On Unity (1900-1924)

"Let us notice first of all, that every generalization implies in some measure the belief in the unity and simplicity of nature." (Jules H Poincaré, "Science and Hypothesis", 1901)

"For if society lacks the unity that derives from the fact that the relationships between its parts are exactly regulated, that unity resulting from the harmonious articulation of its various functions assured by effective discipline and if, in addition, society lacks the unity based upon the commitment of men's wills to a common objective, then it is no more than a pile of sand that the least jolt or the slightest puff will suffice to scatter." (Émile Durkheim, 1903)    

"From that time, the universe has steadily become more complex and less reducible to a central control. With as much obstinacy as though it were human, it has insisted on expanding its parts; with as much elusiveness as though it were feminine, it has evaded the attempt to impose on it a single will. Modern science, like modern art, tends, in practice, to drop the dogma of organic unity. Some of the mediaeval habit of mind survives, but even that is said to be yielding before the daily evidence of increasing and extending complexity. The fault, then, was not in man, if he no longer looked at science or art as an organic whole or as the expression of unity. Unity turned itself into complexity, multiplicity, variety, and even contradiction." (Henry Adams, "Mont Saint Michel and Chartres", 1904)

"Let us notice first of all, that every generalization implies in some measure the belief in the unity and simplicity of nature." (Jules H Poincaré, "Science and Hypothesis", 1905)

"Mathematicians attach great importance to the elegance of their methods and their results. This is not pure dilettantism. What is it indeed that gives us the feeling of elegance in a solution, in a demonstration? It is the harmony of the diverse parts, their symmetry, their happy balance; in a word it is all that introduces order, all that gives unity, that permits us to see clearly and to comprehend at once both the ensemble and the details." (Henri Poincaré,"The Future of Mathematics", Monist Vol. 20, 1910)

"It is the harmony of the diverse parts, their symmetry, their happy balance; in a word it is all that introduces order, all that gives unity, that permits us to see clearly and to comprehend at once both the ensemble and the details." (Henri Poincaré, "The Future of Mathematics", Monist Vol. 20, 1910)

"What is a philosophy? It Is an answer satisfactory to the reason to all the great problems of life. That is what is meant by philosophy. It must satisfy the reason, and it must show the unity underlying the endless diversity of the facts that science observes." (Annie Besant, "The Immediate Future", 1911)

"Theoretical philosophy aimed to discover the unity of experience, namely, in the form of some universal explanation. It strived to yield a world picture, one which is harmoniously integral and completely understandable." (Alexander Bogdanov, "Tektology: The Universal Organizational Science" Vol. I, 1913)

"There is an intellectual function in us which demands unity, connection and intelligibility from any material, whether of perception or thought, that comes within its grasp; and if, as a result of special circumstances, it is unable to establish a true connection, it does not hesitate to fabricate a false one." (Sigmund Freud, 1913-1914)

"Anything at all that can be the object of scientific thought becomes dependent on the axiomatic method, and thereby indirectly on mathematics, as soon as it is ripe for the formation of a theory. By pushing ahead to ever deeper layers of axioms [...] we become ever more conscious of the unity of our knowledge. In the sign of the axiomatic method, mathematics is summoned to a leading role in science." (David Hilbert, "Axiomatisches Denken", 1917)

"By intuition is frequently understood perception, or the knowledge of actual reality, the apprehension of something as real. […] Intuition is the undifferentiated unity of the perception of the real and of the simple image of the possible." (Benedetto Croce, "The Essence of Æsthetic", 1921)

"True artistic experience is never passive, for the spectator is obliged to participate, as it were, in the continuous or discontinuous variations of proportions, positions, lines and planes. Moreover, he must see clearly how this play of repeated or non-repeated changes may give rise to a new harmony of relations which will constitute the unity of the work. Every part becomes organized into a whole with the other parts. All the parts contribute to the unity of the composition, none of them assuming a dominant place in the whole." (Theo van Doesburg, 'Grundbegriffe der neuen Gestaltenden Kunst', 1921-23)

"For tektology the unity of experience is not 'discovered', but actively created by organizational means: ‘philosophers wanted to explain the world, but the main point is it change it’ said the greater precursor of organizational science, Karl Marx. The explanation of organizational forms and methods by tektology is directed not to a contemplation of their unity, but to a practical mastery over them." (Alexander Bogdanov, "Tektology: The Universal Organizational Science", 1922)

"The story of scientific discovery has its own epic unity - a unity of purpose and endeavour - the single torch passing from hand to hand through the centuries; and the great moments of science when, after long labour, the pioneers saw their accumulated facts falling into a significant order - sometimes in the form of a law that revolutionised the whole world of thought - have an intense human interest, and belong essentially to the creative imagination of poetry." (Alfred Noyes, "Watchers of the Sky", 1922)