The theme of this calendar week ’s episode of Cosmos is light , both literal and metaphorical . Carl Sagan excellently called science a “ candle in the dark , ” illuminating the human nous with the knowledge carry by evidence - based reasoning .
Tyson ’s story of light begins with Mo Tsu , the ancient Chinese philosopher who discovered the principle of tv camera obscura . Mo Tsu , Tyson say us , used his understanding to battle all forms of darkness . He was a military genius who used his art to prevent vehemence and make peacefulness , he advocate general passion , an end to impoverishment and government by the people .
Mo Tsu was popular , but a few centuries after his death , his writing were banned by Emperor Chin , along with the writings of Confucius and other free mind . The scarey essence of Emperor Chin ’s philosophical system , call “ legalism , ” establishes a pattern of darkness that can only be banished by Sagan ’s cd .
Tyson ’s second master of light is Ibn al Hasan , who notice that light travels in straight lines . Al Hasan lived in a sentence when the Muslim earthly concern was evolve advanced notion of maths and science and thrived on curiosity and cerebral exemption . To this 24-hour interval , our science is a parade of Al ’s , from algebra to algorithms , alchemy to alcohol , all deduct from Arabic sources . Al Hasan himself suggested mistake - set mechanism for dribble our bias out of our quest for the truth .
The contrast with the modern Arabic world could n’t be more profound . It stand as a warning to our own culture that there is no scientific end zone , no last accomplishment , no moon landing place or split atom that guarantees our safety from the dark of dogmatical thought .
As Tyson persist in the narrative of light through Newton ’s discovery of the spectrum , to William Herschel ’s discovery of infrared radiotherapy , to Joseph von Fraunhofer ’s optics and the discovery of chemical spectroscopy , we see again why science is not just another worldview , not just one opinion floating among equals , but a vital window into the creation that we do n’t just inhabit , but that constitutes our very nature .
When Tyson chokes up over the retelling of find which repose the foundation for his own life story ’s work in astrophysics , we are cue ( in the words of another bully philosopher ) that luminous beings are we , indeed .
cosmos
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