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#1 2013-11-18 00:57:45
Metaphysics
What is that? Is that a science at all?
'And fun? If maths is fun, then getting a tooth extraction is fun. A viral infection is fun. Rabies shots are fun.'
'God exists because Mathematics is consistent, and the devil exists because we cannot prove it'
I'm not crazy, my mother had me tested.
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#2 2013-11-18 01:29:51
- bobbym
- bumpkin
- From: Bumpkinland
- Registered: 2009-04-12
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Re: Metaphysics
I would classify it as more like philosophy.
In mathematics, you don't understand things. You just get used to them.
If it ain't broke, fix it until it is.
Always satisfy the Prime Directive of getting the right answer above all else.
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#3 2013-11-18 01:52:17
Re: Metaphysics
What is it exactly?
'And fun? If maths is fun, then getting a tooth extraction is fun. A viral infection is fun. Rabies shots are fun.'
'God exists because Mathematics is consistent, and the devil exists because we cannot prove it'
I'm not crazy, my mother had me tested.
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#4 2013-11-18 01:58:14
- bobbym
- bumpkin
- From: Bumpkinland
- Registered: 2009-04-12
- Posts: 109,606
Re: Metaphysics
The study of natural law and mans place in it. It seems to start where science leaves off. Philosophy, mysticism, ontology, yoga, martial arts, Ayurvedic medicine and alchemy all add to it.
In mathematics, you don't understand things. You just get used to them.
If it ain't broke, fix it until it is.
Always satisfy the Prime Directive of getting the right answer above all else.
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#5 2013-11-18 07:37:21
- anonimnystefy
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- From: Harlan's World
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Re: Metaphysics
Metaphysics is searching for the cause of everything. What is it that makes the universe as it is. The name itself suggests it - "meta" means behind and "physis" means nature. We were mentioning it the other day in Philosophy class as one of Aristotle's greatest subjects.
Here lies the reader who will never open this book. He is forever dead.
Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most. ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
The knowledge of some things as a function of age is a delta function.
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#6 2013-11-18 11:54:22
- Nehushtan
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Re: Metaphysics
Metaphysics is definitely philosophy, not science at all.
metaphysics Originally a title for those books of Aristotle that came after the Physics, the term is now applied to any enquiry that raises questions about the reality that lie beyond or behind those being tackled by the methods of science. The traditional examples will include questions of mind and body, substance and accident, events, causation, and the categories of things that exist. Metaphysics, then, tends to become concerned more with the presuppositions of scientific thought, or of thought in general .
The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Simon Blackburn, second edition revised, p.2312
Last edited by Nehushtan (2013-11-18 11:58:44)
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#7 2013-11-18 12:35:05
- ShivamS
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Re: Metaphysics
Well, in the past few centuries, metaphysics has been considered by many a science. Of course, like geography, the answer is subjective.
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#8 2013-11-18 12:41:55
- anonimnystefy
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Re: Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a science as much theology.
Here lies the reader who will never open this book. He is forever dead.
Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most. ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
The knowledge of some things as a function of age is a delta function.
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#9 2013-11-18 12:47:18
- Nehushtan
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Re: Metaphysics
How could metaphysics be considered a science? Science consists of hypotheses and the testing of hypotheses by experiments, whereas metaphysics is nothing but fanciful, often untestable assertions about stuff. Anybody who considers metaphysics a science must really know sweet FA about science itself.
Last edited by Nehushtan (2013-11-18 12:48:31)
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#10 2013-11-18 13:10:43
- ShivamS
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Re: Metaphysics
Some metaphysical ideas are connected to quantum mechanics.
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(Though I could swear that quantum mechanics has been around for a lot less than the past few centuries.)#12 2013-11-18 13:21:59
- ShivamS
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Re: Metaphysics
Well, the connection is minimal, but still present. Quantum mechanics is not that new. The more older quantum theory has been present before 1900. Apparently, some of the original concepts well developed well before that. Also, metaphysics was well considered a science before the scientific method got involved in the definition of a science.
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#13 2013-11-18 22:12:33
- bobbym
- bumpkin
- From: Bumpkinland
- Registered: 2009-04-12
- Posts: 109,606
Re: Metaphysics
Metaphysics was considered a science in the past.
In mathematics, you don't understand things. You just get used to them.
If it ain't broke, fix it until it is.
Always satisfy the Prime Directive of getting the right answer above all else.
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#14 2013-11-18 22:15:57
- anonimnystefy
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- From: Harlan's World
- Registered: 2011-05-23
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Re: Metaphysics
Luckily, philosophy never was.
Here lies the reader who will never open this book. He is forever dead.
Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most. ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
The knowledge of some things as a function of age is a delta function.
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#15 2013-11-18 22:19:05
- bobbym
- bumpkin
- From: Bumpkinland
- Registered: 2009-04-12
- Posts: 109,606
Re: Metaphysics
Neither was classical mathematics, but with the resurgence of experimental math...
In mathematics, you don't understand things. You just get used to them.
If it ain't broke, fix it until it is.
Always satisfy the Prime Directive of getting the right answer above all else.
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#16 2013-11-18 22:37:49
- Nehushtan
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Re: Metaphysics
Luckily, philosophy never was.
Unluckily, natural philosophy was. (I think it was the former name for physics.)
In the novel by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein was a student of natural philosophy at the German university of Ingolstadt when he created his nameless creature.
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#17 2013-11-18 22:40:26
- anonimnystefy
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Re: Metaphysics
Actually, it's the other way round. Physics is the antique term for the study of nature.
Last edited by anonimnystefy (2013-11-18 22:40:50)
Here lies the reader who will never open this book. He is forever dead.
Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most. ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
The knowledge of some things as a function of age is a delta function.
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#18 2013-11-18 23:00:07
- bobbym
- bumpkin
- From: Bumpkinland
- Registered: 2009-04-12
- Posts: 109,606
Re: Metaphysics
Also, metaphysics was well considered a science before the scientific method got involved in the definition of a science.
Yes, the scientific method first expounded by Bacon is a newcomer. Plato, surely one of the greatest men and thinkers of his time recommended to not even look up at the night sky to understand astronomy. It was sufficient to just think about it. Sounds silly but he was actually advocating the use of mathematics as superior to stargazing.
In mathematics, you don't understand things. You just get used to them.
If it ain't broke, fix it until it is.
Always satisfy the Prime Directive of getting the right answer above all else.
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