Growing Entelechy Viveros

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Growing Entelechy: The Spirit Unfolds

If the doors of perception were cleansed,

everything will appear to man as it is, infinite.

William Blake

Module SCH5401

Science with Qualities

Felipe Viveros

MSc Holistic Science

November 2012


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Overview

The inspiration for exploring the subject of growingentelechy came through while studying Goethes

metamorphosis of plants specifically in relation to when

the seed is sprouting. Theword entelechy comes fromAristotle who combined entheles (complete, full-growth)

with echein=hexis (to be certain way by the continuing

effort of holding on in that condition), while at the sametime punning on endelecheia (persistence) by inserting

telos (completion) (Sachs 1995,p.245) his process was

described as entelechy idea in action, spirit in action,

life force in plants and all life (personal communication,

Colquhoun, September 2012). Seeing a seed sprouting

(while studying at Pishwanton: A Center for Goethean

Science and Art) with this new concept of entelechy,

helped me understand that life is intelligent and full of

spirit which is constantly unfolding reminding me that

this process is life. The dynamics of life, is the key to

comprehend our purpose and yet have been

systematically ignored and the essence lost through the

mechanistic way we experience reality and relate tophenomena.


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Introduction

"The human being knows himself only insofar as he knowsthe world; he perceives the world only in himself, and

himself only in the world. Every new object, clearly seen,

opens up a new organ of perception in us."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Rethinking the way we do Science, so it attunes uswith Nature in order to regain connection with the simple,

is one of the major challenges we face nowadays our

current paradigm is out of touch from the intrinsic qualities

immanent to life. For example, species have naturally

arisen from, and afterwards adapted to the environment

to live in harmony with the Earth and other beings for

millions of years. In nature there is a sense of beauty and

collaboration, one of balance and coexistence. We as

humans have these intrinsic qualities as well, but are all

to often driven by our intellect resulting in competition,

individuality and greed. Therefore we have majorly

disturbed the basic equilibrium of the planet, and so we

find ourselves, more than ever before, with an urgentneed to re-skill and de-construct civilization as we are

living it. This can happen by collectively realizing how

critical our planetary situation is and the destructive

patterns of our society, allowing us to develop new


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approaches that will respect and honour life and the

environment; thus paving the way towards a new era of

collaboration and harmony.

However conventional science has recently

experienced majorbreakthroughs, that have challenged

the view of the world as a static, inert machine. The

appearance of quantum physics theory and the discovery

of DNA, which revealed the secret of life (Watson 1980,

p.115) are helping mainstream Science to change. ForBrian Goodwin (2007): "There are moments in the

development of cultures when a window suddenly opens

on to quite new possibilities that arise unexpectedly from

within the culture itself, often in times of apparent

darkness and difficulty" (p.11). Perhaps our current crisis

will help change the way weview the world, giving rise to

a new paradigm. Moreover Science has taken the role

religion once had because until the seventeenth century,

the Western world picture was not set by science but by

religion (Wertheim, p.6). Hence Science is now the

foundation of our worldviews and thats why developing a

Science of Qualities is fundamental.

Since ancient times, maths, along with religion, have

been used as a language to describe the world that is

somehow integrated: First in ancient Greece, and again

in medieval Europe, mathematically based science


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emerged from a tradition that associated numbers with

divinity (Ibid). The Greeks in an attempt to find the order

in the chaos, started the split between the seen and the

unseen: or the world of the Gods (mythos), and ourearthly reality (logos). Ever since, we have wanted to

master nature, to become Gods ourselves, or as

Descartes asserted: "we could make ourselves masters

and possessors of nature" (Bantam, p.37).Going forth

trying to trace what are the problems of modern science,

we find that we have lost sight of the original quest forknowledge and so prediction and control, have become

ends in themselves...When science loses sight of the

purposes of its calculations, and when calculations

become ends in themselves then science becomes

monstrous(Robinson, p.113).

