The Metaphysical Foundation of Buddhism and Modern Science

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in relation to their strict scientific purpose. Towards the end of its long life, the doctrine lost its utility and turned into an obstructive agency. The Platonic group of notions which have been considered have none of the merits of the Aristotelian set. In fact, they are philosophic, and in the narrow sense are not scientific. They suggest no detailed observation. Indeed it has always been a reproach to Plato that he diverted interest from observation of the particular facts. So far as concerns political theory, and in particular jurisprudence, this accusation is certainly untrue, and arises from the habit of concentrating interest on his Dialogues in proportion to their literary brilliance. Nevertheless the assertion is undoubtedly true in respect to physical science. But Plato had another message. Where Aristotle said ‘observe’ and ‘classify’, the moral of Plato’s teaching is the importance of the study of mathematics. Of course, neither of them was so stupid as to dissuade from observation or, on the other hand, to deny the utility of mathematics. Probably Aristotle thought that the mathematical knowledge of his day was about as much as was wanted for the purpose of physical science. Any further progress could only minister to an unpractical curiosity about subtle abstractions. An intense belief that a knowledge of mathematical relations would prove the key to unlock the mysteries of the relatedness within Nature was ever at the back of Plato’s cosmological speculations. In one passage he reprobates the swinish ignorance of those who have failed to study
the doctrine of proportions incapable of expression as numerical ratios. He evidently feels that the chance of some subtle elucidation of the nature of Harmony is being crassly lost. His own speculations as to the course of nature are all founded upon the conjectural application of some mathematical construction. So far as I can remember, in every case he made a sensible shot which, in fact, went wide of the mark. Although the Timaeus was widely influential, yet for about eighteen hundred years after their epoch, it seemed that Aristotle was right and Plato wrong. Some mathematical formulae were interwoven with scientific ideas, but no more than would have been perfectly familiar to Aristotle apart from what were in his day the latest refinements. The cosmological scheme of the active scientists was in fact that of Aristotle. But Plato’s divination exemplifies another important function for philosophy. It evokes interest in topics as yet remote from our crude understanding of the interplay of natural forces. The science of the future depends for its ready progress upon the antecedent elucidation of hypothetical complexities of connections, as yet unobservable in nature. Plato’s mathematical speculations have been treated as sheer mysticism by scholars who follow the literary traditions of the Italian Renaissance. In truth, they are the products of genius brooding on the future of intellect exploring a world of mystery. Greeks, Egyptians, Arabs, Jews, and Mesopotamians advanced the science of mathematics beyond the wildest dreams of Plato. Unfortunately this
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Christian Thomas Kohl The Metaphysi
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1.Summary The key terms. 1. Key ter
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are two immaterial bodies which wer
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2. Nagarjuna Preliminary note We sh
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anything else (Descartes); is exist
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making and as working with informat
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that they are not to be found (MMK
Page 16 and 17: Chapter 1: Cause and effect. A high
Page 18 and 19: Chapter 8. Action and agent. Pictur
Page 20 and 21: Commentary: Without fire there can
Page 22 and 23: Chapter 13. A teenager and an aged
Page 24 and 25: Chapter 16: Bondage and liberation.
Page 27 and 28: Father and son. Description: The au
Page 29 and 30: 3. Interpretation of MMK’s 25 cha
Page 31 and 32: 4. Discussion of Nagarjuna’s work
Page 33 and 34: philosophy of the ancient Greeks wh
Page 35 and 36: It became evident that fundamental
Page 37 and 38: The double-slit experiment. (see pr
Page 39 and 40: Figure 1: In this Feynman diagram,
Page 41 and 42: centimeter) and are so weak that th
Page 43 and 44: little clouds we attempt to use met
Page 45 and 46: Nagarjuna's thought and the ideas o
Page 47 and 48: 5. as something between bodies by A
Page 49 and 50: Appendix 3: Alfred North Whitehead:
Page 51 and 52: had its birth with Greeks; and amon
Page 53 and 54: epletion. With Aristotle and Epicur
Page 55 and 56: activities of the spirit of mankind
Page 57 and 58: its habitual ideas. It is a step by
Page 59 and 60: Section IV. Plato’s contribution
Page 61 and 62: But the notion of mere knowledge, t
Page 63 and 64: facts had gradually accumulated thr
Page 65: within which the course of history
Page 69 and 70: notions, has done almost as much ha
Page 71 and 72: understood in disjunction. All reas
Page 73 and 74: observation beyond the boundaries o
Page 75 and 76: divergence of opinion as to the ext
Page 77 and 78: space-time is a composition of what
Page 79 and 80: Alfred North Whitehead: Adventures
Page 81 and 82: 3 with a sufficient scope of applic
Page 83 and 84: 5 systematic thought has made progr
Page 85 and 86: 7 But whether we be ancient or mode
Page 87 and 88: 9 the self-development of the exper
Page 89 and 90: 11 retreats others into a backgroun
Page 91 and 92: 13 problems which have tortured Eur
Page 93 and 94: 15 Section IX. European philosophy
Page 95 and 96: 17 of stable technical language. Co
Page 97 and 98: 19 particular fact on the earth's s
Page 99 and 100: 21 'subjective form', is that I str
Page 101 and 102: The conventionalized abstractions p
Page 103 and 104: 25 include as part of its own essen
Page 105 and 106: 27 Philosophy is the ascent to the
Page 107 and 108: 29 species. Thus its use as though
Page 109 and 110: 31 not-being. It is how the past li
Page 111 and 112: 33 7. Notes [1] See Appendix 1 for
Page 113 and 114: 35 the components cannot exist with
Page 115 and 116: 37 [28] Einstein, A. & Infeld, L. T
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39 Kalupahana, D. J. Mulamadhyamaka
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The Metaphysical Foundation of Buddhism and Modern Science

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