HCJ - A second year perspective.

To say that the first HCJ lecture of my second year had a specific focus might be dishonest. Yet, if I were to choose one for the sake of this blog, I might say that it was the concept of matter, which hinged around Emmanuel Kant.

Before Kant, the general consensus of educated thought was that our universe consisted entirely of matter in motion, with no consideration toward perception, or an understanding of our own inability to perceive beyond the four dimensions to which we are restrained (length, breadth, depth and time: all of which are relative according to Einstein’s theories. But we’ll come to that later on I’m sure).

Anyway (dragging the wonky shopping trolley of thought process back on track), the idea that nothing exists outside of human perception is central to the theories of scientists such as Newton (1642 – 1727), who was revered for his studies on physical law, which he believed could be applied, without fail, to everything.

Although I have attributed the paradigm shift of perception to Kant, it would be foolish not to recognise the contemporarily ignored George Berkeley (1685 -1753), whose theories can be summarised (though reductively) as; perception is existence. This means that, to Berkeley, not only would a tree not make a sound if nobody was there to hear it, it would cease to exist altogether for the full duration of the tree not being perceived. I feel that Betrand Russell’s inclusion of a limerick by Ronald Knox with reply outlines Berkeley’s theories pleasantly:

There was a young man who said, ‘God

Must think it exceedingly odd

           If he finds that this tree
           Continues to be

When there’s no one about in the Quad.’

Reply

Dear Sir:

         Your astonishment’s odd:
I am always about it the Quad.
         And that’s why the tree
         Will continue to be,

Since observed by

          Yours faithfully
God.

Whilst being the first to look at perception as a real influence in the workings of the universe, the idea that the matter just ceases to exist outside of it is solipsistic and impractical as an analysis (besides being disproven by recording equipment). Kant saw this and offered an alternative; that all matter exists in two forms:

The Noumenal form: matter, in and of itself. Beyond our perception, the existence of matter in it’s absolute form, not reduced and simplified by the human brain.

The Phenomenal form: matter, through human perception. Objects as we see them.

This theory seems to fit more modern theories on physics such as dimensional theory in so far as that there are perceptions or dimensions beyond the human perception. This is huge, especially to contemporaries of Kant, as it potentially reduces the understanding humanity has of the universe by an infinite amount.

One step forward, but we can’t even perceive how many steps back.