Stacy, thanks for your delineation of Jaki’s reasons for proposing that Aristotle failed at physics due to his a priori comment to conceiving the universe as an organism. I agree with your reading, though I think that the problem of eternal returns, or an infinitely cycling world view, is the most fundamental problem. The psychologically negative impact cannot be overestimated. It completely undermines the trust that we humans can truly discover and understand something new. The excitement that underlies philosophical and scientific discovery is that the ultimately new, never before seen, can genuinely be ascertained. Something new under the sun really is true. Each day is in fact new. Humans are on a journey not of our own making. We are born with an innate sense of wonder and anticipation that something brand new is possible each new day. Pope Benedict XVI/Ratzinger throughout a nearly 75 year period spoke and wrote about how human evolution is real, where humanity “grows” over time. Theologically he explains that humankind is a species on its way, that our evolution is “God’s Project”. We ourselves are invited by the transcendent Creator to grow and become new. In this respect, amongst others, novelty and newness is an invitation to discover and live all manner of new wonderful realities. Ultimately, death itself is the most profound door to the most beautiful all new way of life completely beyond our greatest imaginings. Barring human made or natural deprivations, an amazing world of possibilities stands open before us every new day; how can we not investigate!
Very well comprised. Jaki's insistence that science needs to excel begs a question, however. He seems
to suggest that science is linear, like Aristotle's, up to the circular Aether. But that would mean that there is no end to scientific progress, which it seems, must, on some realm, be circular too. I imagine
that like angels -pure intellect- science can progress to a point where there is nothing physical left to learn; at which point we bump into Aristotle's heavenly perfect circuit, the domain of the Creator alone.
Stacy, thanks for your delineation of Jaki’s reasons for proposing that Aristotle failed at physics due to his a priori comment to conceiving the universe as an organism. I agree with your reading, though I think that the problem of eternal returns, or an infinitely cycling world view, is the most fundamental problem. The psychologically negative impact cannot be overestimated. It completely undermines the trust that we humans can truly discover and understand something new. The excitement that underlies philosophical and scientific discovery is that the ultimately new, never before seen, can genuinely be ascertained. Something new under the sun really is true. Each day is in fact new. Humans are on a journey not of our own making. We are born with an innate sense of wonder and anticipation that something brand new is possible each new day. Pope Benedict XVI/Ratzinger throughout a nearly 75 year period spoke and wrote about how human evolution is real, where humanity “grows” over time. Theologically he explains that humankind is a species on its way, that our evolution is “God’s Project”. We ourselves are invited by the transcendent Creator to grow and become new. In this respect, amongst others, novelty and newness is an invitation to discover and live all manner of new wonderful realities. Ultimately, death itself is the most profound door to the most beautiful all new way of life completely beyond our greatest imaginings. Barring human made or natural deprivations, an amazing world of possibilities stands open before us every new day; how can we not investigate!
Very well comprised. Jaki's insistence that science needs to excel begs a question, however. He seems
to suggest that science is linear, like Aristotle's, up to the circular Aether. But that would mean that there is no end to scientific progress, which it seems, must, on some realm, be circular too. I imagine
that like angels -pure intellect- science can progress to a point where there is nothing physical left to learn; at which point we bump into Aristotle's heavenly perfect circuit, the domain of the Creator alone.