Skip to main content

From Platonic Cave to Quantum Cave

Plato was a philosopher who wrote dedicated those words of wisdom to his master Socrates. As a mathematician, he was fond of geometry. He warned his disciples, not to enter his academia without having any knowledge of geometry. Pythagoras was his inspiration for curiosity in mathematics as a language and arche-type of nature. Later, Galileo affirmed this affection to mathematics through his Magnum opus. Plato was fascinated by mathematical reality upto an extent that he believed that the physical reality is merely an illusion, which is in nature of change. His "allegory of cave" in Republic reflects upon this dilemma, in which the prisoners of the cave is in already. Only a prisoner who frees himself from the cave, and goes outside it. He was bewitched by the beauty of Sun. The dazzling beauty of Sun makes him realize that the Cave is a false reality, and prisoners are devoid of the experience of Sun. He decides to enter into the cave to make them aware that the reality is awaiting you outside cave. His arguments make him unpopular, and the fate was his persecuted prosecution. The theory of two worlds were canonized through writings of Bishop Augustine. And Plato was symbolized as the master thinker of Christianity. The transcendental approach to reality was conceptualized by Plato while keeping in mind the natural philosiohers, like Anaximander, Democritus, Anaxemnes, Heraclitus, Permenides, etc. Particularly, Heraclitus proclaimed that "everything is in flux". On the other hand, Permenides thought about a fixed Universe without any material change. Einstein's four dimensional Universe, known as the Block Universe, is a fitting illustration of this hypothesis. Plato developed his theory of two worlds; one is visible and constantly changing; physical realities, as per Hindu mythology, this phenomenon is known as Maya. And the second world is a fixed form of the world, the world of forms, the mathematical reality. His skills of geometry helped him in theorizing the concept of mathematical reality. His disciple Uclid is famous for the development of the Uclid theorem in geometry.

In the era of quantum world, or it may be called as "quantum cave" the physical reality has obscured from the human perception. What is truth if not hypothetical, conjectural, and probable? The only certainty is mathematical reality. But the final truth as a material and physical reality is uncertain. The theory of form has made the Earth a mathematical reality. But more you quantify it less you are certain on quantum level that what is really truth behind the creation and growth of cosmos. The perception of truth has changed over the years. The rules and theorem of mathematics have come to the advanced stage, but the cosmos and its mysterious horizon is obscured and withering away from human's sensorial perception. It remains in/through intuition and dreams. The real is non-natural. It is projection of human's intelligence. Our world could be named as a formal and mathematical reality. Which is precisely so certain that it doesn't fit in a world of Quantum mechanics. "There is something in everything and everything in something". As someone rightly said. But what is the reality in cosmic sense? All phenomenons seem to be a projection of human's intelligence. Quantum Cave needs a Socrates to find a Sun who represents the beauty of truth. For mathematics can play a role of companion. The true guide is intuition.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Meeting Justice Rohinton Nariman in a Sunday Morning

Aristotle once wrote in his Nicomachean Ethics that there are four significant virtues for human beings, namely Prudence, Temperance, Justice, and Courage. There are a few judges who have courage and sense of justice, both. Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rohinton Nariman has been truly an exemplar judge and erudite historian, theologian and philologist, a great scholar of music as well as a courageous and meticulous jurist of our country. He did his Master of Laws from Harvard Law School in 1980-81 and taught by one of the finest jurists of the last century, Roberto Unger. He became Senior Advocate in 1993 in the age of 37 and also served as Solicitor General of India in 2011 before he was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court of India in 2014. He delivered many landmark judgments, including Shreya Singhal v. Union of India. There are a few people with whom time moves too fast, but to count that experience takes ages. Justice Rohinton Nariman is one of those great jurists with whom a meet

Same Sex Marriage Verdict: Apolitical Politics of Court

Every judgment of the Constitutional court solves and unsolves certain fundamental questions. Court often takes two steps forward and one step backward (Shklar). Navtej Johar was rightly celebrated as a progressive judgment which recognised same sex relationships on the touchstone of constitutional morality. In a way, judgment progressively explored the colonial and post-colonial politics and reviewed Section 377, IPC from the perspective of constitutional morality emanating from the "objective purposive interpretation",  a concept devised by Justice Aharon Barack, a former judge of Israel Supreme Court. NALSA judgment already went ahead with the recommendations to broaden the scope of reservation policy in India to allow the constitutional protection of sexual minorities. The latest judgment has attracted widespread criticism from the intellectuals. Many of them have argued that the Court has not taken its responsibility in protecting the rights of sexual minorities. There i

The Rhythm of Law: A Book Review

Book Cover of the Book Law is the subject and object of curiosity since the ancient civilizations started its journey of contemplation about the order within the nature; its mysterious paths inspired the germination of metaphysics. Initially, human's mode of existence lived as instinctual life as per the call of nature. Instincts were primarily used as a medium for survival and to receive the call of wisdom from the “order of nature”. Humans are primarily one of the modes of expression of the nature, as Spinoza calls it attributes which express the essence of God and modes which are derived from the essence of God or nature (Spinoza, Ethics). The doorway of all the laws, as brooding presence of harmony, may be received if one is alert to recognize its call. Prof. Raman Mittal has penned a beautiful book titled “The Rhythm of Law”. The uniqueness of the book is its potentialities to express the inexpressible wisdom. Martin Heidegger in his Magnum Opus, Being and Time, expresses the