Jeff, List: I am definitely interested, but it would be helpful to me if you could first outline where you see this ultimately going, and then proceed in smaller steps. As you could probably tell, I had trouble making the connection between Desargues' theorem and Peirce's conception of continuity, not to mention the subsequent blackboard diagram; and my own intuition (or perhaps lack thereof) is such that discussing "the projective absolute" and "metrical relations in elliptical, parabolic or hyperbolic geometries" is not (at least so far) helping me understand your/Peirce's point "about the kind of hypothesis that is needed to make sense of ... the growth of order in the cosmos." Also, I still believe that Peirce's "table of contents" in "A Neglected Argument" was for a future book that he had not yet written and never did manage to write, rather than anything specific in his previous material such as RLT.
Regards, Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA Professional Engineer, Amateur Philosopher, Lutheran Layman www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt - twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt On Mon, Nov 14, 2016 at 3:45 PM, Jeffrey Brian Downard < jeffrey.down...@nau.edu> wrote: > Jon S, Gary R, Edwina, John S, List, > > If others are interested, I'd like to continue the discussion of the last > lecture on continuity in RLT. The goal, I took it, was to draw on it for > the sake of filling in some the details in the "table of contents" for a > larger set of inquiries that he sketched in "A Neglected Argument." > > My proposal is to march through more of the mathematical examples he > offers in the hopes of getting more clarity about the logical conception of > continuity that he articulates. Then, the aim is to work up to the example > of the lines on the blackboard and the way that he uses that example to > frame some hypothesis in cosmological metaphysics. > > Given the fact that my post on Desargues 6-point theorem did not generate > much in the way of comments or questions, I am concerned that I overdid it > and managed to smother some of the interest in the questions--both > interpretative and philosophical--that we were considering. As such, I'm > asking for feedback to make see if continued discussion of the mathematical > examples is welcome. > > Late last week, I thought of a way to illustrate Peirce's larger point > about how the 6 point theorem is connected to the larger idea that Cayley > and Klein make about the character of the projective absolute and how it > provides the basis of any system of metrical relations in elliptical, > parabolic or hyperbolic geometries. The illustration helps to see, in a > more intuitive way, the point Peirce seems to be making about the kind of > hypothesis that is needed to make sense of the possibility of progress with > respect to the growth of our understanding or, more generally, with the > growth of order in the cosmos. > > So, let me ask if there are any takers for continuing the discussion of > RLT along these lines? > > --Jeff > Jeffrey Downard > Associate Professor > Department of Philosophy > Northern Arizona University > (o) 928 523-8354 >
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