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(no subject)
Sep. 13th, 2024 07:53 pmThe only intelligible doctrine of causation is founded on the doctrine of immanence. Each occasion presupposes the antecedent world as active in its own nature. This is the reason why events have a determinate status relatively to each other. ( Read more... )
-- AF Whitehead, Modes of Thought, Lecture 8.
https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/Whitehead/Whitehead_1938/1938_08.html
-- AF Whitehead, Modes of Thought, Lecture 8.
https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/Whitehead/Whitehead_1938/1938_08.html
(no subject)
Sep. 5th, 2024 09:19 pmthe characteristics of life are absolute self-enjoyment, creative activity, aim. Here 'aim' evidently involves the entertainment of the purely ideal so as to be directive of the creative process. Also the enjoyment belongs to the process and is not a characteristic of any static result. The aim is at the enjoyment belonging to the process.
...
It is nonsense to conceive of nature as a static fact, even for an instant devoid of duration. There is no nature apart from transition, and there is no transition apart from temporal duration. This is the reason why the notion of an instant of time, conceived as a primary simple fact, is nonsense.
( Read more... )
Whitehead. Nature Alive, 1938. Lecture 8.
https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/Whitehead/Whitehead_1938/1938_08.html
...
It is nonsense to conceive of nature as a static fact, even for an instant devoid of duration. There is no nature apart from transition, and there is no transition apart from temporal duration. This is the reason why the notion of an instant of time, conceived as a primary simple fact, is nonsense.
( Read more... )
Whitehead. Nature Alive, 1938. Lecture 8.
https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/Whitehead/Whitehead_1938/1938_08.html
(no subject)
Sep. 3rd, 2024 12:39 pmIn all discussions of nature we must remember the differences of scale, and in particular the differences of time-span. We are apt to take modes of observable functioning of the human body as setting an absolute scale. It is extremely rash to extend conclusions derived from observation far beyond the scale of magnitude to which observation was confined. For example, to exhibit apparent absence of change within a second of time tells nothing as to the change within a thousand years. Also no apparent change within a thousand years tells anything as to a million years; and no apparent change within a million years tells anything about a million million years. We can extend this progression indefinitely. There is no absolute standard of magnitude. Any term in this progression is large compared to its predecessor and is small compared to its successor.
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The danger of all these fundamental notions is that we are apt to assume them unconsciously. When we ask ourselves any question we will usually find that we are assuming certain types of entities involved, that we are assuming certain modes of togetherness of these entities, and that we are even assuming certain widely spread generalities of pattern. Our attention is concerned with details of pattern, and measurement, and proportionate magnitude. Thus the laws of nature are merely all-pervading patterns of behaviour, of which the shift and discontinuance lie beyond our ken.
...
Nature is full-blooded. Real facts are happening. Physical Nature, as studied in Science, is to be looked upon as a complex of the more stable interrelations between the real facts of the real universe.
-- Whitehead. https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/Whitehead/Whitehead_1938/1938_07.html
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pattern, measurement, proportional magnitude.
...
The danger of all these fundamental notions is that we are apt to assume them unconsciously. When we ask ourselves any question we will usually find that we are assuming certain types of entities involved, that we are assuming certain modes of togetherness of these entities, and that we are even assuming certain widely spread generalities of pattern. Our attention is concerned with details of pattern, and measurement, and proportionate magnitude. Thus the laws of nature are merely all-pervading patterns of behaviour, of which the shift and discontinuance lie beyond our ken.
...
Nature is full-blooded. Real facts are happening. Physical Nature, as studied in Science, is to be looked upon as a complex of the more stable interrelations between the real facts of the real universe.
-- Whitehead. https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/Whitehead/Whitehead_1938/1938_07.html
=========
pattern, measurement, proportional magnitude.
(no subject)
Aug. 31st, 2024 10:30 pm...space-time cannot in reality be
considered as a self-subsistent entity. It is an abstraction, and its
explanation requires reference to that from which it has been extracted.
