09.02.10

Beyond space-time

Posted in General at 1:54 pm by nemo

Debates over the big bang, and the origin of the universe, now challenged (quite apart from religious challenges) by the cyclic universe theories as in Endless universe, cited today, reflect a Kantian antinomy, which is a debate, in this case the archetypal form of the debate seen in practive between physicists and religionists. The book Endless Universe, however, shows the real antithesis, between absolute and relative beginnings. And there Kant shows this dilemma to be antinomous, suggesting that a contradiction is resolved by a new idea (dialectic). One route there is to note that timelessness is a logical opposite here. That doesn’t mean it must be considered, but we must be suspicious. But beyond that it is significant that Kant find this antinomy to be evidence of the incoherence of our physics views, and the remedy is his view of transcendental idealism.
Neither creationists nor scientists can quite grapple with the idea that something is timeless, and it isn’t much of a thing.

None of the debates can realize a simple fact: they all invoke a timeless dimension, in so far as time comes into existence with the Big Bang, supposedly. But this is never discussed, or its implications pursued, a sign the discusssion is too naive to be real.

I think that Schopenhauer (and thence Kant) stumbled on the answer, as did his quiet appropriator J.G. Bennett, discussed here several times. Our minds themselves stand beyond space-time because they themselves synthesize space-time. Here Kant and Schopenhauer without saying so completely upset the applecart of both religion and physics.
A lot to be said here, but these obsessives efforts of scientists to confirm their atheism are not very coherent. Don’t let Dawkins get away with a new round of hype here.

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