DAVID BIRNBAUM SUMMA METAPHYSICA
DAVID BIRNBAUM PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Consciousness remains a vast unknown.
Above, in the main body of the book, I posit a “cumulative consciousness”. And this speculative conjecture is an integral part of my philosophical construct.
Now, we know from Astrophysics that
approximately half-a-billion years
after the Big Bang (with the Big Bang currently calculated at 13.7 billion years ago), Supernovas (collapsing hi–mass stars) started ‘creating/manufacturing/cooking’ the so–called heavier elements (elements heavier than #26 Iron) in their cores,
and then projected them outwards to the far reaches
of the universe.
These heavier Elements were, in turn, necessary building–blocks for LIFE.
Meaning, without the DEATH of the supernovas,
there would be no LIFE.
Meaning, on some level, from DEATH,
emerges (fuller and fuller) LIFE.
Now, we posit as a consistent theme throughout SUMMA,
that: the human parallels the cosmic.
The question is just exactly how.
So, we see from Astrophysics, that DEATH can profoundly yield LIFE.
The question is:
Is there a parallel in human death?
So, perhaps, perhaps,
(individual) human death enhances the
cumulative cosmic consciousness.
This is fragile and dangerous terrain,
and I simply do not have a good intuitive feel here.
Hence, placement in an Appendix.
However, intriguingly,
Maimonides, Guide to the Perplexed,
from Friedlander’s translation,
Part I, 74, 7th argument:
“Amr, and therefore the souls of all the departed form only one being as has been explained by Ibn Bekr Ibn Al-zaig, and others who ventured to speak on these profound subjects. In short, such intricate disciplines, which our mind can scarcely comprehend, cannot furnish any principles for the explanation of other subjects.”
Somewhat cryptic, for sure, but positing that,
post-Death – all souls merge into one.
Now, Souls are certainly not necessarily
Consciousness.
But, then again, maybe they are (very) closely
inter–related…
Thus, perhaps, the Death of an individual, somehow enhances the cumulative consciousness – on some level, however profound.
Perhaps, we should respectfully leave this particular matter (Consciousness) at that (for this treatise)…
Feb 11, 2008