Christian Thomas Kohl The Metaphysical Foundations of Buddhism and Modern Science

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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 side of Plato’s interest was notably absent among the Christian population. I believe it to be true that no Christian made any original contribution to mathematical science before the revival of science at the time of the Renaissance. Pope Silvester II – Gerbert, who reigned in the year 1000 A.D. – studied mathematics. But he added nothing. Roger Bacon proclaimed the importance of mathematics and named contemporary mathematicians. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the University of Oxford cherished mathematics. But none of these mediaeval Europeans advanced the subject. An exception must be made in favour of Leonardo of Pisa who flourished at the beginning of the thirteenth century. He was the first Christian to make an advance in the science which in his early history illustrates the cultural union of the Hellenistic Greeks with the Near East. But, subject to this qualification, sixteenth-century mathematics was entirely based upon non-Christian sources. Among the Christians mathematics and magic were confused. The Pope himself hardly escaped. We can hardly hope for a better illustration of the curious limitations of epochs and schools of civilization. It is especially interesting in view of the dominant influence of Plato upon Christian thought.
Page 1 and 2:
Christian Thomas Kohl The Metaphysi
Page 3 and 4:
1.Summary The key terms. 1. Key ter
Page 5 and 6:
ideas of substance or subject, two
Page 7 and 8:
2. Nagarjuna Preliminary note We sh
Page 9 and 10:
distinction between two forms of be
Page 11 and 12:
(4) Instrumentalism Instead of favo
Page 13 and 14:
19. “That which has arisen depend
Page 15:
A brief review of the 25 chapters o
Page 18 and 19:
Chapter 2: A mover and the distance
Page 20 and 21: Chapter 10: Fire and fuel. Photogra
Page 22 and 23: Chapter 12: Suffering and the cause
Page 24 and 25: Chapter 13. A teenager and an aged
Page 26: Chapter 23. Pure and impure. Rio Ne
Page 29 and 30: A solar storm. Something is happeni
Page 31 and 32: sometimes three complementary bodie
Page 33 and 34: 5. The metaphysical foundations of
Page 35 and 36: Albert Einstein’s contribution to
Page 37 and 38: Niels Bohr’s contribution to the
Page 39 and 40: The atoms arrive in discrete lumps.
Page 41 and 42: Figure 1: In this Feynman diagram,
Page 43 and 44: centimeter) and are so weak that th
Page 45 and 46: philosophers and physicists have be
Page 47 and 48: What is reality? We have become acc
Page 49 and 50: 4. as an intermediate state by Roge
Page 51 and 52: Appendix 3: Alfred North Whitehead:
Page 53 and 54: of Miletus, alive at the date 600 B
Page 55 and 56: Christian scheme of salvation. Its
Page 57 and 58: accordance with his clear-cut intel
Page 59 and 60: seemingly obvious, are infected wit
Page 61 and 62: Of course in this action, and react
Page 63 and 64: temporal realization of ideas. The
Page 65 and 66: qualification not to be analyzed in
Page 67 and 68: Plato, the mathematician, for long
Page 69: now that it is dead, it is stone-de
Page 73 and 74: for the expression of high abstract
Page 75 and 76: particular observations. The other
Page 77 and 78: Greeks, Jews, and Muslims from such
Page 79 and 80: F.H. Bradley for instance, fall int
Page 81 and 82: merely that the equality of two and
Page 83 and 84: Alfred North Whitehead: Adventures
Page 85 and 86: occasions, can be validly used to s
Page 87 and 88: element shall have the character of
Page 89 and 90: that if there can be any intellectu
Page 91 and 92: The difference of ancients and mode
Page 93 and 94: course of such physical activities
Page 95 and 96: Section VIII. We have now reached t
Page 97 and 98: The common practice, interpreted by
Page 99 and 100: and in its forms. Thus we discover
Page 101 and 102: distinct meanings. It is to be reme
Page 103 and 104: This consideration is the basis of
Page 105 and 106: example consciousness, if it be pre
Page 107 and 108: together for common ends. Such unit
Page 109 and 110: monad can take account of another,
Page 111 and 112: facts and species are the product o
Page 113 and 114: adopted. Then the word Creativity e
Page 115 and 116: When a general idea has been obtain
Page 117 and 118: eality. The important invention of
Page 119 and 120: the correspondence between a model
Page 121 and 122:
E. D. & Feldman, G. J. Quarkonium.
Page 123 and 124:
8. Bibliography Bloom, E. D. & Feld
Page 125 and 126:
'T Hooft, G. Symmetrien in der Phys
Page 127:
127
show all

Christian Thomas Kohl The Metaphysical Foundations of Buddhism and Modern Science

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?