Western Scientific Perspectives

Anthropology 122-1

Western Scientific Perspectives

Walking on a clear night a person can’t help but look up and see the stars. Each beautiful, illuminating the night sky along with the moon, far away yet close enough to admire and wonder. I sit sometimes outside and just look up and gaze in wonder at the stars, but the scientists in me thinks further. The stars are like our sun in the solar system, hydrogen balls, exploding, radiating energy and light in all directions yet we are so far that we see them as specks in the night sky. Then there are those night where Venus and Mercury can be seen among the stars, almost a spiritual experience. Science has taught us that gravity and other laws of nature control the movement of such celestial objects and control everyday happenings where most would not give it a second thought.

In life we all seek the truth, the truths about the universe; our surroundings. Some people seek the truth through what science tells us. The Big Bang Theory tells us that there was a massive explosion where concentrated matter is scattered all over what is the universe and over time the planets and other systems formed to their current states. Then some seek the truth through religion and God and so we have the story of Genesis from the Bible. Fritjof Capra, author of The Tao of Physics, was a high-energy physicist who conducted years of research in his career and understood his surroundings as a physicist but through his learning the religious philosophies of Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism saw his surroundings are more than that. Capra saw a rhythm that surrounded everything.

“I ‘saw’ cascades of energy coming down from outer space, in which particles were created and destroyed in rhythmic pulses; I ‘saw’ the atoms of the elements and those of my body participating in this cosmic dance of energy; I felt its rhythm and I ‘heard’ its sound, and at that moment I knew that this was the Dance of Shiva, the Lord of Dancers worshipped by the Hindus.” (Capra, 11)

Ultimately Capra discovered for himself and argues is the view of the world explained through physics and the view given by philosophies such as Hindusim, Buddhism and Taoism are parallel to each other.

According to Capra, knowledge can be divided into to parts, rational and intuitive. Everyday we learn, we gain knowledge of our surroundings and from our everyday happenings. This is considered rational knowledge; where everyday we calculate and categorize the happenings of our daily lives. Science is in the area of rational knowledge. Then there is intuitive knowledge which is not structured like rational knowledge is. Eastern mystics believe that reality can’t be derived from reasoning because it exists beyond what we can sense and of what we learn rationally. When reading through the book I remember a good story line from a Disney movie related to the topic of the chapter (knowing and seeing), “…seeing is believing, believing is seeing.”

In science it is difficult to just explain complicated concepts through words alone. Mathematics is used to express difficult ideas by the scientists. Where as in the scientific community there is a need for mathematics and modeling to show and prove eastern mystics the importance is the mystical experience where would take the form of such things as paintings, poems, myths and symbols.

Mathematics is the language of the rational to explain physics concepts. Capra argues that a concepts such as the study of atoms has shown physicist that common language not only is inaccurate but not adequate enough to describe atoms. Quantum theory and relativity theory show (physicist) that the material can’t be talked about in a common language. A famous atomic physicist once said this about language:

“The problem of language here are really serious. We wish to speak in some way about the structure of the atoms…But we cannot speak about atoms in ordinary language.”

-W. Heisenberg

The eastern view tells that the experiencing reality is “indeterminate.” We can’t just simply understand reality. Eastern mystics also believe that common language can’t reality. A Buddhist philosopher has this to say:

“The contradiction so puzzling to the ordinary way of the thinking comes from the fact that we have to use language to communicate our inner experience which in its very nature transcends linguistics.”

-D.T. Suzuki

Capra shows that both scientists and eastern mystics agree that common language can’t explain reality. Reality is big and complex, either explained by thousands of equations and models or through the understanding of the interaction of nature, “the