© Gunnar Tómasson
19 May 2016
Epistemology¹
E=MC² sets forth in summary form the most general principle of Einstein’s work on relativistic physics. As such, it is the end product of deductive reasoning from a given set of axiomatic propositions. In and of itself, therefore, the equation is meaningless except as a statement of a conclusion which is implied by an underlying set of axioms. The dictionary definition of an axiom is ‟a statement or proposition on which an abstractly defined structure is based‟.
‟I take epistemology to be concerned with the validity of claims to knowledge – science”, I wrote to a correspondent in 2004. “All claims to scientific knowledge are the product of the mind’s processing of a sub-set of the universe of sense impressions. Thus, invalid claims to knowledge are the result either of mental malfunction or mis-specification of the sub-set in question.
In principle, invalid claims to knowledge may be the result of two distinct kinds of mental malfunction. The first kind – error in deductive reasoning from a given set of axiomatic premises – is easily caught. The other kind – error in the specification of axioms appropriate to a given sub-set – is the seed of scientific revolutions. (Planck, Einstein, et al.)
From the vantage point of epistemology, scientific revolution is mere label for correction of some gargantuan error of axiom specification. Hence Einstein’s comments in his August 1954 letter to [his friend] Michele Besso [referred to earlier]:
“I concede, however, that it is quite possible that physics cannot be founded on the concept of field – that is to say, on continuous elements. But then, out of my whole castle in the air – including the theory of gravitation [General Relativity], but also most of current physics – there would remain almost nothing.”
The Shakespeare Authorship Issue
“Science without epistemology is – insofar as it is thinkable at all – primitive and muddled.” (“Reply to Criticisms”, in “Albert Einstein, Philosopher-Scientist”, Cambridge University Press, 1988, p. 684.)
The Shakespeare Authorship Issue does not concern a distinction between “justified belief and opinion”. Instead, it continues to generate much “sound and fury” yet – as Mark Twain concluded in a book entitled Is Shakespeare Dead? – “signifying nothing”, as noted by an author cited by Wikipedia:
‟Though [Mark Twain’s book] is commonly assumed to be nothing more than a stale and embarrassing rehash of the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy, Twain was up to something more than flimsy literary criticism. He was using the debate over Shakespeare’s real identity to satirize prejudice, intolerance, and self-importance—in himself as well as others…. But after his passionate diatribe against the “Stratfordolators” and his vigorous support of the Baconians, he cheerfully admits that both sides are built on inference. Leaving no doubt about his satirical intent, Twain then gleefully subverts his entire argument. After seeming to be a serious, even angry, combatant, he denies that he intended to convince anyone that Shakespeare was not the real author of his works. “It would grieve me to know that any one could think so injuriously of me, so uncomplimentarily, so unadmiringly of me,” he writes mockingly. “Would I be so soft as that, after having known the human race familiarly for nearly seventy-four years?” We get our beliefs at second hand, he explains, “we reason none of them out for ourselves. It is the way we are made.” Twain has set a trap—an elaborate joke at the expense of what he scornfully refers to as the “Reasoning Race.” He is satirizing the need to win an argument when it is virtually impossible to convince anyone to change sides in almost any debate. His excessive rhetoric of attack is obviously absurd—calling the other side “thugs,” for example—yet it has been taken at face value.‟²
***
I. Ben Jonson’s Eulogy to Shakespeare
(First Folio, 1623)
1529523
11150 = To the memory of my beloved,
5329 = The AVTHOR
10685 = MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
867 = AND
9407 = what he hath left us.
17316 = To draw no envy (Shakespeare) on thy name,
13629 = Am I thus ample to thy Booke, and Fame:
20670 = While I confesse thy writings to be such,
19164 = As neither Man, nor Muse, can praise too much.
21369 = ‘Tis true, and all mens suffrage. But these wayes
20516 = Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise;
17686 = For seeliest Ignorance on these may light,
23213 = Which, when it sounds at best, but eccho’s right;
17565 = Or blinde Affection, which doth ne’re advance
19375 = The truth, but gropes, and urgeth all by chance;
18692 = Or crafty Malice, might pretend this praise,
19456 = And thinke to ruine, where it seem’d to raise.
18294 = These are, as some infamous Baud, or Whore,
23199 = Should praise a Matron: – What could hurt her more?
18170 = But thou art proofe against them, and indeed
16465 = Above th’ill fortune of them, or the need.
16324 = I, therefore, will begin. Soule of the Age!
20370 = The applause! delight! the wonder of our Stage!
