(Leibniz, 1670) Reality cannot be found except in One single source, because of the interconnection of all things with one another.
Writing on Truth and Reality is now very difficult, as our current postmodern Society no longer believes in either concept. Yet it is obviously True that Reality exists; we exist, as does the world around us. Thus the problem has been to find the correct language for describing this world. Recent discoveries on the Properties of Space and the Wave Structure of Matter can now explain this Reality that we all experience in a very simple and sensible way. (Mouse over Links below to display philosophy quotes)
Founded on One Principle which states that One Substance, SPACE, exists with the Properties of a Wave Medium and that Matter exists as the Spherical Wave Motion of Space, this knowledge then provides a simple sensible description of how matter (and hence we 'Humans') exist and move about in Space, and interact with other matter in the Space around us. (Simple and sensible are used philosophically here, there is nothing more simple than One thing, and sensible because logic from this One Principle exactly corresponds to our senses of the world.) Most significantly for Scientists, the Wave Structure of Matter explains and solves many of the problems of Metaphysics, Philosophy and Physics and unites Einstein's Relativity, Quantum Theory and Cosmology (as a correct description of Reality must).
Since the beginning
of Philosophy and Metaphysics (Ancient Indian and Greek Philosophy) we have
known that there must be One
Thing which is Common to the Many Things which explains how All Matter
is Interconnected within the One Universe. The error was to believe that
human Language
could never directly describe this One Thing (which must therefore remain
beyond comprehension) and which we called 'God'. (Brahman, Tao, etc.)
The Solution is to realise that the One Thing, (Space) has Properties
(Wave-Medium) that give rise to the many things (Matter as
the Spherical Wave Motion of Space) and this then allows us to form
the necessary connections for language and logic. See
Deducing
Reality - Metaphysical Foundations of Scientific Language
1.
The Problem of Physics
(What Causes the Interconnected Motion of Matter in
Space and Time within the Universe?)
It has been the holy grail of Physics for the past 70 years to unite Einstein's
Relativity, Quantum Theory, and more recently, Cosmology from one Metaphysical
foundation. The solution to this problem (with mathematical precision and
certainty) belongs largely to the pioneering and revolutionary work (I use
these words carefully) of Mathematical Physicist Milo Wolff, who first discovered
the Spherical Wave Structure of Matter in 1986.
See Digital Video interview of Milo
Wolff (Windows Media, 170 seconds at
6KB/s = 1 MB. See Link at top of page for more videos of this interview.)
Very briefly (as
this is explained in the main articles), for Physics the problem has been
to unite Six separate things
- the Motion of Matter
'Particles' in Space
and Time, and explain the
'Forces' (Necessary Connection)
between these particles within One Universe.
The Solution is to realise that our Universe, Matter, Time and Forces are
Caused by the finite spherical wave Motion of Space. i.e.
Matter
exists as the Spherical Wave Motion of Space.The 'Particle' effect of matter
is caused by the Wave-Center of the Spherical Standing Wave Motions. (This
sensibly solves the seventy year old paradox of the 'particle/wave' duality
of Matter - spherical waves cause the 'particle' effect.)
Time
is the Human Representation that everything (matter) is in Motion.
All Forces
(Cause, Necessary Connection) exist as the change in velocity of the In-Waves
(from one direction) as they flow in through other Matter/Spherical
Wave Motions in Space, resulting in a change in location of the Wave-Center
which we observe as the accelerated motion of the 'particle'.
Our Finite Spherical Universe
is determined by the size of these Spherical Wave Motions within an Infinite
Space.
Our Matter's Spherical In-Waves
are formed from all the other Matter's Out-Waves within our Finite Spherical
Universe. (This explains Mach's Principle using Huygens' Principle, and
also deduces the redshift with distance without assuming a Doppler shift
due to receding motion / expanding Universe.)
Thus we realise that Matter is large (that Matter and Universe are the same
thing, as Leibniz argued) and it has been an incorrect habit of thinking
to imagine Matter as tiny 'particles'. This is a most profound realisation,
for this new Metaphysical foundation and perspective (Kuhn's 'paradigm shift
in world view') now explains and solves many of the fundamental problems
of Human Knowledge.
See Uniting
Metaphysics & Physics - Einstein's Relativity, Quantum Theory &
Cosmology
2.
The Problem of Metaphysics (What Exists
and how is it Necessarily Connected?)
The most profound of the sciences, Metaphysics now has the reputation of
quackery and new age spiritualism that is contrary to its true nature and
importance as the foundation of the Sciences. In fact Metaphysics has been
misunderstood and misrepresented in two important ways;
i) Metaphysics
is founded on the Principle that One Thing (Substance) exists and has Properties.
(Something does not come from nothing, thus One thing always existed.) Further,
there are Many Things (people, cars, apples, planets ... ) which also obviously
exist - and there must be some Necessary Connection, One thing that is common
to these Many things. This gives rise to not only the Problem of the One
and the Many, but also the further problems of the; Infinite and the Finite,
Eternal and the Temporal, Absolute and the Relative; Continuous and Discrete;
Simple and the Complex.
And once we know the Necessary Connection (i.e. spherical In and Out Waves)
between What Exists (matter as the Spherical Wave Motion of Space) then
we can also explain and unite these fundamental problems of Metaphysics;
The One Infinite Absolute Eternal Continuous Simple thing is Space.
The Many Finite Relative
Temporal Discrete Complex things
are Spherical Standing Wave Motions of Space (i.e. matter and its interconnected
motions).
ii) Secondly, Metaphysics
is the study of (a priori) Causes rather than (a posteriori)
Effects - of determining Principles (synthetic) rather than deducing from
these Principles (analytic). That we must first determine What Exists (that
is necessary, certain, universal) and how is it Necessarily Connected such
that we can exist and sense the world. (Kant's synthetic a priori
knowledge). Thus the task of Metaphysics is to explain the Cause of our
senses, and logical deductions from these a priori Principles must
correspond with what we Observe from our Senses, as Leibniz explains;
It is a good thing to proceed in order and to establish propositions (principles).
This is the way to gain ground and to progress with certainty. ... I hold
that the mark of a genuine idea is that its possibility can be proved, either
a priori by conceiving its cause or reason, or a posteriori when experience teaches us that it is a fact in nature.
Unfortunately, Metaphysics has been misunderstood as being 'beyond our senses,
and thus not limited by our senses' which opens a Pandora's box of strange
(and generally silly) ideas quite alien to the Space we do in fact exist
in and sense about us.
As Plato wrote, we should not blame this poor reputation upon Philosophy,
but upon those not suited to its study, who corrupt its true nature as the
foundation of all the Sciences.
In fact Kant was nearly correct. He thought that Space and Time were necessary
(a priori) for us to be able to sense things - but because he could
not unite Space and Time to One common connected thing he concluded that
Space and Time must both also be ideas of the world, somehow different from
the world itself. The solution is simple once known - it is Space and Motion
which fundamentally exist, and Time is in fact only an Idea, a Human Representation
that everything is in Motion.
Thus the problem at the heart of Metaphysics, and therefore at the heart
of all Human Knowledge, is the problem of 'What Exists' and how is it 'Necessarily
Connected', to which we can now with confidence reply;
What Exists, at the most fundamental level, is Space and Motion.
