“We now apply these laws of mental processes, to which the explanation of our own inner consciousness leads, to explain the order and adaptation observed on the earth, i. e., to explain Being and historical development.”

—  Bernhard Riemann

Gesammelte Mathematische Werke (1876)

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Bernhard Riemann 43
German mathematician 1826–1866

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“An immediate consequence of these principles of explanation is that the souls of organic beings, i. e., the compacts of mind-masses, arisen during life, continue to exist after death. (Their isolated persistence is not sufficient). But in order to explain the orderly development of organic nature in which the earlier collected experiences obviously serve as basis for the later creations, it is necessary to assume that these mind-masses enter into a greater compact of mind-masses, the Earth-Soul, and that these serve a higher soul-life according to the same laws as the mind-masses engendered in our nerve-processes observe in their service of our own soul-life.”

Bernhard Riemann (1826–1866) German mathematician

Gesammelte Mathematische Werke (1876)

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“The adaptation observed in men, animals and plants… one part of this adaptation is explained from a thought-process in the interior of these bodies… another part, however, the adaptation of the organism, by a thought-process in a greater whole.”

Bernhard Riemann (1826–1866) German mathematician

Gesammelte Mathematische Werke (1876)

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“In reality the cycles we have the occasion to observe are generally not damped. How can the maintenance of the swings be explained? Have theses dynamic laws deduced from theory and showing damped oscillations no value in explaining the real phenomena, or in what respect do the dynamic laws need to be completed in order to explain the real happenings? They (dynamic laws) only form one element of the explanation: they solve the propagation problem. But the impulse problem remains.”

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“From the standpoint of exact natural science, of the explanation of nature from causes, the assumption of an earth-soul is… an hypothesis for the explanation of Being and of the historical development of the organic world.”

Bernhard Riemann (1826–1866) German mathematician

Gesammelte Mathematische Werke (1876)

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“I think what Kafka does is give a purely mechanical explanation of that complex machine in the story, as sort of a substitute for explaining the situation we're in. What I mean is … " I have to give it some more thought. "What I mean is, that's his own device for explaining the kind of lives we lead. Not by talking about our situation, but by talking about the details of the machine.”

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“If something has an explanation, you can explain it. If it has no explanation, you should explain why you cannot explain it.”

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“What I’ve observed—the pattern behind what I’ve observed—explains why what happens happens the way it does. It makes the whole process easier to see. Your idea is a possible explanation not of the observations but of a set of speculations, which, if you accepted them along with the explanation, would then only make you start seeing things and half-things where no things are.”

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“Physical processes alone will never completely explain the existence of the universe, life, and consciousness.”

Peter J. Carroll (1953) British occultist

Source: Liber Null & Psychonaut (1987), p. 151
Context: Physical processes alone will never completely explain the existence of the universe, life, and consciousness. Religious answers are just wishful thinking and wanton fabrication cast over a bottomless pit of ignorance. To explain their occult and mystical experiences, magicians are forced to develop models beyond the scope of materialistic or religious systems.

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“It is absurd to assume that upon the rigid earth-crust the organic originated from the inorganic. In order to explain the nascence of the lowest organisms on the earth-crust, one must assume an already existing organising principle or a thought-process, under conditions that would render organic combinations impossible. We must accordingly assume that these conditions are valid only for the life-process in the actual state of the earth's surface, and only so far as we can explain them may we estimate the possibility of life-processes under other conditions.”

Bernhard Riemann (1826–1866) German mathematician

Gesammelte Mathematische Werke (1876)

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“Marxist philosophy holds that the most important problem does not lie in understanding the laws of the objective world and thus being able to explain it, but in applying the knowledge of these laws actively to change the world.”

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