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Notes

[Notebook: Language DB 57]

[Sunday 7 November 2004 - Saturday 13 November 2004]

Sunday 7 November 2004
Monday 8 November 2004

[page 29]

Tuesday 9 November 2004

Summa Theologiae I, 50, 1: 'I reply that it is necessary to postulate certain incorporeal creatures. What God principally intended in created things is the good that consists in assimilation to God. The perfect assimilation of an effect to a cause is noticed when the effect imitates the cause in that very feature through which the cause produces its effect, as heat makes heat." Aquinas 261

The cause-effect relationship is a communication link. Communication correlates the recipient of a message with the sender. In full duplex communication, both terminals play both roles (simultaneously? or) sequentially. For meaningful communication, the roles must be sequential, ie I listen to you before O reply, and if the conversation is to get anywhere, my reply should be relevant to what you have said, provided that is relevant to what I last said, etc. In a

[page 30]

'meaningful' conversation, each message builds on the last in a convergent series that ends in the communicants taking well defined positions with respect to one another. POSITION == STATE. Coordinates in a reference frame.

The entropy of a set is a function of its cardinal number.

Sharing : communication (other things being equal) (ie partial derivative) the more one shares the more powerful one becomes.

Symmetry with respect to complexity means that there are common solutions to problems at all levels of complexity. This immediately suggests that the best strategy is to narrow a problem down to the binary case and study this carefully to get clues to how things work in the transfinite domain, cantor's.

Stock market: picking turning points in a time series of prices.

I lead a heavenly existence, drawn and pushed forward by a stream of glimpses of divinity.

Economist 6 November 2004 page 14: '. . . the left emphasizing individual rights in social and civil matters, but not in economic life, and the right saying the converse.'

Wednesday 10 November 2004
Thursday 11 November 2004

Method is the 'differential equation' that governs the acquisition of true knowledge. It shows us how to construct an infinite series that converges on the truth.

Eigenvalues are invariants, things that are effectively unchanged by the action of the operator - stationary points.

FORCE == COMMUNICATION

Newton's 3 laws tell us the basic features of the interactions pyres between bodies. The law of universal gravitation particularizes these laws to forces with a particular set of properties (inverse square, proportional to mass = cardinal) Since N's time we have discovered three new forces which still obey the three laws. Newton

Natural theology and natural religion need no institutional specification of doctrine as we find in the Christian Churches because doctrine is already determined the the nature of the world and all we have to do is to look with insight to see what we need to (and need not) do.

Friday 12 November 2004
Saturday 13 November 2004

Related sites

Concordat Watch

Revealing Vatican attempts to propagate its religion by international treaty


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Further reading

Books

Click on the "Amazon" link below each book entry to see details of a book (and possibly buy it!)

Armstrong, David, A Combinatorial Theory of Possibility, Cambridge University Press 1989 Amazon product description: 'David Armstrong's book is a contribution to the philosophical discussion about possible worlds. Taking Wittgenstein's Tractatus as his point of departure, Professor Armstrong argues that nonactual possibilities and possible worlds are recombinations of actually existing elements, and as such are useful fictions. There is an extended criticism of the alternative-possible-worlds approach championed by the American philosopher David Lewis. This major work will be read with interest by a wide range of philosophers.' 
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Newton, Isaac, and Julia Budenz, I. Bernard Cohen, Anne Whitman (Translators), The Principia : Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, University of California Press 1999 This completely new translation, the first in 270 years, is based on the third (1726) edition, the final revised version approved by Newton; it includes extracts from the earlier editions, corrects errors found in earlier versions, and replaces archaic English with contemporary prose and up-to-date mathematical forms. ... The illuminating Guide to the Principia by I. Bernard Cohen, along with his and Anne Whitman's translation, will make this preeminent work truly accessible for today's scientists, scholars, and students. 
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van Inwagen, Peter, and Dean W Zimmerman, Metaphysics: The Big Questions (Philosophy: The Big Questions, Wiley-Blackwell 2008  
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Papers
Lowe, E J, "Why Is there anything at all", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 70, , 2002, page 111.120. back
Links
Aquinas 261 Whether an angel is altogether incorporeal 'I answer that, There must be some incorporeal creatures. For what is principally intended by God in creatures is good, and this consists in assimilation to God Himself. And the perfect assimilation of an effect to a cause is accomplished when the effect imitates the cause according to that whereby the cause produces the effect; as heat makes heat. Now, God produces the creature by His intellect and will (14, 8; 19, 4 ). Hence the perfection of the Universe requires that there should be intellectual creatures. Now intelligence cannot be the action of a body, nor of any corporeal faculty; for every body is limited to "here" and "now." Hence the perfection of the Universe requires the existence of an incorporeal creature.' back

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