1.2.6 Primitive Physics, Psychology, Politics and Philosophy: P⁵

Version 1.0 September 2016                                        (Previous Version)

Too much historical philosophy, psychology and political theory is based on primitive notions of the world, especially physics, that were held by the ancients 2000 or even 500 years ago.  If brilliant philosophers such as Aristotle, the Buddha and Confucius knew as much about science as we know today their thoughts would have been much different.

It is often misleading to suggest that these thinkers are just as relevant today as ever: we can only do this by ignoring the parts of their teachings that are demonstrably false and reinterpreting other parts in today’s context.  The teachings of the ancients that are now venerated are those parts that have been selected to still have some relevance to today.  Most of most of their teachings were naïve or wrong.

The primitive physics of the ancients can be viewed as a refined version of the primitive physics of children.  They reflect the common sense view of reality that evolution has hard wired us to perceive. 

For instance, in physics:

●  The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle is famous for being one of the earliest thinkers to try to explain the world systematically.  His explanations were so good they dominated Europe until Newton came along.  His understanding of physics assumed that objects were normally stationary unless they were pushed.  This is essentially how we understand the world as children and naive adults.  It reflects the primitive physics that seem to be innate in mammals generally.

      In fact Aristotle, like most people who hadn’t heard of modern science, was wrong about many things but these aspects of his works are pretty much ignored even in academia.

●   The English scientist Isaac Newton, in the 1600s CE, invented the mathematical discipline of calculus, that high school maths students now struggle with, which greatly facilitates explaining all manner of motions.  He also invented the idea of gravity to explain the movements of planets in the solar system as well as apples falling to the Earth.  His three laws of motion are still taught at school.   Contrary to what Aristotle thought, Newton told us that if an object is moving (or still) then it will continue moving in a straight line (or stay still), forever, until it is pushed.

      But Newton was also an alchemist, and spent time trying to devise some alchemy to convert lead into gold.  Still, alchemy was the precursor to modern chemistry.

●   The German scientist Albert Einstein also revolutionised science in the early 1900s CE.  He is most famous for discovering the theory of relativity.  This immediately fixed a problem with Newton’s maths for the orbit of Mercury around the Sun.  He was also a founder of quantum mechanics, the other major theory that has dominated modern physics for the past 100 years.  In his view objects don’t move according gravitational forces but as a result of the curvature of space time – a very tricky concept.

In psychology and medicine:

●   Over 3000 years ago the complex system of Ayurveda medicine evolved in India, which names three elemental substances, the doshas called Vata (airy: dry, cold, light, minute, and movement), Pitta (fiery: hotness, moist, liquid, sharp and sour) and Kapha (watery: heaviness, cold ,tenderness, softness, slowness, lubrication and nutrient carrier).  In Ayurveda a balance of the doshas results in health, while imbalance results in disease. One Ayurvedic view is that unique combinations of the doshas define a person's temperament and characteristics.

      The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, around 400 BCE, taught that human personality types (moods, emotions and behaviours) were caused by an excess or lack of four body fluids (called "humors"): blood makes us sanguine (optimistic and social), yellow bile makes us choleric (short-tempered or irritable), black bile makes us melancholic (analytical and quiet), and phlegm makes us phlegmatic (relaxed and peaceful).

●   Later discoveries in biochemistry have led modern medicine science to reject these theories, although some personality type systems of varying scientific acceptance continue to use four or more similar categories.  This probably reflects the limited human ability to only keep a few items in mind at the same time, rather than objective distinctions in human personalities.

In politics:

●  The Bhagavad Gita, more than 3000 years ago, told us that it is the duty of each person to act according to our station, as rulers, warriors, merchants or workers, and we all should do our duty. 

      The ancient Greek philosopher Plato, around 400 BCE proposed an ideal society with similar ideals: governed by “kings� who were selected for their skill in “philosophy�, and each person had their place in the hierarchy and should act according to their station.

●   These purportedly idealistic social structures included slavery, sexism, severe class and caste restrictions, and were grossly unequal, indecent, extremely violent societies.  We benefit more from studying more recent histories and political treatises than these unrealistic cases.

The point is that a lot of the discussion of philosophy, physics, psychology and politics is based on primitive notions that reflect the musings of thinkers before modern science was invented and before we could access the global histories and analyses of recent centuries.  Academics may start with these primitive ideas and appreciate which aspects have limited relevance to today.  But many politicians, journalists, other writers and commentators are ignorant of modern science and recent global history.  As a result, many people are confused by teachers and leaders who present views that are demonstrably inconsistent with the known, demonstrable facts. 

At the same time, we must be able to link our philosophy and politics to our personal experience, which begins with our innate sense of primitive physics.  Like Aristotle, our daily experience tells us that object stop moving when we stop pushing them.  We now understand frictional forces oppose our pushes.  Most of us can grasp Newton’s ideas of gravity and motion, if we are taught it well at school.  Most of us have some difficulty understanding quantum physics and relativity but, as shown in Part 2 (Science) it is possible to understand the basics without being overwhelmed by the complexities.

Kant’s categories that we impose on reality, such as space, time, substance, causality, and agency, are aspects of the primitive physics that humans and mammals in general use to interpret reality.  We must not deny that reality, because it makes sense, but if we are to be effective we must not bind ourselves to naïve perspectives from our childhood and from the ancients that ignore modern knowledge.