Philosophy, science, religion and art:
Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 10:42 pm
People have written volumes of books on the relationships between these varied fields, but I may well be exploring the relationships between these things for the first time with any degree of sincerity.
What philosophy and science have in common is a relation(specifically a conscious relation) to duality, or space(logic.) Religion and art, on the other hand, are related to time, as they both involve creation(or causality.) Philosophy attempts to realise the whole of space, whereas science attempts to realise the particulars of space. Scientific knowledge is always tentative and never absolute, because it is never spoken for by the whole of space. Philosophy, however, consults the whole of space before passing its judgement. An objection that may be posed to this is that science and philosophy always seek the causes of something, like the causes of light, or the Battle of Gettysberg, or love, so they must also involve a relationship to time. Science is necessarily related to time in that it has to believe in the truth(only time can decide what is true and what is false) of logic(and, ultimately, because consciousness must be of time and space both), but it is not concerned about whether the things that it examines will/should exist in the future, or should have existed in the past.
Religion attempts to become conscious of the entire of time, whereas art is concerned with only fragments of time. There is too much filth in what is called religion and art(as in science and philosophy) for me to deal with them in order to separate them from what I say here. Books like the Dhammapada, Thus Spake Zarathustra and the Bhagavad Gita can be rightly called works of religion. On the other hand, the works of people like Shakespeare, Beethoven and Oscar Wilde may be called works of art(or the closest thing to them.) Of course, one can consider the poems written by Nietzsche and Hakuin to be art too, although I’d say they are philosophical-religious in nature. Religion is concerned with what is true for all time, and what should be true for all time. It seeks to bring the entire of causality into the narrowness of consciousness. The problem of religion is ethics, and truth. Just as science is a subset of philosophy, so also art is a subset of religion. Art is concerned with only a stretch of time. The works of Shakespeare would hold true only as long as the human race lives, or only as long as there is love, or only as long as things like honour and courage is considered valuable. Genuine Zen koans, however, or the Gospel of Thomas, will be true for all time.
Both religion and art are basically the ego as will. They talk about what will be true, as opposed to what will be false. Morality of course brings in the “should”, but there is no difference between what will be and what ought to be. People who are concerned about what ought to be simply aren’t conscious enough of time. This is the solution to the problem of ethics.
Scientific experiments are an example of art being used with the purpose of doing science, whereas technology is an example of science being used to the purpose of art.
As time and space are simply two aspects of the consciousness of Reality, the most conscious person is at the same time the greatest artist, the greatest scientist, the greatest philosopher and the most devoted person.
What philosophy and science have in common is a relation(specifically a conscious relation) to duality, or space(logic.) Religion and art, on the other hand, are related to time, as they both involve creation(or causality.) Philosophy attempts to realise the whole of space, whereas science attempts to realise the particulars of space. Scientific knowledge is always tentative and never absolute, because it is never spoken for by the whole of space. Philosophy, however, consults the whole of space before passing its judgement. An objection that may be posed to this is that science and philosophy always seek the causes of something, like the causes of light, or the Battle of Gettysberg, or love, so they must also involve a relationship to time. Science is necessarily related to time in that it has to believe in the truth(only time can decide what is true and what is false) of logic(and, ultimately, because consciousness must be of time and space both), but it is not concerned about whether the things that it examines will/should exist in the future, or should have existed in the past.
Religion attempts to become conscious of the entire of time, whereas art is concerned with only fragments of time. There is too much filth in what is called religion and art(as in science and philosophy) for me to deal with them in order to separate them from what I say here. Books like the Dhammapada, Thus Spake Zarathustra and the Bhagavad Gita can be rightly called works of religion. On the other hand, the works of people like Shakespeare, Beethoven and Oscar Wilde may be called works of art(or the closest thing to them.) Of course, one can consider the poems written by Nietzsche and Hakuin to be art too, although I’d say they are philosophical-religious in nature. Religion is concerned with what is true for all time, and what should be true for all time. It seeks to bring the entire of causality into the narrowness of consciousness. The problem of religion is ethics, and truth. Just as science is a subset of philosophy, so also art is a subset of religion. Art is concerned with only a stretch of time. The works of Shakespeare would hold true only as long as the human race lives, or only as long as there is love, or only as long as things like honour and courage is considered valuable. Genuine Zen koans, however, or the Gospel of Thomas, will be true for all time.
Both religion and art are basically the ego as will. They talk about what will be true, as opposed to what will be false. Morality of course brings in the “should”, but there is no difference between what will be and what ought to be. People who are concerned about what ought to be simply aren’t conscious enough of time. This is the solution to the problem of ethics.
Scientific experiments are an example of art being used with the purpose of doing science, whereas technology is an example of science being used to the purpose of art.
As time and space are simply two aspects of the consciousness of Reality, the most conscious person is at the same time the greatest artist, the greatest scientist, the greatest philosopher and the most devoted person.