Space-time is the specification of certain general characters of events
and of their mutual ordering. This recurrence to concrete fact brings me
back to the eighteenth century, and indeed to Francis Bacon in the
seventeenth century.
...
in order to
understand the difficulties of modern scientific thought and also its
reactions on the modern world, we should have in our minds some
conception of a wider field of abstraction, a more concrete analysis,
which shall stand nearer to the complete concreteness of our intuitive
experience.
whitehead. Science..., 1925
considered as a self-subsistent entity. It is an abstraction, and its
explanation requires reference to that from which it has been extracted.
Space-time is the specification of certain general characters of events
and of their mutual ordering. This recurrence to concrete fact brings me
back to the eighteenth century, and indeed to Francis Bacon in the
seventeenth century.
...
in order to
understand the difficulties of modern scientific thought and also its
reactions on the modern world, we should have in our minds some
conception of a wider field of abstraction, a more concrete analysis,
which shall stand nearer to the complete concreteness of our intuitive
experience.
whitehead. Science..., 1925
(no subject)
Feb. 22nd, 2024 07:30 pmFollowing our previous collaborations, it had been our intention from the start to make a connected image that would permit us to visual- ize the previously disconnected sequence of changes in topology all at once. This is completely unlike making an animated movie from a sequence of stills, because the movie still unfolds in time, whereas our image is timeless. ‘The whole is no longer subjected to time but rather possesses time within itself’ (Wellmann 2017: 83).
Quoted from Drawing Processes of Life, 2024.
Here, the intent to include time into the whole is articulated so succinctly that I'm going to steal it in its entirety. From now on, all categories should include time by default (see e.g. Lawvere's take on Hegel.)
(no subject)
Nov. 14th, 2023 06:14 pmHe[Ricoeur] derives this initial ethical understanding of institution from Arendt’s concept of “power in common” that is contrasted with domination (“power over”) and that is realised by a plurality of people acting in concert. ...
Because acting in concert with unknown third parties needs time to unfold, institutions are needed. Institutions thereby provide the neces- sary temporal dimension for the power in common to endure, which lies at the basis of any political community. ( Read more... )
--- Reijers, Coeckelbergh. Narrative and Technology Ethics.
In this respect, good institutions bridge time, i.e. form social infrastructure the same water reservoirs form physical infrastructure. Need to find a related quote from Hegel that good judges/courts represent infinity.
(no subject)
Oct. 27th, 2023 09:47 pmSchopenhauer ventures into math and concludes that space begets geometry, while time begets algebra. He also trashes Euclides theoretical approach; i'll update the post with some quotes later.
(no subject)
Aug. 22nd, 2023 09:46 pm18. In everything always observe what the thing is which produces for thee an appearance, and resolve it by dividing it into the formal, the material, the purpose, and the time within which it must end.
Marcus Aurelius. The Meditations, Book 12.
https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/hc/the-meditations-of-marcus-aurelius/xii-15
cf Aristotle's four causes: formal, material, final, efficient.
Quote of the Day
Sep. 12th, 2022 02:26 pm[4] The Master said: “At fifteen, I was bent on study; at thirty, I could stand; at forty, doubts ceased; at fifty, I understood the laws of Heaven; at sixty, my ears obeyed me; at seventy, I could do as my heart lusted, and never swerve from right.”
--- The Sayings of Confucius.
--- The Sayings of Confucius.
(no subject)
Jul. 15th, 2022 05:59 pmIs time irreversible? Would that it were! On the contrary, it is reversible-so reversible that it is possible not to have made any progress since the time of the Romans. Now if things stagnate, we can hardly make a distinction between 1871 and 1875, except on the calendar, which does not amount to very much.
--- Bruno Latour. TPoF, 1993.
upd. Compare this to Lawvere's point about being vs becoming. Specifically, space serves as аn arena for becoming, which requires at least two points to be noticeable. Stagnation implies maintaining a given state in a space of states, i.e. just one point, despite changes in calendar time, which is a different space. We can express stagnation vs change as the difference in intensive quantity, e.g. states per an interval of time. Движуха!
