Purpose, Method, and Policy of this Work: A Remark

Recording Location
Lone Pine, Calif.
Recording Date
19 June 1977
Recording Information

Franklin Merrell Wolff offers a remark on the audio recordings, “Purpose, Method, and Policy of this Work.” He restates a maxim of Immanuel Kant’s to the effect that “perceptions without conceptions are blind and conceptions without perceptions are empty.” He then suggests a parallel maxim, which is “that pure mathematics without metaphysics is empty and that the pure metaphysical vision is unthinkable without mathematics, but by the marriage of these two the unthinkable becomes, in some measure at least, thinkable.” He asserts that by the Realization of a third order of cognition it is possible to render metaphysical knowledge possible and to make thinkable that which otherwise would remain unthinkable. Wolff proceeds by reviewing his mathematical representation of the principle of periodicity and points out that the sum of all possible phases and counter-phases is always zero. He concludes by calling attention to Shankara’s admonition to seek the permanent in the impermanent even while participating in the impermanent periodicity of life—an unthinkable proposition that becomes thinkable with the help of mathematical analysis.

Transcript
Recording Duration
15 min
Sort Order
260.00