The Nature of Order

Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Centers and Wholeness
There is a class of entities which I call centers appearing everywhere in space.
They appear where they do, as a result of the configuration which appears in
the world. Every part of the world, at every scale, has centers appearing in it.
The system of these centers pays a vital role in determining what happens in
the world. The system as a whole—that is to say, its pattern— is the thing
which we generally think of when we speak about something as a whole.
Although the system of centers is fluid, and changes from time to time as the
configuration and arrangement and conditions all change. Still, at any given
moment, these centers form a definite pattern. This pattern of all the centers
appearing in a given part of space—constitutes the wholeness of that part of
space. It is this structure, which is responsible for its degree of life.
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
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