Review: Prometheus and
Atlas
by Dr Jason Reza Jorjani
The importance of Dr Jorjani’s work here is such
that one must hope and pray that it will not be ignored like that of Roger
Bacon only to be discovered and recognised centuries later when others have
repeated his work and achieved the same understanding.
The paradigm shifting ideas and arguments which he
presents escape the limitations of strict materialist objectivism while at the
same time avoiding the regress of postmodern subjectivism.
By the application of concepts such as techne
and the spectral, Dr Jorjani weaves a new way of looking at the world
around what works (techne) and a recognition of the fact that that world
in which we live has unplumbed, and probably unplumbable depths, but depths
nonetheless which we can explore and thereby increase and improve our
interactions with nature, to the advantage of both. As Professor Dawkins has postulated ‘The Universe is not only
stranger than we imagine, but is probably stranger than we can imagine’.
These are where the archetypes of Prometheus and
Atlas come into play. Prometheus
plumbs the depths, reaches for the heights and claims the knowledge of fire
which some claim is forbidden. Atlas on
the other hand, holds up the sky and thereby maps the Universe of those things
his brother among the Titans has explored.
In our present world mythology these two are still
in danger of being bound into servitude, but we have come to a juncture in
history in which we ourselves, insignificant mortals, may be able to unleash
the power of these archetypes which live within us.
Techne is skill. What works through the application of
practice, and Dr Jorjani makes the astute observation that techne
precedes theory. In other words,
science as we know it today has only arisen from the trial and error of the
past, from the skill of artisans and alchemists who acquired the skills to
manipulate materials to produce the results which have built our modern world.
Theory comes later, when the mapping of the
interaction between the skill of the Promethean investigator and his materials
allow the projection of the hypotheses out of which theories can be built.
The Spectral realm which Dr Jorjani
postulates is no more than an extended world of the unknown, the unplumbed and
more subtle aspects of nature which we have yet to properly grasp.
His rigorous examination of the giants of modern
Western philosophy, Descartes, Kant, Heidegger et al, demonstrates that the
materialist model of reality only satisfies up to a certain point. Add to this the cutting edge work of the
likes of Lyle Watson and Rupert Sheldrake and there is what I consider to be an
incontrovertible case that there are aspects and dimensions to reality which,
while not fitting into a strict materialist model, nonetheless cannot be
denied. Thing in Itself is more
than our sense perceptions of it.
The adoption of the term Spectral is the
conceptual master stroke which pulls all this together under one umbrella.
Knowledge often proceeds through the application to
the material world of analogy and metaphor.
The Spectral Realm evokes a sense of being that can accommodate
consciousness, the afterlife and parallel universes. Doubtless these have each in their own right immense depths and
divergent possibilities, but to have opened the door in our minds to the
conceptual possibilities is the first step, and this term anchors it, putting a
wedge in under the door to prevent it from closing.
I don’t think Dr Jorjani used Egon Brunswik’s term probabilistic
functionalism, but he could have done.
Our skills, our techne, our practical interactions with the world
are based on doing what will probably function, just in the same way as
when the term was originally applied to perception, whilst always allowing for
improvement in that, dependent on feedback from results in the external world.
The immense importance of this work to the History
and Philosophy of Science is such because Dr Jorjani (successfully in my view)
shoots the rapids between the hard objectivism of physical science, and the
solipsistic radical subjectivism of postmodern critique, forging a solution
from the problematic anomalies of both, coming out the other side to form the
basis for a new paradigm in philosophy which whilst rooted in the incomprehensible existential
and subjective thrownness of Heidegger nonetheless faces the practical
realities of the material world with which we all must deal.
Purchase a paper or e-book version of my account of my rite of passage at The Hundredth Monkey Camp ‘Waking The Monkey! ~ Becoming the Hundredth Monkey’ (A Book for Spiritual Warriors)
