Talk:Involution
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[edit] Religious stuff (not math)
I removed this from the main page as it has not context. We need to say who believes this, what religion (if any) these beliefs are a part of, etc etc. Probably beter if it lives in its own article.
(As developed by Sri Aurobindo:)
The process by which the Divine manifest the cosmos is called the Involution. The process by which that which was created rises to higher states and states of consciousness is the evolution. The Involution is essentially up to the point of the Big Bang; the Evolution is from that point forward.
After the creation, the Divine (i.e. the Absolute, Brahman, God; all these essentially mean the same thing) is both the One (the Creator) and the Many (that which was created).
--
The process by which the Many is created from out the Absolute is called the Involution. Once that process ends, the process of Evolution begins. In essence the evolution begins with creation (the Big Bang being a stage) and continues with all that follows.
The involution is the process by which the Absolute manifest the creation, the universe. It is the process by which the Many emerged from the One as a universe of divided, ignorant forms. The involution is that which occurred that enabled the creation, the universe, the cosmos to manifest from out of the Original Principle, the Divine, God, the Absolute. Involution is the process of self-limitation, of densification, by which the Absolute, Brahman veils itself by stages until it assumes the appearance in the cosmos, the universe we know of. It wishes to create the universe to objectify itself and its spiritual properties in infinite possibilities, for the purpose of delight of discovery which it will achieve thereafter.
The evolution is the movement forward by which the created universe evolves from its initial state of divided, ignorant forms, emerges as Life and Mind, and in that process rediscovers its Source. The evolution occurs after the involution. It is the development and progressive movement of all in the cosmos, including humans, to attain its fulfillment, including rediscovery in delight of the spiritual aspect, that Consciousness-Force, that was the source of the creation. The evolution is the progressive development from the first inconscience in matter into life (movement, sensation, etc. and living physical beings), to mind (in conscious being, animals, including the human, the self-conscious thinking animal), to spiritualized mind, culminating in Supermind, Truth Consciousness (as supramental individuals, leading to a supramental, i.e. a divine life on earth.)
DJ Clayworth 15:28, 26 Jan 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Transpositions
This statement is false:
- A permutation is an involution precisely if it is a transposition.
(1 2)(3 4) is an involution, but it is not a transposition (at least according to the definition on the Wikipedia transposition page). I've changed it. -- Walt Pohl 21:20, 7 Dec 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Old meaning of involution
In the edit summary of 09:58, 28 June 2007 (diff), JRSpriggs wrote: ... involution is an old name for exponentiation; evolution is the old name for extracting a root. The web page on Involution (How to find square roots by hand), linked from the article, on the other hand says: ... Involution, or extracting a square root, ... Can this be resolved? — If involution is an old name for exponentiation (rather than root extraction), the external link should be removed. In either case, could the old meaning be referenced and mentioned in the article? -- LBehounek 23:25, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
- Look "involution" and "evolution" up in a good dictionary. Also see Exponentiation, where it says:
- Another historical synonym, involution,< ref >This definition of "involution" appears in the OED second edition, 1989, and Merriam-Webster online dictionary [1]. The most recent usage in this sense cited by the OED is from 1806.< /ref > is now rare and should not be confused with its more common meaning.
- OK? JRSpriggs 05:34, 2 July 2007 (UTC)
