Sustaining the Quest for Sustainable Answers on COVID-19

Beyond the divisive preoccupation with unquestionable assertions and unanswered questions

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The future may marvel at the plethora of concepts and "things" which are perceived as framing the nature of human civilization. By techno-optimists these are considered to be in process of organization into an Internet of Things. Beyond that, howver, there are also the many "things" to which people are exposed by advertising, by legislation, by religion, by culture, or by science -- all of which populate our individual and collective psyches. Education is seemingly understood as development of the ability to manage these to an adequate degree -- to recognize them and to remember them.

With respect to quality of life, arguably this array of recognizable "things" renders life meaningful and fruitful to only a limited degree -- whether for some or for many. One obvious alternative is to focus on one "thing" to the exclusion of all others as being relatively irrelevant. Science and religion, for example, offer possibilities in this regard -- as does sport.

There is a case for a more radical exploration of alternatives to what may be experienced as the "pollution" of one's psyche -- namely the uncontrolled accumulation of what may well be recognized as the waste products of the endeavours of others.

The following speculative exercise is inspired by the manner in which physics has framed the relation between particles and waves through the uncertainty principle. There is a case for recognizing that the vast array of "things" -- conceptual or otherwise -- can be usefully understood as particulate, as "particles". This would then frame the question as to the experiential meaning to be associated with "waves". An early suggestion in this respect has been the argument of Garrison Sposito (Does a generalized Heisenberg principle operate in the social sciences? Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy, 12, 1969, 1-4). However this was long preceded by arguments of such as Heraclitus regarding panta rhei -- "everything flows" (Tim Rayner, Heraclitus, change, and flow, Philosophy for Change, 7 April 2008). Related implications have been noted with respect to COVID-19 (Ben Klemens, The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle of Social Science Modeling, Scientific American, 7 July 2020).

A degree of recognition is accorded to such a notion through the process philosophy (Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality, 1929) and through flow psychology (Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, 1996)/ Of greater potential relevance is the sense in which people speak of a "wave of enthusiasm" and similar experiences. Consistent with the radical approach explored here is the sense in which fundamental values -- including peace -- might well be more appropriately appreciated as verbs rather than as nouns (Freedom, Democracy, Justice: Isolated Nouns or Interwoven Verbs? Illusory quest for qualities and principles dynamically disguised, 2011).

A trend towards the formal articulation of any such understanding is the impact of quantum mechanics, most obviously as articulated by Alexander Wendt (Quantum Mind and Social Science: unifying physical and social ontology, 2015), and discussed separately (On being "walking wave functions" in terms of quantum consciousness? 2017). The possibility has been framed for a different audience by Ethan Siegel (In Quantum Physics, Even Humans Act As Waves, Forbes, 19 August 2020). Elliot

The following argument is a development of previous explorations of this theme (Encountering Otherness as a Waveform, 2013;Being a Waveform of Potential as an Experiential Choice: emergent dynamic qualities of identity and integrity, 2013; Being Neither a-Waving Nor a-Parting: cognitive implications of wave-particle duality in the light of science and spirituality, 2013).

covid "second wave" -- search

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