Abstraction...

[enkidus_haven]

From "Everything and More" by David Foster Wallace:

"...mathematical truths are certain and universal precisely because they have nothing to do with the world

Comments

[siro_gravity]

yep, i assume that the sun will return every morning. because it will.

and I assume that gravity will keep me stuck to the planet. because that's the nature of big-ass shit. well, i suppose small things have gravity, too.

BUT...how in god's name can you compare physics to drunk drivers? just to say, i NEVER, EVER assume that a car is not going to veer into my lane. never. fucking ever.

also, if geophysical laws are not guaranteed, neither is your precious mathematical idea of infinity. but i do hear what you're saying about math being 100% true and also fabricated. i think if you were majoring in physics, you would be singing a different song.

[enkidus_haven]

What? I never mention drunk drivers. Plenty of sober people get into deadly accidents too. The association I make between physics and faithfully driving down the road(which I don't actually do either :) is a way of thinking--that of inductive thinking(as opposed to deductive

[siro_gravity]

The drunk drivers was my perhaps too subtle way of shining a light on the unpredictability of human-ness. I think the comparison of being sure of gravity is different from being sure you won't get hit because folks drive on the right or left side of the road.

i gotcha on paragraph 2.

[enkidus_haven]

I get what you mean about the physics thing. I guess what I'm thinking is that with most physical "laws", the more you delve into them, the more you realize they describe "what" is happening, not "why". Gravity is a great example: the physics laws of gravity describe the behavior of gravity, from observation, but no one actually knows how or why gravity works. I mean, we don't know what it actually is and what is creating the effect--we merely observe the effect and describe that effect to the best of our abilities.