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Symbols and the Scientists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2024

Donald Nicholl
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I would not venture to read a paper on this subject to a gathering of natural scientists did I not hold that the process by which the natural scientist comes to understand the natural world is often analogous to the process of understanding carried out by other scientists, such as historians, for instance. Holding this opinion, I believe that other scientists may have helpful observations to offer to natural scientists on methodology and the basic principle understanding phenomena.

The three observations I wish to put forward are as follows. That in all our knowing-processes (the natural sciences included) we employ images or symbols, through which our mind's eye can see the objects our mind is searching for. Secondly, that the mind's capacity for throwing up symbols is especially vital in tne discovery of new truths—or even new techniques.

Type
Research Article
Information
Life of the Spirit , Volume 9 , Issue 104 , February 1955 , pp. 349 - 355
Copyright
Copyright © 1955 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

* A paper read at the Life Of The Spirit Conference, September 1954.

1 I do not attempt a definition of 'symbol’ for the very good reason that such a definition cannot be given; if it could, then symbols would not serve the function which they will be seen to serve in the rest of this paper. And if the argument should something seem circular I would ask the reader to remember that not all circles are vicious circles—in fact, the most profound way of reasoning does not follow the linear, activist, syllogistic pattern of formal logic, but that movement towards a truer, more all-embracing centre of experience characteristic of contemplatives, and itself symbolized by a mandala.

2 Gestalt Psychology. Methuen, 1951.

3 Der Aufbau des Organistnus. The Hague, 1934.

4 q.v. Agnes Arber. The Mind and the Eye. Cambridge, 1954, p. 103.

5 The Mind and the Eye, p.117.

6 cf. Henigel. Archery in the Art of Zen. Kegan Paul, 1953.

7 Essay on Man, p. 217.

8 J. H. Needham, in Aspects of Form, ed. L. L. Whyte, p. 83.

9 Traité de l'histoire des religions.

10 Civilization Traditionelle et Genus de vie. Paris, 1947

11 The French biological, Jean Rostand

12 Sunday Times, April 18, 1953

13 G. Lapage. Prasaitic Animals. Cambridge, 1951, pp. 333-4.