| Topic: |
Science > Physics |
| User: |
"Immortalist" |
| Date: |
30 Mar 2006 08:53:10 PM |
| Object: |
Origin Of Physics; Anthromorphized Legal Theory |
Anthropomorphism: The attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or
behavior to nonhuman organisms or inanimate objects.
Whence things have their origin,
Thence also their destruction happens,
As is the order of things;
For they execute the sentence upon one another
- The condemnation for the crime -
("giving justice and reparation to
one another for their injustice.")
In conformity with the ordinance of Time.
--Anaximander
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Anaximander's notion of natural law:"
"All things arise out of the boundless
....and they make reparations and pay
penalties to one another for the
injustices they commit, according
to the measure of time."
Although Anaximander seems to be echoing ideas from great tragedy, where
hybris (an excess of pride) inevitably leads to nemesis (a fall), his
language is taken directly from a court of law, where an injury which one
person commits against another is compensated for by a penalty.
His model for natural periodicity here is not the cycle but the pendulum.
The "all things" that alternate in trespass and penalty are the contrary
qualities that "separate out" from the boundless. Events in nature do often
swing from one extreme to another; we have the ebb and flow of the tide,
summer and winter as evident examples.
This is the pattern of Anaximander's "laws of nature": one contrary tends to
develop to excess, crowding out its opposite;
so "justice" sets it back, penalizing
it for its encroachment. But then, as
time passes, the opposite that had
been losing out grows stronger and
oversteps in its turn, and must
"according to the measure of time"
be set back within its own
proper bounds.
The advance over Thales' world in which the individual psyches of things are
responsible for change and motion is remarkable, though the tendency toward
personification and mythology has not entirely lost its hold. It is
interesting historically to find that;
the concept of a law of nature
actually arose by extending the
idea of law already established
in society;
we would rather have expected the opposite, since to us nature seems so much
more orderly than a human community. To Anaximander, however,
the model of a legal code seemed
the best illustration he could find
of his new insight into an exact
periodicity and regularity in
the natural order.
Anaximander was led to the idea of evolution by observations of babies and
fossils. High in the mountains of Asia Minor, he had seen fossilized sea
animals in the stone. He concluded from this that these mountains had once
been covered by the sea and that the ocean level had gradually become lower.
This was, we can see, a special case of his law of alternation of opposites:
flooding and drying up. He correctly reasoned that, if all the earth had
once been covered by sea, life must have had its beginning in this ancient
ocean.
The philosophers of Greece
by Robert S. Brumbaugh
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0873955501/qid=1143772879/
***** was the goddess of justice, fair judgements and rights by custom and
law.
She was one of the three Horai, goddesses of the seasons. Her sisters were
Eunomia (Good Order, Good Pastures) and Eirene (Peace, Spring). Like her
siblings she probably also represented some aspect of the springtime growth.
***** was closely identified with Dikaiosyne (RIghteousness) and Astraia
(Contellation Virgo) and perhaps also with the Daimona Praxidike (Exacter of
Justice).
Her opposite number was Adikia (Injustice).
http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/HoraDike.html
***** (Greek for justice) was the goddess of moral justice. She ruled over
human justice; her mother (Themis) ruled over divine justice. ***** was born
a mortal and Zeus placed her on earth to keep mankind just. He quickly
learned this was impossible and placed her next to him on Olympus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horae
***** was instrumental in punishing wrong doers and rewarding those who did
good deeds.
http://www.loggia.com/myth/*****.html
***** is Justice, a great goddess worshipped by all and denied by no one.
The superiority of *****, they say, is proved by the fact that all unjust men
or unjust states, have to rely on Justice in order to perform any
undertaking. For upon injustice nothing can be built, and even robbers could
not achieve anything if they were wronging each other continuously. And
this, they affirm, reveals the power of *****, and shows that success is
proportional to the degree in which she is practically honoured. This is why
*****'s power is present whenever a state is founded, or a family, or an
army, or even a gang of thieves, making possible any action in common.
Without her, they say, each thing would be enemy to itself, being incapable
of cooperation, and a victim of faction and dispute.
http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/*****.html
(*****, "justice"): The avenging justice of God personified as a goddess
(Acts 28:4).