The Newton-Cartesian view of the Universe as a

dead machine becomes obsolete when our worldview is

one that recognizes the dynamic complex reality of life;

human beings have emotions, dreams, and most

relevantly, a psyche aspects of being human that are as

useful as our arms and legs (Orr, 1994).

By ignoring such intangible aspects of our humanity

we have become disconnected from nature. This has

spread all over the modern world, specially in the last 400

years;imposing itself onto ancient animisticviewswhich


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believed that the world has a Soul. Alienating ourselves

from nature and its/our soul is taking its toll: 14% of the

global population suffers Neuropsychiatric Conditions,

one million people die due to suicide every year whichisthe third leading cause of death among young people

(WHC, March 2011). Our technology is so powerful that

we have the capacity to propel ourselves into outer

space, penetrate deep insidematter, clone life,

geoengineer weather; and bewilder at the birth of

supernovas and stars in distant universes.We havebecome like Gods but have failed miserably at creating

heaven on Earth. Instead we have declared war on

ourselves, and consequently to our only home: nature. So

the question here might be: Can we engage with science

in a personal level using it as a tool in finding alternatives

that help humanity bring forth a different reality?

Brian Goodwin foresaw it also as a Healing Science,

where emotion and intuition rank equally with rational

analysis of natural phenomena. His aim was to lead

Science from an amoral notion of control, to an ethical

sense of participation in the unfolding story of life on Earth.

In order for that Healing to take place, we have to startincorporating some of the missing parts, like Spirit.


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:

A Science of Qualities

Let us look at a definition of Spirit: The vital principle

or animating force traditionally believed to be within livingbeings (Am. Heritage Dict. 1178). This word meaning the

vital principle is derived from the Latin spiritus for breath

and spirarae for to breathe. Where there is the vitality of

life, of being, there is a sense of breath, of respirationof

spirit moving in and out, back and forth (Emery, p.2).

Satish Kumar often shares the same insight: whenwe realise that we share the same air, that we are

breathing together, we realise also that we are all

connected, we are all related (Satish Kumar, fireside chat,

Schumacher Library, October 2012). Like this human

beings become just a part of nature, a part of the whole,

and not the centre. In order to better understand the waywe are related to the whole, we have to start seeing reality

with new eyes. Like Goethe, we need to develop a more

naturalistic way of doing science; and in this way we

ourselves become an instrument of observation

something I experienced while at Pishwanton.

Until now scientific studies have been mainly

observing phenomena under artificial conditions, i.e. in

laboratories. But really only when we go inside,(in the

sense that Stephan Harding describes how going into


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the natural world is the real inside) (Stephan Harding,

personal communication, November, 2012) into the living

dynamism of nature, are we able to appreciate "the part in

the light of the whole, fostering a way of doing sciencewhich dwells in nature (Seamon, p.278). Goethe is

concerned "with the wholeness and the qualities of nature,

instead of with analyzing nature in quantitative terms and

reducing her to the smallest units" (ibid). When, like

Goethe, we directly participate in the makingof science, it

becomes potentially transformative for the scientisthim/herself: It is a therapeutic process because it is one

that may potentially restore to health and wholeness those

who practice it. It is also a cultural therapeutics because if,

it were taken as a cultural practice and cultural worldview,

it might be curative and restorative for our entire culture"

(Robbins, p.114). As a participatory approach to nature,

Goethes method stresses that the process of scientific

investigation should be a matter of becoming increasingly

at home with the phenomena (Seamon, 1998, p. 3).

Another distinctive quality that Goethe found in nature was

its sacredness: Natural objects should be sought and

investigated as they are and not to suit observers, but

respectfully as if they were divine beings (Goethe1971, p.57). Like him, indigenous cultures around the planet have

shared similar beliefs, hence allowing them to live in

harmony with nature for thousands of years. Nevertheless

the Kogi Indians in Colombia even go a bit further:


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