Self, Realities, and the Transcendents 331“9x6” b2726 Self and the Phenomenon of Life: A Biologist Examines Life from Molecules to Humanity- See, for example, the following statement from Heisenberg: “The exist-
ing scientific concepts cover always a very limited part of reality, and the
other part that has not yet been understood is infinite.” See: Heisenberg W.
(1958) Physics and Philosophy. Harper & Row, New York, Chapter XI. - For an example of the unknowable, see the opening sentence of Dao De
Jing (Tao Te Ching) 《道德经》 by Laozi (Lao Tzu, 老子): “The truth that
can be stated (in human language) is not the eternal truth.” Youlan Feng
(冯友兰) suggested that we have to know a lot in order to better appreciate
the unknowable. To illustrate this point, he retold an ancient Chan (Zen)
story, which goes as follows. There was a Chan master who would raise his
thumb in silence whenever he was asked about Buddhism. One of his disci-
ples imitated him. Upon seeing this, the master quickly chopped off the boy’s
thumb. The boy cried out in pain and ran away. The master summoned the
boy back and showed his own thumb. Thereupon the boy attained sudden
enlightenment. See: Yu-lan Fung (1948): A Short History of Chinese Philo-
sophy, Macmillan, New York; Free Press, New York, 1966, Chapter 28. [Note:
Yu-lan Fung is the old Wade-Giles romanization of the Chinese characters
of Youlan Feng.] This perplexing story is subject to different interpretations;
that of Feng is that we must amass positive knowledge in order to appreciate
its negative side, just like we have to know what “two” means before knowing
what “negative two” stands for. The bottom line is, in the pursuit of science,
the endpoint is the unknown (but presumably knowable), whereas in the
pursuit of philosophy, the climax is the unknowable, or the mysterious. - Churchland PS. (1986) Neurophilosophy. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA;
Dennet D. (1991) Consciousness Explained. Little, Brown & Co. Boston;
Churchland PM. (1995) The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul. MIT
Press, Cambridge, MA. - Rees MJ. (2000) Just Six Numbers. Basic Books, New York.
- In an attempt to unite the four fundamental forces of nature, the String Theory
was proposed but it does not provide a unique answer. It generates an astro-
nomical number of 10^500 solutions, to be represented by 10^500 universes, a figure
most scientists find disturbing. See: Susskind L. (2006) The Cosmic Landscape:
String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design. Back Bay Books. - Another theory, the Loop Quantum Gravity, denies any fundamental build-
ing blocks in the universe. Space and time and elemental particles come