Date: Sun, 7 Jun 98 17:25:00 -0700
From: David Burch <dburch1@teleport.com>
Hi Marvin:
Once again you have aroused my interest, this time by your ideas and
comments generated by reading Dawkins. In particular, the remarks
concerning the chief issue that divides the group, the nature and
meanings associated and designated by the word "consciousness", keep
scratching at itches in my mind. Doesn't the question pester?
I was reading an article about Goethe recently, a man who wrestled with
the same matter, and couldn't do better than a draw. He considered
himself to be an objective scientist driven not by emotional intuition,
but operating under the premise of a basic unity in nature. His belief,
that the same forces that caused plants to grow and winds to blow also
governed his poetic expression, may have been wishful thinking, but was
at least an attempt at scientific honesty. It appears to me that if he
were in the CES he would be something of a bridge between the two groups,
for he certainly insisted that those who assert the unity of
consciousness should offer less magic and more rigor while still avoiding
the mental anesthesia of reductionism.
Having followed the path of conventional science as my public career, I
find myself rather smugly satisfied with the reductionist position,
particularly inasmuch as I can't find a satisfactory and satisfying
notion of spirituality, a point I discussed earlier. Further, because
Goethe was so wrong in his long battle with Newton about light and color,
(he thought, for instance, that a prism or lens distorts the subject of
investigation and thus invalidates the results,) I tend to dismiss his
scientific efforts, (although I have read that he did make useful
contributions to biology.)
I suggested above that Goethe may have indulged in wishful thinking; so
do I:
You say I'd bargain for whatever's lost,
Trade this or more, to desperation's last
Vain hope, eternal tearless peace; like Faust,
I'd swap a soul to bring back what is past.
Perhaps. At least I'd like to have the chance
To haggle, if a buyer could be found.
I'd wheedle with such cunning elegance
Old Mef would gladly scoot to safer ground.
This silly game is fun, but senses clear:
Audacious Man, consumed by need to feel supreme,
Made vanity invent a counterpart to fear,
A horned actor to complete the dream.
Poor Goethe failed; the tragedy was missed:
The Devil's fake, and never did exist.
Well, even if Goethe was wrong, his beautiful errors were written with a
hand guided by angels. My consciousness tells me so.
Best regards,
David
dburch1@teleport.com
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