"He did pause then, to make a sign that might be avertive or might be reverent - or both or neither, but surely reflected the universal sense of a mortal creature confronting the unknown." (p. 294)
I quoted and briefly commented on this passage in The Domrath II. Let us now consider it further. Since it refers to "the unknown," see also:
Can the mortal response to the unknown really be universal? Flandry is able to generalize from many intelligent species whereas Poul Anderson and his readers can only speculate and hypothesize but let us do so.
The earliest members of any intelligent species neither understand nor control natural forces and processes yet are both dependent on and threatened by them. Rain is welcome during a drought but not in a flood. Fire is welcome for its warmth but not for its destructiveness. Two ways to attempt to gain control are, first, gestures accompanied by incantations (magic) and, secondly, personification of the natural forces so that they might be placated with offerings (nature polytheism, the first stage of religion). Thus, the Dom's sign might be either avertive or reverent.
Science and technology bestow understanding and control. Electric light banishes not only darkness but also any real or imagined lurkers in the darkness. Society might now split between those who think that everything important either has become or is becoming known and those who recognize that the known remains surrounded by the unknown. Nevertheless, our response to the unknown is better informed than that of our earliest ancestors.
"A case could be made, I think, for the proposition that any humanly conceivable thinking creature will arrive at magic, and hence eventually at religion in some form, before he can arrive at scientific method, since the basic proposition of the one is, in essence, a less precise form of the other. The root assumption of sympathetic magic, as any reader of Pratt/de Camp/ (or Frazer) already knows, is 'Similar actions produce similar results.' The root assumption of scientific method might be stated in the same form: "Identical actions produce identical results.' The difference between the two assumptions, aside from the fact that the first does not work and the second does, is a matter of refinement of observation - and it is difficult to accept that any thinking creature, no matter how bug-eyed or many-tentacled, could so evolve as to arrive at the more precise formulation first. He may, of course, have outgrown the earlier faith, as we have not, but nevertheless traces of it would almost surely remain buried in his culture."
-William Atheling, Jr., The Issue At Hand (Chicago, 1967), pp. 49-50.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
No matter how wide our circle of knowledge might become, I think there will always be some things we don't know. But I hope adventurous and questing minds will continue striving to expand and enlarge that circle!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment