Movement, Not Stasis, Is the Only Reality
Everything is in constant motion, and postmodernism challenges the illusion of static existence.
Physiotherapist and philosopher David A. Nicholls critiques the Western scientific reliance on static models—from anatomical diagrams to the concept of homeostasis—arguing that they create a misleading foundation for understanding the world. Nicholls explains that the idea of movement as a deviation from a fixed state is philosophically impossible; if one entity is truly static, all others must be, which collapses under the reality that everything moves in relation to everything else.
Rooted in the Enlightenment and transcendental traditions, this “static illusion” extends beyond healthcare to ideas of God, ideal forms, and universal truths. Postmodern thinkers like Deleuze and Bergson offer a radical alternative: an ontology of immanence where time is duration, not a linear sequence, and identity is fluid rather than fixed. Nicholls champions this shift, applying it to physiotherapy to question the very definition of “therapeutic touch” and pushing toward a posthuman perspective that flattens human hierarchy within the cosmos. By moving away from the search for fixed truths, we embrace a philosophy of creation and emergence, recognizing that to exist is to be in perpetual motion.
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