Dialogue ~ 50

Recently, I have been considering how Prometheus could be interpreted as representative of one’s primary thought and motivation (disposition); effectively one’s acceptance of moving towards and into that which is a gift of God. I wrote that Hephaestus has been portrayed as an Olympian god of fire, metalworking and crafts whilst Athena as an Olympian goddess associated with weaving, pottery and crafts. Both were highly skilled as artisans in themselves as well as were working with and through artisans of the human kind.   

I said, “… a true artisan appreciates an innate beauty; that one’s official hallmark is not to be found in what one does but is rather to be found in what one becomes.”

Wikipedia informs “The word demiurge is an English word derived from demiurgus, a Latinsed form of the Greek δημιουργός or dēmiurgós. It was originally a common noun meaning ‘craftsman’ or ‘artisan’ … a figure responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe … Although a fashioner, the demiurge is not necessarily the same as the creator figure in the monotheistic sense, because the demiurge itself and the material from which the demiurge fashions the universe are both considered consequences of something else … but gradually it came to mean ‘producer’, and eventually ‘creator’.”

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, a ‘demiurge’ is: 

“A Platonic subordinate deity who fashions the sensible world in the light of eternal ideas; a Gnostic subordinate deity who is the creator of the material world; one that is an autonomous creative force or decisive power.”

In reference to Plato, Wikipedia informs, “The theory of Forms, theory of Ideas, Platonic idealism, or Platonic realism is a metaphysical theory, attributed to the Classical Greek philosopher Plato … ‘ideas’ or ‘forms’  (and Plato used the terms interchangeably) are the non-physical essences of all things, of which objects and matter in the physical world are merely imitations … suggesting that the physical world is not as real or true as timeless, absolute, unchangeable ideas.”

What about metaphysical?  Merriam-Webster dictionary informs that it is:

“Of or relating to metaphysics; of or relating to the transcendent or to a reality beyond what is perceptible to the senses; supernatural; highly abstract or abstruse; also theoretical as in metaphysical reasoning.”

Of religion, this same dictionary informs that it refers to:

“The service and worship of God or the supernatural; commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance; a personal set or institutionalised system of religious attitudes, beliefs and practices; a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith; conscientiousness.”

It is conceivable that a demiurge is at play in a sandpit of ideas which are inaccessible or transcendent of the physical universe and which shape and maintain its existence.

Correspondingly, a demiurge might reside in the physical world and actively generate or produce (and in this sense, create) content which either preserves or changes the way that the world appears and/or is experienced by itself and others. It is possible that a demiurge is an unconscious memory, perhaps even a genetic one.

It is interesting that the earlier definition states “… the demiurge itself and the material from which the demiurge fashions the universe are both considered consequences of something else” (than a creator in a monotheistic sense).

What is the substance or nature of this ‘something else’? Certainly there are definitions of the demiurge as being ‘antagonistic to all that is purely spiritual’. Still, this merits the questions of what is determining what is and is not spiritual and does creativity require the differential?

Is every person who self-identifies as non-religious, non-spiritual or excludes the validity of the metaphysical participating in the creativity of a demiurge? Is there a worldview which integrates multiple realities within itself?

These are valid questions, given as what they are pointing towards might be acting as a filter through which a person views considerations such as ‘process’ or even ‘progress’.

In an episode of the Closer to Truth series called ‘Why is there anything at all?’ Max Tegmark, a physicist at MIT said, “A mathematic structure such as Einstein’s space-time - Minkowski space - doesn’t exist in time or space because time or space exists in it.” Robert Lawrence Kuhn replied, “.. it’s impossible for mathematics not to exist - you can devise any possible world that you want to have, but you can’t do one that doesn’t have at least certain kinds of mathematical structures in it.” Max said, “exactly - they’re timeless, all mathematical structures - and that gets rid of the predicament of creating them somehow, that there was a time before they existed and a time after they existed, leaving you wondering why (they exist at all).”

Robert said, “… you could also go to the question of abstract objects, why do platonic objects exist - why do the laws of logic exist and you begin to get circular;  it’s impossible for there not to be five of them (platonic solids), so what does that mean for the nature of reality?” Max said, “What we learn as logic in school - a type of algebra - it has a particular mathematical structure.”

Robert asked, “How about values? Like morality, goodness, beauty and other platonic universals - do they exist in the same way as other mathematics exists, or is your claim that only mathematics exists and everything else is derivative of it as a primary entity? Max said, “There’s only one thing that we’ve come across that has this transcendent property - that just exists and has no choice but to be this way - and that’s mathematics.”

Does the value of Prometheus, Hephaestus and Athena ultimately reside in their potential as being artisans of human thought or potential, such that one becomes capable of comprehending the universe through the geometry and language of mathematics? Is this the resting place of all ‘human values – of morality, goodness, beauty and other platonic universals?’ What if it is a stream of thinking which is such that it perceives the world in a manner through which mathematics is its only transcendent property?

Is the mirror image of the universe to be found in the blinking lights and code of a quantum machine? Is this an end game of all creative endeavour - or simply the one of a demiurge?