Myth of Invariance : The Origin of the G

Mcclain, Ernest G.

ISBN 10: 0892540036 / ISBN 13: 9780892540037

Published by Nicolas Hays, 1982

About this Item

Condition: Very Good -; Hardcover, noj dustjacket. First Edition 1976. Brown cloth with white and orange printing and decoration. The book is in Good condition with clean covers and pages along with a tight binding. Front cover slightly bowed with some fading to spine. Photos upon request.

Seller Inventory # 1452132

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Myth of Invariance : The Origin of the G
• Publisher: Nicolas Hays
• Publication Date: 1982
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0892540036
• ISBN 13: 9780892540037
• Binding: hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket

About this title

Synopsis

Ernest McClain's book constitutes an intellectual breakthrough of utmost significance. It offers a persuasive explanation of crucial passages in texts of world literature - the Ṛg Veda, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Bible, Plato that have defied critics of the separate concerned disciplines. All these passages deal with numbers. What sounds like mathematical nonsense or literary gibberish has been given life and meaning by McClain's incisive thoughts. The recurrence, moreover, of identical and similar numbers in Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Palestine confirms ever growing speculations on the historical continuity and direction of a basic spiritual tradition. Dr. McClain's method is simple enough: he recognizes music as the one force capable of projecting a philosophic synthesis. For this approach he is not likely to learn the immediate approval and support of theologians, philosophers, philologists, mathematicians, and others who have become too specialized to view the whole rather than the detail. Nor is he likely to find on his side musicians who consider their art primarily a branch of amusement and musicologists who are instinctively afraid of numbers. Yet his approach, neglected for centuries, is anything but new. He learned it by taking Plato literally. Plato insists on the superior role of music in the education of the whole man. In antiquity musical symbolism was understood directly. When in the course of history the role of music as a spiritual force was increasingly sacrificed to that of individual expression or entertainment, the interpretation of once very clear texts suffered. McClain's great accomplishment lies in his recognition of music as the spiritual model par excellence throughout antiquity and in his courageous and self-critical application of this insight to other fields. He has provided philologists, philosophers, theologians, historians, mathematicians, and musicians with a sound basis for further explorations in their own fields