Everything that we experience of the material-universe is foundationally composed of elementary particles organized into diverse patterns-of-organization of material structure and process. The difference between any object, situation, or system and any other object, situation, or system is how many of each kind of elementary particle they are each made of, and the specific patterns-of-organization of those particles. Since there are only a relatively few different kinds of elementary particles, and there is a seemingly limitless number of patterns-of-organization of those particles, it is pattern-of-organization that is of greatest significance in the difference of one thing from any other thing. It is also pattern-of-organization that is of greatest significance in the similarities between one thing and another thing. These patterns-of-organization constitute the primary physical basis of discipline-independent-transdisciplinarity.

1. (2) The Physical Basis of
Discipline-Independent-Transdisciplinarity
Patterns-of-Organization
of
Material Structure and Process
Vincent Vesterby
Conference theme: Concepts and Methods

2. From Elementary Particles
to Patterns-of-Organization ...1
Everything that we experience of the material-universe is
foundationally composed of elementary particles organized into
diverse patterns-of-organization of material structure and
process.
The difference between any object, situation, or system and any
other object, situation, or system is how many of each kind of
elementary particle they are each made of, and the specific
patterns-of-organization of those particles.
2Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis

3. From Elementary Particles
to Patterns-of-Organization ...2
Since there are only a relatively few different kinds of
elementary particles, and there is a seemingly limitless number
of patterns-of-organization of those particles, it is pattern-of-
organization that is of greatest significance in the difference of
one thing from any other thing.
It is also pattern-of-organization that is of greatest significance in
the similarities between one thing and another thing.
These patterns-of-organization constitute the primary physical
basis of discipline-independent-transdisciplinarity.
3Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis

4. The Role of Elementary Particles
There are throughout the universe vast numbers of each
different type of elementary particle.
Each individual particle is essentially identical to all other
instances of that type of particle.
The consequence is that each instance of a particular type of
particle plays essentially the same role in the situation in which
it exists as do all other instances of that type of particle in the
situations in which they exist.
4Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis

5. The Role of Pattern-of-Organization
Just as there are many instances of each kind of particle, there
are many instances of each kind of pattern-of-organization.
Each individual instance of a pattern-of-organization is
essentially identical to all other instances of that type of pattern
in those qualities that give all instances their intrinsic-identities
as that type of pattern-of-organization.
The consequence is that each instance of a particular type of
pattern-of-organization plays essentially the same role in the
situation in which it exists as do all other instances of that type
of pattern-of-organization in the situations in which they exist.
5Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis

6. Why do patterns-of-organization permeate the
subject matters of all the disciplines?
Because patterns-of-organization of material structure and
process constitute the objects, situations, and systems in which
they occur.
All existing patterns-of-organization constitute the:
•origins,
•intrinsic-identity,
•organization of structure and process, and
•interrelations of all objects, situations, and systems: atoms,
molecules, organisms, social systems, ecosystems, geology, solar
systems, galaxies, and galactic clusters.
6Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis

7. Factors and Situations
A factor is something that exists and plays a role in the origin,
structure, or processes of the situation or system in which it
exists.
A situation is a combination of interrelated factors.
A pattern-of-organization that exists in a situation, and plays a
role there, is a factor of that situation.
7Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis

8. Universal-Factors as Bases of
Transdisciplinarity ...1
Some factors are omnipresent throughout the universe, playing
roles in the origins, ontology, structure, and processes of
everything that exists.
Universal-factors provide the context in which all other factors
occur and play their roles.
The nature and roles of lesser factors conform to the nature and
roles of the universal-factors.
8Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis

9. Universal-Factors as Bases of
Transdisciplinarity ...2
Some examples of universal-factors:
•Space
•Time
•Development
•Structural-logic
•Emergence
•Isomorphy
9Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis

10. Universal-Factors as Bases of
Transdisciplinarity ...3
• Space provides an existential-context, a place-to-be, for
everything else that exists.
• Time provides a temporal existential-context, a temporal
place-to-be, for all forms of change.
• Development—everything that exists takes part in one way
or another in a universally omnipresent transition, a
sequential-difference from one time, place, part, pattern,
level, condition, or situation to another.
– Sequential-difference occurs as the difference from part to
adjacent part—from place to adjacent place, from time to
adjacent time, from component, situation, condition, state, or
stage to adjacent component, situation, condition, state, or
stage.
10Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis

11. Universal-Factors as Bases of
Transdisciplinarity ...4
• Structural-logic is the intrinsic logic of reality, the manner in
which the intrinsic qualities of something that exists
determine the types of relations that something can have
with other things that exist.
– Structural-logic determines the sequential-difference of all
forms of development.
– Structural-logic determines the roles patterns-of-organization
play in the situations in which they exist.
The Origin and Foundational Development of Structural Logic Vesterby, V. (2008) 14th
Annual Australia and New Zealand Systems (ANZSYS) Conference, Perth, Australia.
• Emergence is a process-pattern-of-organization that
brings into existence new pattern-of-material-organization
as a consequence of motion.
Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis 11

