Monday 14 July 2008

Scientifically

'It would be possible to describe everything Scientifically,' Einstein once said [quoted here, p.32] 'but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation in wave pressure.'

But the senselessness here isn't in the description (after all, a Beethoven symphony is a variation in wave pressure) but in our lacking the capacity to translate that description into a somatic apprehension. Translating the sounds of that symphony into msuical script is only senseless for the person who can't read music; for the person who can it is intensely senseful. Variations in wave pressure is the same thing.

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