Fwd: PLATO'S CAVE...

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Subject: Fwd: PLATO'S CAVE...

                                      PLATO'S CAVE: THE SERIES: MAN IN THE CAVE

                                     by Richard DePersio w/ Citizen Journalist

                                        Between the idea

                                        And the reality

                                        Between the motion

                                        And the act

                                        Fallows the Shadow

                                                     -George Elliot            

                 The ancient period is pre-500 A.D. During the period from about

        1500 B.C.-500 A.D. there were ethical/natural philosophers.

       As regards the latter: They drew their conclusions from pure thought

       and mathematics     especially, geometry. They considered

      observation and experiment to be base - working with hands was

      something  slaves did. Philosophers placed themselves at the top while

      the king or whatever title the leader had and those high up in

      government placed  themselves at the peak. Below them were soldiers 

      (even though  their work was largely physical in nature). Next came the

      land owners  followed by the merchants. Artisans and masons were next

     with architects and stone masons on top. Bringing up the rear were

      servants, peasants and slaves  respectively.

                   On the rare occasions that philosophers felt compelled and

      deigned to observe  or experiment, they felt that they were debasing

      themselves. There are always exceptions to the rule. The Ionians on the

     islands of Ionia ( Greek island nation) where between 600-400 B.C.

      key, the ruler, the 

     carpenter's square, the level, the lathe, bronze casting were invented. 

     These natural philosophers were the sons of farmers, sailors and

     weavers who were used to poking and fixing unlike the priests,

     scribes and philosophers of other nations. They were used to getting

     their hands dirty. While the ancients accomplishments were immense

     further progress would have to wait until the late 16th century when

     observation and experimentation begin the process of becoming 

     acceptable. Between 1700 and 1800, the term natural philosophy was

     employed progressively less and less while science became more

     in vogue. One can reasonably say that theoretical science is akin

     to natural philosophy. The ancients would be pleased with it.

     See Cosmos by Carl Sagan p, 153; Intelligent Man's Guide to

     Physics by Isaac Asimov p.8.

            Ionian got their hands dirty but Plato didn't...

            Plato imagined a man in a cave unaware of the man on his right and the

            man on his left for he was transfixed on the shadows on the

           wall. He perceived the images as reality. Unbeknownst to him there were

           people and animals behind him and that some of the people had wagons and

          some were carrying all kinds of objects. Beyond them was a fire creating the shadows

          (imperfect perception of reality). One day, he is removed from the cave and sees reality.

          He rushes back to tell the others who fail to believe him. The man in the cave once again

         becomes the man in the cave. Plato perceived reality to be on a higher plane or outside of the

         cave (metaphor)and available to a select few, such as, himself. God understood ultimate

         reality and Plato could come the closest in apprehending it. Some philosophers believed in

         one god (not God of the Bible) some many and some none (not wise to say to most people).

         Emperors and Kings may or may not but it was practical to say that they were intimately

         connected to the gods to control the ignorant masses.

                   Perfect concepts such as love and liberty and perfect forms such as the point,

the line, the square, the cube, the triangle existed in heaven. Humans whose soul was

inside a base body couldn't perfectly described concepts and when humans make,

say, a point, it is an imperfect representation for a real point has no length, width

or depth. The point that we make with a pencil does however small.

There was virtually no observation and experimentation during the "Dark and

Middle Ages" courtesy of the Catholic Church. The philosophers and teachers had

to get all answers from the Bible: good, especially, New Testament when it comes

to love, charity and forgiveness; not so much when it comes to the astronomy,

botany, zoology, geology, and meteorology. Intentions: keep evil thoughts

from minds, otherwise, destiny hell. Laudable? During 1200s, the works of Aristotle

and Ptolemy made their way to Western Europe and received stamp of

approval from church. "Why the Church should have been willing to accord such

high honors to the teacher of Alexander the Great, whereas they condemned

all other Greek philosophers on account of their heathenish doctrines, I really

do not know. But next to the Bible, Aristotle was recognized as the only

reliable teacher whose works could be safely placed in the hands of true

{{educated} Christians" The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon.