Motion is obviously necessarily connected to Space because it is the Wave
Motion of Space (it is Space which is moving/vibrating).
Matter is necessarily Connected to both Space and Motion because Matter
is a formed from Spherical Wave Motions of Space.
Matter is Necessarily Connected to Other Matter due to the interaction of
the Spherical In and Out Waves (and their changes in velocity which cause
all Forces).
Finally, it should
be emphasised that this is the most Simple & Fundamental description
of Reality possible - for it explains and solves (and thus Unites) the Many
Finite Changing Things ( Spherical Wave Motions of Space) from the One Infinite
Eternal Thing, Space. (God, Brahman, Tao).
And there can be nothing more Simple than explaining the Many Things from
ONE Thing. i.e. There is only One Reality, thus only One correct language
for describing Reality. See Solution
to Problems of Metaphysics
3.
The Problem of Theology (What is God,
Religion, and Morality?)
While to some it may seem impertinent to write about God, as a Philosopher
I must simply reply that prior to human evolution there were no words, thus
all words are human constructions and their meaning must be carefully defined
(which is the task of Metaphysics, and the function of Principles). I agree
with Cicero; 'As a philosopher, I have a right to ask for a rational
explanation of religious faith.'
God
Infinitely and Eternally Exists and Causes all Things, thus God is Infinite
Space and Motion.
Religion
(from latin 'religare' meaning 'to bind') is the study of our Connection
to God/Universe. This is now solved when we realise that Matter and Universe
are One - Finite Spherical Standing Waves (about 15 billion Light Years
across) within an Infinite Space.
Morality
- The fundamental morality of all world religions is 'Do unto others
as would be done unto thy Self.' Once we correctly understand the
True conception of Self as Universe then we realise that this Morality is
Necessarily True (a Tautology) for the Other is a part of the Self. Thus
we have logically confirmed the fundamental of all Human Morality, and in
doing so have taken a giant step forward in advancing Science in to the
formerly hidden and mysterious domain of Theology.
4.
The Problem of Philosophy (Naive Realism
and Idealism)
Philosophy is the realisation that Wisdom comes from Truth, and Truth comes
from Reality. Because of the many errors currently found in Physics it is
hardly surprising that Philosophy is also corrupted with many untrue and
absurd ideas. Sadly, these errors do great damage to what is in fact a most
beautiful and important subject. Again, this is not trivial, the problems
of Philosophy always manifest as problems for Humanity herself, and this
largely explains why the modern world suffers such profound problems (such
as the destruction of Nature, and the resulting change in the Earth's climate
and ability to produce clean air, water, and food).
The main problem for Philosophy has always been to connect our Senses (which
are limited) and our resultant Ideas/Language (which are Representations
of our Senses, and thus deceptive) with the Real World of What Exists
Naive
Realism (What is Real - What is Represented
by the Mind)
When I drop a red apple
it falls to the earth. While the red colour is my mind's representation
of a particular frequency of standing wave motions of electrons (wave-centers),
the actual Motion in Space is real. But it is not the motion of an apple
as discrete particles moving in Space, rather, it is the Spherical Wave
Motion of Space itself and the successive Wave-Centers (formed from each
Spherical In-Wave) give rise to this illusion of a discrete apple moving
in Space. This also obviously explains the necessary connection (forces
of light and gravity) between the apple, the earth, and myself. Matter is
not small, but is in fact the size of the Universe, and is connected to
all other matter in the Universe by it spherical In and Out Waves. (This
also explains how you can see stars in the night sky, because your Spherical
In-Waves have flowed in through those stars.) Thus the world we 'see' around
us, of discrete and separate objects, is an illusion, as is their colour
and taste and texture. Our minds have simply evolved to Represent the World
in terms of Wave-Centers (particles), for this is where the majority of
Wave interactions and thus forces occur (due to the high Wave Amplitudes
near the Wave-Centers).
Idealism
(How do we Know that our Ideas of the World
Correspond to the World itself.)
This skeptical Idealism dates back to the Ancient Greeks (Anaxagoras), though
Descartes, Berkeley, Kant, Schopenhauer, Hegel, and Nietzsche are more famous
to modern Philosophy. The are two arguments against Idealism;
Firstly, we can apply the absolute truth of Darwinian evolution to Descartes'
cogito ergo sum, I think therefore I exist (which is true but incomplete).
For completion we must realise that minds and their ideas exist in Humans,
who have evolved on the spherical surface of the Earth which orbits the
Sun. We can be certain of this because prior to our evolution (when there
were no human ideas) plants evolved photosynthesis, some are deciduous,
animals evolved to move, birds evolved to fly and migrate, certain bears
hibernate, some animals sleep at night, others are nocturnal. And all these
evolved behaviours require the earth to be spinning as it orbits the sun,
thus causing days/nights and years/seasons which are necessary for this
evolution of life. Now it is clearly absurd to argue that all these other
plants and animals shared our 'delusion' that the earth orbiting the sun
is merely a human idea separate from Reality. Thus the Sun and Earth, and
their interconnected orbital Motions must have existed prior to Human existence,
and thus prior to our Ideas of the Sun and Earth and their Motions. And
this obviously requires the a priori existence of both Space and
Motion.
Secondly, for a person to think, it is necessary for matter to move (brain
scans confirm that thinking changes the blood flow and electrical activity
in the brain). Further, when a bird flies by my window, it is ultimately
my mind that is experiencing this motion, thus there must be a connection
between the motion of things in space, and my mind. The Spherical Wave Structure
of Matter explains this common connection very simply and sensibly.
Thus we realise that Space and Motion are 'a priori' or first necessary
for the Evolution of Humans and their ideas of Space and Motion. The major
problem is no longer how our body and its senses can experience the world,
but how our mind represents these senses as colours and tastes and emotional
feelings etc. (But then the mind is obviously very complex and there is
still a great deal to learn in this area.) See Uniting
Metaphysics & Philosophy
Philosophy is literally love of Wisdom, and that we must know the Truth to be Wise. Thus Philosophy/Truth is obviously important to Humanity. Unfortunately, because of many thousands of years of failure to correctly describe 'what exists', and because the world is now full of 'crackpot' theorists claiming the discovery of reality on a daily basis, it is very difficult to convince people to take the time to read such work. Instead we live in a time of 'enlightened postmodernism' where the only absolute truth is that there are No Absolute Truths. But they are mistaken ( I write this without malice), they have simply made an error in their assumptions, and this explains why their foundation is a contradiction (something Aristotle knew 2,350 years ago). Frustratingly, evolution has created Humans as creatures of habit (of thoughts and actions) and there are now many incorrect habits of thinking which must be corrected before Reality can be understood. (e.g. No Absolute Space, discrete 'particles' which require 'forces' to connect them, mathematical waves (electromagnetic, probability) rather than real waves, multidimensional strings, Big Bangs, wormholes, WIMPS, etc.) Nonetheless, I believe that in time the Metaphysics of Space and Motion and the Spherical Standing Wave Structure of Matter will be accepted as a true description of Reality simply because it does in fact deduce exactly what we observe from observation and experiment. And so I look forward to the future evolution of Human Civilisation and the correction of the many myths and errors that have for so long caused such conflict and misery to Humanity.
