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vol VII: Notes

2018

Notes

Sunday 20 May 2018 - Saturday 26 May 2018

[Notebook: DB 82: Life and Death]

[page 151]

Sunday 20 May 2018

I have been a fringe dweller (or perhaps a bottom feeder) ever since the Dominican Order let me go, and worried about my own authenticity because, from a philosophical and theological point of view, I have not had a peer group for 50 years. Now, however, enrolled in a genuine university, I am beginning to authenticate myself and hopefully move from the flaky world of self publication made so easy by the internet to a peer reviewed world where my authorship gains some weight by being vetted by others. I hopefully will no longer need to go it alone against all odds and in some way become part of a social group, provided I can fit in. In a way, the best measure of my fit will be the marks I get from my first university semester, a result I await with some trepidation. Depending on how I am marked, I hope to be able to steer myself to better results.

Monday 21 May 2018

The 'mystery of consciousness'. Explored this somewhat in the 'Portrait of an Abstract Man', my search for consolation after the loss of eternal life and heaven. Now we face the problem that consciousness come in many forms underlain by many modules of the brain, but all of these modules employ fundamentally the same hardware, so the variants of conscious experience must be products of the software that informs the different modules, which we understand, in the first instance, to be encoded in synaptic weights.

[page 152]

Tuesday 22 May 2018
Wednesday 23 May 2018

It appears to me that philosophy is both epistemologically and historically prior to science in that it is concerned with the logical analysis of possible hypotheses before they are brought into contact with data, probably because at any given moment the space of possible hypotheses exceeds the available data. As science progresses and more data is collected the field of logically consistent hypotheses is narrowed by the data, or at least may be. Insofar as as we expect an isolated monist universe to explore the full space of logically consistent hypotheses, we might ultimately expect the data to place no restraint on such hypotheses, and so leave philosophers and scientists occupying the same ground at least if their interpretations of what they see is correct. One philosophical question we may ask is whether this characterisation of the relationship between philosophy and science is correct, and we may accept it as an hypothesis to be tested by logic and data.

Thursday 24 May 2018

A philosophical plan for second essay: does god exist independently of the universe?

a) relationship of philosophy to science: testing hypotheses for consistency.

[page 153]

b) I exist (Descartes), my existence depends on the world, so the world exists.

c) If the world cannot explain itself, then God exists.

d) God is incoherent, so the world must be self sufficient

e) Therefore God, insofar as it has hypothetical existence, depends upon the world.

The world does not depend on God

I love my consciousness. I don't want to go to bed.

How does formalism couple to reality? Philosophy is a game of words and logic, seeking forms of words that match reality. The match is tested by measurement.

Pain and cognitive dissonance: for me the inconsistency of my religious upbringing — Trauma model of mental disorders .

Friday 25 May 2018
Saturday 26 May 2018

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Further reading

Books

Click on the "Amazon" link below each book entry to see details of a book (and possibly buy it!)

