Philosophy: Mind, Soul, Consciousness, Body - Part 10
Already in the 17th century the philosopher and mathematician René Descartes considered the world to be an automaton, a gigantic mechanical machine. Descartes is the founder of the mind-matter or soul-body dichotomy. In this essay, I deliberately use the word dichotomy and do not speak of dualism, because when it comes to dualism I think of a pair of opposites in the platonic sense, i.e., a syzygy, which is something that belongs together with the two poles being mutually dependent (a yin-yang relation for example). The two poles of a syzygy are co-existing whereas the two poles of a dichotomy exclude each other.
Today this process is referred to as the Cartesian schism. Descartes was well-meaning. He wanted to do science a favor. He intended to liberate science from the orthodox, sometimes very narrow-minded, if not even reactionary influence of the Christian church(es). Keep in mind that the last witch burning took place more than a hundred years after Descartes's death. Descartes died in 1650; in France the last witch burning took place around 1745, in Germany the last witch was burned in 1782. In fact Descartes did science a disservice as we shall see later.
By the way, from Descartes comes the famous saying, "je pense, donc je suis" / "cogito ergo sum", usually translated into English as "I think, therefore I am". I will not go into details here. If you are interested in the meaning of this saying or want to learn more about René Descartes and his philosophy, please see for example this arcticle in wkipedia.
About 300 years ago, Isaac Newton showed that relatively simple mathematical equations make it possible to predict the behavior of moving bodies. In particular, he was able to accurately predict the movements of the planets around the sun, that is, the behavior of the planets under the influence of the gravitational force of the sun as a central star.
Newton started from two axioms (basic assumptions).
- The three-dimensional space in which our experience takes place is absolute. It is a framework in which all physical events take place.
- Time flows "uniformly" by virtue of itself and is also abolute.
Later, especially in the 19th century, Newtonian mechanics was also quite successfully used to explain phenomena other than the motion of bodies under the influence of gravity.
The equations of Newtonian mechanics imply a causally determined world. This is a world in which, for each event, there is a prior event that is its cause. Vice versa, of course, for each cause there is at least one subsequent effect. This is the physical principle of cause and effect (actio = reactio), which should not be confused with the Hermetic law of cause and effect. The Newtonian cause-effect chain can never break down as long as there is the world, because every effect is the cause for the next effect, and so on, ad infinitum.
Since the Newtonian equations are time symmetric, they can be used for forecasting as well as for back calculations. This ultimately means:
If one consequently follows this concept of causal determinism, and if one also takes into account Newton's axiom of uniformly flowing time (see above), one arrives at the conclusion that at some point in the distant past, there must have been a very first cause, so that everything can be traced back to it. This very first cause would then have to be without any cause (un-caused ), which is a paradox. Nonetheless, this "paradox of the un-caused cause" again and again is misused for the attempt to prove the existence of a creator God.
If the classical concept of causal determinism were correct, one would arrive at the following conclusion:
If one knew the state of our world down to the least detail at a certain point in time, one would be able to calculate the entire past. And, even more, one would be able to pre-calculate all future of this world in every detail. A horrible idea! Isn't it?
On the other hand, are we actually able to know the state of our world down to the least detail?
Actually, scientists were not and still are not able (and never will be able) to pre-calculate all future in all details. This was explained by the fact that due to the size and variety of phenomena and events in our world, so to speak for technical reasons, it was not possible to really know all the parameters that contribute to the state of the world at a given point in time which however was the precondition for the calculation.
Nevertheless, scientists firmly believed in the principle of pre-calculation: as a matter of principle it was possible.
When it became increasingly clear that not only the planets move around the Sun but also the Sun moves around the center of our galaxy, which in turn moves around the center of an entire galaxy cluster, ... scientists began to regard the universe as a gigantic clockwork.
To be continued.