In ending let me
apologise for the abruptness of tone in my writing. I am a Philosopher and
agree with Seneca that Speech devoted to truth should be straightforward
and plain. (Seneca, 60AD)
I hope that this brief Introduction will cause you to take this subject
of Truth and Reality seriously and thus to read the following
Philosophy
of Science Articles.
My motives are simple - my concern for Nature and the future of Humanity (the lives of our children), and my love of Philosophy, that all Truth comes from Reality and we must know this Truth to be Wise (Utopia).
Biography: Geoff Haselhurst Bibliography -
(George Berkeley, 1710) Nothing seems of more importance, towards erecting a firm system of sound and real knowledge, which may be proof against the assaults of scepticism, than to lay the beginning in a distinct explication of what is meant by thing, reality, existence: for in vain shall we dispute concerning the real existence of things, or pretend to any knowledge thereof, so long as we have not fixed the meaning of those words.
One Metaphysical Principle
Space Exists as a Wave Medium.
Matter Exists as the Spherical
Wave Motion of Space.
Properties of Space
1. One Space must be Infinite, Eternal and Continuous. (As boundaries, creation,
and particles require two things.)
2. Space is a nearly rigid wave-medium.
3. The wave velocity (velocity of light c) varies with both the wave-amplitude
(causes charge/light) and mass-energy density of space (square of wave-amplitude, causes mass/gravity).
General Laws (Consequences of the Properties
of Space which explain the Necessary Connection between What Exists i.e. from
One Thing, Space)
1. The ‘particle’ effect of matter is caused
by the wave-center of the spherical standing wave.
2. Time is caused by wave Motion.
3. Newton's Law of Inertia.
Force = Mass times Acceleration. A change in velocity of the spherical In-waves
(from one direction) changes where these In-waves meet at their respective
wave-center which we ‘see’ as the accelerated motion of the ‘particle’.
4. Mach’s Principle.
The spherical In-waves are formed from the Huygens' Combination of Out-waves
from All other matter in our finite spherical universe.
5. Minimum Amplitude Law.
Wave-centers move to minimise total wave-amplitude (explains charge).
6. Maximum Density Law.
Wave-centers move to maximise total mass-energy density of space (explains gravity).
(Albert
Einstein) A human being is part of the whole called
by us Universe.
The results of calculation indicate that if matter be distributed uniformly,
the universe would necessarily be spherical.
I must not fail to mention that a theoretical argument can be adduced in
favour of the hypothesis of a finite universe.
The general theory of relativity teaches that the inertia of a given body
is greater as there are more ponderable masses in proximity to it; thus
it seems very natural to reduce the total inertia of a body to interactions
between it and the other bodies in the universe,
as indeed, ever since Newton’s time,
gravity has been completely reduced to
interaction between bodies.
(Aurelius,
121-180AD)
We should not say - I am an Athenian or I am a Roman but I am a Citizen
of the Universe. Frequently
consider the connection of all things in the Universe. Constantly think
of the Universe as One living creature,
embracing one being and one soul; how all is absorbed into the one consciousness
of this living creature; how it compasses all things with a single purpose,
and how all things work together to cause all that comes to pass, and their
wonderful web and texture. Reflect upon the multitude of bodily and mental
events taking place in the same brief time, simultaneously in every one
of us and so you will not be surprised that many more events, or rather
all things that come to pass, exist simultaneously in the one
and entire unity, which we call the Universe.
The
Universe is Eternal / Perpetual
(Aristotle,
340BC) Alternatively, suppose we were to accept the natural philosophers'
claim that all things were originally together. We are still left with the
same impossible consequence. How is everything to be set in motion, unless
there is actually to be some cause of movement? Matter
is not going to set itself in motion - its movement depends
on a motive cause.
(Cicero)
In the first place it is improbable that the material substance which
is the origin of all things was created by divine Providence. It has and
has always had a force and nature of its own.
(Fowles,
1964) Only in an infinitely proliferating cosmos can both order and
disorder coexist infinitely; and the only purposeful cosmos must be one
that proliferates infinitely. It was therefore not created, but was always.
What is easier to believe? That there was always something or that
there was once nothing? Christianity says that creation has a beginning,
middle and end. The Greeks claimed that creation is a timeless process.
Both are correct. All that is created and is therefore individual has a
beginning and an end; but there is no universal beginning and end.
(Madhva)
Without beginning or end
(through eternity)
this world has continued to exist as such. There is nothing here to be questioned.
In no place or time was this world ever observed otherwise by anybody in
the past, nor will it be, in the future.
(Aristotle,
340BC) The first philosophy (Metaphysics) is universal and is exclusively concerned with primary substance. ... And here we will have the science to study that which is just as that
which is, both in its essence and in the properties
which, just as a thing that is, it has.
That among entities there must be some
cause which moves and combines things.
There must then be a principle
of such a kind that its
substance is activity.
(Leibniz, 1670) I do not conceive
of any reality at all as without genuine unity.
... I maintain also that substances, whether material or immaterial, cannot
be conceived in their bare essence without any activity, activity
being of the essence of substance in general.
(Spinoza,
1673) Substance
cannot be produced from anything else.
It will therefore be its own cause, that is, its essence
necessarily involves existence, or existence appertains
to the nature of it.
One Substance
must exist
finitely or infinitely.
But not finitely.
For it would then be limited by some other substance of the same nature
which also of necessity must exist: and then two substances would be granted
having the same attribute, which is absurd. It will
exist, therefore, infinitely.
But if men would give heed to the
nature of substance they would doubt less concerning the Proposition that
existence appertains to the nature of substance:
rather they would reckon it an axiom above all others, and hold it among
common opinions.
For then by substance they would understand that which is in itself, and
through itself is conceived, or rather that whose knowledge does not depend
on the knowledge of any other thing.
(Newton,
1687) Absolute Space in its own nature, without relation to anything external
remains always similar and immovable.
(Kant,
1781) Natural science (physics) contains in itself synthetical judgments
a priori, as principles. … Space then is a necessary representation
a priori, which serves for the foundation of all external intuitions.
(Faraday, 1830) I cannot conceive curved lines of force without the conditions
of a physical existence in that intermediate space.
(James Clerk Maxwell, 1876)
In speaking of the Energy of the field, however, I wish to be understood
literally. All energy is the same as mechanical energy, whether it exists
in the form of motion or in that of elasticity, or in any other form.
The energy in electromagnetic phenomena is mechanical energy.
(Lorentz,
1906) I cannot but regard the ether, which can be the seat of an electromagnetic
field with its energy and its vibrations, as endowed with a certain degree
of substantiality, however different it may be from all ordinary matter.
(Brentano,
1838-1916)
A three-dimensional (spatial) world is infinitely more likely than any
of its alternatives.
(Albert
Einstein, 1928, Leiden)
According to the general theory of relativity space without ether is unthinkable;
for in such space there not only would be no propagation of light, but
also no possibility of existence for standards of space and time. But
this ether may not be thought of as endowed with the quality characteristic
of matter, as consisting of parts (‘particles’) which may
be tracked through time. The idea of motion may not be applied to it.
