No Contradictions

This is my first blog post after I joined the community of bold writers that love writing. The challenge is simple: write at least 500 words every day for 31-days.

And my favorite rule: no editing! The reason is simple. I'm Portuguese, so my writing skills take longer to perfect and the only way to do it is to keep writing, making mistakes, getting better and discover a writing community where we share our dreams, desires, thoughts, challenges, successes, failures, experiences, and who knows what else.

To begin this challenge, I thought about focusing on a single thought.

..."there are no contradictions in this world!"

Shocked?

You may think this is some belief, and everything is. Even in science we have to believe our analysis is the best interpretation of the data available, but since science is constantly evolving, we can always get closer the real truth about reality and improve our theories.

So, where is the underlying support of my statement?

In transdisciplinarity as it is developed by the physicist Barasab Nicolescu.

The problem of contradictions is when we reduce what we know about reality to a single level of interpretation. Unless we find what Nicolescu calls "third included", contradictions apparently remain.

Some examples. A photon. It this elementary reality in physics a particle or a wave? This is a contradiction because a particle is a non-wave and a wave is a non-particle. However, in the photoelectric effect a photon behaves as a particle while a beam of photons crossing a slit behaves as a wave. Only after Planck introduction of the notion of quantum (the third included) was possible to resolve photon's particle-wave duality. The contradiction appears because matter is continuous. Before Planck, we never thought matter could be discontinuous. But in fact, Planck's hypothesis was that energy is radiated and absorbed in discrete "quanta" (or energy packets), which matched the observed patterns of black-body radiation.

Another example is the number zero. Can you conceive mathematics without zero? Well, zero ... 0 ... is "something" that represents "nothing". It is an "is" that "is-not". The symbol is the third included that resolves the contradiction.

Can you understand now why there are no contradictions?

1. REALITY AS MULTIPLE LEVELS OF INTERPRETATION

This is evident with the photon, but you can always identify the levels in numerous other situations.

2. CONTRADICTIONS ONLY EXIST

WHEN WE REDUCE SEVERAL

LEVELS OF INTERPRETATION

TO A SINGLE ONE

It's like living in Flatland. Up and down are inconceivable concepts. Philosophy designates this as reductionism and it limits the mind, closing it upon that single level.

3. RESOLVE CONTRADICTIONS

BY FINDING THE "THIRD INCLUDED"

It is that something more, a notion, symbol, idea, experience, who knows what in this vast and unfathomable universe, that gives you a different, broader, clearer perspective over reality.

And what is the ultimate outcome of living your life in a more transdisciplinary fashion?

Two things.

You develop an open-mind.

You achieve unity of knowledge.

But, be careful. I said "unity", not "uniformity", but that is another story...