"This kind of overall way of thinking is not only a fertile source of new theoretical ideas: it is needed for the human mind to function in a generally harmonious way, which could in turn help to make possible an orderly and stable society"
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Bohm is smuggling a political claim into what sounds like a neutral description of good thinking. He isn’t just praising a productive mental habit; he’s arguing that certain modes of consciousness are prerequisites for social order. The line moves in a deliberate chain: a holistic “overall way of thinking” generates theory, that same wholeness keeps the psyche “harmonious,” and that inner harmony scales up into an “orderly and stable society.” It’s a scientist’s version of moral philosophy, written in the calm, managerial cadence of someone trying to make ethics sound like physics.
The subtext is a critique of fragmentation: the split between disciplines, between people, between what we privately believe and what we publicly perform. Bohm’s work in quantum theory and his later dialogues about thought and perception were obsessed with how division gets mistaken for reality. So when he says “needed,” he’s not offering a self-help tip; he’s diagnosing modern life as mentally incoherent, and therefore socially combustible. “Fertile source” flatters the academic reader, then pivots to a more urgent claim: without integrated thinking, even brilliant ideas can’t compensate for a mind at war with itself.
“Orderly and stable” also carries a faint Cold War aftertaste - a period when “stability” was both a genuine longing and a euphemism for control. Bohm suggests a softer route: not coercion from above, but coherence from within. It’s idealistic, maybe even risky, yet the rhetorical power lies in presenting inner clarity as civic infrastructure.
The subtext is a critique of fragmentation: the split between disciplines, between people, between what we privately believe and what we publicly perform. Bohm’s work in quantum theory and his later dialogues about thought and perception were obsessed with how division gets mistaken for reality. So when he says “needed,” he’s not offering a self-help tip; he’s diagnosing modern life as mentally incoherent, and therefore socially combustible. “Fertile source” flatters the academic reader, then pivots to a more urgent claim: without integrated thinking, even brilliant ideas can’t compensate for a mind at war with itself.
“Orderly and stable” also carries a faint Cold War aftertaste - a period when “stability” was both a genuine longing and a euphemism for control. Bohm suggests a softer route: not coercion from above, but coherence from within. It’s idealistic, maybe even risky, yet the rhetorical power lies in presenting inner clarity as civic infrastructure.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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