RE: SUO: RE: Continuants and Occurrents in 4D
Dear John,
>
> Matthew West wrote:
>
> >I also notice a theme developing here, that a 3D viewpoint
> can be seen as a
>
> >view on a 4D viewpoint. I mention this because it accords with my own
> >expectation. I will be interested to see if it is justified.
>
> To a large extent, I would agree with that. And by the way,
> there is nothing especially new about the 4-D point of view.
MW: Indeed.
> It was discussed by the medieval Scholastics, including
> St. Thomas Acquinas, who used a 4-D description in discussing
> how God's foreknowledge could be consistent with human free
> will.
>
> His basic point was that God sees everything from a 4-D
> point of view, but mere mortals can't see ahead. God's view
> doesn't prevent mere mortals from making choices from their
> particular point of view.
>
> And I don't believe that there is any inconsistency between
> these points of view. They are just different ways of
> describing the same universe.
MW: Well this of course assumes that there is one consistent universe that
we all inhabit. An assumption I am happy to make, but worth putting on the
table.
MW: I'm not sure that views cannot be inconsistent whilst still being views
on the same universe however. (I don't mean logically inconsistent here - I
really just mean not able to be integrated fully. So I would agree that 3D
and 4D are not inconsistent, but that they deal with different objects, and
this is messy and inconvenient (that sort of inconsistent)).
>
> Perhaps some predicates that are easy to define in one view
> don't map into the other view. That may be an inconvenience,
> but it is certainly not an inconsistency.
>
> When I try to speak French or German, I find that there are
> many things that I can't express. That is an inconvenience,
> but not an inconsistency.
MW: Sounds like we broadly agree.
>
> John Sowa
>
Regards
Matthew
============================================================
Matthew West
Operations & Asset Management - Shell Services International
Shell Visiting Professor, The Keyworth Institute
H3229, Shell Centre, London, SE1 7NA, UK.
Tel: +44 207 934 4490 Fax: 7929 Mobile: +44 7796 336538
http://www.shellservices.com/
http://www.keyworth.leeds.ac.uk/
http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/
============================================================