Order

In this weeks reading the author managed to make absolute sense and absolutely no sense at that the same time. As he discussed with idea of “subliminal self” I will discuss the parts of the reading that are convenient to me and my understanding of the novel. His discussion of facts at first confused me to no end, as it seemed to confuse those who discovered the internal contradictions between scientific and mathematical laws that are meant to be absolute truths. It begins with the idea that one main truth leads to the discovery of multiple smaller, more specifics truths. This truth is referred to as a simple fact. These simple facts though vague, are the most important because they serve as the foundation for the other facts to be built upon. When one of these facts is proved to be wrong, or at least potentially wrong is disrupts all of the other facts connecting to it, potentially destroying the system. What seems to be the catch is that this fact is all true and untrue at the same time. In the creation of the facts we “discover them” out of a need for them, we subconsciously pick them. However these facts are simply definitions that humans have created to find some sort of order in the world, one that can ground us when the ever-powerful wind gust of philosophy threatens to throw us up in the air. It is the search for beauty, the classic beauty that Poincaré finds such power in. This beauty is essentially that grounding in the idea of absolute truth. The idea that there is a “harmonious order” of laws that govern the universe and keep it consistent. Without this beauty I feeling of unease threatens that psyche as we are forced to acknowledge a complete lack of control, understanding, and knowledge of what is to come. It may be that all known science is just mankind’s attempt at comforting ourselves in our uncontrollable lives. If math and science can be proven wrong then order does not exist.