18434 = My Shakespeare, rise! I will not lodge thee by
16611 = Chaucer or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lye
15597 = A little further, to make thee a roome:
17952 = Thou art a Moniment, without a tombe,
19673 = And art alive still, while thy Booke doth live,
19194 = And we have wits to read, and praise to give.
18259 = That I not mixe thee so, my braine excuses, –
22232 = I meane with great, but disproportion’d Muses;
19760 = For if I thought my judgement were of yeeres,
21584 = I should commit thee surely with thy peeres,
23104 = And tell, how farre thou didst our Lily out-shine,
19727 = Or sporting Kid, or Marlowes mighty line.
21016 = And though thou hadst small Latine, and lesse Greeke,
21296 = From thence to honour thee, I would not seeke
20635 = For names; but call forth thund’ring Æschilus,
14527 = Euripides, and Sophocles to us,
15939 = Paccuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead,
15425 = To life againe, to heare thy Buskin tread
19665 = And shake a Stage: Or, when thy Sockes were on,
14842 = Leave thee alone for the comparison
18781 = Of all that insolent Greece or haughtie Rome
20033 = Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come.
21540 = Triumph, my Britaine, thou hast one to showe
18910 = To whom all Scenes of Europe homage owe.
14789 = He was not of an age, but for all time!
19879 = And all the Muses still were in their prime,
17867 = When, like Apollo, he came forth to warme
16143 = Our eares, or like a Mercury to charme!
19768 = Nature her selfe was proud of his designes,
18609 = And joy’d to weare the dressing of his lines!
22712 = Which were so richly spun, and woven so fit,
20715 = As, since, she will vouchsafe no other Wit.
16006 = The merry Greeke, tart Aristophanes,
22701 = Neat Terence, witty Plautus, now not please;
12944 = But antiquated, and deserted lye,
15906 = As they were not of Natures family.
17575 = Yet must I not give Nature all; Thy Art,
16885 = My gentle Shakespeare, must enjoy a part:
17709 = For though the Poets matter, Nature be,
16202 = His Art doth give the fashion. And, that he,
24373 = Who casts to write a living line, must sweat
18045 = (such as thine are) and strike the second heat
17403 = Upon the Muses anvile: turne the same,
19618 = (And himselfe with it) that he thinkes to frame;
16266 = Or, for the lawrell, he may gaine a scorne,
15633 = For a good Poet’s made, as well as borne.
21914 = And such wert thou. Looke how the fathers face
15715 = Lives in his issue, even so, the race
20651 = Of Shakespeares minde and manners brightly shines
17328 = In his well torned and true-filed lines:
15712 = In each of which, he seemes to shake a Lance,
14757 = As brandish’t at the eyes of Ignorance.
21616 = Sweet Swan of Avon! what a sight it were
17318 = To see thee in our waters yet appeare,
19678 = And make those flights upon the bankes of Thames,
14184 = That so did take Eliza and our James!
15161 = But stay, I see thee in the Hemisphere
14530 = Advanc’d, and made a Constellation there!
22500 = Shine forth, thou Starre of Poets, and with rage
19541 = Or influence, chide or cheere the drooping Stage;
24007 = Which, since thy flight frō hence, hath mourn’d like night,
18824 = And despaires day, but for thy Volumes light.
4692 = BEN: IONSON
1529523
II + III + IV = 511378 + 1027983 – 9838 = 1529523
II. Edward de Vere/Oxenford’s Imperfect Book
(Letter to Robert Cecil)
511378
9205 = My very good brother,
11119 = yf my helthe hadd beene to my mynde
20978 = I wowlde have beene before this att the Coorte
16305 = as well to haue giuen yow thankes
15468 = for yowre presence at the hearinge
15274 = of my cause debated as to have moued her M
10054 = for her resolutione.
23461 = As for the matter, how muche I am behouldinge to yow
22506 = I neede not repeate but in all thankfulnes acknowlege,
13131 = for yow haue beene the moover &
14231 = onlye follower therofe for mee &
19082 = by yowre onlye meanes I have hetherto passed
13953 = the pykes of so many adversaries.
16856 = Now my desyre ys. Sythe them selues
15903 = whoo have opposed to her M ryghte
17295 = seeme satisfisde, that yow will make
13212 = the ende ansuerabel to the rest
16549 = of yowre moste friendlye procedinge.
12363 = For I am aduised, that I may passe
22634 = my Booke from her Magestie yf a warrant may be procured
21532 = to my Cosen Bacon and Seriant Harris to perfet yt.
25516 = Whiche beinge doone I know to whome formallye to thanke
16614 = but reallye they shalbe, and are from me, and myne,
23196 = to be sealed up in an aeternall remembran&e to yowreselfe.