New Testament Book of Acts Chapter 28:4;
When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they {began} saying
to one another, "Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, and though he has been
saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live."
http://www.searchgodsword.org/enc/isb/view.cgi?number=T2696
....in Anaximander an immanent *****, Justice, ensures that all things
eventually return to the apeiron (the Boundless) whence they came:
From which all things take their rise,
and by necessity they are destroyed
into these, for all things render
just atonement to one another for
their injustice according to the
due ordering of time.
http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/GreekIndex.html
Regard of Nature in Pre-Socratic and Daoist philosophy
Anaximander and the early Greek philosophers believed the universe to be an
ordered relation which provided a pattern of "harmony between eternal being
on the one side and human life and human value on the other." Anaximander's
view of the universe as a social order writ large anticipates Plato's
conception of the state as the structure of the human soul writ large in the
Republic. The sense of oneness with nature or the continuum of individual
life with all forms of life and the movements of the planets is shared by
the early Greek natural philosophers and the Daoist thinkers. But there is
also a significant difference. Having conceived the order of the universe as
being endowed with an inherently moral nature and embodying law (nomos) and
justice (*****), the Pre-Socratic philosophers' regard of nature developed
primarily as an intellectual rather than a moral enquiry. The Pre-Socratic
philosophers studied nature for itself: the knowledge of nature and its
inner workings was their aim. The Daoist philosophers, on the other hand,
turned to nature as a source of moral inspiration. With Laozi and Zhuangzi,
nature is regarded primarily from the moral point of view. Zhuangzi
investigates the workings of nature to draw moral meaning. In the Dao De
Jing, there is an identification of nature with virtue. The way of nature is
the way of virtue for man.
The Pre-Socratic view that to live in harmony with the whole of nature
requires knowledge of the workings of the universe and the myriad forms of
life is fully developed into a vigorous ethical standpoint of action in
Zhuangzi. The ideal of being in harmony with the whole nature has permeated
the philosophical thought and moral life of China. The first philosopher who
has illustrated how the wonder at the sublime in nature leads to moral
empathy with all forms of life is Zhuangzi. The theme of virtue as keeping
what is natural which develops into many variations among the Daoist and
Confucian philosophers is noteworthy. The ethical goal set forth by the
diverse philosophical traditions in China envisages the harmony of the
spheres of nature and human activity. Philosophy of nature in China is from
the very beginning concerned with deriving a pattern of moral life from an
all-encompassing regard for nature. In the philosophy of nature in China
there are two aspects in which nature is connected to morality. Nature is a
source of morality: we derive the pattern of moral conduct from the pattern
of nature. Nature is a realm of moral action: we are to act to bring about
harmony with all forms of life in nature. The first concerns the origin and
justification of ethical principles and values, and the second, the goal and
the field of action in ethics. In the area of practical ethics the second
aspect leads to global justice and environmental ethics. The goal of living
in harmony with all of nature is emphasized in Confucian, Daoist and
Neo-Confucian philosophy. To regard things not in isolation but in relation
to nature and other living beings marks the distinctive outlook of Daoist
and Neo-Confucian philosophy.
Anaximander - ***** governs Kosmos
In early Greek philosophy and political life, nature and morality are
closely connected. For the Pre-Socratic thinkers, the moral order and the
natural order are not sharply distinguished. The whole of nature is a
unity - the physical and the moral universe function with one underlying
logical order. To the single existing cosmic order there corresponds a
single moral order. Solon's idea of justice (*****) invokes nature as an
objective moral basis. ***** does not depend on human, earthly justice nor
does it come from divine punishment as in Hesiod's world. ***** is the
inevitable process that unfolds in time. Anaximander takes this idea of *****
further: the process of ***** pervades not only human life but the whole
world. In anticipating the idea that all nature is subject to universal
laws, Anaximander is not putting forward a causal series which modern
scientists construct. He is formulating a moral, not a physical law of
nature: the universe is a kosmos governed by the all-pervasive rule of
justice. Anaximander regards creation to be a kosmos - a community of things
under law. The kosmos of Anaximander a social order is governed by "a
universal moral code" and not a system governed by law of nature.21
Anaximander's idea of the systematic justice of the universe involves the
idea of natural order inherent in all operations of nature. This concept of
the moral law of the universe is a precursor of the thesis of natural law
from Cicero's conception of law as existing in the state of nature to
Aquinas' articulation of the doctrine of natural law. In contemporary
discussions of human rights, the doctrine of natural law is invoked to
defend the thesis of natural rights, rights which derive from the natural
characteristics of human beings.
http://www.isud.org/Hochsmann.doc
http://www.justiceblind.com/issue.html
Origin Of The Lady of Justice & The Blinfold?
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.philosophy/msg/72eab1acb1324f37
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| User: "Robert Kolker" |
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| Title: Re: Origin Of Physics; Anthromorphized Legal Theory |
31 Mar 2006 04:34:19 AM |
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Immortalist wrote:
Anthropomorphism: The attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or
behavior to nonhuman organisms or inanimate objects.
I don't see a What-If here.
Bob Kolker
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Origin Of Physics; Anthromorphized Legal Theory |
31 Mar 2006 04:49:45 AM |
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I don't see a What-If here.
***************
What if large usenet postings continue until there's no more memory
left?
"Babs, will there ever come a day when there's no more eggs?"
"There will always be eggs, Mother. This is nothing but egg paranoia."
- John Waters classic art movie "Pink Flamingoes"
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