Dialogue ~ 52

I have been thinking more on the conversation which took place between Kuhn and Tegmark in an episode of the Closer to the Truth series. Kuhn said, “... 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.”

Tegmark said “What we learn as logic in school - a type of algebra - it has a particular mathematical structure.”

Kuhn asked, “How about values? Like morality, goodness, beauty … 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?”

Tegmark 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.”

The questions I have been asking are: “How does Tegmark’s perspective fit with John Archibald Wheeler’s question of ‘Are life and mind irrelevant to the structure of the universe or are they central to it?’”

Such that “Does mathematics constitute the fabric or weave of the universe, or do we comprehend the universe by way of mathematics? Are we capable of knowing and if so, who or what might arbitrate?”

It is valid to consider these questions from the perspective of Tegmark having said, “there is only one thing that we’ve come across…”  Energy can be measured after it has been detected, but this does not negate its existence.

More to the point however, does the very essence of thought have a mathematical component?  A definition of ‘logic’ is:

-     Reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity; a particular way of thinking, especially one that is reasonable and based on good judgment.

-     A system or set of principles underlying the arrangements of elements in a computer or electronic device to perform a specified task.

According to Wikipedia, ‘logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It studies how conclusions follow from premises due to the structure of arguments alone, independent of their topic and content. Informal logic is associated with informal fallacies, critical thinking and argumentation theory.”

“Logic plays a central role in many fields, such as philosophy, mathematics, computer science and linguistics. Logic studies arguments, which consist of a set of premises together with a conclusion.”

Effectively, logic is a process of utilising a mathematical set or series of premises and generating inferences or conclusions; it yields information. Clearly, as in the parable of building one’s house upon sand or rock, if the data set of logic is flawed, so is everything assumed to be meaningful or true.

The Middle English word logic originates from Late Latin ‘logica’, from Greek ‘logikë tekhnē’ (art of reason) and ‘logos’ (word, reason or plan), plural is ‘logoi’. In ancient Greek philosophy and early Christian theology, logos is the divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form and meaning.

Is it possible that the ancient Greeks chose to sidestep the ‘implicit purpose’ of the natural world? If so, what would have shifted their worldview? Sure enough, they were exploring the mechanism of a city state. At the same time, the Sophists were particularly adept at utilising language to stir passion. We may not know the when, the how or the why, but somehow that which is innately meaningful has been treated as a resource and has been subjected to the lens of scrutiny.

An act of perceiving what is present as a utility gives it an arbitrary value. This is akin to the Cosmos being present and available to communicate with us, but we are putting our hands over our ears and humming away to ourselves by way of distraction. The mind opts for clarity and order from amidst an appearance of chaos but in so doing, it will entangle itself further in complexity.

Further, how does a shift in one’s worldview relate to the perception of time, free will and causality?

In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus said, “If your leaders say to you, ‘Look, the (Father’s) kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the (Father’s) kingdom is within you and it is outside you."

Does this fit with the message I received that “I am to you as you are to me: we are one”?

To consider Wheeler’s question will require for us to suspend judgment and be willing to experience the Logos (whether it is word, speech, message (or act of), reason or plan). It is not an intellectual quest and yet habit compels for us to gather supplies from which to begin.

Firstly, what information do we have concerning that which has been denoted as Logos? The standard rendering of logos is ‘word’. In John 1:1, it said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In the New Testament especially, there is the connotation that Logos is symbolic of the nature and function of Jesus Christ. Jesus is referred to as the ‘Word of life’ in the Gospel of John.

Genesis states that ‘in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth’. Particularly as I read 'in the beginning' and 'heaven and earth', for me it raises questions - is this passage, together with that of John as he speaks of the Word, an acknowledgement of ‘what is, was and shall evermore be’ or are the texts intimating that humanity has moved into a state of incoherence?  

Interestingly, Proverbs 8 1:11 reads, “Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? At the highest point along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand; beside the gate leading into the city, at the entrance, she cries aloud: To you, O people, I call out; I raise my voice to all mankind.”

“You who are simple, gain prudence; you who are foolish, set your hearts on it. Listen, for I have trustworthy things to say; I open my lips to speak what is right. My mouth speaks what is true, for my lips detest wickedness. All the words of my mouth are just; none of them is crooked or perverse. To the discerning all of them are right; they are upright to those who have found knowledge. Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.”

“Wisdom is where the paths meet, beside the gate leading into the city”. There are some connotations between this passage and the goddesses who spoke with Parmenides on not erring from a path of one’s truth. Notably, Pythagoras whose teaching I shall touch upon later, said “If you are asked, what is the silence? Respond, it is the first stone of the Wisdom’s temple.”

Another similarity of Parmenides’ and of this verse from Proverbs is that they personify wisdom and truth with the feminine aspects of deity. Is it just coincidence that historically, the feminine aspect has been the scapegoat of an alleged ‘fall from grace’? Did/does the feminine aspect represent an orientation or worldview – effectively a ‘field’? Virginal in as much as it remains unpolluted by one’s thought? Does the Logos emanate from this place, as in the divine being personified? Is this the Hieros Gamos?

The word ‘rational’ (as in having an ability to reason) can be traced back to Latin ‘rationalis’ and before that to ‘ratio’. Ratio can be traced back to the Latin definition ‘reor/reri/ratus’. Reor is from Proto-Indo-European h reh (‘to think’), reanalysed root of h er- (‘to put together’), in which case it would be cognate with the Ancient Greek word for ‘arithmos’ (‘a number’).

The content of reason is not static. So too, reason had its origin in a particular way of thinking, one that has greater commonality with ratio, than of how we interpret reasoning today (which has a greater leaning towards computation or reckoning).

There might be similarities in what I am endeavouring to convey here with that which has been referred to in esoteric texts as the ‘sword and the chalice’ or the ‘philosopher’s stone’. In some famous artwork by the masters, indeed also in ancient masonry, there are inclusions of the Fibonacci sequence – symbolic of the sacred, of geometry and indeed mathematics as emanating from a particular source - not constructed through human inference or augmenting of itself in space time.

Pythagoras is renowned for his work in mathematics, astronomy and music. He established a school whereby his students could explore as to whether the world could be understood through numbers. Pythagoras believed that numbers were either male or female and had their own special meaning.

From this perspective, a count or progression of numbers was synonymous with an act of creation; literally a ‘coming into being’ of the divine, whether harmonic or discordant through the ratio. Music was a mirror of the sublime. He said, “There is geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres.”

Pythagoras encouraged his students to consider at the end of each day, “where have I turned aside from righteousness? What have I been doing? What have I left undone, what ought I to have been doing?” This moves thought into resonance with what is being; truth is more potent than aspiration.

Notably, Pythagoras is reputed to have said that the soul of man is divided into 3 parts: intelligence, reason and passion. Intelligence and passion are possessed by other animals, but reason by man alone. Of numbers, he said "they have a way of taking a man by the hand and leading him down the path of reason.” In its subtlety or complexity, consider how it is that we utilise thought.

If reason is what makes the logos manifest, what movement is being made through one’s affirmation or contest? What happens when one resonates with this knowledge? Can you feel the torsion within you?

What appears to have happened through the ages, is of a gradual shift in perception - from our being embodied in and present with the natural world, towards an increasingly alienated state, one in which rhetoric replaces authenticity.

If Pythagoras was correct in his saying that “God built the universe on numbers” then to return to Wheeler’s question, “Are life and mind irrelevant to the structure of the universe or are they central to it?” then clearly the answer is no, life and mind are not irrelevant to the structure of the universe – the logos is at work within us. A question which might concern us all, is “are we listening?”