Philosophers andCosmologers

SteveHarrellASTRO 131

21February 2018

Big QuesDon #1:Why is there something rather than

nothing?

Vs.

Big QuesDon #2: Why are the laws ofphysics what they are?

The non-Newtonian scales

Elementary parDcles Atoms à Clusters ofGalaxiesThe Universe

SPACE

TIME

Quantum DmeFemtosecondsà Billions

of years Cosmological Dme

LAWAND LOGIC

IntuiDve and percepDbleCounter-intuiDve

Conceivable but notPercepDble

Counter-intuiDveConceivable but not

PercepDble

道德经第一章Book ofthe Way and Virtue, Chapter 1•  道可道非常道 The Dao that can be spoken is not the constantDao•  名可名非常明 The name that can be named is not the constant

name•  無名天地之始 Nameless, it is the beginning of heaven and earth•  有名萬物之母 Named, it is the mother of myriad creatures•  故常無欲以觀其妙 Therefore, constancy in the lack of desire, makes

its mystery visible•  常有欲以觀其徼， Constancy in desire makes its manifestaDon visible•  此兩者同出而異名 These two emerge togetherwith differentnames•  同謂之玄 They are alike called dark•  玄之又玄 � Darker than Dark•  眾妙之門 Door of masses of mysteries

•  道生一 Dao births one•  一生二 One births two•  二生三 Two births three•  三生萬物 Three births myriad creatures

道德经第四十二章Book ofthe Way and Virtue, Chapter 42

?????à Duality and percepDbilityà complexityà variety

Yin and Yang in Reality and PercepDon

The relaDvity of speech道德經第二章The Book of Way and Virtue Chapter 2

•  天下皆知美之為美，斯惡已。•  皆知善之為善，斯不善已。 •  故有無相 ,•  難易相成，•  長短相形，•  高下相傾，•  音聲相和，•  前後相隨；

•  When everyone knows that beauty isbeauty, then is ugliness.

•  When everyone knows skill is skill, then isunskill,

•  Thus being andunbeing birth each other, •  Difficulty andease realize each other,•  Long andshort form each other,•  Above andbelow lean toward each other,•  Octave andfi`h harmonize each other•  Before anda`erfollow each other

Mephistopheles

•  Ich bin ein Teil des Teils,der anfangs alles war

•  Ein Teil der Finsternis,die sch das Licht gebar

The QuesDon of Language

•  English has tenses•  Biblical Hebrew has aspect•  Chinese has neither (well,almost)•  But the laws of physics are described in

mathemaDcs,an arDficialand counter-intuiDve language.

Fred Hoyle and the Steady-StateUniverse/ConDnuous CreaDon

Back to Science (1848)•  Oneness, then, is all that I predicate of the originally

created Mader;•  All Thingsand All Thoughts of Things, with all their

ineffable MulDplicity of RelaDon, sprang at once intobeing from the primordial and irrelaDve One.

•  Our Galaxy is but one, and perhaps one of the mostinconsiderable, of the clusters which go to theconsDtuDon of this ulDmate, Universal belt or band.

•  Space and duraDon areone•  Guess who?

Nevermore!

Big QuesDon #3:Does cosmology reflectmind?Does mind reflectcosmology?

•  昔者莊周夢為蝴蝶，栩栩然蝴蝶也，自喻適志與，不知周也。俄然覺，則戚戚然周也。不知周之夢為蝴蝶與，蝴蝶之夢為周與？•  A long Dme ago Zhuang Zhou dreamed of being a

buderfly, fliing around just as he wished,knowing nothing of Zhou. Hesuddenly woke,Zhou lying in bed. I don’t know if it was Zhoudreaming he was a buderfly, or if it was abuderfly dreaming he was Zhou.