It’s an interesting theory – and one worthy of such a supposedly “scientific” philosopher.

Kennedy says the hidden codes show that Plato anticipated the Scientific Revolution 2,000 years before Isaac Newton, discovering its most important concept – that nature is written in the language of mathematics. Kennedy further says the decoded messages open up a surprising way to unite science and religion because the awe and beauty we feel in nature, Plato says, shows that it is divine and discovering the scientific order of nature is getting closer to God.

Whew. Good thing that whole culture war between science and religion can end now.

“Plato’s books played a major role in founding Western culture but they are mysterious and end in riddles,” Kennedy says. “In antiquity, many of his followers said the books contained hidden layers of meaning and secret codes, but this was rejected by modern scholars. It is a long and exciting story, but basically I cracked the code. I have shown rigorously that the books do contain codes and symbols and that unraveling them reveals the hidden philosophy of Plato.

“This is a true discovery, not simply reinterpretation.”

If so, it will change perception of the early history of Western thought, including the histories of ancient science, mathematics, music, and philosophy.

Kennedy spent five years studying Plato’s writing and and says he found that in his best-known work “The Republic”, Plato placed clusters of words related to music after each twelfth of the text – at one-twelfth, two-twelfths, etc. This regular pattern represented the twelve notes of a Greek musical scale. Some notes were harmonic, others dissonant. At the locations of the harmonic notes he described sounds associated with love or laughter, while the locations of dissonant notes were marked with screeching sounds or war or death. This musical code was key to cracking Plato’s entire symbolic system.

Why, in five years, hasn’t Kennedy tested his own theory? I’m as skeptical as this blogger. But, I have to ask, is the Templeton Foundation behind this?

Listen to this ~40 minute conversation.

Filed under: Academia, Podcasts, Religion, Science Tagged: jau kennedy, mathematics, music, plato, pythagoras