15 - The Spear of Archytas

Summary

The Universe is everything. It includes us and the rational universes we collectively devise. Each universe unifies a society and dictates the “true” facts. Individuals suppose with unfailing confidence that their particular universe is the Universe, and their confidence is not in the least shaken by the fact that our ancestors lived in very different universes and our descendants in the future will live also in totally different universes. In all universes things have their causes, often hidden from ordinary mortals. We depend on our wise men – emperors, kings, shamans, priests, sages, prophets, and professors – to put us right and tell us the “true” facts. As long as somebody reliable knows the truth, all is right with the universe.

All universes have their rules of containment that define what is included as fitting and what is excluded as unfitting. Thales said the Ionian universe consisted of water; Anaximenes said air; Heraclitus said fire; Xenophanes said earth; Empedocles said earth, water, air, and fire. Democritus said the Atomist universe consisted only of atoms and the void; all else was illusion and opinion. Plato said the Platonic universe consisted of the eternal verities of the Mind; all else was shadow and deception. Aristotle said the Aristotelian universe consisted of earth, water, air, fire, and ether in ascending order, animated by Ideas, and nothing existed beyond the sphere of the stars. Saint Augustine said the Christian universe consisted of the Word of God, and all else was heresy.