WHOLENESS AS THE BODY OF PARADOX

This essay is written at the crossroads of intuitive holism, as typifi ed in Eastern thought, and the discursive reflectiveness more characte ristic of the West. The point of departure is the age-old human need t o overcome fragmentation and realize wholeness. Three basic tasks are set forth: to provide some new insight into the underlying obstacle to wholeness, to show what would be necessary for surmounting this block age, and to take a concrete step in that direction. At the outset, the question of paradox is addressed, examined in relation to Zen meditat ion, the problem of language, and the thinking of Heidegger. Wholeness is to be realized through paradox, and it is shown that a complete re alization requires that paradox be embodied. Drawing from the fields o f visual geometry and qualitative mathematics, three concrete models o f paradox are offered: the Necker cube, the Moebius surface, and the K lein bottle. In attempting to model wholeness, an important limitation is recognized: a model is a symbolic representation that maintains th e division between the reality represented and the act of symbolizing that reality. It is demonstrated that while the first two models are s ubject to this limitation, the Klein bottle, possessing higher dimensi onality, can express wholeness more completely provided that it is app roached in a radically nonclassical way. The final question of this es say concerns its own capability as an essay. It is asked whether the p resent text is restricted to affording a mere abstract reflection on w holeness, or whether wholeness can tangibly be delivered.