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Stephen Hawking: The Infinite Man & The Grand Design

Tara Kangarlou |
September 22, 2010 | 11:22 a.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

The origin of the universe, the infinite mind of man, and the infinite nature of the universe have always been a topic of interest for scientists, physicists, astronauts, mathematicians, authors, artists and theologists.

Over two hundred years ago William Blake, at the dawn of the Romantic era and the French

revolution, wrote about the infinite nature of the universe and its independence from God. In his recent book Grand Design, scientist Stephen Hawking (who stepped down last fall as the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, a position once held by Sir Isaac Newton, the father of physics himself) has expressed ideas in the same vein.

The central claim of Hawking’s book is that the theory of quantum physics and the theory of relativity together help us understand how the universe could have formed out of nothing, while Blake's central purpose, in all his poetry, copper plates and prose, is to show how the mind and one’s infinite imagination holds the key to the answers of the world, without any need for the didactic forces of power and authority.

Art is a tool, a critiquing factor that allows the human mind to expand its horizons and move away from the confining forces of its surrounding. So it allows unlimited thinking, self-reflexive introspection and a tendency towards high imagination. The negation of authority is visible in of all Blake's work, even his plates. For each poem Blake created several copies and versions that were different from each other; thus, even in the process of creating, he contradicted the concepts of the“master” and the “copy” and tried to eliminate the power of “creator” over the creation.

Blake writes and depicts his art subversively towards authority figures that hinder the achievement of the infinite man. In doing so he not only supports his original claim that it is the desire of man to be infinite, but aligns his poetry and art to confirm that man has already achieved the infinite, and only needs to gain the knowledge and freedom to posses the infinite.

The theory of the infinite man is complex. It is not a linear argument that has a specific conclusion of what it means for man to be infinite; yet this circular ideology that has no absolute definition is the central aspect of how one can be an infinite man, because as man comes to the realization that Godhood, self-authority, unconditional knowledge and perspective flows through his veins, he leaves behind the restraints of the “natural organs” and exists without the restraints of autocratic authority. God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is.

The Divine Image, one of Blake’s poems, is a fascinating example of how these godly virtues symbolize human aspects. Blake takes away the importance of God and turns man into the image of God himself; allowing for the infinite man to be unbound and liberated from obeying celestial laws.

Hawking similarly highlights the confinements of the world and explores the roots of our existence.. He too negates the idea of this 'great creator' known as God. In cases where Blake used his inverse printing methods, or his indirect poetry and penmanship, Hawking uses science, physics, and mathematics and ultimately proves that, in fact, the universe is the product of itself and the infinite does exist.

Both believe that man is the source of destruction and is capable of destroying himself, humanity, and the universe; this is while being limited to confined matters, such as religion, authorities, social and political submission and many other finite earthly matters. Blake explains this idea in the context of the “infinite imagination”, where one explores his infinite self through the infinite mind and imagination, via Urizen, a blind, God-like figure in his 1793 works, the First Book of Urizen and Songs of Experience, where without exploring the endless possibilities of the universe, man does not use the infinite imagination and thus blindly accedes to the confining rules of some authoritative force. On the other hand, Hawking frames this concept within science and proves it through formulas that explain the origin of the universe and the infinite nature of man and the world. For him, the authoritative force is the lack of science and the irrational belief in the existence of a supernatural being that created the cosmos.

Blake is like Hawking in that he does not write, engrave, and paint simply to deny God. But he doesn’t verify him either, and directs his work to the idea of man’s infinite mind and the limitlessness of the universe, which in and of itself denies the existence of God. Science plays the same role for Hawking as the idea of an infinite imagination does for Blake. For both men, the universe came to existence without the need for a higher authoritative force.

Blake and Hawking have at two very different times and with distinct backgrounds spent their entire lives answering the question of man’s existence and through different methods reached the same conclusion: that man is infinite, as is the universe, and thus both are simultaneously growing and affecting one another independent of a supernatural being. These are ideas that have managed to put aside the concept of God, the creator, an ideology that forever has been limiting and confining man.

 

Reach reporter Tara Kangarlou here.

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