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East and West View of the Universe

May 9, 2016

Date of activity: March 20, 2016

What does science (western view) and Chinese philosophy (eastern view) have to say about the Universe? This was the focus of a public lecture event hosted by the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU) on March 20 at the University of Tokyo’s Kashiwa Campus (Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture).

The event follows the theme of another event the Kavli IPMU hosted in January, where a philosopher was invited to broaden the speaker and audience’s perception of scientific research. This time, the event looked into the differences and similarities of East and West views of the Universe.

The Kavli IPMU Lecture Hall was packed full with 140 people on the day, who came to hear from speakers including University of California, Berkeley, Professor and Kavli IPMU Visiting Senior Scientist Yasunori Nomura, and University of Tokyo Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia Professor Takahiro Nakajima. The event started with a talk by Nomura, “Multiverse Cosmology– The Universe as Explained by Theoretical Physics”, followed by a talk by Nakajima, “The Ins and Outs of Cosmologia – the Imagination of China’s Theory of the Universe”. Afterwards, the two speakers took part in the discussion “East and West Views of the Universe” before joining the audience for tea time.

In the first talk, Nomura described the Multiverse theory, an idea that our Universe is only a single bubble in larger space filled with many bubbles. Nomura continued to explain how experiments have revealed that vacuum energy is close to, but not quite zero, and how the multiverse theory is essentially the only explanation of this fact. He also addressed relations of this idea to superstring and inflation theories, what future observations, including that of the curvature of our Universe, might reveal other hints of the existence of the multiverse, and the possibility of seeing a collision between multiple universes. Nomura suggested that changes in our understanding of the Universe have led to changes in our understanding of the world, and future developments on the multiverse theory might force us to rethink the concept of time and space.

Questions from the audience following Nomura’s talk included:
“What would we expect to see when two universes collide?”
“What do you think about relations between your life as a scientist researching the Universe and your life as an every day citizen in society?”
“Why is it not possible to come up with a theoretical number of how curved the Universe is?”

In response to Nomura’s talk, Nakajima gave his parallel account of the Universe from a philosopher’s point of view. It began with 17th century German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz and his idea that of all possible worlds, ours was chosen as the best by God, to modern French philosopher Quentin Meillasoux and his idea that in a world face to face with modern science, and where the world continues to exist independent to the existence of humans, we should continue to question things without referring to a god.
Nakajima talked about how Leibnitz studied Chinese philosophy of his time, and introduced us the genealogy of Cosmologia; 'shi (time)', 'hua (transformation)' , and 'tian (heaven)'. He also mentioned the question by Scottish philosopher David Hume, how to maintain balance of rule and normativity in a world rooted in coincidences, and this is also questioned by Chinese scholar Dai Zhen, who was studying around the same period of time as Hume. In other words, Nakajima’s talk explored all the ages and cultures, and got the audience thinking about how to bring good into a world where no strong reason exists.

Questions from the audience following Nakajima’s talk included:
“Is it really possible to explain something theoretically?”
“Is it possible that mathematical physics and languages are not enough tools for humans to know the ‘truth’. Are there any philosophy tools under development that could contribute?”
“Sometimes it’s tiring to keep chasing science, is there anything in philosophy that could cheer me up?”

The talks were followed by discussion, in which the two experts compared each other's fields. They discussed the latest research in science and philosophy, their ultimate goals, and concepts that are and are not changing. What they have found is that both fields share a lot in common, but there are differences, including how physicists, westerners, and easterners interpreted 'time.' The discussion also opened the door on how scientists determine "boundaries" of science and how they try to find answers to questions within these boundaries, while philosophers do not search for an answer but keep deepening right questions. The two speakers even discussed why science advanced in the west, and not too much in the east.

To end the day, speakers and participants took place in an after-event tea time.

Questionnaires collected from participants were generally favorable, with most people praising the idea of exploring a theme from a scientific and philosophical point of view:
“It was surprising to find that things I thought were universal, were actually far from universal.”
“It was very motivating to see two researchers from different backgrounds exchange ideas.”
“It was thrilling. My brain went into overdrive.”
“It was very interesting. I never knew that two seemingly different fields like philosophy and science had so much in common.”

 

Related URL
  • The Kavli IPMU Lecture Hall was packed full.
    The Kavli IPMU Lecture Hall was packed full.
  • University of California, Berkeley Professor and Kavli IPMU Visiting Senior Scientist Yasunori Nomura gave a talk
    University of California, Berkeley Professor and Kavli IPMU Visiting Senior Scientist Yasunori Nomura gave a talk "Multiverse Cosmology– The Universe as Explained by Theoretical Physics"
  • Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia Professor Takahiro Nakajima gave a talk
    Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia Professor Takahiro Nakajima gave a talk "The Ins and Outs of Cosmologia – the Imagination of China’s theory of the Universe"

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