Walkie-Talkie #6 'Why Do We Confuse Symbols With Reality?'

Dear friends,

In Walkie-Talkie number six, I am walking on a country road in the province of Somogy in Hungary.

If you are curious about why I spend a lot of time in Hungary, I refer you to the pages ‘About me’ and ‘My path’ on the website of A Biosphere Project.

During this walk, I continue to talk about how we project ‘maps’ or concepts onto reality, and then come to regard those maps or concepts as more real than the terrain itself.

Someone who had a lot to say about this was Alfred North Whitehead, one of the most brilliant mathematicians and philosophers of the 20th century.

He was the founder of ‘process philosophy’, and his work had a major influence on diverse fields such as physics, metaphysics, theology, education, biology, and also ecology. Whitehead's ideas were at the root of many aspects of contemporary ecological thought.

And he actually says the same thing I said in the previous Walkie-Talkie: there are no separate ‘things’, everything is pattern, relationship, process. Everything is embedded in one continuous field, of which we are a part.

He also coined the term ‘the fallacy of misplaced concreteness’. That is what happens when we see our concepts as more real than the living world.

I also cite an example from my decades of teaching observational drawing and painting, where I have noticed countless times how people often draw what they think about the world rather than what they see.

Especially at the beginning of the walk on this sunny day, there is a bit of wind and you can hear that in the recording. However, the wind will get less and for most of this ‘talk’ it is not really disturbing. And yes, the wind is also part of what we call ‘nature’, and I can not or do not want to silence it during my walks.

Thank you for joining me on this walk, and until the next episode,

All the best to you,

Filip

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