[lit-ideas] Re: Simone Weil (Was: Kataphatic, Negative and Apophatic Theo...

  • From: Michael Chase <goya@xxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 07 Aug 2004 11:35:30 -0700

Le 6 ao=FBt 04, =E0 11:47, Paul Stone a =E9crit :

> <snip>
>
> I don't know what causes gravity, but I know what it is and so does
> everyone else.

M.C. I don't *know* what gravity it is; in fact I don't even *know*=20
what it is not. However, I *thought* I understood that the Newtonian=20
conception of gravity Paul explains so ably above is widely believed to=20=

be false, presupposing as it does the existence of a force that can be=20=

transmitted instantaneously (which is, again, widely believed to be=20
impossible). I also thought that Einstein had shown in his general=20
theory of relativity that the effects Newton thought he could explain=20
by means of gravitational  "forces" exerted on one object by another=20
are in fact due to the curvature of spacetime brought about by mass.

        I also thought - and continue to think - that if Weil compares =
gravity=20
and grace, and if I don't *know* what either of these are, then I have=20=

no business claiming her comparison is silly, wrong, or meaningless.



>
>
Michael Chase
(goya@xxxxxxxxxxx)
CNRS UPR 76
7, rue Guy Moquet
Villejuif 94801
France

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