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From: laura@hoptoad.uucp (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.sci,net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Metaphysicians
Message-ID: <583@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: Wed, 5-Mar-86 11:58:40 EST
Article-I.D.: hoptoad.583
Posted: Wed Mar  5 11:58:40 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Mar-86 07:41:49 EST
References: <899@decwrl.DEC.COM> <402@aoa.UUCP> <192@ulowell.UUCP>
Reply-To: laura@hoptoad.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Organization: Nebula Consultants in San Francisco
Lines: 51
Xref: watmath net.sci:562 net.philosophy:4361

>On a more serious note, calling "parapsychology" "metaphysics" is almost
>as silly as calling "physics" "epistemology".  They may have some areas
>of overlap.... but not much.  I'm moderately surprised that RAH did
>this.  Can anyone tell me where?  And was it he himself or a character
>in a work of his fiction that made the mistake?

In the Short Story *Elsewhen* which is copyright 1941 (aha! I pushed it back
*further* ... 1953 is the copyright on the *book* Assignment in Eternity
where the short story is found...)
there is this passage:

	Philosophy is word-chasing, as significant as a puppy chasing his
	tail.

		I was about to get my PhD in the school of Philosophy
	when I chucked it and came to the science division and started
	taking courses in psychology. [...]
	I've been gathering data on all sorts of phenomena that run
	contrary to orthadox psychological theory -- all the junk that
	goes under the general name of metaphysics -- telepathy,
	clairvoyance, so-called psychic manifestations, clairaudience,
	levitation, yoga stuff, stigmata, anything of that sort I can
	find.

Later on the same page there is a switch.  Metaphysics is called
metapsychics.  And the switch continues for the rest of the story.
But this is the earliest reference to ``metaphysics'' being used
this way I have come across.

I wonder if it is a typo.  My copy is a first edition -- i will have
to check later ones.  If it is a typo, then the confusion may have
started with Heinlein.  On the other hand, if ``metapsychics'' was
commonly used at that time, it is probably a common mistake which
has occurred more than once.

(I know it has.  About 5 years ago the university of Toronto department
of geophysics got a parcel addressed to the department of geopsychics.
We took it down to the seismologists, who were using seismological
techniques to predict the existence of oil fields.  Not exactly dowsing,
but we figured that this was as close to ``geopsychics'' as we were
going to get...)

Anybody know anything earlier?

	


-- 
Laura Creighton		
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