Re: You are cataloguers,not astronomers

To David.

As an astronomer,if you want an example of cooking up their own
precepts you should try Newton -

"PHÆNOMENON V.
Then the primary planets, by radii drawn to the earth, describe areas
no wise proportional to the times; but that the areas which they
describe by radii drawn to the sun are proportional to the times of
description.

For to the earth they appear sometimes direct, sometimes stationary,
nay, and sometimes retrograde. But from the sun they are always seen
direct, and to proceed with a motion nearly uniform, that is to say, a
little swifter in the perihelion and a little slower in the aphelion
distances, so as to maintain an equality in the description of the
areas. This a noted proposition among astronomers, and particularly
demonstrable in Jupiter, from the eclipses of his satellites; by the
help of which eclipses, as we have said, the heliocentric longitudes of
that planet, and its distances from the sun, are determined."

The poor mathematical theorists !, Newton combines the insight of
Keplerian motion with the Roemerian insight on finite light distance
and you wonder why the guys here suffer the miserable condition of
'source depenedcy'.

Newton also worked off mean Sun/Earth distances for Keplerian motion
using Flamsteed's cataloguing sidereal format,as an astronomer this is
unforgivable because Kepler worked off the motion of Mars against the
background stars AS SEEN FROM EARTH. (Panis Quadragesimalis).

The chronic situation is that cataloguers get their peace and quiet
with their telescopes and throw the astronomical method to the theorist
dogs and this has been the situation for centuries. I discount
mathematicians for the same reason Pascal discounted
mathematicians,they do not have the faintest idea in matters which
require high intuitiion and astronomy,at least pure astronomy is all
intuition.Relativity and its exoptic offshoots is just a symptom of the
loss of intuitive balance when approaching astronomy.



'The difference between the mathematical and the intuitive mind' by
Blaise Pascal


"In one the principles are obvious,but remote from ordinary usage,so
that from want of practice we have difficulty turning our heads that
way;but once we turn our heads the principles can be fully seen;and it
would take a thoroughly unsound mind to draw false conclusionsfrom
principles so patent that they can hardly be missed.


But with the intuitive mind,the principles are in ordinary usage and
there for all to see.There is no need to turn our heads,or strain
ourselves,it is only a question of good sight,but it must be good;for
the principles are so intricate and numerous that it is almost
impossible to miss some.Now the omission of one principle can lead to
an error,and so one needs very clear sight to see all the principles
as well as an accurate mind to avoid drawing false conclusion from
known principles.


All mathematicians would therefore be intuitive if they had good sight
because they do not draw false conclusions from principles that they
know.And intuitive minds would be mathematical if they could adapt
their sight to the unfamiliar principles of mathematics.


Thus the reason why certain intuitive minds are not mathematical is
that they are quite unable to apply themselves to the principles of
mathematics,but the reason why mathematicians are not intuitive is
that they cannot see what is in front of them;for being accustomed to
the clearcut,obvious principles of mathematics and to draw no
conclusions until they have clearly seen and handled all their
principles,they become lost in matters requiring intuition,whoes
principles cannot be handled in that way.These principles can hardly
be seen,they are perceived instinctively rather than seen and it is
with endless difficulty that they can be communicated to those who do
not perceive it for themselves.These things are so delicate and
numerous that it takes a sense of great delicacy and precision to
perceive them and judge correctly and accurately from this
perception;most often it is not possible to set it out logically as in
mathematics because the necessary principles are not ready at hand and
it would be an endless task to undertake.THE THING MUST BE SEEN ALL AT
ONCE ,AT A GLANCE,AND NOT AS A RESULT OF PROGRESSIVE REASONING,AT
LEAST UP TO A POINT.Thus it is rare for the mathematicians to be
intuitive or the intuitive to be mathematicians,because mathematicians
try to treat these intuitive matters mathematically and make
themselves ridiculous by trying to begin with definitions followed by
principles,which is not the way to proceed in this kind of
reasoning.It is not that the mind does not do this,but it does so
tacitly,naturally and artlessly,for it is beyond any man to express it
and given to very few to apprehend it.Intuitive minds,on the
contrary,being thus accustomed to judge at a glance are taken aback
when presented with propositions of which they understand nothing (and
of which the necessary preliminaries are definitions and principles so
barren that they are not used to looking at them in such detail) and
consequently feel repelled and disgusted.


But unsound minds are neither intuitive or mathematical.


Mathematicians who are merely mathematicians therefore reason soundly
so long as everything is explained to them by definitions and
principles,otherwise they are unsound and intolerable,because they
reason soundly only from clearly defined principles.


And intuitive minds which are merely intuitive lack the patience to go
right into the first principles of speculative and imaginative matters
which they have never seen in practice and are quite outside ordinary
usage."

.

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