"The bodies of organisms are not homogeneous but heterogeneous, consisting of organs or parts which in substance or composition differ from each other. This heterogeneity in composition is of course an objective expression of the process of Differentiation. " (William Bateson, p. 18) (see embryo) "In the bodies of living things heterogeneity is is generally ordered and formal; It is cosmic, not chaotic." (p.19)
In most contemporary critical writing, heterogeneity is generally considered a social value over homogeneity. Homogeneity is seen as a effect of the nation-state and of global capitalism. (see social space)
Critics who equate globalization with cultural imperialism equate the spread of American / Western cultural goods with "the installation worldwide of western versions of basic social-cultural reality."
" The Smooth and the Striated" by Deleuze and Guattari is an extended meditation on homogeneity and heterogeneity. While the smooth might appear homogeneous, it contains too many haecceities and is in fact a heterogeneous field, which is amorphous, or non-formal (cf formless) In fact for Deleuze and Guattari, striation creates homogeneity. It is the limit-form of a space striated everywhere and in all directions.
Kant recognized two "interests" of reason. One of these had to do with unity and "homogeneity," (Geoffroy?) the other with multiplicity and "specification." (Cuvier?) According to Kant, controversies of this sort are incapable of being decided in such a way that one side is proved right or wrong. (see morphology) (see also analogy / homology )
Is there a "homogeneous space of knowledge?" For Panofsky the homogeneous and infinite space of perspective is quite unlike the space given to perception. Perspective transforms psycho-physiological space into mathematical space.
Is there a single, homogeneous time?