12. Universal-Factors as Bases of
Transdisciplinarity ...5
• Isomorphy occurs when essentially identical or significantly
similar patterns-of-organization occur in two or more
different situations.
– Isomorphies are ubiquitous throughout the universe—
throughout structure and process, throughout space and time.
Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis 12

13. Qualities of Material-Hierarchy as Bases of
Transdisciplinarity ...1
The list—atoms, molecules, organisms, social systems,
ecosystems, geology, solar systems, galaxies, and galactic
clusters—represents the hierarchic-organization of material-
reality.
Several qualities of this hierarchic-organization provide
additional physical foundations for discipline-independent-
transdisciplinarity.
Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis 13

14. Qualities of Material-Hierarchy as Bases of
Transdisciplinarity ...2
Within this hierarchy there are many levels-of-organization—the
levels of atoms, molecules, cells, organisms, social systems,
ecosystems, planets, stars, and so on.
Each level occurs as a type of pattern-of-organization—the
crystal pattern-of-organization, the social system pattern, the
solar system pattern.
This hierarchic-pattern-of-organization of material-reality is a
consequence of the process of emergence.
Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis 14

15. Qualities of Material-Hierarchy as Bases of
Transdisciplinarity ...3
Each higher level is emergent from processes of combining
components from lower-levels.
•Elementary particles combine to form the emergent hierarchic-
pattern-of-organization of atoms.
•Atoms combine to form the emergent hierarchic-pattern-of-
organization of molecules.
•Molecules combine to form the emergent hierarchic-pattern-
of-organization of crystals and a host of different materials.
•Objects, groups of objects, and systems combine, and combine
again and again, to form the hierarchic-organization of all the
rest of material-reality.
Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis 15

16. Physical Bases of Larger Scale Patterns-of-
Organization ...1
Larger scale patterns-of-organization extend through two or
more stages of development or levels of organization, either
horizontally through a level or vertically up the hierarchy of
material-reality.
Larger scale patterns:
•The hierarchy of material-reality.
•Emergence of levels of material-reality.
•Deep-structure.
•Developmental-orientation.
•Factor-development from level to level.
•Intrinsic-identity of developed factors.
•Qualities of components determine qualities of the whole.
•What goes before determines what follows.
Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis 16

17. Physical Bases of Larger Scale Patterns-of-
Organization ...2
• Deep-structure.
Deep-structure occurs as the underlying patterns-of-
organization of structure and process of lower levels that
result in the existence and organization of structure and
process of upper levels.
With material-reality, deep-structure extends from the level of
elementary particles to the level developmentally just below
the top level of an object, system, or situation.
Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis 17

18. Physical Bases of Larger Scale Patterns-of-
Organization ...3
• Oriented developmental connection.
Everything is not connected to everything.
Everything is, however, connected to something.
Everything that exists is developmentally connected to
something else that has existed just prior, exists now, or will
exist immediately following.
Through these developmental connections, the universe has an
omnipresent deep-structure aspect of orientation, a
directionality of structure and process.
Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis 18

19. Physical Bases of Larger Scale Patterns-of-
Organization ...4
• Factor-development from level to level.
Factors tend to occur in simpler forms in simpler situations,
where few other factors are playing roles, and to occur in
more complex forms in more complex situations, where more
additional factors are playing roles.
Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis 19

20. Physical Bases of Larger Scale Patterns-of-
Organization ...5
• Factor-development from level to level. (continued)
Progressively higher levels tend to be more complex than lower
levels due to the roles of additional factors, such as
combinatorial-enhancement and increased deep-structure.
Thus, as a particular factor, a particular pattern-of-organization,
reoccurs at progressively higher levels it tends to do so in
more complex forms due to its interrelations with additional
factors at those higher levels.
Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis 20

21. Physical Bases of Larger Scale Patterns-of-
Organization ...6
• Intrinsic-identity of developed factors.
The basic form of a pattern-of-organization is present within all
developed forms at higher levels giving those more complex
instances of the pattern their intrinsic identity as instances of
that particular pattern-of-organization.
Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis 21

22. Physical Bases of Larger Scale Patterns-of-
Organization ...7
• Qualities of components determine qualities of the whole.
1. The qualities of the components of a situation determine
the kinds of relations that can occur between those
components.
2. The qualities of those relations determine the patterns-
of-organization that can occur in that situation.
3. The qualities of the pattern-of-organization of a situation
determine the qualities of the situation as a whole.
Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis 22

23. Physical Bases of Larger Scale Patterns-of-
Organization ...8
• What goes before determines what follows.
In all forms of change, the existence and intrinsic qualities of
what goes before determine the existence and intrinsic
qualities of what follows.
Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis 23

24. The Physical Basis of
Discipline-Independent-Transdisciplinarity
Basing discipline-independent-transdisciplinarity on the intrinsic
nature of physical reality makes this form of transdisciplinarity
relevant for working on real problems of the world.
Vincent Vesterby Transdisciplinarity from Physical Basis 24