Also see Aristotle in Stars in Their Courses 9p.174)/ Intelligent Man's Guide to

Physics by Issac Asimov p.8.

        While medical knowledge was to come from the Bible too, the works of the

Great Roman physician/surgeon  Galen survived by was watered down, digested,

and simplified between 500-1800 A.D. More info: The Fragile Species by

Lewis Thomas. He employed purging (bloodletting, inducing vomiting and

bowel movement) for a few conditions; by 1800, doctors were performing it

for most health problems.

       Classical physics (which was the new  natural philosophy

 created primarily by Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Galileo and

culminating with Newton - but that is debatable as we shall soon see.

The second phase of classical physics transpired in the 18th and

19th centuries with the biggest accomplishments concerning electricity,

magnetism and electromagnetism.

        Newton thought of God as a Machinist and mathematician who

 created the universe (the machine) and the mathematical laws that

 operated it and that there was nothing wrong with understanding the 

mind of God. His universe was reality and is our reality. We live in the

 common sense world of Newton. Is it

 possible that you are a man in a cave who perceives imperfect reality

- a shadowy world! Where is true reality to be found?

       The strange case of Newton for while he was a Christian and no

doubt believed he understood the reality of the universe in which we lived,

he always believed that he was one of the few chosen to truly comprehend

 the Bible. Many historians contend that his study of the Bible was more

important to him than natural philosophy. He studied the occult even though

 he was a devout Christian and conducted experiments in alchemy. There

was a part of reality

that he couldn't explain: what was the nature of gravity and how could it act

and influence across empty space. Sound through air, waves through

water, energy moving from one end of the slinky to the other (no, he didn't

 invent the slinky but did invent calculus and reflecting telescopes). He grew tired

 and annoyed at

 the questions. Hypotheses non fingo (Latin for: I feign no hypotheses) he eventually

 responded: "It is enough that gravity exists according to the laws I explained. I feign

 no hypotheses. It abundantly serves to account for all the motions of celestial bodies."

 He made it clear that he would not speculate or guess if the answer was physical or

 metaphysical or occult or mechanical but was inappropriate for science which is

 concerned with how not why.

    There is classical or mechanical physics and quantum physics or mechanics.

Some refer to the first and most important phase of classical mechanics as Newtonian

mechanics. Some consider relativistic physics or Einsteinian mechanics to be

classical mechanics at it's most accurate and developed. Others consider Einstein

 to be a bridge between classical and quantum and still others think of it in terms of

 being part of modern physics like quantum.

       Most of the time,physicists and engineers use mechanical physics which is

 more commonsensical and easier with which to work and used it to get human to

 a celestial body and back. They employ relativistic physics (this science writer is in

 category three: classical mechanics and modern mechanics: Einsteinian and quantum).

       Do we live in reality or do we harbor a corrupt and imperfect, shadowy and

commonsensical view of  reality. Is true reality in the realm of the quantum world of

 atoms, protons, neutrons, electrons, quarks, neutrinos , mesons,  strings, etc. and

where massless light from gamma rays to visible to radio and objects with mass,

such as, protons: both (light and matter) behave like particles sometimes and waves

other times and can be at more then one place at a time? Multi-dimensions and universes.

      And, the equally non-commonsensical world of Einstein wherein gravity is really

the curvature of the space/time foam and the faster you go the heavier you get

 and the faster you go  the slower clocks tick and there are mysterious black holes. 

     Will we arrive at ultimate reality when and if we combine quantum and relativity:

quantum relativity. And, dealing with Einstein's 'gravity' (curvature) which we

can't describe like the other three fundamental forces of nature: strong nuclear,

 weak nuclear and electromagnetic (which includes light). We are on a quest for

a theory of everything: quantum relativity and proving that all forces were one force

until a split second after the Big Bang; we can show that three were. Once again,

 Einstein won't cooperate! Or, we all men in a cave with true reality outside of the cave.

 Why is the reality of the 'outsider' any better then that of the 'insider' (homebound) and

 does the moon exists even though someone  hasn't seen it in years?

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