Kuntz, Paul G., ed. The Concept of Order. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1968.

Abstract

The idea of order, and the urge to find order in the universe or to impose order upon it, would seem to be among the fundamental preoccupations of the human mind. Yet, as readers of this book will be made aware, there is no clear consensus on how the term should be defined; as to whether it necessarily implies or negates its opposite, disorder; or even as to the extent to which it is really desirable, in life or in art, absolutely or relatively. It was with considerations such as these in mind that Paul G. Kuntz, then professor of philosophy at Grinnell College, invited a brilliant succession of renowned authorities in the fields of philosophy, history, religion, the arts, and the sciences to participate in a year-long seminar investigating the implications of the concept of order from these various points of view. The results of that seminar, published in the present volume, suggest areas of exploration that would supply ample material for a liberal arts curriculum, or a lifetime of study. In his thirty-page Introduction, Professor Kuntz, now chairman of the Philosophy Department at Emory University, formulates the problem and provides a framework for the essays that follow. The scope of these essays range from the Greek cosmos and the Buddhist Dharma to serial music and the United Nations.