Re: [HM] Mathematics and Time


Subject: Re: [HM] Mathematics and Time
From: Antreas P. Hatzipolakis (xpolakis@otenet.gr)
Date: Thu Mar 30 2000 - 17:50:43 EST


On Wed, 29 Mar 2000, Avinoam Mann wrote:

> Clark Kimberling quoted Philip J. Davies: "According to Archimedes..."
> etc. I am not aware of any writings of Archimedes on time. What is the
> reference, or another basis, for these assertions about Archimedes'
> position?

Dear Avinoam,

In the first chapter of the book:

          H. Price: Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point.
          New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

available at:

          http://plato.stanford.edu/~price/TAAPch1.html

one reads:

<quote>
The need to guard against anthropocentrism of this kind is a familiar
theme in the history of both science and philosophy. One of the great
projects in the history of modern thought has been the attempt to achieve
the untainted perspective, the Archimedean view of reality---"the view
from nowhere," as the philosopher Thomas Nagel calls it.[2]
2. _The View from Nowhere_ is Nagel's 1986 book.
</quote>

Probably this "Archimedean view of reality" has something to do with your
question (but I am not sure).

Antreas



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