The Challenge

Written by Jan W. Vasbinder, Jonathan Sim, Jan Staman, 24 June 2014.

If this project resonates with you, we would like to invite you to join us as a participant to explore the East-West barrier. For more information on how to participate, please contact us at participate@paralimes.org

This paper has been superseded by the Working Paper.

Introduction

Societal problems are complex. Big societal problems are very complex. They differ radically from the problems that reductionist science has addressed in the last 300+ years, and they require radically different methodologies than the ones that were crucial to the progress of that science. Worldwide the focus of big modern science programs (like European Horizon 2020) is shifting to societal problems. As a consequence the need to develop radically different methodologies has become the biggest challenge for the global scientific community. The complexity lens is the key. Not naming it, Chinese thinkers have used this lens already for more than 3000 years to describe the art of dealing with the complexity of their world. It is encouraging that western scientists start to see value of this classical art.

Through technologies that evolve in its wake, (western) reductionist science has an enormous impact on our world and, more in particular on the complex systems that shape it, such as biological, social, cultural and ecological systems. However, the science provides no insights in the nature of the impact of the technologies on those systems or on their dynamics and interactions.

The reason is that reductionist science is based on the premise that we can learn the workings of a complex system by taking it apart and examine its components in isolation. We cannot. We cannot because, if taken apart, complex systems lose precisely the character that makes them complex. Thus reductionist science cannot solve the big complex problems facing mankind (like urbanization, sustainability, climate or the impact of technology on the way we learn, live and communicate). We need other options.

So what options do we have to address these big problems?

We think that there is least one promising option to be explored:

Combine complexity science with the fruits of traditional Chinese thinking to identify and develop sustainable approaches that meet global challenges.

For that option to be successful we need to overcome the barriers that separate traditional western and traditional Chinese thinking.

Two Traditions of Thinking

The focus on change enabled the Chinese to “understand" complexity and manage it. This can still be observed today in the practice of traditional Chinese medicine and in the Chinese arts.

Traditional western thinking is rooted in the Platonic notion of an eternal, unchanging truth. Traditional Chinese thinking does not see reason and truth as unchanging universals. Instead it focuses on the constancy of change and context dependency of things.

These fundamentally different traditions have given rise to fundamentally different cultures, mind-sets and worldviews that in turn form an enormous barrier in the communication between the Chinese and the western worlds.

We intend to undertake two explorations to find ways to overcome this barrier.

Explore a common vocabulary based on complexity science

Complexity science is firmly based in reductionism, yet it is the first serious development in science that acknowledges change and “the propagation of change” as one of its central themes. As it evolved in the last three decennia it developed concepts (like emergence, self-organization and connectivity) that parallel some of the notions about reality that were captured 25 centuries ago by Chinese thinkers, but that have not been given words by them.

We propose to explore the possibility of developing a vocabulary derived from complexity science that best encapsulates concepts developed in Chinese thought. Such a vocabulary may form a common lens that both cultures can use to probe and acquire clarity in their own and in each other’s inherent assumptions, methods, processes and realities. It will thus help both cultures to communicate. It will also help, we trust, to find combinations of eastern and western sources of creativity and dynamics and thus benefit mankind.

Articulate arts and crafts in life and science

The ability to manage complex situations is an art (or a craft or skill) that is acquired during the course of one’s life. Practically every person learns to master that art to a certain extent while handling complex situations on a daily basis. And most likely (s)he may never use the word “complexity,” or even realize that (s)he is dealing with complex situations in a natural way.

Take for example a woman with a husband and children, who daily manages school, multi-agenda's, doctors, food, unexpected happenings, guests, accidents or diseases, all the while providing a stable home for her family and keeping her eyes open towards the future and the changes that may bring.

Or take a teacher. (S)he has lessons to plan and teach, assignments to grade, the welfare and progress of several classes of students to manage, while at the same time balancing the expectations of his/her superiors.

Or take a (Chinese) physician who, with all his/her knowledge of various medical theories, can only effectively diagnose and treat patients after developing an intuitive understanding of how a change in one factor affects other factors and how unintended effects that arise from any one treatment can be counterbalanced.

The mother, teacher and physician are not too different from each other. All have mastered the “art” of dealing with the interactions between the many factors in play. Through practice and experience all have acquired the ability to understand and manage high levels of complexity.

“Science as an art” is rarely talked about in the western tradition of science, perhaps because of the primacy of truth and reason. But all things being equal, what distinguishes a good scientist from a mediocre one is his/her “mastery of the art” to hypothesize, to craft experiments, and to execute them flawlessly. It takes years of laboratory experience to acquire such skills, the heart of which is “mastering complexity” so that an environment is created from which one can operate scientifically.

Mastering the “art” of doing science is not essentially different from mastering the six traditional Chinese arts (Rites, Music, Archery, Charioteering, Calligraphy and Mathematics). Articulating the “art of doing science” and comparing this with the Chinese arts may provide another opportunity to find a common base upon which we can develop communication between China and the West and explore the sources of eastern and western of creativity.

Why These Explorations?

Effective cross-cultural communication is a “sine qua non” for long-term peace and stability in our multicultural globalized world. Yet, such communication seems to be missing between China and the West, the two most powerful blocks in our world, each representing one of its oldest “thinking traditions”.

We are convinced that establishing such communication will offer enormous opportunities for finding combinations of Chinese and western thinking that may be crucial for building a sustainable world.

We are also convinced that Singapore is the natural place to explore the possibilities for such communication and that it is uniquely positioned to develop and exploit the strategic positions that may result from that.

The ultimate goals

To explore if and how modern complexity science and classical Chinese philosophy can enrich each other.

To find practical ways in which this may lead to policies with regard to governance, to new approaches to sustainability and to strategic advantages for Singapore.

The approach

We are entering largely uncharted territory. Therefore, we intend to organize a small number (3-4) of surveying groups, each consisting of 4-5 people. Each group will survey the nature of the challenge and possible ways to deal with it.

To start these groups may try to answer to the following questions:

• Do ancient wisdom and contemporary science converge or conflict?
• Can the language that is presently developed for complexity science be a common language for east and west?
• Can Chinese philosophical ideas (such as those presented in the Daodejing) be a common thought pattern for east and west?
• Can combinations of Dao and complexity lead to the sources of eastern creativity?
• Can that creativity be mobilized to help solve big (sustainability) problems of the world?
• What would be a practical way to move forward?
• What practical meaning could this whole exploration have for Singapore?

However, each group may find its own way to survey the area.

We will expect each group to come up with ideas and proposals how to move forward, as well as with suggestions who else should be involved. Based on the results of these surveying groups we will plan how to move forward.

Timing and planning

We would hope to have the meetings of the working groups in the period September / October, and a proposal for a program ready by November 2014.

The composition of the surveying groups will be determined based on the availabilities of the individual persons we intend to invite.

The main activities in the program will start in 2015.