Science and Creation [antikvár]

Introduction With his penchant for startling dicta, Whitehead once defined European philosophical tradition as a series of footnotes to Plato. Whether this was the safest generalization to make on the topic is another matter, but it cannot be denied that the major themes of philosophy are as old as philosophy itself. Much the same holds true of scientific speculation. The word "atomic", which our age uses as its hallmark, has an ancestry leading back to the times of Pericles. Then and there it was clearly perceived that matter had to be either discrete or continuous. Decision on this represented the touchstone of truth for Democritus as well as for Aristotle. In the latter's words the verification of a strictly smallest quantity could be of such portent as to shake the very foundations of philosophy. Ancient Greek philosophers showed equally keen interest in questions having to do with the very large. There again, a fundamental pair of alternatives was formulated with all possible clarity: the world could only be finite or infinite in extent. The counterpart of this along the parameter of time also received a most explicit attention. The classical Greeks' firm advocacy of an eternal world became a distinctive feature of their world view and science. Their concept of the eternity of a finite world, repeating itself in every Great Year, also anticipated to a surprising degree the idea of an oscillating universe, the favourite choice of many cosmologists of our day. For them, as for their classical forerunners, fundamental philosophical considerations are at play in the acceptance of the idea of a universe that goes forever through a supreme cycle. It does not require a crystal ball to see that many decisive choices hang in balance with the truth or untruth of the notion of an oscillating universe. Its trutli certainly would be a most palpable seal on the belief in a self-contained, non-contingent universe. Whether astronomy shall soon provide reliable support for the hypothesis of an oscillating universe remains to be seen. At any rate, life in our solar system would be extinguished long before the actual expanding phase had gone through much of the tens of billions of years assigned to it by brave calculators. No such uncertainty characterizes, however, thü history of speculations and contentions about a cosmos subject to the cosmic cycle of universal births, deaths and rebirths. Tracing out the historical record has an interest of its own, but the topic in question offers far more than opportunity for satiating scholarly preoccupations. This added attraction concerns a problem which should be of paramount interest to our scientific age. In a scientific perspective full maturity has certainly come to mankind during the second third of the twentieth century. The theoretical tools of exact physical science and its superb instrumentation permit for the first time a methodical exploration and control of the material world. Materials-science is perhaps the most telling proof of this, as practically any ' type of material can now be made to order. t