The Metaphysical Foundation of Buddhism and Modern Science
The Metaphysical Foundations of Buddhism and Modern Science: Nagarjuna and Alfred North Whitehead
The Metaphysical Foundations of Buddhism and Modern Science: Nagarjuna and Alfred North Whitehead
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
within which the course <strong>of</strong> history is set, in abstraction from all the<br />
particular historical facts. I have directed attention to Plato’s doctrine<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Receptacle because, at the present moment, physical science is<br />
nearer to it than at any period since Plato’s death. <strong>The</strong> space-time <strong>of</strong><br />
modern mathematical physics, conceived in abstraction from the<br />
particular mathematical formulae which applies to the happenings in it, is<br />
almost exactly Plato’s Receptacle. It is to be noted that mathematical<br />
physicists are extremely uncertain as to what these formulae are<br />
exactly, nor do they believe that any such formulae can be derived from<br />
the mere notion <strong>of</strong> space-time. Thus, as Plato declares, space-time in<br />
itself is bare <strong>of</strong> all forms.<br />
Section V. In the preceding sketch only one incidental generalization,<br />
selected from one topic comprised in the enormous labours <strong>of</strong> Aristotle’s<br />
life, has brought forward. Aristotle was at once a man <strong>of</strong> science, a<br />
philosopher, a literary critic, <strong>and</strong> a student <strong>of</strong> political theory. This<br />
particular classification <strong>of</strong> the things constitutive <strong>of</strong> the visible universe<br />
has been dwelt upon because it is an almost perfect example <strong>of</strong> a<br />
scientific induction satisfying all the conditions insisted on by the<br />
modern philosophy <strong>of</strong> science. It was a generalization from observed<br />
fact, <strong>and</strong> could be confirmed by repeated observation.. In its day – <strong>and</strong><br />
its day lasted for eighteen hundred years – it was extremely useful; <strong>and</strong><br />
now that it is dead, it is stone-dead, an archaeological curiosity. This is<br />
the fate <strong>of</strong> scientific generalizations, so long as they are considered