Welcome to Issue 14 of SHAPE Journal.
The new paper in this issue is the first in a multi-part series entitled The Demise of Formalism. This is a second version of my paper of the same title written in the mid 1980s, which was then only about Mathematics, and the crises in that discipline precipitated by the work of giants like Gödel and Turing. But, as is turned out, the effects within Mathematics were only the tip of the iceberg and that there was a great deal more in what is a general crisis extending well beyond that limited sphere.

This version extends the critique well beyond those limits into, not only Formal Logic, but also into Qualitative Change in general, and into those crucial revolutionary Events termed Emergences. Elsewhere (in the recent SHAPE Special) I have outlines a Theory of Emergences, but that was about the trajectory of such episodes of Change. Here, I am arguing for the significance of such Events, and such a Theory, from the nature of evolving Reality. There is an introduction to this series about to be posted on our blog at:-

http://www.e-journal.org.uk/shape/blog

The promised paper on Avalanche to Control, which was to be in this Issue has been held back for a couple of Issues to accommodate the above series, but it is ready for publication and will appear soon, probably in Issue 16.

Our new policy of regularly producing Reviews on our Blog is finally coming to fruition with the piece on Bennett’s so-called Chaotic Theory of Evolution. Finally, this author was able to write the review quickly enough for it to be still current at the time of publication. In addition, there are several more already lined up for publication, so this will indeed happen at regular intervals from now on.

Read and enjoy, and if moved to do so, react! Send us your views for publication in the Journal. We look forward to such reactions as they inform us of what our readers require. Left to ourselves we will not necessarily produce from our prodigious store of work in the best possible order.

Jim Schofield
OCT 2010