The Purpose of the Universe. LO28089

From: AM de Lange (amdelange@postino.up.ac.za)
Date: 03/28/02


Replying to LO28079 --

Dear Organlearners,

Benjamin Compton <thecastingdeck@hotmail.com> writes:

>Call me cynical, but I'm not sure the Universe
>has a purpose. To be more precise, I'm not sure
>"purpose" is a property of the universe. I think
>purpose is much more a need for living creatures
>than it is for the universe itself.

Greetings dear Ben,

I suddenly became aware of a strange questioning thought. Can the universe
lack a property which a part of it has? How can a part have something
which the whole does not have?

I have a hunch how David Boehm might have answered it. That property
belongs to the Hidden Order of the universe and has become explicated in
that part of which it is an observable property.

>The way I see it, purpose is about choice: About
>the recognition that there are p possibilities and
>then choosing one of those possibilities as a course
>of action. Keeping with this idea, we can purpose
>implies intelligent action (p -> a).

In other words, purpose is a "many-to-one-mapping". Is a
"one-to-many-mapping" in purpose also possible? In think so because this
is what I tried to articulate in the series "Constructive creativity and
leadership".

>While I do believe that there is intelligence in
>the universe ....

I also think so. But suddenly I had to look up the etymology of
intelligence. It comes from the Latin "intelligo"=to_understand. The
prefix "in-"=in,on while the root "tellus"=earth. Thus the "intelligo" is
a metaphor meaning to connect something with something firmer. So what
does the human intelligence ground itself on?

Thanks Ben for your lovely answer. I will study it again and again. I have
to rush off. The "meerkat " story took too much time.

With care and best wishes

-- 

At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa

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