There is a problem with the way we view chaos and order: the tendency to view order as good and chaos as bad. After all, nobody wants chaos, right? Nobody wants destruction or disorganization. But what about creativity and innovation? And everybody wants to be organized and clean. But what about stubborn or inflexible? If you have too much order you can't adapt; If you have too much chaos nothing makes sense. A balance is needed -- you can't have too much order or chaos.
Again, a balance is needed, but this is not a stationary balance. It's more like a pendulum swinging. Sometimes it swings to the left, sometimes it swings to the right.
Chaos and order are just how a particular state of affairs, and those states in and of themselves are value neutral as you have said. Order and chaos are thus value judgments as well as descriptions.
ReplyDeleteChaos and order is in a continuum- Most things are either relatively more chaotic or more orderly.
How about looking at chaos in terms of informational entropy? If you have less possible configurations then information is lost; If there is "absolute order" then there is no information. View in this fashion, excessive order is actually the destruction of information.
The problem with chaos and order is that there is a tendency to view order as good and chaos as bad.
ReplyDeleteSurely that's a problem with dualism, not with chaos and order?
If by dualism you mean "our view about chaos and order" then yes, you are correct. There is nothing wrong with chaos and order themselves. (And I've edited my post to reflect this.)
ReplyDeleteIf by dualism is our tendency to view things as dual when they are actually unified then well...yes and no. Yes, because seeing the unification is certainly the solution. No, because one of the main points I hope to make is how chaos and order work together to create growth.
Example: A house being built. Before: A foundation (or ground), nice and orderly After: A finished house, also orderly. In between: Change, noise, and mess i.e. chaos.