This is Huge: Science Historian Cracks "Plato Code"
Never heard of, "The Plato Code"? Not surprising, since the ancient rumor of layers of code in Plato's works has been denied by modern scholars for at least a century. Turns out, they were wrong.
"A science historian at The University of Manchester has cracked “The Plato Code” – the long disputed secret messages hidden in the great philosopher’s writings.
Plato was the Einstein of Greece’s Golden Age and his work founded Western culture and science. Dr Jay Kennedy’s findings are set to revolutionise the history of the origins of Western thought.
Dr Kennedy, whose findings are published in the leading US journal Apeiron, reveals that Plato used a regular pattern of symbols, inherited from the ancient followers of Pythagoras, to give his books a musical structure. A century earlier, Pythagoras had declared that the planets and stars made an inaudible music, a ‘harmony of the spheres’. Plato imitated this hidden music in his books.
The hidden codes show that Plato anticipated the Scientific Revolution 2,000 years before Isaac Newton, discovering its most important idea – the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics. The decoded messages also open up a surprising way to unite science and religion. The awe and beauty we feel in nature, Plato says, shows that it is divine; discovering the scientific order of nature is getting closer to God. This could transform today’s culture wars between science and religion.
“Plato’s books played a major role in founding Western culture but they are mysterious and end in riddles,” Dr Kennedy, at Manchester’s Faculty of Life Sciences explains.
“In antiquity, many of his followers said the books contained hidden layers of meaning and secret codes, but this was rejected by modern scholars.
“It is a long and exciting story, but basically I cracked the code. I have shown rigorously that the books do contain codes and symbols and that unraveling them reveals the hidden philosophy of Plato.
“This is a true discovery, not simply reinterpretation.”
This will transform the early history of Western thought, and especially the histories of ancient science, mathematics, music, and philosophy."
I'm posting this because of the music connection, of course - specifically the music of the spheres connection - and because through Boethius and Hucbald ancient Greek musical thought laid the foundation for western art music.
I expect many, many fascinating revelations will come to light as these coded symbols are discovered and explained. It could turn centuries of western thought on its head. Seriously.
"A science historian at The University of Manchester has cracked “The Plato Code” – the long disputed secret messages hidden in the great philosopher’s writings.
Plato was the Einstein of Greece’s Golden Age and his work founded Western culture and science. Dr Jay Kennedy’s findings are set to revolutionise the history of the origins of Western thought.
Dr Kennedy, whose findings are published in the leading US journal Apeiron, reveals that Plato used a regular pattern of symbols, inherited from the ancient followers of Pythagoras, to give his books a musical structure. A century earlier, Pythagoras had declared that the planets and stars made an inaudible music, a ‘harmony of the spheres’. Plato imitated this hidden music in his books.
The hidden codes show that Plato anticipated the Scientific Revolution 2,000 years before Isaac Newton, discovering its most important idea – the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics. The decoded messages also open up a surprising way to unite science and religion. The awe and beauty we feel in nature, Plato says, shows that it is divine; discovering the scientific order of nature is getting closer to God. This could transform today’s culture wars between science and religion.
“Plato’s books played a major role in founding Western culture but they are mysterious and end in riddles,” Dr Kennedy, at Manchester’s Faculty of Life Sciences explains.
“In antiquity, many of his followers said the books contained hidden layers of meaning and secret codes, but this was rejected by modern scholars.
“It is a long and exciting story, but basically I cracked the code. I have shown rigorously that the books do contain codes and symbols and that unraveling them reveals the hidden philosophy of Plato.
“This is a true discovery, not simply reinterpretation.”
This will transform the early history of Western thought, and especially the histories of ancient science, mathematics, music, and philosophy."
I'm posting this because of the music connection, of course - specifically the music of the spheres connection - and because through Boethius and Hucbald ancient Greek musical thought laid the foundation for western art music.
I expect many, many fascinating revelations will come to light as these coded symbols are discovered and explained. It could turn centuries of western thought on its head. Seriously.
posted by Hucbald at 11:27 PM
6 Comments:
Until a few more details are released, I would file this along side the proofs that Sir Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare's plays. But if they can develop further Plato's music theories, that would be interesting.
Cheers
FWIW, I view all of the theories that Shakespeare didn't compose the plays that bear his name as elitist bunk. IMO, it boils down to an elitist refusal to acknowledge natural genius in a common man.
Like I say, genius doesn't run in families; it strikes like lightning wherever and whenever.
I think lay-people's attraction to theories about Shakespeare authorship questions may be elitist, but there's little proof about the question so it is just as dumb to assume we know the history. Some wacko theories are flying in the face of the obvious, but there's nothing obvious about Shakespeare.
Anyway, there's no way that any discovery about Plato will have any impact on the science/religion debate. The only thing we can learn from Plato are some interesting philosophies or historical things. None of this will change what we fundamentally believe about the nature of existence or anything.
I'm impressed with your enthusiasm though.
I can only conclude that you lost the thread: Plato was in constant danger from members of the Greek political class, who thought his ideas were dangerous. If he did indeed code his works to obscure his most "dangerous" ideas, then the revelations could be earth shattering. We may have been reading a PC version of his works for centuries. Perhaps it won't change anything about the science/religion debate, but it could change much about how we view governance, and more importantly, what Plato really thought about it.
I think that's a BFD.
Plato was a seminal genius in the development of western civilization, not some mere playwright.
I agree Plato was a genius in many areas, and it is extremely interesting to understand his ideas further. Still, there's no way that whatever they are will be ideas that truly give some sort of insight into the fundamentals of governance, society, philosophy... we've had generations of genius and other things and this can't possibly bring insight at the level that will change many minds about anything today. We have far more geniuses alive today than all of history simply because the population is that large. The internet makes ideas able to spread more than before. I will be shocked if any insight found here is anything not already discussed by others. It will just be interesting to find that Plato understood it back then.
Meh. I still think you're not grasping the possible ramifications, and I'll leave it at that.
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