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The question of relevance comes before that of truth, because to ask whether a statement is true or false presupposes that it is relevant (so that to try to assert the truth or falsity of an irrelevant statement is a form of confusion).

David Bohm

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David Bohm
Age: 74 †
Born: 1917
Born: December 20
Died: 1992
Died: October 27
Nuclear Physicist
Philosopher
Physicist
University Teacher
Wilkes-Barre
Pennsylvania
David Joseph Bohm
Science
Relevant
Irrelevance
True
Statements
Falsity
Form
Confusion
Presupposes
Truth
False
Relevance
Trying
Question
Assert
Asks
Confusing
Whether
Irrelevant
Comes
Statement

More quotes by David Bohm

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In relativity, movement is continuous, causally determinate and well defined, while in quantum mechanics it is discontinuous, not causally determinate and not well defined.
David Bohm
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From the point of view of the species, death is part of this whole process. You could say that species have evolved in such a way that individual members last a certain time. Perhaps a certain kind of species would be better able to survive if the individuals didn't last too long. Other kinds could last longer.
David Bohm
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In the long run, it is far more dangerous to adhere to illusion than to face what the actual fact is.
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My suggestion is that at each state the proper order of operation of the mind requires an overall grasp of what is generally known, not only in formal logical, mathematical terms, but also intuitively, in images, feelings, poetic usage of language, etc.
David Bohm
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Consciousness is much more of the implicate order than is matter... Yet at a deeper level [matter and consciousness] are actually inseparable and interwoven, just as in the computer game the player and the screen are united by participation.
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From the outset, however, this whole controversy has been plagued by tacit assumptions, very often of a philosophical rather than a physical character.
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Thought is creating divisions out of itself and then saying that they are there naturally.
David Bohm
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This kind of overall way of thinking is not only a fertile source of new theoretical ideas: it is needed for the human mind to function in a generally harmonious way, which could in turn help to make possible an orderly and stable society.
David Bohm
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Then there is the further question of what is the relationship of thinking to reality. As careful attention shows, thought itself is in an actual process of movement.
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The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained.
David Bohm
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We could say that practically all the problems of the human race are due to the fact that thought is not proprioceptive.
David Bohm
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Similarly, thought is a system. That system not only includes thought and feelings, but it includes the state of the body it includes the whole of society - as thought is passing back and forth between people in a process by which thought evolved from ancient times.
David Bohm
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A corporation is organized as a system - it has this department, that department, that department... they don't have any meaning separately they only can function together. And also the body is a system. Society is a system in some sense. And so on.
David Bohm
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If you engage in positive thinking to overcome negative thoughts, the negative thoughts are still there acting. That's still incoherence. It's not enough just to engage in positive thoughts when you have negative thoughts registered, because they keep on working and will cause trouble somewhere else.
David Bohm
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We can't simply take the way things seem and just work on that, because that would be another kind of mistake thought makes-taking the surface and calling it the reality.
David Bohm
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If each one of us can give full attention to what is actually ‘blocking’ communication while he is also attending properly to the content of what is communicated, then we may be able to create something new between us, something of very great significance for bringing to an end the at present insoluble problems of the individual and of society.
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Perhaps there is more sense in our nonsense and more nonsense in our 'sense' than we would care to believe.
David Bohm
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Ultimately, all moments are really one, therefore now is an eternity.
David Bohm
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We have the idea that after we have been thinking something, it just evaporates. But thinking doesn't disappear. It goes somehow into the brain and leaves something-a trace-which becomes thought. And thought then acts automatically.
David Bohm
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Space is not empty. It is full, a plenum as opposed to a vacuum, and is the ground for the existence of everything, including ourselves. The universe is not separate from this cosmic sea of energy.
David Bohm