Christopher Alexander – Value as a Matter of Fact

“The concept of wholeness as structure depends on the idea that different centers have different degrees of life, and therefore the idea that the existence of these varying degrees of life throughout space is a fact about the world …

If we consider … the interplanetary space between Jupiter and Saturn … we cannot help being impressed by the relatively featureless character of this space … compared with the structure of a rock, or a birch tree, or a meadow. The articulation and complexity of the field of centers is less developed in the interplanetary space.

The traditional scientific view has been that, in spite of this obvious difference … as scientists we should be committed to a view where each of these structures are equal in value.

A world view based on the existence of wholeness comes out rather different … there is a crucial objective sense in which there is less value in the empty space, somewhat more value in the rock, and still more value in the birch tree.

In this objective sense, the relative degree of value, or relative degree of life, in different parts of matter, must then be a fundamental and objective feature of reality. Not all nature is equally beautiful. Not all of it equally deep in its wholeness …

… one of the most fundamental tenets of contemporary science – that value is not part of science and that all matter is, from a scientific point of view, equally value free – can no longer be sustained.

… In the new viewpoint, the harmony of nature is not something automatic, but something to be marvelled at – something to be treasured, sustained, harvested, cultivated, and sought actively …

Most human actions are governed by concepts and visions. These may be – but may easily not be – congruent with the wholeness which exists … Often our actions … are at odds with our own wholeness, and at odds with the wholeness of the world. The gradual emergence of value is then drastically threatened.

… The activity of building – what we call architecture, and with it also the disciplines we call planning, ecology, agriculture, forestry, road building, engineering – may reach deeper levels of value by increasing wholeness, or they may break down value by destroying wholeness … If what I have argued is true, this is a matter of fact …”

Christopher Alexander – The Nature of Order – Book 1: The Phenomenon of Life