Mark, thank you for further fleshing LL Whyte out for us. I have only read his The Unitary Principle in Biology. I know nothing about Burwick, so thank you for the heads-up.......john On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 10:33 AM, Mark Stahlman <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > ToKers: > > Thanks to John for introducing me to the most interesting person who I > never paid much attention to (so far this week): Lancelot Law Whyte > (1896-1972). > > https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_Lancelot-5FLaw-5FWhyte&d=DwIBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=WsQH9Cyxeq8U4a_aWCrMGkqV63LEBYWW_SbsoMF-FKo&s=_-B7rJWQ8kG5oNbe5ahmDlZWyFunoeuFJG_PHlprGmU&e= > > I've just read his fascinating "not" autobiography -- *Focus and > Diversions* (1963) -- and I suspect that it is quite relevant for the ToK > Society. Whyte was apparently the go-to fellow for the exploration of > "forms" in mid-century, likely as a result of publishing *The Unitary > Principle in Biology and Physics* (in 1948, the year I was born), along > with his other books. > > Shortly after that, he was asked to edit *Accent on Form: Symposium on > Form in Nature and Art* (1951, honoring D'arcy Thompson, who had just > died), followed by *Aspects of Form: An Anticipation of the Science of > Tomorrow* (1954). Shortly after than Warren Weaver of the Rockefeller > Foundation hired him for a year to wander around. Nice work if you can get > it. > > Among the anecdotes he recounts was being contacted by three young > architects contacted him and asked to meet. When he asked why the answer > was, "You're the only one who is alive and in Britain -- Lewis Mumford in > the USA and Patrick Geddes is dead." One of them was Jacqueline Tyrwhitt > (who would later become close with Marshall McLuhan.) He was also friends > with Sigfried Gideon (another McLuhan stalwart and who introduced him to > Tyrwhitt.) > > Like so many others who attempted to "unify science," he failed -- as he > discusses at some length in his life-account. > > He winds up with these "predictions" -- > > 1) The twentieth century will be seen to display a convergence towards a > new universal world attitude towards man and his problems . . . > > 2) One of the key features of this coming view of the coherence of > phenomena will be a clarified conception of those formative processes in > which three-dimensional forms and structures separate from their > environment . . . > > 3) (Mainly for mathematicians.) The decisive factor converting this blind > spot into a focus of attention will be the discovery by mathematical > physics and biophysics that collective parameters (associated with complex > finite systems) are more useful than either atomic or field parameters > (associated with parts or points) . . . > > 4) The decades from 1950 onwards will be recognized as marked by a change > in evolutionary philosophy: the gradual discarding of the unduly narrow > view of the mechanism of the evolution of the species as due only to the > external or Darwinian adaptive slection of matured forms resulting from > haphazard mutations. > > You be the judge of how much of this actually happened (or not) . . . <g> > > Mark > > P.S. The closest that I could find to a "follow-up" to Whyte's work is a > F. Burwick's *Approaches to Organic Form: Permutations in Science and > Culture* (1987, also at UCLA), which I suspect John can tell us alot > about. Btw, a free copy of this $200+ book can be found at > memoryoftheworld.org. > > https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.amazon.com_Approaches-2DOrganic-2DForm-2DPermutations-2DPhilosophy_dp_&d=DwIBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=WsQH9Cyxeq8U4a_aWCrMGkqV63LEBYWW_SbsoMF-FKo&s=57SM4iHiBQ4oI0IPCFoRrsoGNrdS5c67qRhXjT9Wzzc&e= > 9027725411 > > > > > > ############################ > > To unsubscribe from the TOK-SOCIETY-L list: write to: > mailto:[log in to unmask] or click the > following link: http://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=TOK-SOCIETY-L&A= > 1 > ############################ To unsubscribe from the TOK-SOCIETY-L list: write to: mailto:[log in to unmask] or click the following link: http://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=TOK-SOCIETY-L&A=1