
The Society for the Advancement of
Creative Scientific Thinking
--forward-thinking explorations in search of a future science
SOCIETY CHARTER
The Society for the Advancement of Creative Scientific Thinking (SfACST) aims to explore/expand our modes of scientific thinking in light of the current, radical shifts in our inherited scientific worldview of the late 20th century.
At its founding in the fall of 1995, the society is jointly co-edited by Donavan Hall and Henry P. Mills as an outgrowth of a dialogue begun between us several years ago. Initially, what will follow below represents our collaborative effort to address the continually emerging tensions we see to exist between our respective fields and areas of specialized interest. In particular, Hall operates out of his background in theoretical and experimental physics while Mills draws from his training in language theory and semiotics. In a larger sense, our goal is to work, both methodically and deliberately, toward one another from the complementary vantage points on "matter" (physics) and "mind" (representation) that we each bear.
SfACST's long-term goal, in turn, is to evolve into a much larger virtual community of individuals likewise dedicated to the exploration of and participation in the process that leads to "creative scientific thinking," if not also new vision of ourselves as both scientific and non-scientific beings seeking to understand the world in which we live.
Our basic premises:
- Current modes of science/scientific thinking inadequately address the nature of the universe, consciousness, our knowledge of each, and our place in the cosmos (see elaboration below, or consider any of these issues: Chaos theory, Triadic theory, and Quantum theory, to name a few).
- A more careful, circumspect inquiry into these topics may involve a fundamental shift in the nature of our worldview, if not a major reevaluation of the ways in which we perceive each of the above topics concerning nature and our relationship to it.
All of the following discussions will be fully dialogical in the sense that the positions they embody may not always agree; further, the course of thinking explored in the society is subject to change at any time as may be necessary for the goal of allowing for the creative advancement of scientific thinking. Indeed, the practiced attitude of self-critical and reflective "openness" to change is fundamental to science as we know it today.
An elaboration of our basic premises:
"On the Limitations of Current Modes of Scientific Thought" by D. Hall and H. Mills
A provocation from the past:
"No present actual thought...has any
meaning, any intellectual value; for this lies not in what is
actually thought, but in what this thought may be connected with
in representation by subsequent thoughts, so that the meaning of
a thought is altogether something virtual....Thought is what it
is only by virtue of its addressing a future thought which is in
its value a thought identical with it, though more developed. In
this way, the existence of thought now depends on what is to be
hereafter; so that it has only a potential existence, dependent
on the future thought of the community..."
-- Charles S. Peirce, Writings
ENCYLOPEDIA
A History of Scientific Revolutions
Charts of the history of science
The Process of Science: An Analysis and Description
CONTENTS-IN-PROCESS
H. MILLS
Personal Thesis:
Language, at root the capacity to represent relationships in thought, is the most important, if not fundamental tool that scientists possess: we must seek to understand, therefore, how the very structure and activity of language itself may affect or determine our perceptions and conclusions about the world.
- Worldviews in Revolution (book prospectus, outline)
- On the Shifting of Human Worldviews: An Introduction
- On the Uniqueness of Symbolization
- On the Semiotics of "Self": A Post-Modern Formulation
- Speculations Toward a Future Worldview
- Preface to "Worldviews in Revolution" (Mills)
D. HALL
Personal Thesis:
Natural science has become, in the modern mind, the final authority.
However, the desire for answers to questions concerning humanity has led to
the mis-application of natural science to subjects not appropriate to its
methodology (i.e., the "answers" of natural science do not always correspond to our
experience). I propose to apply appropriate scientific methods to the many "divergent"
problems of human existence in order to explicate them with greater subtly
and with more completeness than a strictly "naturalistic" science makes
possible in the interest of opening up new intellectual frontiers of scientific exploration.
COLLECTIVE RESOURCE MATERIALS
- To be developed
- Hypertext Index of Key Concepts
- Suggested Follow-up Readings
- Annotated Bibliographies of Supporting Materials
- Related Internet Sites/Discussions (links)
- Hypermail Discussion Archive
COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS
Send comments and/or questions to dhall@unix1.sncc.lsu.edu or henm1@aol.com.
About Donavan Hall
About Henry P. Mills
Last updated: 7 May 1996 (hm)