GH: “I have observed two distinct temperaments at work when people comment on the attempt to do science in any field. One temperament is disappointed when the analytic method fails in the face of the complexity of reality. The other temperament is delighted because it prefers to emphasise the role of intuition in grasping the nature of the whole and resents the pretensions of the analyst in trying to break things down into comprehensible particles. Each temperament has its virtues and vices. The analytical vice is to ignore the qualifications that always pertain to the method; the “holistic” vice is to delight in mystery to the point of obscurantism. We should ideally recognise our own temperament and try to guard against its biases, though that is easier said than done.”

Me: The goal should be to practice Wisdom which is the mentally integrative process itself, the thirdness greater oneness process of integrating the particles of truths in apparent opposites and within which the set of science is entirely included.

Science-the reductive mindset/discipline of deciphering complexity is wonderful, fun and far too often a Bible beating hurdle to progress both temporally and ethically. That is why Wisdom-the scientific AND wholistic mindset/discipline must ALWAYS inform it.

The reply is always that Wisdom is also prone to orthodoxy and its idiocies, but that would be confusing Wisdom with religion which it is not, at least not of the literalistic and parochial variety.