Tags: What will be the most significant paradigm change in 21st Century Physics? In my opinion it is the holistic model of matter, in its replacing the atomistic model.
Posts Tagged ‘holism’
February 26th, 2011
From Atomism to Holism
For the sake of progress in our subject, the time has come for physics to welcome a paradigm change that has been waiting in the wings for recognition for the past seven decades. It is the change in our comprehension of matter from a model in terms of atomism and discreteness to one of continuity and holism.
November 5th, 2008
From Atomism to Holism
I believe that a major paradigm shift in 21st century physics will be from Atomism to Holism. Atomism takes the view that matter is composed of individual, independent “things” (electrons, protons, quarks, Higgs particles, ..) whose self-properties and mutual interactions yield the observed features of matter. In contrast, Holism is the view that there are no independent “parts”. What appears as “things” in any domain, are in fact correlated modes of a single continuum (in principle the Universe). In physics, the Theory of General Relativity incorporates this concept of Holism.