some thoughts on duality

Today I want to write about duality:

So many books I read in art, philosophy and science show our tendency to want to reduce things to black and white. Our need to understand the world forces us to simplify all that we see to help us cope with it and understand.

For example, for many years scientists argued about whether light was a wave or a particle. Debate raged with both sides wishing to force light to act in the way that they perceived it acted. Turns out light is both separate and connected to our understanding of it. Depending on the experiment being done on it, it acts as both a wave and a particle. It may act in other unknown ways we have yet to ask it to. Interestingly the “nature” of light depends on the experiments being done on light to test what “it” is. Likewise, the very act of observing matter is such that we can only observe and know its position or its momentum at one time and not both precisely.

Early Greek philosophers gave us the notion that the world is made up of physical atoms (literally meaning indivisible). More recent philosophers (particularly Descartes) have argued that there is a duality to the world and that you can separate life into “matter” and “mind”. This is because they do not know how to account for the mind that appears to be both a brain (which is matter) and a force that gives our body and brain purpose and understanding.

Surely this is exactly the same discussion as for light. Our universe consists of energy. Our minds consist of energy some of it in matter and some of it in waves.

Blake:

“Energy is eternal delight”

It can be negative and positive. It can be materialised as matter or act as a field (like waves of light propagating, gravity, consciousness). Following on the work of Maxwell and others Einstein showed us that matter and energy are equivalent. That is we are all embodiments of energy. Likewise our thoughts and consciousness is matter unlocked, matter set free to move and act as a force.

Einstein:

“Make everything as simple as possible but no simpler.”

We don’t have to force this varied life into a box or a book or a simple position. There is no contradiction between mind and matter. Mind is really just electricity, disembodied matter - matter that has been given its wings.

Things that are are also not. Things that have been will be forever. There is no future or past, there is no purpose. There is only matter and energy acting over space between matter.

We must learn to perceive from eternity and all our contradictions will be exposed for what they are, problems of perception.

I am and I think. Wherefore the therefore?