A circle with the center everywhere April 3, 2008
Posted by Alexandre Borovik in Uncategorized.trackback
A collection of quotes:
Hermes Trismegistus, “thrice-great Hermes” “God is an infinite sphere, the center of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere.” Book of the 24 Philosophers.
Alain of Lille “God is an intelligible sphere, whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere.”
Pascal: “The whole visible world is only an imperceptible atom in the ample bosom of nature. No idea approaches it. We may enlarge our conceptions beyond all imaginable space; we only produce atoms in comparison with the reality of things. It is an infinite sphere, the center of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere. In short, it is the greatest sensible mark of the almighty power of God that imagination loses itself in that thought.”
Also apparently, “Let him contemplate all nature in its awful and finished magnificence; let him observe that splendid luminary, set forth as an eternal lamp to enlighten the universe; let him view the earth as a mere speck within the vast circuit described by that luminary; let him think with amazement, that this vast circuit itself is only a minute point , compared with that formed by the revolutions of the stars…All that we see in of the creation, is but an almost imperceptible streak in the vast expanse of the universe. No idea can approximate its immense extent…This is an infinite sphere, the center of which is everywhere, but its circumference nowhere. In short, it is one of the greatest sensible evidences of the almightiness of God, that our imagination is overwhelmed by these reflections.”
In “Pascal’s Sphere,” Borges’ narrator lists dozens of variations of a single image, a circle that stands alternately single image, a circle that stands alternately for God, nature, the universe, infinity. Culminating his enumeration is Pascal’s image for the universe: “an infinite sphere, the center of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere.” Indeed, Borges himself adds to the list in his story “The Library of Babel,” the Library is described as “a sphere whose exact center is anyone of its hexagons and whose circumference is inaccessible” (Labyrinths 52).
According to Borges, Pascal hated “the universe. He was sorry the firmament could not speak; he compared our lives to those of shipwrecked men on a desert island … and he expressed his fillings [saying nature] is an infinite sphere, the center of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere.”
[Seems to me from the quotations, especially the second, that Borges had Pascal wrong.--D.C.]
dcorfield
Alexandre Borovik
David Pierce
A quick google search will also lead to places attributing that idea to Voltaire and Empedocles. I myself thought it was something Spinoza had said.
The moral of the story seems to be that that idea is voiced everywhere, but originated nowhere.
And whose quote is that? [Idea is voiced everywhere, but originated nowhere.]
Apparently Dietrich Mahnke’s book “Beitrage zur Genealogie der mathematischen Mystik” traces the history of the metaphor which compares God to an infinite sphere without center…
[...] third example is the idea of God as a circle whose centre is everywhere. I had it in my head that this was due to Spinoza, though it certainly seems to pop up in a variety [...]
Beg pardon, but seems to me that if we are talking about a sphere, it should have a surface rather than a mere circumference. Or in this case, no surface which = “surface is nowhere.” Yes, there is a circumference, but that applies only to a two-dimensional cross-section of the sphere, a circle. The proper boundary of a sphere would be its surface. I suspect the phrase originated in reference to an “infinite circle” and was later adapted to describe a sphere, with the word “circumference” retained by mistake.
With love under will,
Bob, Adastra,
The Wizzard of Jacksonville
A way for mortals to perceive the infinite is to see it as a circle which is a line without end or a sphere which is a surface without end.
We cannot perceive any more steps in this, yet, until we travel far enough in space to reach our starting point.
No thing in the universe is infinite.
If we determine some thing is infinite then that’s the sorrow of science.
Defining every thing is the victory of science.
No thing can be infinite.
No thing “in” the universe is infinite. True. That the universe itself is not infinite remains to be proven or dis-proven. Our vision (electromagnetic, or visual light), is approximately 13.8 billion light years. Who knows what lies beyond that? Theories abound. But a thousand theories pale in the light of one observable fact that can be replicated.
Insert words “limited to” between “is” and “approximately”. Shows what happens when you use the computer before you have a cup of coffee. Sorry!
How could you SO COMPLETELY misread Borges and Pascal?? I’ve read “Pascal’s Sphere” (twice) and PENSEES. Borges could not have been more right. Look again.
PS — There is no “narrator” in “Pascal’s Sphere”; it is an essay NOT a work of fiction. The “narrator” is Borges himself.
PPS — If you drop by my website you’ll see a brief note on Pascal & one of his pensees.
Ah … I see. Sorry. It seems you’ve misread Pascal because you haven’t actually read Pascal–aside from these two quotes. You’d have to read all or most of “The Pensees” to see why Borges is dead on: “He [Pascal] hated the universe and yearned to adore God. But God was less real to him [Pascal] than the hated universe.” Borges also has an essay called “Pascal” that you would probably find useful in this regard. Sorry for leaping to conclusions.
[...] microcosm of the self and the macrocosm are united in this symbol. The metaxis is the center of the circle whose center is everywhere and circumference is nowhere as the Hermetic axiom goes. The symbol of the circle with the point at the center is found in many [...]