Chaitin, Gregory J, Information, Randomness & Incompleteness: Papers on Algorithmic Information Theory, World Scientific 1987 Jacket: 'Algorithmic information theory is a branch of computational complexity theory concerned with the size of computer programs rather than with their running time. ... The theory combines features of probability theory, information theory, statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, and recursive function or computability theory. ... [A] major application of algorithmic information theory has been the dramatic new light it throws on Goedel's famous incompleteness theorem and on the limitations of the axiomatic method. ...' 
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Crease, Robert P, and Charles C Mann, The Second creation: Makers of the Revolution in Twentieth=Century Physics, Rutgers University Press 1996 Amazon book description: From Library Journal 'This is the latest effort at a popular treatment of the "Grand Unified Theory" contemporary theoretical physicists are aiming to achieve. It presents a human-interest-style history of quantum electrodynamics and the ensuing elementary particle theory, enlivened by brief sketches of many of the key participants. As a whole, it is an entertaining volume, but some of the judgments and interpretations are questionable. Also, the complex mathematics of modern physics is entirely omitted, and a novice is likely to end his reading with some notion of the historical background but without a coherent understanding of the current "standard model" in elementary particle theory. Recommended, with reservations, for academic and public libraries. Jack W. Weigel, Univ. of Michigan Lib., Ann Arbor Copyright 1986 Reed Business Informationcentury physics. Robert P. Crease is an associate professor of philosophy at SUNY--Stony Brook. Award-winning science writer Charles C. Mann is a contributing editor of The Atlantic Monthly and Science magazine. His most recent book is Noah's Choice. ' 
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Feynman, Richard P, and Albert P Hibbs, Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals, McGraw Hill 1965 Preface: 'The fundamental physical and mathematical concepts which underlie the path integral approach were first developed by R P Feynman in the course of his graduate studies at Princeton, ... . These early inquiries were involved with the problem of the infinte self-energy of the electron. In working on that problem, a "least action" principle was discovered [which] could deal succesfully with the infinity arising in the application of classical electrodynamics.' As described in this book. Feynam, inspired by Dirac, went on the develop this insight into a fruitful source of solutions to many quantum mechanical problems.  
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Gödel, Kurt, and Solomon Feferman et al (eds), Kurt Gödel: Collected Works Volume 1 Publications 1929-1936, Oxford UP 1986 Jacket: 'Kurt Goedel was the most outstanding logician of the twentieth century, famous for his work on the completeness of logic, the incompleteness of number theory and the consistency of the axiom of choice and the continuum hypotheses. ... The first volume of a comprehensive edition of Goedel's works, this book makes available for the first time in a single source all his publications from 1929 to 1936, including his dissertation. ...' 
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Gregory, Bruce, Inventing Reality: Physics as Language, John Wiley & Sons 1990 'Book Description ISBN-10: 0471524824 | ISBN-13: 978-0471524823 'Physicists invented a language in order to talk about the world. This book does not set out to explain the discipline, but rather to explore the relationship between the language of physics and the world it describes. The ``physics'' whose history the author traces here is concerned with understanding the ultimate constituents of matter and the nature of the forces through which these constituents interact. The very precise language (mathematics) of physicists gives us an opportunity to see more clearly than is otherwise possible just how much of what we find in the world is a result of the way we talk about it. Anyone interested in the history of physics and its language would enjoy reading this book.' 
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Lonergan, Bernard J F, Insight : A Study of Human Understanding (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan : Volume 3), University of Toronto Press 1992 '. . . Bernard Lonergan's masterwork. Its aim is nothing less than insight into insight itself, an understanding of understanding' 
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Mendelssohn, Kurt, Science and Western Domination, Thames and Hudson 1976 Jacket: 'The white man's geopolitical domination of the world has passed its zenith and the shadows are lengthening rapidly. How was it achieved in the first place? Was it merely by the force of arms or was there some underlying idea which enabled the Western nations to turn the world into their dominion? This ss the question which Dr Kurt Mendelssohn raises and resolves in this fascinating book.' 
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Stewart, Ian, Why Beauty is Truth: A History of Symmetry, Basic Books/Perseus 2007 Jacket: ' ... Symmetry has been a key idea for artists, architects and musicians for centuries but within mathematics it remained, until very recently ,an arcane pursuit. In the twentieth century, however, symmetry emerged as central to the most fundamental ideas in physics and cosmology. Why beauty is truth tells its history, from ancient Babylon to twenty-first century physics.' 
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Wigner, Eugene, Symmetries and Reflections: Scientific Essays , MIT Press 1970 Jacket: 'This volume contains some of Professor Wigner's more popular papers which, in their diversity of subject and clarity of style, reflect the author's deep analytical powers and the remarkable scope of his interests. Included are articles on the nature of physical symmetry, invariance and conservation principles, the structure of solid bodies and of the compound nucleus, the theory of nuclear fission, the effects of radiation on solids, and the epistemological problems of quantum mechanics. Other articles deal with the story of the first man-made nuclear chain reaction, the long term prospects of nuclear energy, the problems of Big Science, and the role of mathematics in the natural sciences. In addition, the book contains statements of Wigner's convictions and beliefs as well as memoirs of his friends Enrico Fermi and John von Neumann. Eugene P. Wigner is one of the architects of the atomic age. He worked with Enrco Fermi at the Metallurgical Laboratory of the University of Chicago at the beginning of the Manhattan Project, and he has gone on to receive the highest honours that science and his country can bestow, including the Nobel Prize for physics, the Max Planck Medal, the Enrico Fermi Award and the Atoms for Peace Award. '. 
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Links

Ayelett Shani, 'Distorted Christian Theology Is What Generated the Holocaust', 'The Church has a blood-drenched, barbaric past, says Rev. Gary Mason, a leader of the Northern Ireland reconciliation movement. But religious leaders can be agents of healing, too . . . In this context, I am critical of the Church, even though I am part of it. Distorted Christian theology is what generated the Holocaust. What Hitler did was to take Christian religious anti-Semitism and turn it into racist Nazi anti-Semitism. . . . That is a far-reaching allegation, coming from a clergyman. . . . The Church was saturated with anti-Semitism. In Moldova, at the beginning of the 20th century, priests led marches in the streets and called for the killing of Jews. The Church has a blood-drenched, barbaric past. The Church has many things to its credit, but these things are to its discredit.' back

