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Kevin
 Jan 3, 08 - 10:18 PM |
Aristotle on Math, Physics and Philosophy
ARISTOTLE: 4. Since even the mathematician uses the common AXIOMS only in a SPECIAL application, it must be the business of FIRST PHILOSOPHY to examine the principles of mathematics also. That when equals are taken from equals, the remainders are equal, is COMMON to all QUANTITIES, but mathematics studies a part of its proper matter which it has detached. e.g. lines or angles or numbers or some other kind of QUANTITY --- NOT however, qua being, but in so far as each of them [ie. numbers, lines, angles or some other QUANTITY; KB] is CONTINUOUS in one or two or three dimensions; but philosophy does not inquire about PARTICULAR SUBJECTS in so far as each of them has some ATTRIBUTE or other, but SPECULATES about BEING in so far as each particular thing IS. PHYSICS is in the same position as MATHEMATICS; for PHYSICS studies the ATTRIBUTES and the PRINCIPLES of the things that ARE, qua MOVING and not qua BEING (whereas the PRIMARY SCIENCE, as we have said, deals with these, only in so far as the underlying SUBJECTS are EXISTENT, and not in virtue of any other CHARACTER); and so both PHYSICS and MATHEMATICS must be classed as PARTS of WISDOM. 5. There is a PRINCIPLE in THINGS, about which we CANNOT BE DECEIVED, but must always, on the CONTRARY, recognize THE TRUTH --- viz. that the same thing cannot at one and the same time BE and NOT BE, or admit of any other similar pair of OPPOSITES. About such matters there is no proof in the full sense, though there is proof AD HOMINEM. For it is not possible to infer this TRUTH ITSELF from a MORE CERTAIN PRINCIPLE, yet this is NECESSARY if there is to be a completed proof of it in the full sense. But he who wants to prove to the ASSERTER of OPPOSITES that he is WRONG must get from him an ADMISSION which shall BE identical with THE PRINCIPLE that the SAME THING cannot BE and NOT BE at one and the same time, but shall not SEEM to be identical; for thus alone can his THESIS be DEMONSTRATED to the man who ASSERTS that OPPOSISTE STATEMENTS can BE TRULY MADE about the SAME SUBJECT. (etc.) ***********METAPHYSICS BK XI; Ch. 4 (complete) and Ch. 5 (start)******* In 1687, Sir Isaac Newton wrote his "little gem" entitled PHILOSOPHIAE NATURALIS PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA, or, in other words, The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy --- or, shorter, "Mathematical Physical Philosophy" and, even-shorter "Mathematical-Physics"! As Aristotle had asserted about 20 centuries previously, requote "PHYSICS and MATHEMATICS must be classed as PARTS of WISDOM." As a matter of simple history, EVERY PHILOSOPHER starts with some sort of background in either mathematics (Plato; Descartes; Bertie Russell), physics (Aristotle; Thales; Democritus) or politics/theology (Socrates; Ghandi; Martin Luther; Martin Luther King Jr.), and, often, interests in all 3 "philosophical subjects" (Math; Physics; Theology), or, alternatively, SEVERE HOSTILITY to any 1 or even all 3 subjects, usually emphasizing WORDS (Rhetoric; Heraclitus, Ockam, Marx, Wittgenstein) above all 3 "philosophical sciences" described by Aristotle in the 4rth Century B.C. There is the so-called "debate" between Religion and Science. Richard seems to have taken the same "idea" and turned it into a "debate" between philosophy and science. HOW AMUSING (to "coin a phrase" by Hume, to the effect that we must have "amusement" to balance "our interest" in math, science and business)!!! And since Richard is an existent, his "ideas" are properly the subject of a "metaphysical" inquiry, which is even MORE AMUSING. But one can only take so much time for trivial amusement/s and move on when/if a conversation becomes STUCK in 1 groove, such as, PHILOSOPHY makes NO progress and is CONFUSING whereas SCIENCE makes progress and is NOT CONFUSING. Kevin |
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