Author: jackiebranc

Laying prototype eggs. There would be nothing remarkable in this, were it not for the assumption concealed within the word “prototype” — namely, the existence of an intelligent first cause, a causa efficiens; an act of deliberate agency. Entangling oneself in the theory of the chicken leads inevitably to the establishment of a final cause, a causa finalis, and as we know from experience, the end of our poor chicken’s teleological journey is broth.

I am aware of the weight of responsibility that comes with such politically incorrect treatment of the bird, and I defend myself by admitting my present inability to immediately abandon the intellectual tradition that, in perhaps its most developed form, was bequeathed to us by Descartes. “Technique” — an anthropocentric craft — has since required the atomisation of nearly every domain of life, so that its elements may function in harmony. Interlocking cogs. A simplification, naturally, yet it seems that this tendency has since come to dominate Western thought.

Like all tools, these too must wear out. Nothing new in that. From Anaximander and his apeiron, from the whole to the parts through the thought of Parmenides set in motion by the forces of Empedocles, to the atom of Democritus — the apex of a historical sine wave which, by its nature, attains a maximum of truth; whether upper or lower is a matter of convention. We know what followed. And today? Perhaps we are near such a peak.

By way of example: born of a certain fatigue with the successes of vacuum cleaner engineering and other electric kettles, there arise curiosities such as Bennett’s “mathematical ethics”, founded upon the probabilistic framework of a quantum model as full of holes as a sieve, and binary sequences. Everything becomes measurable. Almost. And yet that “almost” makes all the difference.

Within this atomic clutter, however, there is no shortage of romantic iconoclasts. History teems with them — take Cardano [1], for instance, whose complex numbers, with their so-called imaginary unit, acquire over time — not least in quantum mechanics — a kind of naïve physical reality. There is neither time nor space here for further examples. But I shall choose one as a special case, close to our own times.

Though it may seem somewhat naïve to the professional philosopher, it leaves behind a certain epistemic unease and charts a path from the general to the particular. The apeiron of Anaximander makes itself felt through an unknowable archē, marked by infinity — a governing principle beyond reach. I speak of the work of David Bohm, a consequence of the non-locality of physical phenomena, in his alternative quantum mechanics — an interpretation undervalued by the dogmatists of the Copenhagen school. Undervalued, perhaps, out of fear of the necessity to admit that not everything lies within the bounds of knowledge.

An endless subject — or perhaps, more fittingly, an endless broth.

P.S.

Coming back down to earth — that seems a good idea for today. The chicken legs are defrosting, and as we all know, broth is good for one’s health. Delicious. For now, John Stewart Bell’s theorem still holds up — time to cook the noodles…