David Peat

210 From Certainty to Uncertaintymatter, and the need for a final solution that will provide closure toscientific questioning, does appear to be the manifestation of a persistenttrait in Western civilization. This is not necessarily shared by othercultures that may be more willing to accept an infinity of qualitativelydifferent levels and explanations that are forever open. Western novelsare generally created around a logical scheme of development with abeginning, middle, and end. But many Arabic stories have no end andvery little development. Classical Western music involves the alternationof tension and resolution and moves forward toward a coda inwhich everything is to be resolved and ended in a formal way. By contrast,Islamic music moves in a more inward way, not having any particulargoal or ending, but rather opening into an infinity of variationsbetween the various notes. The need for all-embracing explanations,fundamental levels, and definitive endings may therefore not be somuch a characteristic of “science” itself but of a particular culturalmindset within the West.In this sense science becomes the story that our civilization tellsitself. It is a story about the universe, but told in such a way that itsupports and gives credence to all that our society holds of value—analysis, prediction, technology, the accumulation of wealth andknowledge, the desire for control, progress, the need for closure andwrapping things up. Science adds credibility to our cultural dream bysupporting it in a seemingly objective way.Today we must be more willing to see Western science as a storythat our society has been telling itself about the universe. To make sucha statement is not to discredit science or to claim that “everything isrelative.” It is to argue that a story can be told in a variety of differentways. Science, as a story, is as great as any masterwork of art. It is astory that has produced enormous advances in several fields of knowledge.It is a story that has led to the triumphs of modern technologyand has helped us to understand our world and ourselves. Nevertheless,certain aspects of this story have also led to the creation of problemsthat currently confront us.When we say that science is a story told by the Western mind wemust also remember that other cultures tell different stories. It is a newform of cultural imperialism to claim that the stories of other cultures