Simplifying Complexity

14 Simple-minded simplicity of simples

One of my teachers in philosophy, Charner Perry, one day in class told me in a discussion with him that the key to understanding Hegel was that there are no simples. And if it is true that there are no simples, why then do we keep on trying to seek simplification and try to find even simpler simples than the things that we already think are so simply simple? Could it be that we innately distrust any notion of simplicity, for we are always inclined to question whether or not there is something even simpler than what we think of as simply simple?

Let me make a point about what geometers have thought geometric points to be. Starting with a straight edge and a divider or compass, using Greek proto-geometry, ...