Den

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Knowing ?

Knowing ?

Brassempouy Lady's Grace: woman was already human, during the paleolithic ice age

Sapiens sapiens: knowledge, mysticismm, wisdom, art, are old

22,000 BCE


Gautama's Maia: the world is Illusion

Buddhism: a spiritual Middle Way to enlightenment

563-483 BCE


Socrates' humility: Know thyself, I only know that I know nothing

Elenchos, ελεγχος, cross-examination for the purpose of refutation

470–399 BCE

Khayyam's Mystical Wine: existence is absurd, enjoy the moment

Rubayyat: poems of a scientist with conscience, reemergence of free thought


1048-1131 CE


Ockham's Razor: the world might not be intelligible by generalizations, keep it simple

Nominalism: only individual objects exist, no Platonician ideal-isms

1285–1347 CE



Popper's Falsificationism: dare experiment and criticize

Open Society: free from intellectual and political totalitarianism

1902-1994 CE





Kuhn's Scientic Revolutions: Big Picture Knowledge progresses by saults

Paradigm Shift: scientists, like everybody, normally think in a relative socio-historical context; only critical sense can lead to adaptive knowledge

1922-1996 CE

Prigogine's Complexity: neither determinism nor chaos, life-like self-organization & freedom appear spontaneously, naturally, from the fundamental physico-chemical level on

End of Certainty: future is not predetermined, universe irreversible and unpredictable, Nature and Man inherently Free

1917-2003 CE