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Untying the Gordian Knot of Reality: How Daoism Explains Mathematics and Science

For the last few hundred years science has been based on a dialectical investigative model. The reductionist approach has led to elaborate formal systems in fields ranging from quantum physics to analytical philosophy, and is considered to have advanced human understanding, especially in areas like telecommunications and medicine. The dialectical model, formalized originally by Aristotle, has been scrutinized but accepted by modern philosophers, such as David Hume and Immanuel Kant, and is also endorsed in the field of mathematics, which underlies much of the sciences. In reducing the world to either/or categorical choices, however, science has been cutting the Gordian Knot of reality. The reductionist approach cannot explain how a particular system’s parts arose or why these pieces must function the way they are said to function. In critiques of the most fundamental formal systems, the mathematician Kurt Godel has shown that the formal systems of mathematics cannot substantiate themselves or are otherwise inconsistent, while the physicist David Bell has demonstrated that the two theories needed to explain reality are not just incomplete but also will always contradict each other. Daoism, as an alternative to this reductionism, offers a complete and consistent account of reality, from an ultimate Formlessness—the Dao—to a central dynamic designated as the YinYang to the multitude of physical things. Daoism explains how complementarity, rather than contradiction or even opposition, is the key to untying the Gordian Knot of reality and thereby achieving substantive progress in any given field. Whether speaking of the natural sciences, social sciences, or humanities, the holistic vision provides a positive-sum alternative to the current zero- or negative-sum systems.