(no subject)
Jul. 1st, 2022 04:48 pmSpace and time are a frame, an ordering realm, with the help of which we
establish and indicate the place and time point of the
particular things. It might be, therefore, that each thing,
if it is determined with respect to place and time, is now
just this (je dieses ), not mistakable for any other.
-- Heidegger, What is a thing?. 1967.
( Read more... )
establish and indicate the place and time point of the
particular things. It might be, therefore, that each thing,
if it is determined with respect to place and time, is now
just this (je dieses ), not mistakable for any other.
-- Heidegger, What is a thing?. 1967.
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Jun. 28th, 2022 12:18 amHillary Putnam on Kant's insight into the connection between time, space and causality.
https://youtu.be/DPQZfsAHgSg?t=812
https://youtu.be/DPQZfsAHgSg?t=812
(no subject)
Jun. 17th, 2022 08:27 pmHere's a great example of long-term thinking:
The Chinese have a legend that a demon once offered to teach an alchemist how to turn base metal into gold. "But will it remain gold?" the alchemist asked.
"Will it not return to its original elements?" "Certainly," replied the demon, "but that need not trouble you, for no such change will take place until ten thousand ages have
passed." The alchemist refused the gift. "I should rather live in poverty," he said, "than bring a loss upon my fellow men, even after ten thousand ages have passed."
--- The world's story; a history of the world in story, song and art, ed. by Eva March Tappan. Published in 1914.
https://archive.org/stream/worldsstoryhisto01tapp/worldsstoryhisto01tapp_djvu.txt
(no subject)
Apr. 7th, 2022 10:36 pm“...he [Lincoln] managed polarities: they didn’t manage him.
...
Scale sets the ranges within which experience accrues. If, in evolution, edges of chaos reward adaptation; if, in history, adaptation fortifies resilience; and if, in individuals, resilience accommodates unknowns more readily than rigidity, then it stands to reason that a gradual expansion of edges better equips leaders for the unexpected than those that shock, leaving little time to adapt, or those inherited, which breed entitlement and arrogance, its companion.
..
Space is where expectations and circumstances intersect."
...
Tolstoy suggests, in the last pages of War and Peace, that the interdependence of time, space, and scale simultaneously reflects choice and necessity: the illusion of agency causes us to believe in free will even as inexorable laws deny the possibility. ”
---John Lewis Gaddis. “On Grand Strategy.”
We can model this as an interval and/or 10x pushout/pullback.
Creating a new scale, i.e. expanding the range, e.g. via a technology can be viewed as an equalizer.
(no subject)
Feb. 9th, 2022 04:46 pmМоей тете было 19 лет, когда она родила первого сына. Он женился, когда ему тоже было 19 лет, и она стала бабушкой в 39. Если для упрощения предположить, что время поколения 20 лет, то две "короткие" тысячи лет, о которых пишут археологи, это 100 поколений. Я могу себе представить пять поколений своей семьи. Миллиардер Абрамович может купить документы о португальских предках 20-25 поколений назад. Получается, что цена более глубокого "копания" в семейной археологии, практически, недоступна сегодняшним жителям земли.
С другой стороны, я бесплатно могу читать двухтысячелетние книги и знаки своего народа. Более того, во доминирующих человеческих культурах человек обязан читать и понимать такие книги. С точки зрения археолога, одна книга - одно поколение. Написана ли уже книга (текст), который будет у следующего поколения? Если да, то как бы ee прочитать?
С другой стороны, я бесплатно могу читать двухтысячелетние книги и знаки своего народа. Более того, во доминирующих человеческих культурах человек обязан читать и понимать такие книги. С точки зрения археолога, одна книга - одно поколение. Написана ли уже книга (текст), который будет у следующего поколения? Если да, то как бы ee прочитать?
