David Bohm (1917-1992) was a major figure in 20th century physics and one of its most original thinkers. From the time of his classic textbook Quantum theory (1951), through Causality and chance in modern physics (1957), The special theory of relativity (1965), to Wholeness and the implicate order (1980), Bohm was concerned with deep philosophical issues, even more than Niels Bohr. (For a biography of Bohm, see Peat, 1996.) Bohm’s ontological emphasis was “holonomic,” that is, ontology under the law of the whole. The Bohmian program continues to be carried forward today in physics by Basil Hiley and in philosophy by Paavo Pylkkänen (e.g. Hiley and Pylkkänen 2005). In Mind, Matter and the Implicate Order (MMIO) Prof. Pylkkänen provides a superb and readable account of Bohmian theory within a lucid and comprehensive philosophical framework. Bohm’s oeuvre is liberally quoted in this work. (All quotations from Bohm below can be found in MMIO.) Pylkkänen is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Skövde in Sweden and heads the Consciousness Studies Programme there.

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