Tuesday 19 September 2017

Synthesis And Wholeness

It is impossible to read or even to reread a text by Poul Anderson without finding a wealth of apparently new material on which to comment.

Trevelyan Micah refers to:

"...the synthesizing world-view of modern philosophy..."
-Poul Anderson, The Peregrine (New York, 1979), Chapter IV, p. 26.

If Stellar Union philosophy is "synthesizing," then it is not merely analytical although here it is characterized as such and is even contrasted with the Alorian wholeness-principle. I suggested here that Terrestrial Hegelian philosophy encompasses "wholeness."

Trevelyan's "...body [is] compact and balanced with the training of modern education." (p. 27)

Thus, Stellar Union education is holistic, not merely intellectual.

5 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

The sum is more than the parts, but the question is whether the sum can be understood except through reductive analysis.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Dear Mr. Stirling,

And by "reductive analysis" do you mean the kind of reasoning used in Aristotelian/Scholastic philosophy?

Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Pretty much, though the technical term is "analytical reductionism".

S.M. Stirling said...

Though a poetic way to put it is: "The dissecting scalpel of the negative elenchos".

Sean M. Brooks said...

Dear Mr. Stirling,

I thought so! Albeit, I've only dabbled a BIT into Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. And I like both terms: "analytical reductionism" and "The dissecting scalpel of the negative elenchos."

Sean