'For the person or persons that hold dominion, can no more combine with the keeping up of majesty the running with harlots drunk or naked about the streets, or the performances of a stage player, or the open violation or contempt of laws passed by themselves than they can combine existence with non-existence'.

- Benedict de Spinoza. Political Treatise. 1677.




Tuesday, June 30, 2009

on certainty 47


47. This is how one calculates. Calculating is this. What we learn at school, for example. Forget this transcendent certainty, which is connected with your concept of spirit.



yes – calculating is this

the action of calculating –

there will be descriptions of the action – of this

but this

without description – is still calculating

without description  this

is unknown –

and in this –

lies the real beauty and power of mathematics –

mathematics shows us clearly –

that we can and do operate effectively –

without description –

without ‘knowledge’ –

in the unknown


© greg t. charlton. 2009.