On Tuesday, October 2, 2018 at 3:39:17 AM UTC-5, [email protected] wrote: > > My friend is not physicist I think she understand physics on > popular-science level same as me. Few days ago she told me that > contemporary physics show something about what ancient taoists sages was > talking - Tao - unnamed, undivided reality. I was not able to argue with > her becourse of my low understanding of physics but I make research and > there are in fact some physicist who endorse this view. Some od them talk > about tao, others talk about sunyata (buddhists notion) but maybe these are > just theirs personal opinion and mixing it with physics is unvalid?
Fritz Capra wrote a book titled The Tao of Physics. I read it in high school and again as an undergraduate. This book is probably one of the most reviled book by physicists, though a few think it is good. I am a bit neutral. Capra makes comparisons between nonlocality of quantum mechanics and the Taoist idea that a vessel holding nothing is a paradox by assigning the word nothing to the emptiness in the vessel. In some ways the quantum wave or state is something that defies standard existential categories. Western civilization progressed along the lines of defining separate categorical rules to different entities and using the resulting different categorical rules in logical constructions. This has its origins in the Hellenic notions of mathematical proof based on axioms and the Hebrew idea of Kodesh or separation. The merging of Hellenic and Hebrew constructions occurred with Christianity, where while this did put a dark age blanket on western intellectual progress it did pave the wave for a resurgence later on. A reading of Immanuel Kant reveals the pains he took in laying down categories. Eastern civilization progressed along different lines. For one they abandoned the idea of there existing Gods and by extension the concept of there being laws or rules that Gods enforce. Plato wrote down the argument by Socrates and Euthyphro on this point that is worth reading. Eastern spiritual basis is that one must escape the suffering of this world through meditative practice that penetrates beyond the separating dualisms of this world. This does have some similarities to quantum mechanics that has nonlocal properties that defy the sort of categories in Western thought and are more similar to Eastern thought. Where I think things go awry with the idea of Taoism or Buddhism as quantum physics is when people say they are the same. We could just as well take the dialectics of Hegel and just say that Hegel codified quantum principles, and that Hegel was a quantum thinker. What I think is occurring in these instances is a sort of similarity in patterns of thought or mental realizations with Eastern mystical traditions, and for that matter Hegel as well, with quantum theory. It would be a big stretch to say there is some quantum consciousness at work here so that the ψ wave is somehow manifesting itself in these mystical practices. Bohr maintained that quantum physics must have a classical ordinary language description, and this description does illustrate how the quantum wave is something we can't put an objective finger on. By a similar pattern of thinking the idea of Taoism is similar. However, Lao Tse is not likely to have had some quantum ψ wave percolate into his brain or consciousness as the basis for the Tao. LC -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
