Evolution or alteration means change over time. Sameness over time is called permanence or stability. The study of change or the lack of change over time is called history or diachrony. Change happens. But sameness happens, too. One easily sees that sameness happens in the natural realm much more than change. That is not the […]
The Galilean transformation is typically presented for motion in direction of the x-axis, with the other axes unchanged: x´ = x – vt, y´ = y, z´ = z, and t´ = t, where v is the relative velocity of the observers. This is incompatible with the Lorentz transformation, but more than that, it is
This post continues the parallelism between length and time, and includes some new terms. Length and time both have base units in SI metric: the meter (or better: metre to distinguish it from a device) and the second. They can both be associated with direction. Length in a direction is from or toward an event
Observers detect objects and events with objects. These objects are essentially passive; they must be made to do things by force and work. Participants are subjects among subjects, actively engaging in events and making them happen. Subjects participate and participants are subjects. The perspectives of an observer and a participant are inverses of each other.
The word evolution is related to the terms evolve and evolute, and originally meant an unrolling. It acquired a sense of development in the 19th century and was associated with progress, especially as promoted by Herbert Spencer. Charles Darwin used it in print only once since his theory was not a theory of progress. “But
It’s not uncommon to hear an argument like this: “If you use modern technology, you are buying into all of modern science.” But that’s like saying, “If you celebrate Christmas, you are agreeing with all Christian doctrines.” For example, many Japanese celebrate Christmas, but only 1% of the country is Christian. Similarly, all sorts of
The first edition of New Foundations for Classical Mechanics (1986) by David Hestenes included “Foundations of Mechanics” as Chapter 9. This was removed for lack of room in the second edition, but is available online as a pdf here. This space-time foundation may serve as a guide for the foundation of mechanics for either space-time
Foundations of mechanics for length space or duration space Read More »
I’ve written before about Laws of Form (the calculus of indications); see here and here. In the beginning is an undifferentiated state, an unmarked space. The first distinction is the first differentiation, the advent of a mark, a cross, a form. The unmarked state is the urgrund of the form, its origin and basis. The
The following chronology is based on the Timeline of the Revolutionary War and other sources. French & Indian War 1754-1763 (part of the European war called the Seven Years War) – English victory was at the cost of a large debt. “It was that debt that caused the escalation of tensions leading to the Revolutionary War.”
This post continues a series on history and science, see here and here. The development of the comparative method in linguistics led to the genealogy of languages in the 19th century. This diachronic approach was largely abandoned in the 20th century with the rise of synchronic theories. In short, linguistics pivoted from history to science.
