Hey all,
Been following your exchange and hope you don't mind if I offer some brief
questions/comments:
> ELEPHANT
> > Er, Gravity *is* an idea. And that's the whole point. What newton
added to
> > the transparent fact that apples fall was an idea expressed in
mathematics:
> > viz, gravity. That this idea expressed in mathematics should
*correspond
> > to* real life is wonderful. But that it *is* real life is ficxticous:
> > apples do not perform mathematical calculations.
>
JON:
> I fully agree. Gravity as a word, description of mathematical equation is
an
> idea that somehow distills actual experience into communicable form. One
might
> argue that the birth of an idea corresponds to the date it is first
> communicated (before this it is in gestation).
RICK:
Would we all agree that:
(1) "The Law of Gravity" is a description...?
(2) It describes that which pulls apples towards the Earth (named "Gravity"
by Newton)....?
(3) The description is not the same thing as what it describes...?
(4) The description was "born" by Newton (Circa 1600 AD)....?
(5) That which it describes is, in all probability, as old as time (Circa
the "big bang" or "the dawn of the Inorganic level"--- whichever one
prefers)....?
(6) "The Law of Gravity" is just an idea and not "real life"....? (to
paraphrase Elephant )
(7) What it describes is itself "real life"....?
Just wondering,
rick
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