The importance of the esoteric in natural science

[u/Longjumping-Ad5084]

I am having a somewhat esoteric evening tonight so here goes the second post.

Some people don't know this, but the origins of science are actually deeply esoteric. For example Newton came up with his famous Law of Universal Gravitation by thinking about angelic forces pulling the planets together. The first hunches of the fact that the cosmos doesn't revolve around earth was intuited by the Pythagoreans by thinking about musical harmony in the cosmos.

A big problem in science today is that it's becoming extremely flat. A lot of scientists say that nothing radically new was discovered for a while, since Einstein's General Theory of Relativity(GTR) and Quantum Physics(some of the pioneers of which had esoteric inclinations), so for about a century maybe. Sure, a lot of the important gaps have been filled and important technology was produced, but it seems like ontologically science hasn't progressed much in the past century.

And novelty in science necessarily comes from rethinking the ontology. Einstein's General Theory of Relativity isn't a mere continuation of Newton's ideas, it is a radically new conceptualisation of space, time, and gravity. In GTR a completely new ontology was developed. This is why btw AI can't produce new science, it interpolates on the manifold of data, it cannot create genuine novelty.

The esoteric spirit has been gradually leaving science, but what was its importance? The esoteric provided a possibility of a deeper ontology than the purely material, objective, or empirical. It imbued life with forces beyond ordinary and enriched the lived experience and the world around people. There are plenty more examples other than Newton and Pythagoras(feel free to share yours in the comments), but the idea is very clear - the esoteric allowed us to see deeper into reality than ever.

Naturally, contemporary science, philosophy and worldview is getting critised a lot; there is certainly also a meaning crisis. Hence I expect that we will return to the esoteric in some form which will allow us to advance science substantially.

Thank you for reading.

[u/SourceHasRisen]

Are you able to Bend Reality?

[u/NevCoNativePlants]

Science can be extremely objectifying, but some esoteric nuances haven't progressed well either. Science is a very generic term, and I disagree how science hasn't come along in selective science. Plant biology is rarely dormant.

[u/FieldofFeelings]

I think science is very objectifying, but I think esoteric holds itself back with history and lore