Ahhh, tis Thursday and time for another installment of Schopenhauer Was Right. However, in its stead I want to very briefly address an epistemological concern I’ve been chewing on lately:  The abandoned treatment of essential purpose(s) in scientific method manifest in the treatment of supermassive black holes.

For the record, I must distinguish what I mean by essential purpose.  For example, it may be rightfully said that supermassive black holes cause the formation of spiral galaxies.  If may also be said that spiral galaxies cause the formation of supermassive black holes.  Neither of these statements address the essential purposes of supermassive black holes as vital constituents of spiral galaxies.  To be essential is to be purposeful – to be vital to the constitution of an existing whole.

In his book, Our Undiscovered Universe: Introducing Null Physics, Terence Witt outlines a cosmology based on his theory Null physics. His Null cosmology accounts for the purposes of supermassive black holes observed at the center of spiral galaxies. Indeed, by asking the question “Why are supermassive black holes at the center of spiral galaxies”, Mr. Witt reminds all of us that the universe is not superfluous in essence or purpose. Are there nonessential physical laws? Are there excesses of gravitational forces or electromagnetic currents upsetting the balance of our universe?

Terence Witt represents the general will of a number of thinkers who remain unsatisfied with the direction science has chosen in forsaking the essential purposes of things in order simply describe what things do and what they may do. We are reasonably confident in our understanding of black holes i.e. how they interact with matter and light. Additionally, we must similarly seek to understand the essential purpose of supermassive black holes. Or are we to believe supermassive black holes have no purpose in relation to the stellar and planetary swirl of a spiral galaxy?