On 10/6/15 4:49 PM, Matt Faunce wrote:
Conceptions of physics do too; and it can be argued, using Thomas Kuhn
for example, that sometimes our changing conceptions of physics are,
to some extent, due to changing attitudes regulated by
history/culture. As far as I can see physics and historical/culture
affect each other, like when I push against a tree it pushes against me.
Think of the evolution or Reality according to Peirce. In the beginning
there was all but utter chaos. According to Peirce's article, The Order
of Nature, in Illustrations of the Logic of Science, we can find order
in randomness. I imagine that near the beginning of this evolution that
the order we found and locked onto was pretty much randomly chosen, like
seeing faces and things in fast moving clouds. The possibilities of what
we––we being that growing inkling of order––could have chosen and locked
onto were mind-bogglingly numerous. Peircean cosmology, in this way,
seems to support constructivist and relativist philosophy: we were
pretty much constructing the laws of reality. Instead of the analogy of
me pushing against a tree, imagine me pushing against a rock: early in
our evolution the rock was small and would move, but now that rock is
huge, like the Earth, and according to Newton, when I push it it does
push back but it doesn't seem to budge.
Matt
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