"Just as scientists work with theories about dark matter or the beginning of the universe, so we too have a vague concept of the world and our relationship to it. Our theories may not be as well thought out, but they still dictate how we think of the world.
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But sometimes, something happens that doesn’t fit our theory. A unique event throws us for a loop, and we start to scramble for explanations. How do we understand this happening in light of our current worldview?
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In other words, people change. Our worldviews shift, sometimes radically, as we absorb new experiences.
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These transitions can be quite painful. A radical change is never without some discomfort: we may be pushed into an unfamiliar world, with little familiar to guide or reassure us.
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When our worldview changes, things get even more complicated. We feel the same anxiety (and excitement) of exploring unfamiliar territory, but, in addition, we also cling to our old worldview, thinking that it is still somehow must be ‘true.’
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something in us grabs onto a theory as a way to explain the world. We believe, in other words, in our idea of the world, whether in the form of religion, a specific scientific worldview, psychological explanations or personality types, social studies, or whatever it may be. But what happens when something happens that doesn’t fit our theory? Either we have to painfully give it up for a new theory (often thinking, “Finally, this is the REAL answer!”), or we have to suppress or deny the evidence so that it doesn’t break our worldview.
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Bohm proposes that theories do not actually describe the world, nor give us knowledge about it. Rather, theories are a way of looking. Bohm reminds us that the word ‘theory’ has the same root as ‘theater,’ meaning ‘to view.’ “Thus,” Bohm writes, “it might be said that a theory is primarily a form of insight, i.e. a way of looking at the world, and not a form of knowledge of how the world is”
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This difference between theory as description and theory as insight is subtle, but crucial if we are to free ourselves from the imprisonment of constant theorizing.
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we have a hidden assumption. The hidden assumption is that theories themselves can be “true.”
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But what does “true” mean? We are looking for something that works in all circumstances. But Bohm corrects us: he says, “all theories are insights, which are neither true nor false but, rather, clear in certain domains, and unclear when extended beyond these domains”
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What we previously thought applied to the world as a whole, really only applies in certain situations.
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This is not meant to be a buzzkill, of course, but rather to correct a false assumption that our ideas about the world are “absolutely true.” “Absolute truth” is more trouble than it’s worth because it traps us in what we think we already know to be true.
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It is better, Bohm argues, to see theories as “ways of looking at the world as a whole (i.e. world views)”. Bohm acknowledges that we are in the world we are seeking to understand, instead of removed from it as an imagined observer. In other words, we play a part in what we experience. Our concepts and ideas shape our interpretation of the world.[Moi ici: Este parágrafo adapta-se perfeitamente à visão que tenho de que não existe um caminho único para uma empresa e que o contexto exterior tem, muitas vezes, menos peso que a idiossincrasia de quem tem a autoridade máxima. Idiossincrasia que depende da sua vida anterior, pessoal e profissional. Por isso, quando os comentadores económicos de bancada ditam as directivas para os empresários seguirem, mudo de canal]
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it is crucial that we drop this idea of theories as “true knowledge of reality” in order to discover the world as it is, instead of as we “know it to be.”
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Bohm’s view does not mean that theories are useless. The insights offered by theories are real insights. But these insights exist only in specific situations; they do not give us knowledge of “a reality independent of our thought and our way of looking.” Freed from this mistaken assumption, we may experience the world in a completely new way. We will no longer be limited by the confused insistence on absolute truth. Rather, we will experience life as a relationship between observer and observed.[Moi ici: Recuar e pensar que gente que dirigia este país acreditava em algo apelidado de "socialismo cientifico", e pensar que existiu uma mentalidade, bem intencionada acreditemos, que acreditava no Cybersyn]
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Without clinging to theories, we may find it easier to go with the unpredictable flow of life."
Trechos retirados de "David Bohm on the Value of Life After Theories"
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