18733 = And thus wishinge all happines to yow,
13574 = and sume fortunat meanes to me,
19549 = wherby I myght recognise soo diepe merites,
13775 = I take my leave this 7th of October
11101 = from my House at Hakney 1601.
15668 = Yowre most assured and louinge
4605 = Broother
7936 = Edward Oxenford
511378
III. Shakespeares Sonnets
(1609)
1027983
Alpha – I and II
19985 = From fairest creatures we desire increase,
18119 = That thereby beauties Rose might neuer die,
16058 = But as the riper should by time decease,
15741 = His tender heire might beare his memory:
22210 = But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,
25851 = Feed’st thy lights flame with selfe substantiall fewell,
14093 = Making a famine where aboundance lies,
22081 = Thy selfe thy foe, to thy sweet selfe too cruell:
23669 = Thou that art now the worlds fresh ornament,
15027 = And only herauld to the gaudy spring,
21957 = Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
18648 = And, tender chorle, makst wast in niggarding:
20168 = Pitty the world, or else this glutton be,
18054 = To eate the worlds due, by the graue and thee.
271661
22191 = When fortie Winters shall beseige thy brow,
16472 = And digge deep trenches in thy beauties field,
20500 = Thy youthes proud liuery so gaz’d on now,
19497 = Wil be a totter’d weed of smal worth held:
17451 = Then being askt, where all thy beautie lies,
19311 = Where all the treasure of thy lusty daies;
20498 = To say within thine owne deepe sunken eyes
21834 = How much more praise deseru’d thy beauties vse,
22077 = If thou couldst answere this faire child of mine
17540 = Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse
19210 = Proouing his beautie by succession thine.
21619 = This were to be new made when thou art ould,
22848 = And see thy blood warme when thou feel’st it could.
261048
Omega – CLIII and CLIV
13228 = Cvpid laid by his brand and fell a sleepe,
13445 = A maide of Dyans this aduantage found,
18187 = And his loue-kindling fire did quickly steepe
18007 = In a could vallie-fountaine of that ground:
20891 = Which borrowd from this holie fire of loue,
16961 = A datelesse liuely heat still to indure,
19450 = And grew a seething bath which yet men proue,
18055 = Against strang malladies a soueraigne cure:
19283 = But at my mistres eie loues brand new fired,
21662 = The boy for triall needes would touch my brest,
16374 = I sick withall the helpe of bath desired,
15780 = And thether hied a sad distemperd guest.
18172 = But found no cure, the bath for my helpe lies,
19223 = Where Cupid got new fire; my mistres eye.
248718
15579 = The little Loue-God lying once a sleepe,
14878 = Laid by his side his heart inflaming brand,
22758 = Whilst many Nymphes that vou’d chast life to keep,
14399 = Came tripping by, but in her maiden hand,
17635 = The fayrest votary tooke vp that fire,
20156 = Which many Legions of true hearts had warm’d,
12929 = And so the Generall of hot desire,
15303 = Was sleeping by a Virgin hand disarm’d.
16961 = This brand she quenched in a coole Well by,
20944 = Which from loues fire tooke heat perpetuall,
14642 = Growing a bath and healthfull remedy,
18706 = For men diseasd, but I my Mistrisse thrall,
18170 = Came there for cure and this by that I proue,
23496 = Loues fire heates water, water cooles not loue.
246556
III = 271661 + 261048 + 248718 + 246556 = 1027983
IV. Starre of Poets Shines Forth/Brute Man Overcomes Himself
Alias Diseas’d Tri-Unite Christopher Morley
(Augustan-Saga-Shakespeare Myth)
-9838
-2568 = Alföðr/Allfather
-4469 = Asmodeus/Co-Builder of Solomon´s Temple³
-2801 = Penis
-9838 = Christopher Morley
***
Calculator for converting letters to cipher values is at:
http://www.light-of-truth.com/ciphersaga.htm
¹ Dictionary definition: the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope. Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.
²Lystra, Karen. Dangerous Intimacy: The Untold Story of Mark Twain’s Final Years, University of California Press, 2004, pp. 161, 308n.
³Asmodeus is a king of demons mostly known from the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit, in which he is the primary antagonist. The demon is also mentioned in some Talmudic legends; for instance, in the story of the construction of the Temple of Solomon. He was supposed by some Renaissance Christians to be the King of the Nine Hells. Asmodeus also is referred to as one of the seven princes of Hell. In Binsfeld’s classification of demons, each one of these princes represents one of the seven deadly sins (Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride). Asmodeus is the demon of lust and is therefore responsible for twisting people’s sexual desires. (Wikipedia)
Gunnar Tómasson