(Lama
Govinda, 1969)
According to ancient Indian tradition the Universe reveals itself in two
fundamental properties: as Motion
and as that in which motion takes place, namely Space.
This Space is called akasa
and is that through which things step into visible appearance, i.e., through
which they possess extension or corporeality.
Akasa is derived from the root kas,
‘to radiate, to shine’,
and has therefore the meaning of ‘ether’
which is conceived as the
medium of movement.
The principle of movement,
however, is Prana the breath of life,
the all-powerful, all-pervading
rhythm of the universe.
The fundamental element
of the cosmos is Space.
Space is the all-embracing
principle of higher unity.
Nothing can exist without Space.
(Sudhakar S.D 1988) The Universe is Brahman, the
One that underlies and make possible all the multiplicity. It is the source
of the entire cosmos and all cosmic activities relating to the emergence,
existence and dissolution of the terrestrial phenomena that form the cosmic
rhythm.
‘The One manifests as the many,
the formless putting on forms.’(Rig Veda)
The Maitri Upanishad mentions two aspects of Brahman, the higher and the
lower.
The higher Brahman being the unmanifest Supreme Reality which is soundless
and totally quiescent and restful, the lower being the Shabda-Brahman
which manifests itself into the ever changing restless cosmos through
the medium of sound vibrations.
The Upanishad says that, 'Two Brahmans there are to be known: One as sound
and the other as Brahman Supreme.'
The process of manifestation is from soundless to sound, from noumenality
to phenomenality, from perfect quiescence of being to the restlessness
of becoming'
Manifestation
of the
ultimate reality
takes place through the
vibrations
of Shabda-Brahman,
for vibration is the expression of energy and the action and interaction
of vibrations produce all the phenomena on many different planes.
(Heraclitus,
500BC) All things come out of the One
and the One out of all things
(Buddha,
500BC) All phenomena link together in a mutually conditioning network.
(Parmenides,
440BC) But there cannot exist several Existents, for in order to
separate them, something would have to exist which was not existing, an
assumption which neutralizes itself. Thus there exists only the
eternal Unity.
(Kabir)
Though One Brahman is the
Cause of the Many.
Behold but One in all things
it is the second that leads you astray.
(Sen T'sen)
When the Ten Thousand things
are viewed in their
Oneness
we return to the Origin
and remain where we have always been.
(Leibniz, 1670) I do not conceive of any reality at all as without genuine unity.
(Nietzsche,
1880) Greek philosophy seems to begin with a preposterous fancy,
with the proposition (of Thales) that water is the origin and mother-womb
of all things. Is it really necessary to stop there and become serious?
Yes, and for three reasons: firstly, because the proposition does enunciate
something about the origin of things; secondly, because it does so without
figure and fable; thirdly and lastly, because it contained, although only
in the chrysalis state, the idea:
everything is one.
..That which drove him (Thales) to this generalization was a metaphysical
dogma, which had its origin in a mystic intuition and which together with
the ever renewed endeavours to express it better, we find in all philosophies-
the proposition: everything is one!
(Sudhakar S.D, 1988)
Hindu cosmology is non-dualistic.
Everything that is is Brahman.
Brahman is the eternal Now, and in eternity
there is no “before” or “after”, for everything
is everywhere, always.
To use the words of Pascal
'it is a circle the center of which is everywhere and the circumference
nowhere'.
(Aurelius,
121-180AD) All things are woven together and the common bond is
sacred, scarcely is one thing foreign to another, for they have been arranged
together in their places and together make the same ordered Universe.
For there is One Universe out of all, One God through all, One substance
and One law, One common Reason of all intelligent creatures
and One Truth.
(Hume,
1737) The fundamental atheism of Spinoza, is the doctrine of the
simplicity of the universe and the unity
of that substance in which he supposes both thought and
matter to inhere.
(Heisenberg)
Light and matter are both single
entities, and the apparent duality arises in the limitations
of our language.
(Lao
Tsu/Tzu 550BC) The Tao
that can be expressed is not the
eternal Tao
(Rahula)
Human language is too poor to express the real nature
of the Absolute Truth or Ultimate Reality
which is Nirvana.
Language is created and used by masses of human beings to express things
and ideas experienced by their sense organs and their mind. A supramundane
experience like that of the Absolute Truth is not of such a category.
Words are symbols representing things and ideas known to us; and these
symbols do not and cannot convey the true nature of even ordinary things.
Language is considered deceptive and misleading in the matter of understanding
of the Truth.
Nevertheless, we cannot do without language.
(Wittgenstein,
1958) Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment
of our intelligence by means of language.
For philosophical problems arise when language
goes on holiday. We say that there isn't any doubt
that we understand the word, and on the other hand its meaning lies
in its use. That is, the game with these words, their employment in
the linguistic intercourse that is carried on by their means, is more
involved than we are tempted to think. This role is what we need to
understand in order to resolve philosophical paradoxes.
(Jeans,
1942) The progress of science has itself shown that there can
be no pictorial representation of the workings of nature
of a kind that would be intelligible to our limited
minds. The study of physics has driven us to the positivist
conception of physics. We can never understand what
events are, but must limit ourselves to describing the pattern of events
in mathematical terms: no other aim is possible. The final harvest will
always be a sheaf of mathematical formulae. These will never
describe nature itself, but only our observations on nature.
(Feyerabend)
The ONLY ABSOLUTE TRUTH is that there are NO ABSOLUTE TRUTHS
(Rahula)
Now, what is this Absolute Truth? According to Buddhism,
the Absolute Truth is that there is nothing absolute
in the world, that everything is relative, conditioned,
impermanent, and that there is no unchanging, everlasting, absolute substance
like Self, Soul or Atman within or without. This is the Absolute Truth.
(Hume,
1737) Shall we then establish it for a general maxim that no refined
or elaborate reasoning is ever to be received? By this means you cut off
all science and philosophy.
(Aristotle,
350BC) Finally, if nothing can be truly asserted, even the following
claim would be false, the claim that
there is no true assertion. And if there is a true assertion,
this is a refutation of what is pretended by the raisers of these objections,
being as they are the comprehensive eliminators of all
debate. Indeed these arguments themselves fall victim to the very difficulty
about which their defenders are always canting. They effectively
destroy themselves. For if anyone says that all things
are true then he is making even the negation of his own claim
true, so that his own statement in turn is not true (that is, after all,
what its negation asserts), while if anyone says that all things
are false, then he is making his own claim to be false.
(Kuhn,
1962) The historian of science may be
tempted to exclaim that when paradigms change, the world itself changes
with them.
(Hume,
1777) And though the philosopher may live remote from business,
the genius of philosophy, if carefully cultivated by
several, must gradually diffuse itself throughout the whole society,
and bestow a similar correctness on every art and calling.
(Gandhi)
All our philosophy is dry as dust if it is not immediately translated
into some act of living service.
(Albert
Einstein, 1954) We shall require a substantially new manner
of thinking if humanity is to survive.
(Karl
Popper, 1975) In my opinion, the greatest scandal of philosophy
is that, while all around us the world of nature perishes
- and not the world of nature alone - philosophers continue to talk, sometimes
cleverly and sometimes not, about the question of whether this world
exists. If a theory corresponds to the facts
but does not cohere with some earlier knowledge, then this earlier
knowledge should be discarded.
