a word from our sponsor

[William Karlin]

Sherwood wrote:

> The _pre_-modern mind is deeply troubled by the disruption. It places
> enormous weight on Monday invariably following Sunday, because that is
> how it always has been done. Measurements are not arbitrary at all; they
> have always been with us. Screwing around with the calendar upsets the
> cycle of the seasons, the predictable march of religious holidays--the
> medieval, agrarian life, in short.

  Well, it might mess with how some perceive them...the year marches on
nonetheless...the seasons come and go as they always did.  Of course this
is a modern mind speaking...I'm sure this seemed truly awful to people at
the time.  Once people got over the newness of it all maybe they could see
that it made good sense?  I don't know the history well enough to say.


> Fr. Maire's harrumph about _chinoiseries_ in surveying is this conflict
> in microcosm: Upon what do we base our measurement systems? The
> mathematical utility of a promiscuously divisible but arbitrary number
> (the scientific view), or an Earth-harmonious, cosmologically-centered,
> but mathematically problematic number (the pre-rational view). 


  As I noted in my last post this "earth-harmonious, cosmologically-
centered" way of doing things would have had to be changed eventually.
The ancients, and medieval folk just were unable to see that the stars  
and their apparent motion were not the absolutes they thought them to be.
So why not make the measurement system coherent and manageable?  The
system is still arbitrary, but it is at least clear.

cheers,

 will