The Certainty of Interconnectedness

One’s personal life can be considered as a record of Interconnectedness with people and the surrounding environment.  One’s life since birth is connected with others – physically, emotionally and intellectually:  

“No one exists in isolation. We are connected to parents, to teachers, to friends … We are also linked to people who we have never met: [those] who harvest and distribute our food, manufacture our clothing, write our books and shape our thinking – in fact we are connected to everyone whose efforts help hold together the fabric of society”. (1)

Science can be regarded as a study of the Interconnectedness of the factors operating within the studied phenomena.  There is no discipline in human activity, whether science, medical research, music and arts, etc. that do not acknowledge the connectedness of various aspects of human activities.

Yet the concept of interconnectedness was not given consideration nor was a focus of interest in Western philosophy.  Among some views on the subject, one of the 17th century philosophical insights was the principle of ’the unity of all that exists', as Spinoza suggested, (2), which comes close to the essence of interconnectedness, however his views were not widely celebrated.  

Western philosophy valued the perspective of Dualism in perceiving objects.  The focus was more on objects’ distinction and separation - rather than their ‘connectedness’.  

Interconnectedness, however, does not deny distinction of identities of observed objects.  Observed objects are distinct and unique, yet they manifest a mutually connected existence engulfing them together.  This concept may seem similar to Monism, except that Monism advocates “one substance”, while interconnectedness (of two objects) accepts the twoness of distinct objects, but regards them as “two-but-inseparable”.  Nonduality is another expression of Interconnectedness.

Nonduality: the essence of Interconnectedness

Objective and complete observation of a process (or a relationship) is possible only through the perspective of the wholeness of connected parts of the process.  The sheer existence of a relationship between two objects obviously requires both objects, inseparably.

The essence of Nonduality lies in the view that uniqueness of objects does not necessitate their separateness (from other objects or phenomena) – not even from those being their opposites.  In his book on Nondualism, (3), Todd Lorentz mentions:  

 “The first aspect of nonduality necessarily involves the notion that it is logically incoherent to utilize dualistic terms as a way of establishing an ultimate metaphysical standpoint. 

As Loy explains, dualistic thinking is: “thinking, which differentiates ‘that which-is-thought about’ into opposed categories: being and nonbeing, success and failure, life and death, enlightenment and delusion and so on….we cannot take one without the other since they are interdependent: in affirming one half of the duality we maintain the other as well”. (4)

There is no reason why distinctiveness of objects would prevent their inseparability.  Dualism is caught up by the superficial view of separateness, which creates a view of an artificial gap between things or phenomena (rather than acknowledging the view of inclusion).  Assuming divisions and separateness reflects rather the observer’s inconsistent modelling of studied phenomena.

Accepting dualistic separateness in viewing ethnic or social groups - is the essence of racism, casting its influence on social matters and allowing for serious conflicts.  

To avoid the awkwardness of dualism, other perspectives in philosophy - such as Monism and Property Dualism – suggest alternative perspectives based on ‘oneness’. However, the answer to the “two-ness” (of two aspects) is not necessarily their one-ness.  Nonduality does not mean oneness, it means interdependence of existence of one object on the other. 

The physical world of nature provides uncountable examples of various processes, which manifest the ‘principle of inseparability’ of distinct objects.  

Connectedness in the physical world

Science is concerned with how phenomena and objects are interconnected.  Different objects - when involved in one process - become inseparable.  Eliminating one object in a process would cause the whole process to cease to exist.  All chemical processes are manifestations of the inseparability of participating elements in observed reactions.  For example, the phenomenon of photosynthesis taking place in plants can be seen as an expression of inseparability of distinct elements in one occurring process.  When light energy penetrates leaf’s pigment of chlorophyll, in effect oxygen is released.  Lack of any of the participating factors would have the whole process terminated.

Photosynthesis can be seen as a process of exchange in energy levels between atoms of chlorophyll molecules and incident energy of light.  In this analysis: all factors, which are described as ‘distinct’, share - at the deepest level - the same laws of energy transfer between their particles.  This means that what we externally distinguish as ‘distinct objects’ - in fact share common binding attributes at the deepest level of their atomic structure.

Interconnectedness at the Quantum level:  A demonstration of the principle of interdependence of individual particles - is found in the phenomenon of Entanglement in Quantum Mechanics.  Two particles are generated in such a way that a change in the state of one particle results in an immediate change in the state of the other particle (despite their separateness in space).  The entangled particles are distinct and different in location - but they are strictly interrelated within one entangled whole.  

Entanglement is explained by the concept of non-locality (or immediate interconnectedness).  There are, however, other phenomena (described in the perspective of locality) indicating connectedness on the macro scale.  For example, changes in weather conditions as stated by Chaos theory (The Butterfly Effect) – also indicate a profound connectedness of initial conditions and distant and diverse phenomena.

Conclusion:  Interconnectedness is a principle, which refers to the intangible bond between phenomena.  It refers to an essential nature of reality of how objects and phenomena exist, confirming that “nothing exists in isolation”.   The bond of interconnectedness is valid in all times and in all spaces - hence it is considered to be an absolute truth and an essential principle of reality. 

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Further Reading: 

Interconnectedness of the Physical and Mental aspects of life