On Dialogue

This is perhaps surprising but very welcome choice in the Great Minds series - many readers of Bohm will be familiar with this concept and may even have read the book and participated in the process. Members can consult the tapes of the meeting with him dating back to the late 1980s. The introduction by Dean Rickles of the University of Sydney explains how this was fascinated by Bohm's insistence on the importance of these philosophical foundations of physics, a question that applied particularly to the interpretation of quantum mechanics. Bohm's approach does justice to both the physics and the philosophy, and has been unjustifiably neglected by the physics community on the recommendation of Robert Oppenheimer. Bohm was interested in the nature and process of thought, unpacking hidden assumptions. Themes explored include communication, dialogue, collective thought, paradox, the observer and the observed and the nature of participatory thought. Adoption of some of these principles would revolutionise international negotiations between fixed positions.