Throughout the duration of this course my personal definition of order and chaos has been modified and expanded several times. My definition has also become more refined and I can now better explain my views on order and chaos to others. Upon completion of this course I have decided to categorize order and chaos into three separate parts: order and chaos within the self, between self and others, and between self and the universe. These sections should be analyzed independently as well as together to formulate a proper understanding of order and chaos.
Order and chaos are in a constant struggle for balance in any given system. The first system we studied was our own personal identity and sense of self. When we discuss self we are not only talking about our bodies and minds, but also our souls, spirits, personality, memory, and personal actions. All of these factors are important when we try to understand the order and chaos we create within ourselves. The first article we read in this class was the article by Benjamin Franklin from his autobiography that showed his struggle to live a life of virtue. He organized his life and recorded every misdeed on a daily basis so that he could track his progress and make improvements on his own personal character when needed. One of the most important parts of this process was his creation of thirteen key virtues that he tried to follow. His third virtue and its definition was “ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time” (Franklin, p. 1). Franklin planned out his life and organized all the virtues he wanted to follow in the hopes that he would become a better person and others would follow his lead.
The double nature of order and chaos has been pondered for millennium, going back as far as Confucius and Aristotle. However, only in the last few centuries have philosophers created acceptable theories on the creation of the order and chaos found in each of us. Some of the most popular theories of the Enlightenment include The Blank Slate, The Noble Savage, and The Ghost in the Machine. All three ideas discuss the purpose of this order and chaos as well as its origin. The idea of the noble savage first appeared when Europeans studied the actions of indigenous and wild people of the places they were conquering during the Age of Imperialism. The concept of the noble savage “captures the belief that humans in their natural state are selfless, peaceable, and untroubled, and that blights such as greed, anxiety, and violence are the products of civilization” (Pinker p. 49). When I think of the noble savage I see a man who is in tune with the heartbeat of nature and his mind is incredibly disciplined. His thoughts are focused and clear. When he is on the hunt his conscious mind only focuses on his prey while the rest of his mind carefully watches his surroundings for danger. This internal order of his mind, thoughts, and actions allows him to survive in a dangerous world of chaos and disorder.
The best way to understand the order and chaos that exists between the self and others is by observing the constant change of government, politics, and society throughout history. History is made up of cycles that historians study to find patterns and repetitions in both the history of civilizations and natural history. Karl Marx studied the class structure of different European societies and governments in an attempt to predict the effects of the Industrial Revolution. He thought the working class in an industrial nation would eventually rise up and overthrow their oppressors in the upper class. Marx saw the creation of two social classes that had been continually fighting ever since the beginning of civilization. In his greatest work, The Communist Manifesto, Marx said “Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other – bourgeoisie and proletariat” (Marx p. 81). He saw these two powerful classes fighting in revolution and war (chaos) until ultimate power resided with the victor. Then peace and prosperity would return with the new established government taking command and enforcing the laws (order) of the people.
When we look at the order and chaos found in the universe outside of ourselves and the people around us it can be a little overwhelming. Through careful observations and steady research, scientists have begun to better understand the order and chaos in our world and to a larger extent, the universe. One of the greatest examples of order and chaos in nature is evolution. In the theory of natural selection, variations occur randomly (chaos) in the genetic makeup of an organism and this variation can decrease or increase the chances of its survival. However, the variations are limited by the genetic material available from the parents and by the automatic arrangement of the chromosomes during fertilization. Charles Darwin once said, “It may metaphysically be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, the slightest variations; rejecting those that are bad, preserving and adding up all that are good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life” (Darwin p. 177). He is explaining that even though variation occurs nature prunes away the variations that are not meant to survive. Nature is chaotic, and yet it serves as an organizer and sorter of all the variations that appear in organisms as part of natural selection and evolution.
One of the last sections we covered in this course was the order and chaos we observe in the universe. We studied the research of Dr. Lorenz on chaos theory and the Butterfly Effect to find our own interpretations of order and chaos in the world. Lorenz accidentally discovered the Butterfly Effect while studying weather patterns and cycles. He originally saw the fluid motion of the weather as a predictable form of chaos. Then he accidentally typed in his numbers that would begin his weather predictions with miniscule decimal places left off. This error led to the discovery of the Butterfly Effect. “Had he stopped with the Butterfly Effect, an image of predictability giving way to pure randomness, then Lorenz would have produced no more than a piece of very bad news” (Gleick p. 254). Instead he continued down this new line of research and came up with the idea that nothing can be predicted indefinitely because of the Butterfly Effect. The Butterfly Effect says that if a butterfly flaps its wings in New York it can create a storm over Hong Kong. This shows that although we can predict some things in our universe, we can only go so far in our predictions. The constant change and ever present entropy of our universe prevents us from seeing into the future with absolute certainty.
This class has been enormously helpful for me in my search to better understand myself, others, and the world around me. In particular, my ideas on order and chaos have become much more defined and I have a much greater appreciation for the order and chaos in my life.
Sources:
Benjamin Franklin. Autobiography.
Steven Pinker. “The Blank Slate, the Noble Savage, and the Ghost in the Machine,” from The Blank Slate. Viking, 2002, pp. 1-29.
Karl Marx. The Communist Manifesto. 1848.
Charles Darwin. “Introduction,” “Variations under Nature,” “Struggle for Existence,” and “Natural Selection,” from The Origin of Species. 1859.
