The Need for a Holistic View of Nature
BY PHILIP H. DURAN

During the past 10 years or so, since the time I was faculty adviser to the AISES student chapter at Washington State University, the perceptible trends that have been occurring in science and science education indicate a dire need for American Indian students and professionals who are committed to correcting the meaning and direction of science. These trends represent urgency as well as opportunity.
A prominent characteristic of Western thought is the perception of a dead universe, a world without spirit. The Western world, including science, has long believed that everything can be reduced to lifeless objects that are seemingly unrelated to each other. This tendency to reduce and categorize everything is reflected in the way that knowledge, instead of being unified, has been separated into increasingly specialized academic disciplines.
However, since the advent of environmental science, which focuses on human-caused pollution and degradation of the world we inhabit, scientists have begun to accept the more realistic view that the Earth is a single, interacting system. The change from geology to earth system science, which combines older academic disciplines into a larger domain, provides a compelling example of a shift from reductionism to a holistic view of nature.
In physics, the work of Albert Einstein and David Bohm (a renowned quantum physicist), has utterly destroyed mechanism and reductionism, at least in principle, regardless of the extent to which scientists may still adhere to these obsolete ideas. In addition to introducing a relational approach in physics, discarding the notions of absolute time and space, and introducing space-time in their place, Einstein conceived of a universe containing no rigid bodies: three-dimensional objects with definable boundaries.
The idea of the cosmos as a web is, of course, an indigenous concept. Relativity and quantum theory both describe an order of existence that is radically different from the classical world. They both strengthen the concept of unity and wholeness in the cosmos.
The cosmology Bohm developed in physics includes points that merge with key Native concepts. Unfortunately, no Native physicist to my knowledge is using Bohm’s work to develop a complete, holistic cosmology that includes experiential and participatory dimensions and other essential elements of a Native worldview. This would address a concern expressed by the late Vine Deloria, Jr. of having to surrender most of the meaning of Indian realities when Indian concepts are translated into a Western scientific context.
The persistence of an incomplete and fragmentary worldview, which led to divisions in science and hindered a view of the Earth as a coherent whole, is undoubtedly a major reason that global climate change was not considered a critical issue until recently. Warnings by indigenous Elders in different parts of the world went unheeded as well. While we know that “all things are related” and “all things are connected,” Western science is largely unaware of these vital connections. The need for Natives in science has never been greater.

Phillip H. Duran, Tigua Indian heritage, is an independent author, lecturer and consultant residing in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has master’s degrees in physics and mathematics and nearly completed a Ph.D. in theoretical physics.