An example of the delusion of the universal is the worldview of the classical scientists. Classical scientists described a simple, passive world. They believed that it was possible to possess a knowledge of absolute truth. Classical scientists did not consider the concepts of randomness, complexity, and irreversibility.
Galileo, a leading classical scientist, believed that science could uncover nature's global truths. Galileo ascribed to nature rational behavior and approached the relationship between humans and nature as a dialogue. For instance, in designing a system of pulleys, the classical scientist sought to overcome the perceived "resistance" of an object.
Galileo and his followers believed in the transparency of nature. Not only could the global truths of nature be deciphered, classical scientists believed that the truths could be deciphered in a systematic method using the mathematical language. As Prigogine and Stengers put it, "The simplest phenomena studied by science can thus be interpreted as the key to understanding nature as a whole; the complexity of the latter is only apparent, and its diversity can be explained in terms of the universal truth embodied, in Galileo's case, in the mathematical laws of motion."
The delusion of the simplicity of nature found its foundation in the classical scientists' religious beliefs. The classical scientists envisioned a hierarchy in which humans were situated between the divine order and the natural order. Thus the rational behavior of nature was attributed to the activity of a sovereign God.
According to Prigogine and Stengers, thermodynamics is the science of complex systems. We have limited knowledge of complex systems, and the limitations to that knowledge increase with time. One of the key concepts of the science of complexities is "order through fluctuation."
An example of order through fluctuation can be found in the constru
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