Cosmology and Newton’s Magic 11 June 2008
Posted by mecca in Misc.trackback
Science, as it was once practiced, devoted much of itself toward the sacred. I’ve heard this said many times, and, in general, understand something about what this means, but not a lot. For help, I came across this quote in an anthology called The Practical Cogitator, which I highly highly recommend. John Maynard Keynes says this about Isaac Newton, a great mathematician whose discovery or “invention” of calculus made modern technology possible, a man who, in his later years, was chastised by the Church of England for his scandalous conclusions, such as a Creator needing to be unlike His creation, if only we looked closely at nature to fully realize that. Anyhow, here’s what Keynes says about Newton and what went through his mind as he examined the world:
Why do we call [Isaac Newton] a magician? Because he looked on the whole universe and all that is in it as a riddle, as a secret which could be read by applying pure thought to certain evidence, certain mystic clues which God had laid about the world to allow a sort of philosopher’s treasure hunt to the esoteric brotherhood. He believe that these clues were to be found partly in the evidence of the heavens and in the constitution of elements. . . . He regarded the universe as a cryptogram set by the Almighty—just as he himself wrapt the discovery of calculus in a cryptogram when he communicated with Leibnitz.
It is pleasant to find another admirer of The Practical Cogitator, which has remained within a few feet of my various nightstands for going on forty years now (I think the third edition, 1962, is the best). I cherish it particularly these latter years as an artifact from the high noon of the American Imperium, conceived by two editors laboring at a moment in history (1944) when serious, humane and civilized men might undertake such a work with the all-but unexamined underlying assumption that their nation and their culture, both inherited and homegrown, represented something sound, worthy and morally grounded, and how it was at least possible then to hold such an assumption without doing violence to conscience, honesty, decency.
Rand, I first picked up The Practical Cogitator in a Hyde Park (Chicago) bookstore back in the 80′s. It’s now beat up pretty good, but I still go to it, though I have to be more delicate with the thin pages. You make some resonating commentary in your note above. I try not to allow “things” of our day influence the reception of good ideas, whether traditional or somewhat recent, post “high-noon” (if there ever really was one). Thank you for your comment. — Ibrahim
i am so happy about newton that he made a comment or included god in the level of science. because so many people are loosing their idea about god in all respect, eventhough god is our creator and all the things in the world are of gods special concern for us all.