Tag Archives: Calculus

Fun with Math – NOT

Professor Loy writes about the Diamond Sutra and the logic form utilized by the teaching as:

A is not A, therefore it is A

So, “Purity is not purity; that is why it is purity.”

This is transformative as we come back to purity with a different approach as a result of the process.

This has a striking similarity to Hegel’s aufheben – sublation from thesis and antithesis.

It also makes me think of integration in Calculus:

A is not A, therefore it is C where C is equal to (I have to write this out without mathematical symbols due to limitations of text):

…the integral from minus infinity to plus infinity of A AND Not A (or A – A)

In math, the result would be zero or cancel each other out. For Hegel, the cancelation keeps or holds the terms vis-a-vis lifting them up, synthesis (transformation of the integral).

So, for all instances (or dynamics of) the master AND Not Master (or Slave), the successful integration results in full self-consciousness (or the dissolution of subject-object in social acceptance of authority and responsibility). The master and slave find their freedom only in their positive acceptance of their dependence.

In calculus differentiation takes us in the opposite direction from, in Hegelian terms, the synthesis to thesis and antithesis. Of course, not all functions have known solutions and some converge to a limit and some diverge towards plus or negative infinity. I guess in Hegel sometimes the master and slave kill each other and synthesis is never obtained. I suppose some bone head could work out the calculus of Hegel for their doctoral dissertation but…

I think I prefer Zen. Hegel gives me a headache.