From: Erin (macavity11@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Apr 27 2005 - 06:22:18 BST
Well now that I have more time I thought I would explain where I was coming from when I wrote that. I was commenting on that yes a scientist COULD comment on how a dialogue of a mass could be clarified to fit a scientific viewpoint but shouldn't.
I was using an analogy. I thought the proposal that a priest should clarify that his religious dialgoue is not from a scientific perspective as ridiculous as a demand that a poet must clarify that their poem is not from a scientific perspective. Should you demand a scientist giving a lecture on energy that he clarify that he is not using energy from a poetic or religious viewpoint?
Whether a religous metaphor is recognized as a metaphor, (or a metaphor in a poem is recognized as a a metaphor, or a scientific metaphor is recognized as a metaphor) is a different matter and was NOT what I meant.
I just read this on the net and thought it was interesting not sure yet if I agree with it b/c haven't completely wrapped my mind around it yet...it is from a physicist named May
"Theories are generally formulated in mathematical terms, and it is difficult to see how it could be argued that, for example, F = ma "is" the motion of an object in any literal sense. Scientific metaphors possess uniquely powerful descriptive and predictive potential, but they are metaphors nonetheless."
Erin
Mark Steven Heyman <markheyman@infoproconsulting.com> wrote:
On 26 Apr 2005 at 17:03, Sam Norton wrote:
> msh:
> Here's the unasked for clarification: Catholics who believe in
> transubstantion are NOT being metaphorical, or even poetic.
sam:
The spirit of Mr Clinton hovers in the background: 'it depends on
what the meaning of "is" is'......
explanation>
So even a catholic doesn't think that the bread has turned into human
flesh. What Pirsig says in Lila is false - or, if I'm being
charitable, seriously misleading.
msh says:
Well, it doesn't taste like flesh and blood, but it IS Christ's flesh
and blood. At least that's what Sister Mary at St. Matthias told us;
I still remember a room full of seven-year-olds going "Ewwwwwwww."
But maybe she didn't read Aquinas.
> Here's what Witt had to say:
>
> "If you don't know what the fuck you're talking about, stop talking
> and ask, then listen..." - Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-
> Philosophicus
sam:
Good advice, (including for Pirsig) but I couldn't find the reference
in my copy ;-)
msh says:
You're not looking in the right place. The quotation sort of
appeared, miraculously, on my computer screen, last night.
Later,
Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
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