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From: barry@ames.UUCP (Kenn Barry)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Re: Redefining free will?
Message-ID: <883@ames.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 20-Mar-85 00:27:18 EST
Article-I.D.: ames.883
Posted: Wed Mar 20 00:27:18 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 23-Mar-85 01:20:30 EST
References: <155@ISM780B.UUCP>
Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center, Mtn. View, CA
Lines: 27

>>                "And there shall be time no longer"
>
>As with many religious utterances, this one is semantically void.
>It is particularly silly when you realize how time-oriented are the phrases
>"shall be" and "no longer".  So, there will be a point in time after which
>there is no time, but before which there is?  I have trouble with most
>so-called metaphysical writing because it is so fuzzy and analytically weak.
>Mostly it is an attempt to sound very convincing about a particular
>silly idea that is believed without basis.  The very moment you choose
>to try to convince someone of something, you have entered into the world
>of logic, proof, and analysis, i.e., science.  This is fundamental in the
>nature of human discourse.

	Don't current astrophysical theories conclude that there was
a "time" before which time did not exist (i.e., before the Big Bang),
and there may be a "time" after which time will no longer exist (after
the collapse, if the universe is closed)? The language is paradoxical,
I grant; "time", "before", and "after" may need careful redefinition
to make it sound less "fuzzy". But if such apparent fuzziness can arise
when attempting to put astrophysics into everyday language, should we
be surprised that metaphysics has the same difficulty?

-  From the Crow's Nest  -                      Kenn Barry
                                                NASA-Ames Research Center
                                                Moffett Field, CA
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