics, chemistry, history, anthropology, etc. Due to the lack of wholeness in the awareness of those who are regarded as experts in some field, a point has been reached where the limitations of the fields themselves are taken to be real. For example the limitations- of physics and the limitations of mathematics, i.e. that is the boundaries of physics, the boundaries of mathematics, are taaken to be real. That is to say, beyond a certain boundary if one is a physicist one cannot step. This artificial compartmentalization of knowledge has resulted in a wide-spread inability to comprehend the wholeness of life; and further it has produced a feeling that the notion of wholeness itself is inherently problematical. Out purpose here is to show the necessity for not only the concept of wholeness but for its immediate integration into all the fields of knowledge so that each discipline can begin to formulate, generate, nurture and maintain a holistic perspective on itself and its relationship to all other disciplines. A result of that integration and unification will be the inclusion of knowledge about the unified field of life, consciousness, in terms of which an understanding of wholeness of life itself will become possible. Nesdham continues in his analysis of the problems in the field of knowledge, <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> </div> </body> </html>

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