Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 12:41:56 +0100
From: artefact-AT-t-online.de (Michael Eldred)
Subject: Re: Wollt ihr das totale Engineering?


Cologne 12-Jan-2001

Henk van Tuijl schrieb Thu, 11 Jan 2001 17:34:02 +0100:

> From: "Michael Eldred" <artefact-AT-t-online.de>
> Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2001 12:19 PM
>
> Michael,
>
> You wrote:
> > No, I am posing a question regarding predictability, namely, its negation,
> and
> > you reply with an example of unpredictability, namely, divergent sequences.
> > I ask a question regarding being, and you reply with certain kinds of
> beings.
> > This is the kind of misunderstanding that occurs in Socrates' dialogues.
> > Thus you sail right past the question.
> > I am saying that scientific thinking as such can find no access to the
> question
> > of the 'un-' in unpredictability. Divergent sequences, on the other hand,
> are
> > certain kinds of entities investigated by an established part ofmathematics.
>
> You see a relation between man's wish to be "maitre et possesseur de la
> nature" and prediction.

But Henk, I haven't said a word about "man's wish" or wishes, and you yourself
brought in the "maitre et possesseur de la nature", so how can you construe such
a claim on my part?

> I doubt that the more technology changes, the more
> it remains the same. I have given you my reasons.

That may be the case, but it glides adeptly past the question regarding thinking
unpredictability in an alternative way, outside the cast of thought originating
from Descartes' casting of mathematico-scientific thinking.

>
> You also see a relation between (un)predictability and being. The question
> concerning (un)predictability is also the question concerning being. It is
> unclear to me what the relation is.

The relation is easy: (un)predictability itself is a mode of being, and not a
being. That's phenomenological ABC. Instances of (un)predictability, on the
other hand, are beings.

> The non-being of an event may be
> predictable while the being of another event may be unpredictable.

Here you seem to be confusing being/non-being with existence/non-existence in
the traditional metaphysical sense. I have not been talking about the existence
or non-existence of events, but about (un)predictability as a mode of being.

> > Even when mathematics demonstrates that certain systems of equations (e.g.
> > certain systems of differential equations) do not have any solution, this is
>
> > still calculative thinking. I recall endless lectures from my Professor,
> > Smith-White, in Sydney proving that certain types of sets of differential
> > equations have solutions, even though no 'clean' solution could be found,
> but
> > only numerical approximations.
>
> You show here that there is a relation between (un)predictability and
> equations having or not having solutions - clean or otherwise.
> Does this mean that there is a relation between the having or not having of
> solutions of equations and being?
> In what ways would this relation change if the not having of solutions of
> certain sets of equations changed into the having of solutions?

My example here has nothing to do with any relation to being, because it is
situated entirely within mathematics, which is unable to raise any question at
all regarding being.

> > By the way, Heidegger studied several semesters of mathematics at Freiburg
> > University. This dry fact apparently does not give much juice to Heidegger's
>
> > biographical investigators.
>
> This is an innocent fact.

For thinking, it could be interesting to note that Heidegger was very well
'informed' about the Cartesian paradigm, i.e. modern mathematical ways of
thinking. For biographical investigators it is uninteresting, for they are more
interested in existential crises, theological quandries, political convictions
and the like. That makes a juicy story, a diversion -- from the task of learning
to think.

Michael
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-  artefact text and translation _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- made by art  _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
http://www.webcom.com/artefact/ _-_-_-_-_-_- artefact-AT-webcom.com
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Dr Michael Eldred -_-_-
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_






     --- from list heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---