Zen and Metascience

July 11th, 2006 Fred McVittie

Typically, the subjective experience of the world, and the folk/naive science is constructs, is considered to be a pre-scientific, possibly even primitive way of knowing. Historically as well as individually folk science gives way to the superior knowledge of rational science, subjectivity cedes precedence to objectivity as the more advanced and valid epitemological method. We see evidence for this in the historicisation of 15th century alchemy and hermeticism, which is usually construed not as a practice in its own right but as simply a precursor to the ‘real science’ of chemistry. Similarly, in child development we tend to assume that the knowledge possessed by small children prior to formal education is an inferior and temporary substitute for real knowledge. For instance, children’s tendency to experience themselves as located at the centre of the world, what Piaget referred to as ‘ontological egocentricity (1926: 110, 241), is supposedly supplanted by a more ‘correct’ view of themselves in a world which has no centre. Both these examples relate a narrative of subjectice knowledge being superceded by objective ways of knowing.

Some practices, however, have been developed which do not tell this story. Zen (buddhism) particularly regards its own mystical practices, and those of other philosophies and religions, not as precursors to rational science, or even as spiritual counterparts (’non-overlapping magisteria’ to use Stephen Jay-Gould’s term). These practices, and the knowledge they produce, is assumed to have value both before and after science, or ‘antescience and ‘metascience’ as philosopher D.T. Suzuki puts it. This position arises from a realisation that objectivity necessarily excludes the observer or subject from the data and is therefore inevitably incomplete. It is interesting to note that a number of prominent scientists, particularly scientists studying consciousness (also, so far, largely resisted to conventional scientific methods) are practicing Zen Buddhists; Susan Greenfield, (the late) Francisco Varela etc.

Jean Piaget. La représentation du monde chez l’enfant. Paris: Alcan, 1926.

Posted in Alchemy, Buddhism, Naive Physics, Subjective | No Comments »

Wallas and Wordsworth

May 28th, 2007 Fred McVittie

William Wordsworth in the introduction to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads in 1802 described poetry as ‘the spontaneous outflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquillity’. This remark, often held to be an example of the Romanticism which dominated much (English) poetry of the period, also suggests that poetry, as a creative act (perhaps the creative act) requires the poet to move through a series of psychological stages. Also the mention of a ’spontaneous outflow’ points toward a model of creative production which is hydraulic or pneumatic, involving some metaphorical substance that is accumulating within the mind of the poet, a mind possibly limited in capacity. The limited capacity of the mind causes the substance to be compressed and alchemically transformed into its most dense state and the eventual inevitable result of this continued accumulation is the overflowing or bursting forth of this transformed substance. The mechanism by which this accumulation and transformation takes place has a number of stages. ‘Emotion recollected in tranquility’ points to two of these stages. The ‘emotion’ stage is one in which one is immersed in the experience that is the source of the poem, it might be considered a ‘preparatory’ stage or even a period of ‘research’ (although this term suggests an emotionally-disconnected activity this is not an accurate conception of research, or indeed of any form of experiential cognition. See Damasio 2005). The ‘emotion’ stage is when the object of study is given over to the senses, it is when one metaphorically runs one’s hands over the experience, gathering subtle feelings and sensations. This is followed by a period in which one is separated from the experience, the phrase ‘recollected in tranquility’ suggests a period of calm, in which the poet is not directly involved in the conscious exploration or examination of the experience, but that other, non-conscious cognitive processes are active. It is during this period presumably that the ’substance’ circulating in the mind of the poet undergoes processes of accretion and accumulation, compression and condensation, such that it eventually overflows the container of the mind. At this point the third stage in the poetic process is entered in which the tranquility is replaced by a mental state corresponding to the bursting forth of this ’spontaneous outflow’ .

These stages show some correspondence to the stages of the creative process identified by Wallas (1923) and others since. These are the phases of Preparation, Incubation, Illumination, and Elaboration. Whereas Wallas uses the metaphor of light to relate this process, Wordsworth uses a metaphor of liquid. For Wallas, the moment of creative insight when the poet witnesses the emergence of the creative artifact into his own consciousness is seen as the sudden switching on of a light (Illumination). For Wordsworth this moment is the equally sudden breaking of a dam and the flooding of the stage of consciousness with the liquid of creativity.

Posted in Alchemy, Creativity, Damasio, Antonio, Emotion, Liquid, Metaphor, Transformation, Wallas, Graham, Wordsworth, William | No Comments »

The Alchemical Marriage

July 30th, 2007 Fred McVittie

This blog is written in a range of styles (tones, colours, ductus), some objective and some more subjective. It is hoped that the common ground of poetic cognition out of which all expression exudes and of which metaphor is a part, regardless of its status as objective or subjective, personal or interpersonal, scientific or artistic, provides a space in which all of these expressive forms can be considered. I make reference to widely different bodies of thought and the works of writers and artists who operate in very different traditions, as well as engaging in more free-form and hermetic writing. Because of the range of such referencing and style I will, from necessity, be obliged to treat such works with much less than the depth of analysis they undoubtedly deserve. For example, some of the works of Wittgenstein and of Heidegger are cited, occupying screen space alongside Beckett, Ron Athey, and Merleau-Ponty, and it is inevitable that in such cases I am, to an extent, playing fast and loose with ideas that deserve better. In terms of the territory/argument that I am attempting to construct here however, my dalliances with these characters and their work has an ambition other than a full and complete marriage (alchemical or otherwise); our names will not be joined, we will not move in together and I seriously doubt the likelihood of memetically-bonded offspring. Rather I am approaching these bodies of knowing with a one-track mind, to take what I need and leave the rest.

Posted in Alchemy, Blog, Poetics | No Comments »