(Schrodinger,
1967) The scientist only imposes two things, namely
truth and sincerity, imposes them upon
himself and upon other scientists.
(Aristotle)
The entire reoccupation of
the physicist is with things that contain within themselves
a principle of movement and rest.
(Einstein) The development during the present century is characterized
by two theoretical systems essentially independent of each other: the
theory of relativity and the quantum theory.
The two systems do not directly contradict each other; but they seem little
adapted to fusion into one unified theory.
For the time being we have to admit that we do not possess any general
theoretical basis for physics which can be regarded as its logical
foundation.
The supreme task of the physicist is to arrive at those universal
elementary laws from which the cosmos can be
built by pure deduction. There is no logical path to
these laws; only intuition, resting on sympathetic understanding of experience,
can reach them.
Experiments on interference made with particle rays have given brilliant
proof that the wave character of the phenomena
of motion as assumed by the theory does, really, correspond
to the facts.
(Smolin,
1997) A successful unification of quantum theory and relativity
would necessarily be a theory of the universe as a whole.
It would tell us, as Aristotle and Newton did before, what space and time
are, what the cosmos is, what things are made of, and what kind of laws
those things obey. Such a theory will bring about a radical shift - a
revolution - in our understanding of what nature is. It must also have
wide repercussions, and will likely bring about, or contribute to, a shift
in our understanding of ourselves and our relationship to the rest of
the universe. The revolution which began with the creation of quantum
theory and relativity theory can only be finished with their unification
into a single theory that can give us a single,
comprehensive picture of nature.
Until recently it has been assumed
that matter existed as tiny 'particles' which generated electromagnetic
and gravitational 'forces' on other particles. Further, Space is assumed
to be relative i.e. reality is described in terms of matter
not space (and matter interactions cause relative space).
This particle / relative conception of reality causes many problems, most
significant is the paradox of the particle-wave duality of both light
and matter, the problem of how particles act-at-a-distance on other particles,
and the relationship between matter, forces,
space and time.
The Wave Structure of Matter solves these problems by describing reality
in terms of One thing, Space (with the properties of a wave-medium) and
that matter is formed from Spherical Waves in Space. It is necessary that
Spherical Waves must flow In and Out through their Wave-Center and this
causes the 'particle' effect of matter, thus explaining the particle-wave
duality of matter. Further, as these Spherical In-Waves flow in through
other matter they change their velocity, which ultimately changes the
location of the wave-center, and which we observe as a 'force accelerating
a particle'. These Spherical In-Waves ( Wave-Centers) then explain how
matter interacts with all the other matter in the universe. Finally, by
replacing the Motion of Matter in Space
and Time with the Spherical Wave Motion of Space,
we unite these four different things back to One thing, Space, thus explaining
how all things are interconnected by Space.
(Aristotle,
350B.C) Motion must always have existed and the
same can be said for Time, since it is not even possible
for there to be an earlier and a later if time does not exist. Movement,
then, is also continuous in the way in which time is - indeed time
is either identical to movement or is some affection of it. There
must then be a principle of such a kind that its substance
is activity.
(Spinoza,
1673) No one doubts but that we imagine time from
the very fact that we imagine other bodies to be moved
slower or faster or equally fast. We are accustomed to determine duration
by the aid of some measure of motion.
(Albert Einstein, 1954) The formation of the
concept of the material object must precede our concepts of time and space.
(Note: Einstein's error was to assume that Matter, as a Spherical Force
Field, caused Space and Time, rather than the Spherical Wave Motion of Space
causing Matter, Time and Forces. i.e His Foundations were Empirical a posteriori
rather than Metaphysical a priori)
(Fowles,
1964) Time in itself, absolutely, does not exist; it is always relative
to some observer or some object. Without a clock I say 'I do not know the
time' . Without matter, time itself is unknowable. Time is a function of
matter; and matter therefore is the clock that makes infinity real.
(Cicero,
106-43BC) I ask you both, why did these creators of the world suddenly
wake up, after apparently having been asleep from time immemorial? Even
if there was then no world, time must still have been passing. Time, I say,
and not those periods of time which are measured by the number of nights
and days in the course of a year. I admit that these depend upon the circular
movement of the world. But from all eternity there has been an infinite
time, unmeasurable by any periodical divisions. This we can understand from
the analogy of space. But we cannot even conceive that once upon a time
there was no time at all.
(Darwin)
Although I am fully convinced of the truth
of the views given in this volume I by no means expect to convince experienced
naturalists whose minds are stocked with a multitude of facts all viewed,
during a long course of years, from a point of view directly opposite to
mine. But I look with confidence to the future
to young and rising naturalists, who will be able to view both sides of
the question with impartiality.
(Planck) A new scientific truth
does not triumph by convincing its opponents
and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents
eventually die, and a new generation grows up
that is familiar with it.
(Pascal)
There is no greater unhappiness than when a person starts to fear
the truth lest it denounce him.
(Tolstoy)
Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority
share in it.
(Plato,
380BC) That is the story. Do you think there is any way of making
them believe it? Not in the first generation, he said, but you might succeed
with the second and later generations.
(Bhagavad-Gita)
Man is made by his belief.
As he believes, so he is.
(Cicero)
Those dwelling near the cataracts grow used to the noise and therefore cannot
hear it: so too mankind cannot hear the music of the spheres.
(Newton)
It is inconceivable that inanimate brute matter should, without
mediation of something else which is not matter, operate on and affect
other matter without mutual contact. That gravity should be innate, inherent
and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon another at-a-distance,
through a vacuum, without the mediation of anything else by and through
which their action may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great
an absurdity that I believe no man, who has in philosophical matters a
competent faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it.
So far I have explained the phenomena. by
the force of gravity, but I have not yet ascertained the cause of gravity
itself, and I do not arbitrarily invent hypotheses.
(Einstein)
From the latest results of the theory of relativity it is probable that
our three dimensional space is also approximately spherical, that is,
that the laws of disposition of rigid bodies in it are not given by Euclidean
geometry, but approximately by spherical geometry. The defining equation
of the metric is then nothing but the Pythagorean theorem applied to the
differentials of the coordinates. According to the general theory of relativity,
the geometrical properties of space are not
independent, but they are determined by matter. I wished to show that
space time is not necessarily something to which one can ascribe to a
separate existence, independently of the actual objects of physical reality.
Physical objects are not in space, but these objects are spatially extended.
In this way the concept 'empty space' loses its meaning.
(Aristotle,
340BC) The first philosophy (Metaphysics) is universal and is exclusively concerned with primary substance. ... And here we will have the science to study that which is just as that
which is, both in its essence and in the properties
which, just as a thing that is, it has. It is impossible that the primary
existent, being eternal, should be destroyed. That among entities
there must be some cause which moves and combines things. About
its coming into being and its doings and about all its alterations we
think that we have knowledge when we know the source of its movement.
(Bradley,
1846-1924) We may agree, perhaps, to understand by Metaphysics
an attempt to know reality as against mere appearance,
or the study of first principles or ultimate
truths, or again the effort to comprehend the universe,
not simply piecemeal or by fragments, but somehow as a whole.
(Kant,
1781) Time was, when Metaphysics was the queen of all the sciences;
and, if we take the will for the deed, she certainly deserves, so far
as regards the high importance of her object-matter, this title of honour.
Now it is the fashion of the time to heap contempt and scorn upon her;
and the matron mourns, forlorn and forsaken, .... her empire gradually
broke up, and intestine wars introduced the reign of anarchy; while the
skeptics, like nomadic tribes, who hate a permanent habitation and settled
mode of living, attacked from time to time those who had organized themselves
into civil communities. But their number was, very happily, small; and
thus they could not entirely put a stop to the exertions of those who
persisted in raising new edifices, although on no settled or uniform plan.
Metaphysics can never become popular, and, indeed, has no occasion to
be so; for fine-spun arguments in favour of useful truths make just as
little impression on the public mind as the equally subtle objections
brought against these truths. On the other hand, since both inevitably
force themselves on every man who rises to the height of speculation,
it becomes the manifest duty of the schools to enter upon a thorough investigation
of the rights of speculative reason, and thus to prevent the scandal which
metaphysical controversies are sure, sooner or later, to cause even to
the masses.
(Albert
Einstein, 1954) Metaphysics involves intuitive knowledge of unprovable
starting-points (concepts and truth) and demonstrative knowledge of what
follows from them. .. In order that thinking might not degenerate into
'metaphysics', or into empty talk, it is only necessary that enough propositions
of the conceptual system be firmly enough connected with sensory experiences
and that the conceptual system, in view of its task of ordering and surveying
sense experience, should show as much unity and parsimony as possible.
It finally turns out that one can, after all,not get along without
metaphysics.
(Tolstoy,
1879) What am I? A part of the infinite. It is
indeed in these words that the whole problem lies. The essence of any
religion lies solely in the answer to the question: why
do I exist, and what is my relationship to the infinite universe
that surrounds me?
(Einstein,
1948) When considering the actual living conditions of present
day civilised humanity from the standpoint of even the
most elementary religious commands, one is bound to experience a feeling
of deep and painful disappointment at what one sees. For while religion
prescribes brotherly love in the relations among the individuals and groups,
the actual spectacle more resembles a battlefield than an orchestra. There
are pessimists who hold that such a state of affairs is necessarily inherent
in human nature; it is those who propound such views that are the enemies
of true religion,for they imply thereby that the religious
teachings are utopian ideals and are unsuited to afford guidance in human
affairs.
(Tolstoy,
1879) And the cause of everything
is that which we call God. To know God and to live
is the same thing. God is Life.
(Aristotle,
350BC) God is thought to be among the causes
for all things and to be a kind of principle.
(Spinoza,
1650) Except God no substance can be granted
or conceived. As God is a being absolutely infinite,
hence it distinctly follows that God is one alone, i.e. there is none
like him, or in the nature of things only one substance
can be granted, and that is absolutely infinite.
(Hume,
1737) To have recourse to the veracity of the supreme Being,
in order to prove the veracity of our senses, is surely making a very
unexpected circuit.
(Sudhakar S.D,1988)
The word God is a sort of pivotal symbol in human affairs. Perhaps
no other word is so vastly used all over the world. Yet for a vast
majority of people God is just a word only, and nothing more, as for
them it does not evoke any memory; it does not stand for any cognised
and experienced reality. The images of God are conceived and portrayed
in various religions are mere fancies of an ego-building mind. They
are all man-made. Almost all concepts of God are anthropomorphic,
based on man’s socio-religious life. All these concepts are
unreal, absurd and misleading. Why should God have a figure resembling
the human being? Only because God’s image is a projection of
the human mind.
The real God is not to be sought in idols and symbols, in temples
or churches.
The truth of the matter is that the
purified man is God himself,
for he has become
one with universal life.
The purified man is the self-realised man.
(Gandhi 1869-1948) It is That which alone
is, which constitutes the stuff of which all things are made, which
subsists by virtue of its own power, which is not supported by anything
else but supports everything that exists. Truth alone is eternal,
everything else is momentary. It is more correct to say that Truth
is God, than to say that God is Truth. All
life comes from the one universal source, call it Allah, God or Parmeshwara.
The ocean is composed of drops of water; each drop is an entity and
yet it is a part of the whole; ‘the one and the many. In this
ocean of life, we are little drops. My doctrine means that I must
identify myself with life, with everything that lives, that I must
share the majesty of life in the presence of God. The sum-total of
this life is God.
God is Nature (Stoic - Pantheism)
(Zeno-Stoic
333-262BC)
God is not separate from the world;
He is the soul of the world, and each of us contains a part of the
Divine Fire.
All things are parts of
one single system,
which is called
Nature.
The individual life is good when it is in harmony
with Nature. In one sense, every life is in harmony
with Nature, since it is such as Nature’s laws have caused it
to be; but in another sense a human life is only in harmony with Nature
when the individual will is directed to ends which are among those
of Nature. Virtue consists in a will which is in agreement with Nature.
(Cicero,
106-43 BC) The Universe must be a rational being and the Nature
which permeates and embraces all things must be endowed with reason
in its highest form. And so God and the world of
Nature must be One, and all the
life of the world must be contained within the being of God.
(Harrison,
1999) The word pantheism
derives from the Greek words pan (all) and theos (God). Thus pantheism
means
'All is God'.
In essence, pantheism holds that there is no divinity other than the
universe and nature.
All things are linked in profound unity, interconnected and interdependent.
In life and in death we humans are an inseparable part of this unity,
and in realising this we can find our joy and our peace.
Taoism is a strongly pantheistic religion. Its central focus is the
Tao or Way, conceived of as a mysterious and numinous
unity, infinite and eternal,
underlying all things and sustaining them.
The ideal of Taoism was to live in harmony with the Tao and to cultivate
a simple and frugal life, avoiding unnecessary action:
'Being one with nature, he [the
sage] is in accord with the Tao'.
(Capra,
1974) The idea of the individual being linked to the cosmos is
expressed in the Latin root of the word religion, religare (to bind
strongly), as well as the Sanskrit yoga, which means union.
(Tolstoy,
1879) The essence of any religion lies solely in the answer to
the question: why do I exist, and what is my relationship to the infinite
universe that surrounds me?
It is impossible for there to be a person with no religion (i.e. without
any kind of relationship to the world) as it is for there to be a person
without a heart. He may not know that he has a religion, just as a person
may not know that he has a heart, but it is no more possible for a person
to exist without a religion than without a heart.
True religion is that relationship, in accordance
with reason and knowledge, which man establishes with the infinite world
around him, and which binds his life to that infinity and guides his
actions. The principles of this true religion are so appropriate to
man that as soon as people discover them they accept them as something
they have known for a long time and which stand to reason. The principles
are very simple, comprehensible and uncomplicated.
They are as follows:
that there is a God who is the origin of everything;
that there is an element of this divine origin in every person, which
he can diminish or increase through his way of living;
that in order for someone to increase this source he must suppress his
passions and increase the love within himself;
that the practical means of achieving this consist in doing
to others as you would wish to do to you.
All these principles are common to Brahmanism, Hebraism, Confucianism,
Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity and Mohammedanism.
(If Buddhism does not provide a definition of God, it nevertheless recognises
that with which man unites and merges as he reaches Nirvana. And that
something is the same origin which the other religions recognise as
God.)