James Gleick. “Prologue,” “The Butterfly Effect,” and “Chaos and Beyond,” from Chaos: Making a New Science. Viking, 1987, pp. 1-31, 301-317.
Order and chaos are in a constant struggle for balance in any given system. The first system we studied was our own personal identity and sense of self. When we discuss self we are not only talking about our bodies and minds, but also our souls, spirits, personality, memory, and personal actions. All of these factors are important when we try to understand the order and chaos we create within ourselves. The first article we read in this class was the article by Benjamin Franklin from his autobiography that showed his struggle to live a life of virtue. He organized his life and recorded every misdeed on a daily basis so that he could track his progress and make improvements on his own personal character when needed. One of the most important parts of this process was his creation of thirteen key virtues that he tried to follow. His third virtue and its definition was “ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time” (Franklin, p. 1). Franklin planned out his life and organized all the virtues he wanted to follow in the hopes that he would become a better person and others would follow his lead.The double nature of order and chaos has been pondered for millennium, going back as far as Confucius and Aristotle. However, only in the last few centuries have philosophers created acceptable theories on the creation of the order and chaos found in each of us. Some of the most popular theories of the Enlightenment include The Blank Slate, The Noble Savage, and The Ghost in the Machine. All three ideas discuss the purpose of this order and chaos as well as its origin. The idea of the noble savage first appeared when Europeans studied the actions of indigenous and wild people of the places they were conquering during the Age of Imperialism. The concept of the noble savage “captures the belief that humans in their natural state are selfless, peaceable, and untroubled, and that blights such as greed, anxiety, and violence are the products of civilization” (Pinker p. 49). When I think of the noble savage I see a man who is in tune with the heartbeat of nature and his mind is incredibly disciplined. His thoughts are focused and clear. When he is on the hunt his conscious mind only focuses on his prey while the rest of his mind carefully watches his surroundings for danger. This internal order of his mind, thoughts, and actions allows him to survive in a dangerous world of chaos and disorder.
The best way to understand the order and chaos that exists between the self and others is by observing the constant change of government, politics, and society throughout history. History is made up of cycles that historians study to find patterns and repetitions in both the history of civilizations and natural history. Karl Marx studied the class structure of different European societies and governments in an attempt to predict the effects of the Industrial Revolution. He thought the working class in an industrial nation would eventually rise up and overthrow their oppressors in the upper class. Marx saw the creation of two social classes that had been continually fighting ever since the beginning of civilization. In his greatest work, The Communist Manifesto, Marx said “Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other – bourgeoisie and proletariat” (Marx p. 81). He saw these two powerful classes fighting in revolution and war (chaos) until ultimate power resided with the victor. Then peace and prosperity would return with the new established government taking command and enforcing the laws (order) of the people.
When we look at the order and chaos found in the universe outside of ourselves and the people around us it can be a little overwhelming. Through careful observations and steady research, scientists have begun to better understand the order and chaos in our world and to a larger extent, the universe. One of the greatest examples of order and chaos in nature is evolution. In the theory of natural selection, variations occur randomly (chaos) in the genetic makeup of an organism and this variation can decrease or increase the chances of its survival. However, the variations are limited by the genetic material available from the parents and by the automatic arrangement of the chromosomes during fertilization. Charles Darwin once said, “It may metaphysically be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, the slightest variations; rejecting those that are bad, preserving and adding up all that are good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life” (Darwin p. 177). He is explaining that even though variation occurs nature prunes away the variations that are not meant to survive. Nature is chaotic, and yet it serves as an organizer and sorter of all the variations that appear in organisms as part of natural selection and evolution.
One of the last sections we covered in this course was the order and chaos we observe in the universe. We studied the research of Dr. Lorenz on chaos theory and the Butterfly Effect to find our own interpretations of order and chaos in the world. Lorenz accidentally discovered the Butterfly Effect while studying weather patterns and cycles. He originally saw the fluid motion of the weather as a predictable form of chaos. Then he accidentally typed in his numbers that would begin his weather predictions with miniscule decimal places left off. This error led to the discovery of the Butterfly Effect. “Had he stopped with the Butterfly Effect, an image of predictability giving way to pure randomness, then Lorenz would have produced no more than a piece of very bad news” (Gleick p. 254). Instead he continued down this new line of research and came up with the idea that nothing can be predicted indefinitely because of the Butterfly Effect. The Butterfly Effect says that if a butterfly flaps its wings in New York it can create a storm over Hong Kong. This shows that although we can predict some things in our universe, we can only go so far in our predictions. The constant change and ever present entropy of our universe prevents us from seeing into the future with absolute certainty.
This class has been enormously helpful for me in my search to better understand myself, others, and the world around me. In particular, my ideas on order and chaos have become much more defined and I have a much greater appreciation for the order and chaos in my life.
Sources:
Benjamin Franklin. Autobiography.
Steven Pinker. “The Blank Slate, the Noble Savage, and the Ghost in the Machine,” from The Blank Slate. Viking, 2002, pp. 1-29.
Karl Marx. The Communist Manifesto. 1848.
Charles Darwin. “Introduction,” “Variations under Nature,” “Struggle for Existence,” and “Natural Selection,” from The Origin of Species. 1859.
James Gleick. “Prologue,” “The Butterfly Effect,” and “Chaos and Beyond,” from Chaos: Making a New Science. Viking, 1987, pp. 1-31, 301-317.
Picture Taken from: http://www.rfractals.net/gallery/main.php/v/JuliaSets/Order+and+Chaos.jpg_files/OrderandChaos.jpg
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