PROCEDIMIENTO DE CALIBRACION PARA INDICADORES DE TEMPERATURA

As we have seen in the preceding discussion, systems theory posits that scientific education should be integrative – no discipline should be seen in isolation from each other. Obviously, such an assertion implies a quest for a holistic view of reality. This holistic approach to the conceptualisation of reality is seen as integral to new sciences such as quantum physics. For example, Donah Zohar (1990: 9-10) observes that quantum theory is encapsulated in the “Principle of Complementarity”. This principle says that, “…each way of describing being, as a wave or as a particle, complements the other and that a whole picture emerges only from the package deal”. In other words, both wave and particle nature of being complement each other in a way that enables us to get an integrated picture of reality. As she puts it, “Quantum stuff is, essentially, both wave-like and particle-like, simultaneously”. According to Newtonian mechanistic physics, a particle was considered to be what matter is made of (Shashi Prabha Sharma, 1992). This type of physics promoted a view of reality where things were understood as existing in isolation from each other(Shashi Prabha Sharma, 1992). Contrary to this mechanistic physics which presented a picture of matter as constituted by isolation and insularity, Zohar goes on to make the following observation on the implications of quantum physics to relationships in general:

Perhaps more than anything else, quantum physics promises to transform our notions of relationships. Both the concept of being as an indeterminate wave/particle dualism and a concept of movement which rests on virtual transitions presage a revolution in our perception of how things relate. Things and events once conceived of as separate, parted in both space and time, are seen by the quantum theorist as so integrally linked that their bond mocks the reality of both space and time. They behave, instead, as multiple aspects of some larger whole, their individual existences deriving both their definition and their meaning from that whole. The new quantum mechanical notion of relationship follows as a direct consequence of the wave/particle

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dualism and the tendency of a matter wave (or probability wave) to behave as though it were smeared out all over space and time (Zohar 1990: 17-18).

The implication of the above quotation is that from the perspective of quantum physics, things in existence are intertwined with each other in such a way that they cannot be compartmentalised. It is by virtue of relatedness that they derive individual existence. When understood in isolation from each other they become unintelligible. Whatever is real must be understood holistically. The same observation was also made by the physicist, Fritjof Capra when he said that, “Quantum theory reveals a basic oneness of the universe. It shows that we cannot decompose the world into independently existing small units…nature appears as a complicated web of relations between the various parts of the whole” (Capra 1983: 78). From such a holistic scientific perspective it is clear that whatever is done or studied must be done with a holistic cast that takes into account all systems in relationship to the suprasystem. In this regard, one finds that David Bohm is more pragmatic when he said, “the whole organises the parts” and that “the world is one unbroken whole” (Bohm 1988: 64). If the world is ‘one unbroken whole’ it also implies that any study which is done about the world from one particular discipline has to be seen as an abstraction. This follows that one is required to see the implication and contribution of the particular discipline in relationship to the whole because there are other constituencies of existence or systems that contribute immensely to that which is abstracted from the whole or the superasystem.

However, apart from physics, the same holistic approach was also adopted by microbiologists when they observe that living organisms should be understood as open systems that are on the final analysis influenced by other living systems – thus implying the reality of interconnectedness within existence. James Lovelock stated that living organisms and their environment do form “a single evolutionary process” (Lovelock 1979: 99). In other words, as open systems, organisms co-evolve with their natural environment. It has also been observed

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by biologists that bacterium continuously trade genetic information to the extent on the final analysis “all the world’s bacteria essentially have access to a single gene pool and hence to the adaptive mechanisms of the entire bacterial kingdom” (Margus and Sagan 1986: 224). If the world’s bacteria existed as closed systems that are endowed with their own distinct genetic information they will not be able to survive any threat that might arise from the given environment. The ability of bacteria to exchange information implies that they are an open system that incorporates its immediate environment in its own existence. As an open system, bacteria receives information and sends information for its own survival.

However, a holistic outlook gives the impression that reality is generally well organised and oriented to some particular goal. The problem that arises from such an impression is that it easily overlooks the issue of complexity and chaos within the generality of existence. The idea of complexity and chaos presupposes the existence of predictability and unpredictability of phenomenon. However, this scientific holistic understanding of reality presupposes a philosophical outlook or metaphysics that gives primacy to relationality.