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Even today in the university of Oxford, the department of physics is called the "Department of Natural Philosophy." Science is an offshoot of philosophy; that's why we still go on giving Ph.D.s to scientists -- Ph.D. in chemistry, Ph.D. in physics, Ph.D. in mathematics -- but Ph.D. means doctor of philosophy.
In the ancient days there was only philosophy, then slowly slowly a part of philosophy became more and more experimental, and that part became science.
Science can function only if something is complex. Why? -- because the complex can be divided, analyzed, dissected. The greatest difficulty with the simple is it cannot be dissected, it has no parts to dissect. If you ask a complex question the scientist can answer it; but if you ask a simple question, a very simple question, then the trouble arises.
If you ask, "How many stars are there?" the scientist can answer. But if you ask, "Why does arithmetic have only basically ten numbers, from the first to the tenth, then again the same thing is repeated: eleven, twelve, thirteen...? The basic digits are ten. Why? Why ten? Why not seven? Why not five? Why not three?" Then the scientist is at a loss. He will shrug his shoulders. He cannot answer it -- because the answer is so simple that to say it looks absurd.
Arithmetic has ten digits because you have ten fingers! And primitive people used to count on the fingers, so ten digits became the fundamental thing. It has nothing scientific about it -- just a coincidence. If you had eight fingers, or twelve fingers, the whole mathematics would have been different. It is not a necessity!
A great mathematician, Leibnitz, used only three digits: one, two, three... then four never comes. Then comes ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen... then fourteen never comes: twenty. And it worked well, perfectly well. Albert Einstein even reduced it to two. He said, "Ten is superfluous -- only two are necessary: one, two... that will do! You can count all the stars!"
The number ten is accidental, but so are our many assumptions only accidental. They don't depend on any fundamental law. And if you ask a very simple question.... For example, G.E. Moore
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