Length measures space and duration measures time. Length is a scalar, which combined with direction describes 3D space. Duration is a scalar, which combined with direction describes 3D time. In relativity this might be considered trivial; length and duration may be converted into each other by multiplying or dividing by the speed of light. However, […]
To some extent the sciences of society and history can be pursued as if they were natural sciences. For example, groups of people exhibit some characteristics of natural objects, and so reflect physics to some extent. On the other hand, the physics of social beings is different in a complementary way from the physics of
The Scholastics developed a cosmology with the Earth at absolute rest in the center of moving concentric spheres. Ptolemy’s geocentric astronomy with its epicycles was thought to be consistent with the Scholastic cosmology. When geocentrism was challenged by the early scientists, the whole Scholastic cosmology was thought to be undermined. The difference between science and
The capitalized term Catholic refers to Roman Catholics, led by the Pope. The capitalized term Evangelical refers to revivalist Protestants, especially in English-speaking countries. Lutherans are both catholic (uncapitalized) and evangelical (uncapitalized). This is sometimes called evangelical catholic, though it could as well be called catholic evangelical. What is an uncapitalized catholic Christian? The word
Science makes no metaphysical claims but it is not unusual for scientists to make metaphysical claims, sometimes even in their scientific publications. That has confused the relationship between science and metaphysics. The philosophies of scientific realism and naturalism have further confused the relationship between science and metaphysics. As a Christian I must say that if
Peter Lillback his article “The United ‘Statists’ of America?” in the book Statism: The Shadows of Another Night, edited by Charlie Rodriguez (2015) lists the following warnings given by George Washington in his 1789 address to Congress (with Lillback’s wording appended): 1. “I pretend to no unusual foresight into futurity, and therefore cannot undertake to
George Boole is known for introducing a logical calculus for propositions in the mid-19th century. Although others before him such as Leibniz worked on logical calculi, Boole developed the first systematic one. Later C. S. Peirce and Gottlob Frege developed calculi that took into account the difference between universal and existential propositions. Since then many
Broadly speaking, there are two different paradigms concerning the history of the material world. One paradigm is that the material world has always been roughly the same as it is now. An ancient version of this said everything would eventually return to the same state. This cyclic version is rare now. What became more common
Space and time are usually confused with length and duration. That is, the physical units of measure that are typically used with space and time are confused with the pure abstractions of space and time. Let’s call space and time without physical units abstract space and time. Call space and time with physical units concrete
Quantities (called magnitudes) combined with direction are called vectors. Quantities not combined with direction are called scalars. A space is a geometry or topology that contains vectors (which may or may not equal a vector space or Euclidean space as defined in mathematics). The kind of a space depends on the units of the magnitude.
