jbml thln 31 jingle ball all the way & red rudolf?


NEVERTHELESS,
THE SUCCESS OF NEWTONIAN PHYSICS,
AND THE AUTHORITY AWARDED ITS METHOD BY ENLIGHTENMENT THINKERS,
CONTINUES TO EXERT UNDUE INFLUENCE ON OUR VIEW OF REALITY AND OUR USE OF LANGUAGE,
IMPOSING UNNECESSARY RESTRICTIONS ON WHAT WE CONSIDER TO BE A REASONABLE INTERPRETATION OF EVERYDAY
experience. In particular, the mathematical entities called space & time, as defined by classical physicists who found these definitions useful, have in many cases replaced our wider intuitive understandings of place & temporality. Ironically, when we presume that common experiences like "internal clock" or "personal space" must be explained by reduction to the "real" time read on clocks and the "objective" space measured with rulers, we are not only confusing our actual experience with tropes for a particular analytical methodology, we are also ignoring that physics itself has evolved beyond mechanistic Enlightenment determinism.

IF INSIGHTS FROM THEORETICAL PHYSICS ARE GOING TO BE USEFUL AS EVOCATIVE SYMBOLS IN NON-TECHNICAL DISCOURSE, IT IS NECESSARY TO BRING THEIR CONVENTIONAL USAGE INTO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, AT THE SAME TIME AVOIDING THE OPPOSITE MISCONCEPTION ~ THAT CONTEMPORARY PHYSICS HAS ADOPTED A POSTMODERN RELATIVISM THAT CAN SAY ALMOST NOTHING CERTAIN ANOUT A RANDOM UNIVERSE. SO, WITHOUT CLAIMING THAT PHYSICS CAN MAKE ANY SPECIFIC CONTRIBUTION TO UNDERSTANDING OUR INTERNAL TIME SENSE, IT CAN OFFER A MORE NUANCED VOCABULARY FOR DISCUSSING THE ASSOCIATED SENSATIONS.

I (ml) emphasize that these contemporary formulations - despite sounding like something lifted from a magical pre-Enlightenment lifeworld ~ are the insights that science has found useful in describing the universe as a theatre of physical relationships.

And despite the obvious fact that it is precisely the power of scientific insight that necessitates the discussion of manmade climate change, I make no other claim for the value of these notions, other than as a useful vocabulary for the thinking about the issues you raise.
06 mrt 2013 - bewerkt op 07 mrt 2013 - meld ongepast verhaal
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Asih, man, 81 jaar
   
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