WDEshleman@aol.com
Fri, 24 Sep 1999 22:43:44 EDT
Group,
Here are some words for discussion that I prefer
to identify as orthogonal words, and therefore
not opposites. The loss of understanding that
comes with their improper use in relation to one
another is sometimes a philosophical problem
Space and Time--spacetime in particular, seems
to have evolved into many meanings by many
thinkers.
Objective and Subjective--philosophers who agree
that they are independent, sometimes reverse their
definitions.
Noumenon and Phenomenon--I like these words...
Especially since the noumenon is the only thing
in this world that is NOT a phenomenon.
Cause and Effect--if you don't think these are
independent, it's probably due to their both being
phenomenon. So the noumenon is independent
of cause and effect too.
Form and Function--form is the phenomenon and
function is the noumenon, or is it the reverse.
Classical and Relativistic--relarivistivity accounts
for half of the deflection from straight line (tangent)
motion that we observe, classical mechanics
accounts for the other half of deflections that we
observe. The relativistic part did not really happen,
and is an example of the distortion of reality
experenced by observers.
Inertia and Gravity--everybody knows that these
are orthogonal, don't they?
Mathematical Sums and Products--The Calculus
is nortorious for conversion of products to sums
and for accumulating all the terms of like power
into sums of terms that are themselves sums of
terms...My observation of the mathematics of
products, on the other hand, is that it does not
show a need for The Calculus in order to mimic
motion; sums emerge in the study of products
via the logarithm that preserves factors as
independent, never to be multiplied. Entropy
emerges as a consequence of the distribution
of the terms of a sum.
I could go on and on, does anyone else
know any orthogonal words? If you totally
ignore this note, I will understand.
Sincerely,
Bill
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