Willard Quine, the Harvard philosopher wrote that "physical objects are conceptually imported (into science) as irreducible posits, comparable, epistomologically, to the gods of Homer...For my part, I...believe in Physical objects and not in the gods of Homer". [1] Quine concludes that "pure mathematics" is the fundamental, irreducible foundation of our modern reality. He believes in 'pure' mathematics and Set Theory rather than Greek gods. The recognition that Greek Gods and mathematics at its 'highest' level have something in common is rather more honest than philosophers of science usually admit. But what is really explained by such a pronouncement? [2]

Quine probably thought he was expressing his allegiance to the reigning system of knowledge and belief that governs the Academy of today. What was the function of Greek gods? This is clear in Homer- the gods justified war and dictated standards of behavior, mostly for statesmen and warriors who then imposed these standards on the larger society, by force if necessary. The gods were beyond question and redressal, and thus as "disinterested" amoral abstractions, they could be used to justify and sustain elite powers and excuse the violence of their actions. Homer's gods are particularly brutal, bloody and conscienceless. Mathematical abstractions, harmless at the grocery store, as harmless as a little statue of a Greek god, become amoral justifications of elite business and governmental powers and excuse the violence committed against the innocent in the pursuit of power through knowledge.[3]

The relation of knowledge to violence is rather a close one. It is interesting to compare Homer, the Bible, the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita or Hindu scripture in general. They all justify cruelty, Holy War, and murder in the name of an abstract god. Killing people for minor infractions of moral laws or subjecting them to eternal punishment or the most gruesome eternal tortures because of supposed heresy or non-compliance with the dictated system of belief. Disinterested science and mathematics serves a similar function in our society to the Greek, Christian or Hindu gods: it absolves the system itself of ethical responsibility for acts of brutal aggression and cruelty.

[1] Check ref.............................

[2] Paul Feyerabend, much disliked by establishment scientists, takes a more relativistic view on this issue. He notes that he does "not assume and objective world unaffected by our espistemic {knowledge gaining] activities....we concede that our epistemic activities may have a decisive influence even upon the most solid piece of cosmological furniture- they do make gods disappear and replace them by heaps of matter in empty space". In other worlds a change in universal principles changes the world. It matters how we see the world and how we judge it and by what standards. Quine accepts the religion of science, Feyerabend questions it. Quine was an orthodox philosopher, Feyerabend a renegade, but the latter did much more to advocate equality and social justice, and this is of more important than Quine's high acedemic standing. ( see Feyerabend, Paul. Science in a Free Society. London: Verso 1978 pg. 70)

[3] The relation of knowledge to violence is rather a close one. It is interesting to compare religious scriptures from Homer to the Bible to the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita and the similar way they justify Holy War and murder in the name of god. Killing people for minor infractions of moral laws or subjecting them to eternal punishment because of supposed heresy or non compliance with the system of knowledge and power was common and in some places still is common, in each of these social environments. Threats of hell, often, if not always, end up being translated into cruel or murderous actions against those who are vilified.