(Einstein)
The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion.
It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering
both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious
sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual
as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this
description. If there is any religion that could cope with
modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism.
Science without religion is lame,
religion without science is blind.
(Tolstoy,1879)
Reason is the power man possesses to define his relationship
to the universe. Since the relationship is the same for
everyone, thus religion unites men. Union among men gives
them the highest attainable well-being, on both the physical and the spiritual
level. Humanity can only be saved from disaster when it frees itself from
the hypnotic influence the priests hold over it, and from that into which
the learned are leading it. In order to pour something into a full vessel
one must first empty it of its contents. Likewise, it is essential to
free people from the deception they are held in, in order for them to
adopt the true religion: a relationship with God, the
source of all things, which is correct and in accord with the development
of humanity, together with the guidance for conduct that results from
this relationship. Religion
is the definition of man's relationship to the origin of everything, and
of the purpose acquired as a result of this relationship, and of the rules
of conduct that follow from this purpose. And the religion common to all,
the basic principles of which are alike in all practices, fully satisfies
these demands. It defines man's relationship to God as of a part to a
whole. From this relationship follows man's purpose, which lies in increasing
his spiritual qualities, and man's purpose leads to the practical rules
of the law: do to others as you would have them do unto you.
Morals and Emotions
(Albert
Einstein) Only the individual can think, and thereby create new
values for society, nay, even set up new moral standards to which the
life of the community conforms. We all know, from what we experience with
and within ourselves, that our conscious acts spring from our desires
and our fears. Intuition tells us that that is true also of our fellows
and of the higher animals.
We all try to escape pain and death, while we seek what is pleasant. We
are all ruled in what we do by impulses; and these impulses are so organised
that our actions in general serve for our self preservation and that of
the race.
Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the
individual's instinct for self preservation. At the same time, as social
beings, we are moved in the relations with our fellow beings by such feelings
as sympathy, pride, hate, need for power, pity, and so on. All these primary
impulses, not easily described in words, are the springs of man's actions.
All such action would cease if those powerful elemental forces were to
cease stirring within us. Though our conduct seems so very different from
that of the higher animals, the primary instincts are much alike in them
and in us. The most evident difference springs from the important part
which is played in man by a relatively strong power of imagination and
by the capacity to think, aided as it is by language and other symbolical
devices. Thought is the organising factor in man, intersected between
the causal primary instincts and the resulting actions. In that way imagination
and intelligence enter into our existence in the part of servants of the
primary instincts. But their intervention makes our acts to serve ever
less merely the immediate claims of our instincts.
(Macy) We
need to be a little more
enlightened about what our self-interest is. It would not occur to me,
for example, to exhort you to refrain from cutting off your leg. That
wouldn't occur to me or to you, because your leg is part of you.
Well, so are the trees in the Amazon Basin; they are our external lungs.
We are just beginning to wake up to that. We are gradually discovering
that
we are our world.
(Lama
Anagarika Govinda) To the enlightened man, whose
consciousness embraces the Universe, the universe
becomes his body, while his physical body becomes a manifestation
of the universal mind, his inner vision an expression of the highest
reality and his speech an expression of eternal
truth.
(Berkeley,
1710) My purpose therefore is, to try if I can discover what
those principles are, which have introduced all that doubtfulness
and uncertainty, those absurdities
and contradictions into the several sects of philosophy;
insomuch that the wisest men have thought our ignorance incurable,
conceiving it to arise from the natural dullness and limitation of our
faculties.
Philosophy being nothing else but the
study of wisdom and truth, it may with reason be expected,
that those who have spent most time and pains in it should enjoy a greater
calm and serenity of mind, a greater clearness and evidence of knowledge,
and be less disturbed with doubt and difficulties than other men. Yet
so it is we see the illiterate bulk of mankind that walk the high-road
of plain, common sense and are governed by the dictates of nature, for
the most part easy and undisturbed. To them nothing that is familiar
appears unaccountable or difficult to comprehend. They complain not
of any want of evidence in their senses, and are out of all danger of
becoming skeptics. But no sooner do we depart from sense and instinct
to follow the light of a superior principle, to reason, meditate and
reflect on the nature of things, but a thousand scruples spring up in
our minds, concerning those things which before we seemed fully to comprehend.
Prejudices and errors of sense do from all parts discover themselves
to our view; and endeavouring to correct these by reason we are insensibly
drawn into uncouth paradoxes, difficulties, and inconsistencies, which
multiply and grow upon us as we advance in speculation; till at length,
having wandered through many intricate mazes, we find ourselves just
where we were, or, which is worse, sit down in a forlorn skepticism.
The cause of this is thought to be the obscurity of things, or the natural
weakness and imperfection of our understandings. It is said that faculties
we have are few, and those designed by nature for the support and comfort
of life, and not to penetrate into the inward essence and constitution
of things. But perhaps we may be too partial to ourselves in placing
the fault originally in our faculties, and not rather in the wrong use
we make of them. It is a hard thing to suppose that right deductions
from true principles should ever end in consequences which cannot be
maintained or made consistent. We should believe that God has
dealt more bountifully with the sons of men, than to give them a strong
desire for that knowledge, which he had placed quite out of their reach.
(Ayer,
1956) It
is possible to maintain both that such things as chairs and tables are
directly perceived and that our sense-experiences are causally dependent
upon physical processes which are not directly perceptible. This is,
indeed, a position which is very widely held, and is perfectly consistent.
At the present moment there is indeed no doubt, so far as I am concerned,
that this table, this piece of paper, this pen, this hand, and many
other physical objects exist. I know that they exist, and I know it
is on the basis of my sense-experiences.
Albert
Einstein- Remarks on Bertrand Russell’s Theory of Knowledge
In the evolution
of philosophical thought through the centuries the
following question has played a major role: what knowledge is pure thought
able to supply independently of sense perception? Is there any such
knowledge? If not, what precisely is the relation between our knowledge
and the raw material furnished by sense impressions?
There has been an increasing skepticism
concerning every attempt by means of pure thought to learn something
about the 'objective world', about the world of 'things'
in contrast to the world of 'concepts and ideas'. During
philosophy's childhood it was rather generally believed that it is possible
to find everything which can be known by means of mere reflection. It
was an illusion which anyone can easily understand
if, for a moment, he dismisses what he has learned from later philosophy
and from natural science; he will not be surprised to find that Plato
ascribed a higher reality to 'ideas' than to empirically experienceable
things. Even in Spinoza and as late as in Hegel this prejudice was the
vitalising force which seems still to have played the major role.
The more aristocratic illusion concerning the unlimited penetrative
power of thought has as its counterpart the more plebeian illusion of
naive realism, according to which things 'are' as they
are perceived by us through our senses. This illusion dominates the
daily life of men and of animals; it is also the point of departure
in all of the sciences, especially of the natural sciences. As Russell
wrote; 'We all start from naive realism, i.e., the
doctrine that things are what they seem. We think that grass is green,
that stones are hard, and that snow is cold. But physics assures us
that the greenness of grass, the hardness of stones, and the coldness
of snow are not the greenness, hardness, and coldness that we know in
our own experience, but something very different. The observer, when
he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is
to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself.'
