Musical epistemology

In Quest of Mnemonic Catalysts -- for comprehension of complex psychosocial dynamics (Part #15)

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The epistemological challenge of each of the attractors -- prior to any perspectives of a higher order -- may be usefully seen in the light of the work of Ernest G McLain (The Myth of Invariance: the origins of the Gods, Mathematics and Music from the Rg Veda to Plato, 1976; The Pythagorean Plato: prelude to the song itself, 1978). McLain (1976) notably remarks on the study by Antonio de Nicolas (Meditations through the Rg Veda: four-dimensional man, 1978) :

The four Rgvedic "languages" de Nicolas defines have their counterparts in the foundation of all theories of music. His "language of Non-Existence" (Asat) is exemplified by the pitch continuum within each musical interval as well as by the whole undifferentiated gamut -- chaos - - from low to high. His "language of Existence" (Sat) is exemplified by every tone, by every distinction of pitch, thus ultimately by every number which defines an interval, a scale, a tuning system, or the associated metric schemes of the poets, which are quite elaborate in the Rg Veda.

The "language of Images and Sacrifice" (Yajna) is exemplified by the multitude of alternate tone-sets and the conflict of alternate values which always results in some accuracy being "sacrificed" to keep the system within manageable limits. The "language of Embodied Vision" is required to protect the validity of alternate tuning systems and alternate metric schemes by refusing to grant dominion to any one of them". The embodiment of Rg Vedic man was understood... as an effort at integrating the languages of Asat, Sat and Yajna to reach the dhih, the effective viewpoint, which would make these worlds continue in their efficient embodiment.

Given the extensive focus of Steve Farmer, John B Henderson and Michael Witzel (Neurobiology, Layered Texts and Correlative Cosmologies: a cross-cultural framework for pre-modern history. Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 72, 2000 [2002], pp. 48-90) on neurobiology, the subsequent work of de Nicolas (The Biocultural Paradigm: the neural connection between science and mysticism, Experimental Gerontology, 33, 1997, 1/2), in collaboration with Maria M. Colavito (The Heresy of Oedipus and the Mind/Mind Split: a study of the biocultural origins of civilization, 1995), suggests the expansion of the focus of the study by Farmer et al. The biocultural paradigm notably relates these Vedic languages to 5 epistemologically invariant styles (maia, mythos, right brain mimesis, left brain mimesis, and logos), themselves associated with 5 features of the brain (reptilian, limbic, right and left hemisphere, and the interpreter module).

Clearly the question is whether and how the four languages, and their corresponding neurological modules, could be related to the four attractors. Presumably characterics suggestively associated with the parabolic form could be usefully associated with what, in Rg Vedic terms, is named (above) as the dhih. This might otherwise be understood as analogous to a triple point phase transition.

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