From a lecture in a dream: “There are laws that govern the Sun and the Moon, but what is the law of France? Therefore, the study of France is not a totalizing science.”
This was all said in English, but I suspect a Chinese pun underlies it: 法學 means “law” as an academic subject (what is taught in law school), but due to the polysemy of the first character, it could also be read as “the study of France.”
3 comments:
A "Study" of France would seem to be a direct reference to Tom B's House or Study. That two Beings potentially linking to the Stone Couriers showed up in your dream as the Background Brethren would be consistent with that view.
The use of the words "Totalizing Science" seems awkward enough to have some reason for their use. You have any thoughts on this?
My understanding in the dream was that a totalizing science was something like geometry or physics, which aims to discover laws of the universal applicability, and that a cultural-linguistic-historical entity like “France” has no such laws. My dreaming mind connected this with the “free man” etymology behind the name France, free because it is bound by the laws of no totalizing science.
The original mention of the Sun and Moon and laws governing them brings to mind the Celestial and Terrestrial Kingdoms. Joseph Smith's writings indicated that these kingdoms are/ will be governed by laws, and that the Beings who would live there must abide by those laws.
This may tie into the question, then, of "But what is the law of France". France, and the Study that is perhaps there, is part of our world. LDS Temple patrons have learned that our current world is the Telestial Kingdom (i.e., "the world in which we now live").
One answer to the lecturer's question may simply be "the law of the Telestial Kingdom". That answer would fit with the concept of something not being a "totalizing science", as the Telestial Kingdom's "Law" is different or unique in that it is not universal within that kingdom.
Whereas residents of the Celestial and Terrestrial Kingdoms are envisioned as all abiding in the same glory and knowledge within their respective kingdoms, residents of the Telestial Kingdom are compared to stars specifically for the reason that their relative glories differ from each other "for as one star differs from another star in glory, even so differs one from another in glory in the telestial world".
As you mention, "Totalizing" means something like "treating disparate parts as having one character, principle, or application' (from Oxford Languages). Science is a word that means things like "Knowledge, learning, information, intelligence", etc., and in LDS writings, knowledge and intelligence has been made synonymous with glory.
So, it would make sense on one level to talk of Celestial and Terrestrial Kingdoms as having Totalizing Science. The unique Beings, or "disparate parts", of that Kingdom share the same Glory or Knowledge. The residents of the Telestial Kingdom are not this way, however, with every Being having a different Glory or Knowledge from that of other Beings. This would fit the definition of "not a totalizing science".
Interestingly, "Science", in its original Latin verb, apparently means "to separate one thing from another, to distinguish" and "to cut, divide". Perhaps a play on words for other things. Tom B/ Ki-Abroam, who resides in the Study, was responsible for cutting or separating the worlds with his Magic Axe. Further, the work and Word that will come from the Study will be part of the the Great and Marvelous Work in which, as Nephi says, God will cause "a great division among the people", and that this division will be everlasting.
In other words, the Science or Knowledge found in the Study of France is not meant to "totalize", but rather to distinguish and separate, specifically in relation to Wheat and Tares as found in our world.
Post a Comment