There is not one man who does all the measuring.
"Who is right? Is there more than one meaning of the word 'around'? That's a
surprise! That's like discovering more than one true system of geometry. How
many meanings are there and which one is right?
It seems as though the squirrel is using the term 'around' in a way that is
relative to itself but the man is using it in a way that is relative to an
absolute point in space outside of the squirrel and himself. But if we dop the
squirrel's relative point of view and we take the absolute fixed point of view,
what are we letting ourselves in for? From a fixed point in space every human
being on this planet goes around every other human being to the east or west of
him once a day. The whole East River does a half-cartwheel over the Hudson each
morning and another one under it each evening. Is this what we want to mean by
'around'? If so, how useful is it? And if the squirrel's relative point of view
is false, how useless is it?
What emerges is that the word 'around,' which seems like one of the most clear
and absolute and fixed terms in the universe suddenly turns out to be relative
and subjective. What is 'around' depends on who you are and what you're
thinking about at the time you use it. The more you tug at it the more things
start to unravel. One such philosophic tugger was Albert Einstein, who
concluded that all time and space are relative to the observer.
We are always in the position of that squirrel. Man is always the measure of
all things, even in matters of space and dimension. Persons like James and
Einstein, immersed in the spirit of philosophy, do not see things like
squirrels circling trees as necessarily trivial, because solving puzzles like
that are what they're in philosophy and science for. Real science and real
philosophy are not guided by preconceptions of what subjects are important to
consider."
(LILA,Chapter 26)
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