[Phys-L] Re: Fields etc

[Jim Green <JMGreen@SISNA.COM>]

> I don't think we need to pursue the question of "What is real?" in all
> its philosophical glory.


Well, Rodney, I suggest that you in fact _don't_ pursue this question if it
perplexes you beyond your capicity..

On the other hand it is not all that difficult:

If someone in a dark alley in Birmingham -- I assume that there are in fact
dark alleys if Birmingham -- approaches you and zonks you over the head
with a bat, you could reasonably be expected to admit that the pain is real
-- that the damage to your brain is real  -- that the loss of your wallet
and gold watch is real.  But if someone suggested that we should gather up
all the pain  in Birmingham, pour it into a jug, and then slosh it out to
the ocean in a pipe, this is reifying the concept of pain and brain
damage.  I don't think that you would want to say out loud that there is
somewhere a bucket of pain. Someone would ask you what color it is.  Or if
it smelled perfumy.

We shouldn't try to reify the concept of field -- or of energy  -- or of
heat -- either.  This kind of thinking clutters the mind and we end up
saying silly things.

Jim
_______________________________________________
Phys-L mailing list
Phys-L@electron.physics.buffalo.edu
https://www.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l