Gradually the conviction gained recognition that all knowledge
about things is exclusively a working-over of the raw material furnished
by the senses. Galileo and Hume
first upheld this principle with full clarity and decisiveness. Hume
saw that concepts which we must regard as essential, such as, for example,
causal connection, cannot be gained from material given
to us by the senses. This insight led him to a skeptical
attitude as concerns knowledge of any kind.
Man has an intense desire for assured knowledge. That is why Hume's
clear message seemed crushing: the sensory raw material, the only source
of our knowledge,through habit may lead us to belief and expectation
but not to the knowledge and still less to the understanding of lawful
relations.
Then Kant took the stage with an idea which, though
certainly untenable in the form in which he put it, signified a step
towards the solution of Hume's dilemma: whatever in knowledge
is of empirical origin is never certain.
If, therefore, we have definitely
assured knowledge,it must be grounded in reason itself. This is held
to be the case, for example, in the propositions of geometry and the
principles of causality.
These and certain other types of knowledge are, so to speak, a part
of the implements of thinking and therefore do not previously have to
be gained from sense data (i.e. they are a priori knowledge).
Today everyone knows, of course, that the mentioned concepts contain
nothing of the certainty, of the inherent necessity, which Kant had
attributed to them. The following, however, appears to me to be correct
in Kant's statement of the problem: in thinking we use with a certain
"right", concepts to which there is no access from the materials
of sensory experience, if the situation is viewed from the logical point
of view. As a matter of fact, I am convinced that even much more is
to be asserted: the concepts which arise in our thought and in our linguistic
expressions are all- when viewed logically- the free creations
of thought which cannot inductively be gained from
sense experiences. This is not so easily noticed only
because we have the habit of combining certain concepts and conceptual
relations (propositions) so definitely with certain sense experiences
that we do not become conscious of the gulf- logically unbridgeable-
which separates the world of sensory experiences from the world of concepts
and propositions.
Thus, for example, the series of integers is obviously an invention
of the human mind, a self-created tool which simplifies the ordering
of certain sensory experiences. But there is no way in which this concept
could be made to grow, as it were, directly out of sense experiences.
As soon as one is at home in Hume's critique one is easily led to believe
that all those concepts and propositions which cannot be deduced from
the sensory raw material are, on account of their 'metaphysical' character,
to be removed from thinking. For all thought acquires material content
only through its relationship with that sensory material. This latter
proposition I take to be entirely true; but I hold the prescription
for thinking which is grounded on this proposition to be false. For
this claim- if only carried through consistently- absolutely excludes
thinking of any kind as 'metaphysical'.
In order that thinking might not degenerate into 'metaphysics', or into
empty talk, it is only necessary that enough propositions of the conceptual
system be firmly enough connected with sensory experiences and that
the conceptual system, in view of its task of ordering and surveying
sense experience, should show as much unity and parsimony
as possible. Beyond that, however, the 'system' is (as regards logic)
a free play with symbols according to (logically) arbitrarily given
rules of the game. All this applies as much (and in the same manner)
to the thinking in daily life as to the more consciously and systematically
constructed thinking in the sciences.
By his clear critique Hume did not only advance philosophy
in a decisive way but also- though through no fault of his- created
a danger for philosophy in that, following his critique, a fateful 'fear
of metaphysics' arose which has come to be a malady
of contemporary empiricist philosophising; this malady
is the counterpart to that earlier philosophising in the clouds, which
thought it could neglect and dispense with what was given by the senses.
(Kant) If we take away the subject (Human), or even only the subjective constitution of our senses in general, then not only the nature and relations of objects in space and time, but even space and time themselves disappear; and that these, as appearances, cannot exist in themselves, but only in us. What may be the nature of objects considered as things in themselves and without reference to the receptivity of our sensibility is quite unknown to us. .... not only are the raindrops mere appearances, but even their circular (spherical) form, nay, the space itself through which they fall (motion), is nothing in itself, but both are mere modifications or fundamental dispositions of our sensible intuition, whilst the transcendental object remains for us utterly unknown. Hence this determination of my existence, and consequently my internal experience itself, must depend on something permanent which is not in me, which can be, therefore, only in something external to me, to which I must look upon myself as being related. Thus the reality of the external sense is necessarily connected with that of the internal, in order to the possibility of experience in general; that is, I am just as certainly conscious that there are things external to me related to my sense, as I am that I myself exist, as determined in time.
And those whose hearts are fixed on Reality itself deserve the title of Philosophers.
One trait in the philosopher's character we can assume is his love of the knowledge that reveals eternal reality, the realm unaffected by change and decay.
The society we have described can never grow into a reality or see the light of day, and there will be no end to the troubles of states, or indeed, my dear Glaucon, of humanity itself, till philosophers are kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.
When the mind's eye rests on objects
illuminated by
truth and reality,
it understands and comprehends them, and functions intelligently; but
when it turns to the twilight world of change and decay, it can only form
opinions, its vision is confused and its beliefs shifting, and it seems
to lack intelligence. What is at issue is the conversion
of the mind from the twilight of error to the truth,
that climb up into the real world which we shall call
true philosophy.
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
(Mohandas Gandhi)
"When forced to summarize the general theory of relativity in one sentence:
Time and space and gravitation have no separate existence from matter. ... Physical objects are not in space, but these objects are spatially extended. In this way the concept 'empty space' loses its meaning. ... The particle can only appear as a limited region in space in which
the field strength or the energy density are particularly high. ...
The free, unhampered exchange of ideas and scientific conclusions is necessary for the sound development of science, as it is in all spheres
of cultural life. ... We must not conceal from ourselves that no improvement in the present depressing situation is possible without
a severe struggle; for the handful of those who are really determined to do something is minute in comparison with the mass of the lukewarm
and the misguided. ...
Humanity is going to need a substantially new way of thinking if it is to survive!" (Albert Einstein)
Our world is in great trouble due to human behaviour founded on myths and customs that are causing the destruction of Nature and climate change. We can now deduce the most simple science theory of reality - the wave structure of matter in space. By understanding how we and everything around us are interconnected
in Space we can then deduce solutions to the fundamental problems of human knowledge in physics, philosophy, metaphysics, theology, education, health, evolution and ecology, politics and society.
This is the profound new way of thinking that Einstein
realised, that we exist as spatially extended structures of the universe - the discrete and separate body an illusion. This simply confirms the
intuitions of the ancient philosophers and mystics.
Given the current censorship in physics / philosophy of science journals (based on the standard model of particle physics / big bang cosmology) the internet is the best hope for getting new knowledge
known to the world. But that depends on you, the people who care about science and society, realise the importance of truth and reality.
Just click on the Social Network links below, or copy a nice image or quote you like and share it. We have a wonderful collection of knowledge from the greatest minds in human history, so people will appreciate your contributions. In doing this you will help a new generation of scientists see that there is a simple sensible explanation of physical reality - the source of truth and wisdom, the only cure for the madness of man! Thanks! Geoff Haselhurst (Updated September, 2018)
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it. (Max Planck, 1920)
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"All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing."
(Edmund Burke)
"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
(George Orwell)
"Hell is Truth Seen Too Late."
(Thomas Hobbes)