Benjamin Habib, If a US-North Korea summit does happen we'll have Moon Jae-in to thank for it, 'In the wake of South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s meeting yesterday with US President Donald Trump, it’s worth reflecting on the remarkable role he’s played in facilitating the opening for diplomacy that’s emerged this year between the US and North Korea.' back

G. Jefferson Price III, H. L. Mencken: Bayard vs Lionheart, Baltimore Evening Sun, 26 July 1920, '"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." - H.L. Mencken' back

Jennifer Rubin, Trump keeps bulldozing oer our legal norms, 'Former acting attorney general Sally Yates hit the nail on the head on Monday on “Morning Joe.” She explained, “I think what we’re seeing here is the president has taken his all-out assault of the rule of law to a new level and this time he is ordering up an investigation of the investigators who are examining his own campaign. You know, that’s really shocking.” And things got even worse as the day progressed.' back

Matthew Stewart, The 9.9 Percent Is the New American Aristocracy, 'The defining challenge of our time is to renew the promise of American democracy by reversing the calcifying effects of accelerating inequality. As long as inequality rules, reason will be absent from our politics; without reason, none of our other issues can be solved. It’s a world-historical problem. But the solutions that have been put forward so far are, for the most part, shoebox in size.' back

Naaman Zhou, Australia completed world's largest cat-proof fence to protect endangered marsupials, 'The world’s largest cat-proof fence has been completed in central Australia, creating a 94 square kilometre sanctuary for endangered marsupials. The 44km fence – made of 85,000 pickets, 400km of wire and 130km of netting – surrounds the Newhaven wildlife sanctuary, a former cattle station that has been bought by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.' back

New York Times Editorial Board, Ebola, Amnesia and Donald Trump, 'The Trump White House, however, appears to be uniquely amnesiac. On the same day that officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo reported the new Ebola cases, the administration sought to rescind $252 million in Ebola response funds left over from the earlier epidemic.' back

Pascal's Wager - Wikipedia, Pascal's Wager - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Pascal's Wager (also known as Pascal's Gamble) is an argument in apologetic philosophy which was devised by the seventeenth-century French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist, Blaise Pascal. It posits that humans all bet with their lives either that God exists or does not exist. Given the possibility that God actually does exist and assuming the infinite gain or loss associated with belief in God or with unbelief, a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God. If God does not actually exist, such a person will have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.).' back

Robin McKie, Physicist Kate Shaw: 'Even in conservative places, you do not have to be in conflict with scientific ideas, 'I have worked on the experiment for the past 11 years and that brings me into two different areas of fundamental physics. The first is based on the top quark, the heaviest known fundamental particle in the universe. We are colliding beams of protons together and I study the top quarks that are produced in these collision. It is a great way of probing for new physics, which is really what we built our detector for. We are probing to understand complex issues that we still don’t understand.' back

Satan - Wikipedia, Satan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Satan (Hebrew: הַשָּׂטָן ha-Satan), "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible. In Christianity the title became a personal name, and "Satan" changed from an accuser appointed by God to test men's faith to the chief of the rebellious fallen angels ("the devil" in Christianity, "Shaitan" in Arabic, the term used by Arab Christians and Muslims).' back

William Booth and Isaac Stanley-Becker, Ireland votes to overturn its abortion ban, 'culmination of a quiet revolution,' prime minister says, 'DUBLIN, Ireland — The Irish are poised to end, perhaps in a landslide, one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the developed world, according to incoming tallies of the votes cast in Friday’s referendum.' back

Wojciech Hubert Zurek, Quantum origin of quantum jumps: breaking of unitary symmetry induced by information transfer and the transition from quantum to classical, 'Submitted on 17 Mar 2007 (v1), last revised 18 Mar 2008 (this version, v3)) "Measurements transfer information about a system to the apparatus, and then further on -- to observers and (often inadvertently) to the environment. I show that even imperfect copying essential in such situations restricts possible unperturbed outcomes to an orthogonal subset of all possible states of the system, thus breaking the unitary symmetry of its Hilbert space implied by the quantum superposition principle. Preferred outcome states emerge as a result. They provide framework for the ``wavepacket collapse'', designating terminal points of quantum jumps, and defining the measured observable by specifying its eigenstates. In quantum Darwinism, they are the progenitors of multiple copies spread throughout the environment -- the fittest quantum states that not only survive decoherence, but subvert it into carrying information about them -- into becoming a witness.' back

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