The first alchemists sought the now legendary “philosopher’s stone” – a special material that could be used to turn common metals into gold. In time, it came to be believed that this magic substance could solve other intractable problems in life as well, not least among them the conquering of death itself.
And serious philosophers really searched for this material, believing that such a key compound might actually be able to accomplish one or another of the vital purposes posited for it. Even the father of modern science, Isaac Newton, gave the matter serious consideration.
Indeed, contemporary scientists might be viewed as doing something like that – seeking a comprehensive theory that explains the physical universe, unifying the insights of Newtonian science operating in our everyday lives with, at one end of the scale, the relativity theories describing universal space-time and, at the other, the quantum mechanics of the sub-atomic world.
There is an interesting – even endearing – combination of earnestness, intelligence, and innocence in the scientists who pursue it. They mean to accomplish their end, they are driven by their curiosity, and marshal fascinating measures of ingenuity in pursuit of their task. And along the way they have done immense good for the rest of us. The applications to which their discoveries have been put have wrought wondrous improvements in the nature and quality of all our lives around the world.
Key to all of this is their development of theoretical models to explain the world. These are conceptual frameworks into which can be fit the known facts about how it works, that offer perspectives for interpreting and examining new ones. They add up. They make sense. They resolve cognitive dissonance.
So much so, in fact, that when new observations are made that do not appear to be reconcilable with current models, these scientists’ first instinct is typically to posit new entities, new forms of energy, or new relationships between them which offer a means of understanding these otherwise disruptive observations within the existing models. That is, they do not seem normally to review or question their models to try to see if wholly new ones are necessary. Rather, they work desperately to preserve them with what can seem to the rest of us as oddly jury-rigged postulates.
That’s of interest to us here. Physicists with one breath will create a postulate – an entirely theoretical entity imagined almost literally out of the blue – the sole purpose of which is to restore order to a model disturbed by an observation it wouldn’t ordinarily explain or predict. The thing is, though, that with the next breath they will speak of that brand-new postulate essentially as an established scientific fact – even as they discuss their efforts to design experiments to prove its existence. They seem to see no irony in this. They pass insensibly, seamlessly from imagining a solution to the disruption of their settled view of the world to adopting a comforting, unchallengeable faith in its veracity, its existence.
Perhaps that is the real philosopher’s stone at work – turning hope into faith. Perhaps, even, it does that while distorting our appreciation of which is the base, and which the precious, metal. Who knows?
But it’s worth asking about us, in management, as well. We’ll do that next. See you then.
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Today’s Tip: Please see this item by Michael Wade about, if you will, putting some zen in your coffee. One of our chores in life, if we are to navigate through it rather than simply be carried along by it, is to try to be sure we have fuel for the fire – that we have grounds for percolating. Do you? Do you find yourself surprised and delighted by the insights that leap out at you sometimes, or perpetually puzzled by what seems to always be happening to you? Not sure? Then see this item by Michael as well. After that, pour yourself a cup of coffee and think it over.
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If you look at the contents section on the sidebar of the main page of this site, you will see a listing of the article series that have been published here. You can click through to view summaries of the pieces, and then read the full series or selections that are of most interest to you. Enjoy!
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